As I work on my novel before bed, I’ve been noticing a habit. Not a bad one mind you, just something. I see it while reading others’ works, but when I look at my own characters, I see it differently.  When you look at someone or someone’s characters you can with some investigation see more than the physical. It could be on how they look, how they dress, act, live; a very Sherlock Holmes kind of interpretation of character.

The excerpt I wrote earlier needed to be written before it was forgotten as it did something for not only Darrian, but Cassandra too. It gave them a sense of realism.

In (as of now) Sands of Memory you meet both of them early on. Darrian is right at the beginning and with him you quickly gain that sense that he’s an old dragon. Also, his passiveness and humour appear easily in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, “pack wolfkin” Cassy comes across as the ‘tough girl’ with a sweet spot for her husband. Those little things are frequent throughout the story. Darrian’s humour and passive aggressiveness and Cassy’s tough girl attitude in public, plus her softness for friends and family.

Those are all well and good in most writing/books/etc. That’s a big part of what you see from any character. How do they carry themselves in public versus private? Even in their solitudes most will keep the general characteristics of their public personas…but that to me isn’t real.

What I find lacking in literature (at least the many books I’ve read) is there’s not that ‘break’ in character. There’s no little moment that to anyone else would seem unnatural or alien; the subtle things that make us real. We might be that big, tough, strong hero but when we’re alone at night, in our beds and the lights are off we might be the one to weep or pray.

In both my current projects I need to make the fine ‘breaks’ that make my characters real. For instance in Thirteen Bells there’s a scene where Aithen and Darrian are sitting quietly in the Dragons’ Hall. Lucifer, Gabriel, and Sadol come into the hall, don’t notice them, and are caught up in a conversation. Lucifer is angry and being irrational as Gabe and Sadol are trying to talk reason into him. To the reader, his mood sounds like the Lucifer we all know, but my little archangel isn’t a devil. He’s a very calm and levelheaded being who doesn’t anger easily. What he really wanted to do would ruin his character’s credibility for the rest of the series. His restraint makes him real, three-dimensional, flawed…not just a character on the page but something more…something with life of its own.

Another example is in Book 1 when Gola picks up Darrian’s hat. The dragon is in a blind rage, ready to kill anyone he can get his hands on. Instead he stops and picks up an insignificant (to outsiders) hat and proceeds to make sure it’s safe from any harm that might result from the fight. Gola knows what happened, he knows how important that leather hat is to Darrian. No matter his rage, he would take an avoidable blow just to make sure the last physical memory Darrian has of Ellaria is safe.

I hope I can have some impact and turn on a lightbulb for writers. No matter if they’re a dog on the street, or your main character…you brought them to life, you gave them their reason to live. Don’t stop creating them, it’s not the big things that make up a character, it’s every single detail. Every part of them tells a story, some of them are more important than the one you’re writing.

Sometimes the character your readers love most isn’t the dashing farm boy turned hero; it’s the one that people see themselves in.