Defining Characters

Each person is unique, so each character is unique as well. If you have a significant character, we’ll call him Joe, who has a sense of humor based on sarcasm, that trait should be his own. You don’t want other characters trading sarcastic barbs with Joe. He’s the best at it and it belongs to him. If you want to, on rare occasions have someone reply to his sarcasm with sarcasm, they should deliver it with Joe’s delivery style. That makes it clear the character who fires back learned how to do so from Joe.

Many writers have a style and it’s important to apply different attributes to different characters. Don’t get caught up using your style on more than one character. Partners or family members may share some attributes, but be careful not to make two characters nearly identical. Otherwise, why do you need both characters?

Scroll to Top