A bunch of us were talking the other day, and the conversation came around to personal quirks. You know, those weird little rituals everyone has.
One of my friends mentioned she was totally anal about using two of the same color pegs on each item when hanging out her laundry. Another said she always had to put her clothes on left side first. If she accidentally put her right arm through the sleeve first, she'll take it back out and start again.
I mentioned my own little quirk. I hate odd numbers and when reading, rather than leaving a book at the end of a chapter if I've read an odd number, I'll read on to the end of next chapter. Or if it's too long, I'll read into that chapter and stop somewhere a few pages in.
Everyone has these small eccentricities, and it's important to remember this when writing characters. Little quirks will bring your characters to life, bring them surging off the page as real, fully rounded people rather than constructs that exist to service your plot.
What little quirks do you have?
I can be a little weird about numbers. If I open a new item number at WDC and don't like it, I'll delete it and open another. lol Yeah. Weird! ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's enough room on the internet for all my quirks (the quickest I can come up with is that I prefer even numbers, too). I don't usually think about quirks in characters. If it's important to characterization and the plot, then I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteI love when characters have unique quirks! It's much better than simply having them shrug and nod all the time ;)
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine a group writing a novel, since each author perhaps has a different style, outlook etc.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to Nicole. Wishing her many sales!