[Discussion] Character Quirks

[Palamon]

What makes characters fun is something that sets them apart from others.

What are some of your character's quirks? If they're not an original character, how do you write the canon character differently? Everyone writes characters differently, so I thought it'd be fun to discuss it. OCs, or canon, I think it'd be cool to see what the writing community has to say.

 

[Biri]

When i write Canon Characters, i usualy maintain their original Personality and Traits, while expanding more.

For an example: Sonia, she's light hearted, a little clumsy, and somewhat innocent. It is also stated that she, one day, participated in the Gym Challenge with Leon, so i would expand on this fact by creating an Younger, more energetic and an even more clumsy Sonia, that one day was Leon's main Rival.

 

[Vragon2.0]

For my cast, I try to make them all have their own voice and personality. That may sound basic, but I mean weaving it in for everything they do. Stuff you can sort of think and say "Yeah, that's how Ciecro would react", adding a familiarity to them

There's some other quirks too that are relevant or just simple fleshing out (Like Dolly making puns, Jasmine enjoying food taste and judging them like some critic, Jaron having a signature grin, Ciecro saying "Can it", Azazel being...Azazel), but I don't want those to just be the unique aspects to these characters. The perspectives they brings, the handling of situations, the personalities they have, and the actions they choose. I want all of this to feel like what that character would do and make it so the reader can honestly even guess or figure things out.

 

[Palamon]

For my ocs, I have unique body language and unique dialogue tags for very specific characters that do not repeat to other ones.

For my main oc in my fan fiction (Siorc) since he has selective mutism I use the following unique dialogue tags on him, only: autonomously (the Kantian philosophy of it being moral obligation not desire), voice/words barely audible. I gave him unique body language in that he jumps a certain amount of steps back, as well, when he's nervous, and the amount he jumps back is the how nervous he is at that particular point in time.

And then I do some other unique dialogue tags for my other ocs, such as specifying the speed of the words for my panda oc, Yinlong, specifying if there's a graceful tone in my gazelle oc's voice, Parisa, and, "his words were exaggerated/tone was exaggerated/let out an exaggerated gasp" for Kaiser.

Some of my ocs have pet word/pet nickname speech when they talk, and say either, hon/honey. While some of my ocs have specific coded body language, like slamming their fist onto their other hand, their ahoge twitching about, or having specific verbal tics, like saying you flea/leech/moth/butterfly. I try to have all my ocs have either unique dialogue tags or body language that only applies to them so every single one of them is different from one another.

Even though I always do descriptive dialogue I make sure that each of my characters has something that sets them apart from each other.

For canon characters, I try to keep them to feel as in character as possible, but I take it a step farther and use their body language when they talk. For example: Tartaglia from Genshin Impact crosses his arms when he talks, then places his left arm on his left hip. I find body language in dialogue very important to differentiate characters from eachother, so I try as much as possible to include this in my stories. I'll post an example below:

"Ah, you're the one who wishes to spar with me?" spoke the Eleventh. There was a high amount of confidence in his voice. "I'll take you on."

The hyena sighed as the Eleventh made his presence known to him. He knew from a multitude of stories that the Harbinger was battle hungry, the early adult lowered his bespectacled eyes into a glare. Had this man missed what Her Majesty said entirely? What an absolutely ludicrous person in front of him. Today would not be a day that would be enjoyable in the slightest.

Fatui glaring at him, the eleventh rubbed his hands through his brown spiky hair. Had the soldier taken his small joke seriously? How incredibly strange.

"Haha, kidding," the eleventh spoke again. "You wanted to train, right?" His left hand had been placed upon his hip as the correct statement was released.

(I'm not a conventional dialogue writer, bear with me.)

 

[Bay]

As others mentioned for canon characters I try to have their speech and other behaviors to how they were portrayed in whatever canon they were from. For instance, Grimsley tends to talk about risks and rewards so I have him mention that in his dialogue. I haven't given my ocs much development so it's harder to figure out how I did their quirks, but one of them in another fic of mine I have given her a bubbly personality and optimistic dialogue.

 

[gimmepie]

I've shared my thoughts on canon characters elsewhere but, as the general gist, I don't think you should write them differently.

For my own characters... honestly I don't really go out of my way to give my characters noteworthy quirks? I obviously make a point of giving them all their own distinct personalities and voices, but I don't really go out of my way to give them anything I'd call quirks. Just their own traits. Sometimes those traits happen to be quirks, but yeah.