Memorable Characters by Gail Pallotta

Today's post from author Gail Pallotta spoke to me and had me brainstorming ways in which I could make the characters in my current project more memorable to the reader. -- Sandy

Gail: Does writing fuel the imagination, or does the imagination fuel writing?

Either way, there’s so much to create, especially in fiction. The plot, characters and setting, not to mention the hooks and raising the stakes. 

Fascinating characters breathe life into fiction. Who could forget Columbo in his baggy coat standing beside his near-wreck of a car? Or Superman, James Bond and the feisty Scarlet O’Hara. The list could go on and on. We probably all have our favorites.

More than likely there are as many different ways to create memorable characters as there are writers. Quirky habits, body language, dialogue, actions and even clothing can turn the words on the page into people we remember. A character’s emotions can add another dimension to a personality.

When one’s happy, his or her lips turn up on the corners; sad, the lips go down. Writers often use metaphors and similes to demonstrate the way a character feels inside. In a novel about a circus, a sad clown’s face might resemble rubber pulled down. Someone unhappy in that book could have tears the size of large ones drawn on the clown’s cheeks. Later in the story a happy girl or guy might flash a grin as big as one painted on a different clown’s face.

Courtesy of Photobucket – Sarge

Or perhaps a writer’s working on a young adult novel, and an overjoyed teen girl jumps up and down and claps her hands like a cheerleader. Could a disappointed young man’s countenance resemble that of a football player who dropped a pass in the end zone?

Animal expressions show emotions too. Often I read that someone looks like a lost puppy. It works on me every time. There are plenty of others, such as having someone grin as big as a horse showing its teeth. Another person may peer at something with raccoon eyes.

What do you like to use to illustrate your characters’ emotions? Also, do you think writing fuels the imagination or vice versa? 

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Award-winning author Gail Pallotta’s a wife, Mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach Stopped Cold, finished fourth in the 16th Annual Preditors and Editors readers’ poll and was a finalist for the 2013 Grace Awards. She’s published short stories in “Splickety” magazine and Sweet Freedom with a Slice of Peach Cobbler. Some of her published articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. Visit her web site at http://www.gailpallotta.com

sunsets and getting together with friends and family. A former regional writer of the year for American Christian Writers Association, she won Clash of the Titles in 2010. Her teen book,

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