How To Write Characters Who Are Different From Each Other

Stephanie Morrill is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com and the author of several young adult novels, including the historical mystery, The Lost Girl of Astor Street, which releases in February 2017. Despite loving cloche hats and drop-waist dresses, Stephanie would have been a terrible flapper because she can’t do the Charleston and looks awful with bobbed hair. She and her near-constant ponytail live in Kansas City with her husband and three kids. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and sign up for monthly updates on her authorwebsite.

My first few complete manuscripts featured me as the main character. 

Not that I realized it at the time, but it's pretty easy to see now. Me ... if I had pursued writing for TV. Me ... if I had been from Connecticut. Me ... if I had red hair. And I surrounded my Me character with characters who agreed with me. Or if they didn't, it's because they were terrible people who just didn't "get it."

I think this is a very common starting place for writers. Especially if you begin writing in your teens, like I did. I was still figuring out who I wanted to be, and writing helped me dream.

But eventually you get to a place where you realize all your characters are sounding the same. How can you fix that when you've never been anybody but yourself?

Work to develop empathy in your real life.

Just last week, I was telling a friend how I failed my kids by dropping the ball on a few of their school things. While encouraging me, my friend shared how when she was an elementary school teacher, she used to be very judgmental of the parents who didn't do what she asked. Then she laughed and said, "Now I have a kid in school, and I'm the parent who forgets the show-and-tell item and doesn't fill the estimation jar."

Now, because of her life experiences, she has empathy for others.

When you practice empathy for others in your life, it will translate to writing better characters. When friends are sharing with you, or the news is on, or you're exposed to an opinion different than your own, try to put yourself in their shoes. What's their story? Why might they feel the way they do?

Or if you don't know them, create your own story. What kind of life experience might lead them down this path? What kind of home life? What kind of social barriers?

For the most part, a person's choices or feelings make sense to them. That doesn't mean they are in a healthy place when making those choices or feeling those feelings, just that it is logical to them.There's great value—for writing and living—to practicing empathy instead of leaping into judgment.

Expose yourself to different cultures and ways of thinking.

We live in an amazing era of being able to share from our own worldview.

If you want to write a character who has skin that's a different color than your own, who grew up in a different era than you, or who has different social, political, or religious beliefs than yours, with a few clicks you can find blogs, books, and articles written by people in those situations. 

Likely this will mean having our own worldview poked, prodded, and maybe even broken in places. But we shouldn't fear that.

Reflect on why you are who you are.

We are all dealt certain cards in life. What are the things in your life that you had no control over but have shaped you? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Birth order: Are you an only child? The oldest of two? The seventh of nine? A twin? Adopted?
• Your parents: Divorced? Happily married? Married, but not happily? Out of the picture completely?
• Location: Where were you born and raised? What kind of neighborhood did you grow up in? What kind of people are/were in your community?
• Money: Was there money for extras like piano lessons and ordering pizza? Could you sense financial strain in the family? 

You can dig into religion, or your parents' strategies and thoughts about raising children, or tragedies that happened. I bet you can come up with a lot!

And depending on how old you are, there are likely things you've chosen that have shaped you and had lingering effects. Choices about how to express yourself, what to do with your body, how to spend your money, how to prioritize your time, and so forth. 

When you've thought through all the ways your life has been influenced, it makes it easier to... 

Use this knowledge to give characters diverse backstories.

Don't freak out, but I'm going to suggest you make a spreadsheet. Just real quick. Just to prove a point. I promise there won't be any math, okay?

Put a character name at the top of each column, and then for each row, assign a component of their backstory. You can use the bulleted list above as a starting place. This is just for you, it doesn't have to be perfect.

I talk about this in my Story Workbook Tutorial, but as you start to fill this out, it's going to become very obvious to you if many of your characters have similar family circumstances, skin colors, religions, etc.

This is going to give you a great overview of your cast, and you can easily identify why so many of your characters are sounding the same.

Spend some time writing about that character in their own voice.

But these will all just feel like labels ("the Jewish character" or "the adopted character") if you don't spend time in that character's head. 

James Scott Bell calls these character journals, where you free-write as that character in first person. It's not stuff that's going to necessarily be in the story. You're just digging in and getting a feel for them and their history so that you can write them in a more distinct way. All it takes is asking them a question, and then seeing where the free-write takes you. 

Now that you have a bit of information about your character, you can even pick something from your list and explore that. For example, if you have a character who excels at sports, yet is being raised by two very bookish professors, you could start with the question, "What has it been like to have a passion for something that your parents don't value?"

And then you're going to write in an "I" voice. As in, "I was nine when my parents finally said it would be okay for me to play on a baseball team." From there, just have fun with it and see where it leads!

I hope this has been helpful!

Here are other posts about characters that you might find useful:
How to Avoid Creating Repeat Characters
How to Give Secondary Characters A Life ... Without Them Taking Over the Story
5 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Main Character's Best Friend

What's something about your main character that is different than you?