Crafting Compelling Characters
One of my favorite aspects of reading and editing is exemplary character development. Bjorn Leesson, author of the Outside the Thalsparr series, masterfully creates characters with quirks, speech impediments, and traits that stick.
Just as in real life, I begin to feel like I know these people—and I love it when an author pulls that off so seamlessly. But it doesn’t just happen that way. Character development is intentional, and it’s hard work. So I asked Bjorn if he would share with us some of the angles he takes when crafting compelling characters.
As I am in my fiction-writing youth, I have learned a lot and learn more each day. Some lessons are laborious and tedious, and others—pure joy. The best is discovering how much fun it is to create and develop characters in the “Outside the Thalsparr” series.
It isn’t just the challenge of crafting compelling characters that will captivate the reader, it’s making characters who are each very different and unique, and not simply passing off people with different names.
So how does an author successfully create personas for each character? I imagine there are hundreds of approaches. I would love to briefly share some ways I have accomplished this in the Thalsparr universe.
Quirks and Behaviors
You have them, your family has them, and your friends have them. Everyone has them, if you watch closely enough. I have found the most natural way to weave quirks into a character is to borrow one from yourself or someone you know very well. After all, there is no better way to bring some realistic humanity to a fictional character than to inject some real-world DNA from an actual living human. To exemplify this method, I will tell you about some of my characters, particularly two of the main characters: Myrgjol and Ingrid Stone-Splitter.
When I created Myrgjol the Dokkrsdottir, I decided this unique female Norse warrior would be loaded with quirks. She doesn’t like odd numbers, she likes to eat round food, and she loves to spin coins on tables. Myrgjol is far from bashful, full of hyper energy and impatience, and she cannot resist mentally toying with friends and foe alike. She is easily addicted to certain stimuli and deeply loyal.
As the story progresses, several of Myrgjol’s traits serve to assist her on her journey down destiny’s path. Some do her more harm than good, but the sum total is what makes her Myrgjol, and missing even one would most certainly make her someone else.
Next we look to Ingrid Stone-Splitter, Myrgjol’s greatest ally and most loyal friend. Ingrid is almost the opposite of Myrgjol in most cases. One area of distinction is in their appearances. Where Myrgjol is average height and slender, having tan-brown skin and bright green eyes, and sporting long, thick, wild, black hair, Ingrid is enormous at six and a half feet tall, muscular and masculine looking, and she has ice blue eyes and long, bright red hair almost always arranged in shield-maiden braids.
The differences between Myrgjol and Ingrid don’t end there. Where Myrgjol is impatient and hyper, Ingrid is much calmer and more of a planner. Where Myrgjol is more impulsive and “fly by the seat of your pants,” Ingrid is calculating and methodical. Myrgjol’s fighting style could be described as “Viking Ninja,” dependent on nimble and acrobatic maneuvering. Ingrid’s is raw power and precision, as a traditional Norse warrior of her day, and very militaristic. If we go deeper psychologically, Myrgjol is not bashful about her manners (or lack thereof, it could be argued), whereas Ingrid is quite modest despite her intimidating presence.
Even with all their differences, the two of them fit together as each other’s greatest friend and ally. As the author, I must adamantly attest that in this series, these two opposites together simply cannot be replaced by any other character combination. No other duo will work for the story, and these seemingly minor details that create each character are the reason. Truly, this legendary coupling of characters is due to intentional character-building aimed to make the story captivating.
Dialects and Language Construction
Another key aspect of character-building is found in how a character communicates. For me, this takes a little more care to keep consistent to each character, but it is invaluable, nonetheless. When creating the Thalsparr series, I went all out in this regard.
Myrgjol naturally speaks old Norse, but when she finds herself in places or times that do not employ her native tongue, the opportunity for chaos ensues—even if she does get some “supernatural” help with communication in these far away places, which turns out to be far from perfect. Myrgjol constantly mispronounces words and misinterprets words spoken to her, which is sometimes a source of frustration to the already impatient Dokkrsdottir. For the reader, it creates golden opportunities for humorous situations, dialog that makes the reader chuckle, and a little realism in a wild fantasy story.
Aside from Myrgjol, I apply variation in speaking to many other characters. Gromm the blacksmith has a very unique speaking pattern which can be described as grouchy and short—partially short due to his habit of leaving out the first pronoun in sentences he speaks. Even if I neglected to write “Gromm says” after his line, the reader would still know it’s Gromm doing the talking.
Rosie Mitchell, a Black woman born to slaves from Georgia, is a character who must have a different dialect. Though she and her parents were freed from bondage early in her childhood, she naturally speaks with a Southern slave dialect. This did present a little bit of a challenge for me because as an author who is chained to the rules of grammar, it just seems like I’m breaking laws to write dialog that is considered improper English. I found myself having to go back often and rewrite her lines a little more “improperly” to keep her in context with her character. In the end, I feel it works well and she presents herself as a very endearing and human character.
Something else I found useful was weaving non-English words into the dialog. An example of this method lies with Maeve Lynch, an Irish descendant of Myrgjol. Maeve communicates in English, but Irish-Gaelic words and phrases often find their way into her lines. This is also true with the Polish characters Aleksander, Bartosz, and Kalina.
Variation In Characters With Similar Backgrounds
As humans, our personalities and behaviors are heavily influenced by our experiences. One thing that makes us so interesting is how we can be so different yet originate from similar backgrounds. If the opportunity exists, pull these variations into your storytelling.
In the Thalsparr, Lisa Dawn and Maeve Lynch bond to a very slight degree early on over their terrible childhoods. It is perhaps their icebreaker. Both grew up in the shadow of alcoholic fathers and both were severely abused. What makes the two characters interesting and compelling is their friendship. Even though Maeve makes stringent efforts to remain cold and distant from everyone as a product of her experiences, Lisa approaches life in exactly the opposite manner, despite coming from similar life circumstances. Lisa approaches everyone as a friend until they show her otherwise, and she eventually sneaks right into the heart of the incorrigible Maeve. Where Maeve turned her pain into bitterness at the whole world and distrust of nearly everyone in it, Lisa turns hers into relief and happiness that she has a brand-new family and is no longer being crushed under her previous circumstances.
Of course, these are only a few aspects an author can employ to craft compelling characters, but you see how one can begin with characters of the same seed and end up with two different species of corn, if you don’t mind a farming analogy.
Infuse a bit of yourself into your characters, bring in your friends and family, and take them all down different paths to the conclusion—wherever that is in your story.
Where to Find Bjorn Leesson & the Thalsparr Series
To meet these characters, and so many others, check out all things “Outside the Thalsparr” on Bjorn’s website. And get your hands on his heart-pounding series on Amazon. You can find Book One here.
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