Original Characters

In modern fiction almost every book is now character driven. The problem for most writers, especially the novice, is to create anything even approaching an original character. Too often they are derivatives of earlier work. Every modern detective is part Sherlock Holmes and part Phillip Marlow. Every action hero is part James Bond and part John Rambo.

Truly original characters are as welcome as spring rain on parched soil but are always in very short supply.  Rambo, Yoda, Dr. Hannibal Lector, Stephanie Plum, Harry Potter, Lisbeth Salander are just a few of the handful of truly original characters to burst on the scene in the past half century.  All of the authors who came up with these original characters got stinking rich.

The first problem is once an original character emerges and becomes popular everyone starts to repackage the same character. Janet Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” – the world’s worst bounty hunter – started an entire new genre of female amateur sleuths stuck in lousy jobs. I was in the book room at a major writers’ conference and overheard two women talking about a book in front of them. “Isn’t that the bagel shop lady?” “No,” answered her friend solemnly. “She’s the chocolate shop lady.”  Like there’s a difference.

The second problem is most of the characters have already been claimed. At the very least, if you have a derivative protagonist, give them a few quirks and an interesting history to separate them from the pack. In my new dark comedy series, A Charon Family Adventure I have a dysfunctional family of four of the world’s best assassins. The mom, when she’s not killing people, writes trashy romance novels and reads Jane Austen. The son is a Le Cordon Bleu master chef as well as a holy terror with a knife. The wise old mentor was formerly the most feared assassin on the planet. Since his retirement he has developed an unquenchable taste for micro-brewed beers and spends half his time drunk.    

Be creative.