I'm at the point in my manuscript where I know my characters as first-draft acquaintances. Sure, we've shared some flashbacks, seen each other in action under pressure-they from internal and external forces, me from the cruel whip of self-imposed deadlines. But, now, as I'm fully entering what Robert Ray calls the Meditative Draft, our relationship takes on a whole new level of intimacy.
I have a book I use at this stage of writing: Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon. Mark has been my go-to writing guide BFF since I picked up his Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s. He adds some amazing tools to the writer's toolbox with his reference books. His Building Believable Characters book contains a character thesaurus of not only superficial lets-get-to-know-our-characters physical attributes but goes deeper into personality traits, bad habits/vices, diseases and psychological afflictions, hobbies, patterns of speech and even gestures and facial expressions when the creative well is running dry. It's a great source of ideas to help your character "take flight."
The hero who can drink five martini's and when confronted grab their date in one arm and with dead on aim kill 6 people with a five shot .38 special.
Of course though she is a Bond Girl, InkyLuv (my hero *swoon*) so it may not be so a bizarre a character trait.
Sounds like a great book, L.A. I may have to go find that one.
Off the top of my head I can't think of anything uber bizarre or quirky but I loved Jaine's potty mouth in Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect. She's definitely a memorable character 🙂
I can't think of anything really bizarre either - although Lulu from the Stephanie Plum books is pretty colorful!
Thanks for the introduction to Marc's book - I'm going to look for it.
Happy Writing!!
I think less surprises us now as readers, so it's harder to think of a character that stands out as quirky. Holden Caulfield was once considered outrageous...now, he's almost sweet :). But you drew me in with the idea of a Barbie Dress Designing Hero, L.A. I wanna read about this guy sometime!
that's a really good question. I'm going to have to give it some thought. I usually try to give my characters one or two eccentricities. I've had a few with phobias or OCD for example. But none that were really weird.