A mystery story usually
begins with an intriguing or even preposterous plot that tickles your fancy, or
an outlandish character you can‘t get out of your mind. No matter how gripping
the plot, that story will be an unconvincing hollow shell without memorable
characters. In mystery novels, one way to make a sleuth memorable is to play
him or her against type—not what you’d expect.
Rex Stout’s genius detective, Nero Wolfe, grows orchids; Janet
Evanovich’s tough bounty hunter Stephanie Plum loves Rex, her hamster; and P.D.
James’s Scotland Yard Commander, Adam Dalgleish, writes poetry.
Everyone wants something—it’s
the pursuit of that something that makes a plot move. Immerse and embroil them
in active conflict and imagine how they’ll swim. Put them in harm’s way and
give them preferences, hurts to nurture, barriers to hurdle, and goals to
achieve. They can be sarcastic, humorous, skeptical, vengeful, vulnerable,
and/or opinionated. Keep their demeanor consistent, but not to the extent that
they become predictable.
To build and flesh out your main characters,
create profiles for them. Make up a list of questions aside from the obvious
ones like name and physical appearance. What are their favorite and most
disliked foods? Schools, job, mannerisms, odd ways of speaking? What do they
fear most, crave most that’s missing from their lives? Above all, each
character must be a unique individual: sarcastic, humorous, skeptical,
vulnerable, opinionated, romantic, etc. Of course, no character is all one
thing. Allow the characters to be faulty, neither all good nor all bad. Allow
them to keep secrets, create confrontations, and express emotions.
Our characters usually come
from real life. Mostly, they’re composites of people we’ve known, loved,
admired, and hated—or read about in the newspaper. Some authors start by
clipping photos out of magazines so they can easily visualize their characters.
Listen, listen, listen wherever you are. Eavesdrop if you must and learn how
dialogue tells you about the inner person and sets one character apart from the
next. A piece of wicked gossip told to you by a friend or an argument overheard
at the airport can work wonders in making a character juicy and real.
The choices your characters
make are personal to them, and the writer can make use of all sorts of
preferences, including colors, styles, friends, food, drinks, vehicles, and athletics.
Few main characters are born
on the day your story starts. Every character has a backstory, a past that
affects behavior and choices. Where have they been? Who or what are the
influences shaping their lives? What are the formative influences? Has
vengeance, loyalty, or ambition left a scar? Backstories—succinctly written—can
be useful to explain motivation and deepen the main characters. Boring stick
figures grow out of confining descriptions to age, height, weight, girth, hair
and eye colors, and clothes. Avoid regurgitating these traits in one fell swoop
or “information dumping.” Give the reader only as much description as needed to
move the story forward.
Ken Follett builds memorable
characters in his twentieth-century trilogy. The first book, Fall of Giants,
is a historical suspense novel. We never feel that we’re subjected to an
academic lesson. We experience all the historical events through the
characters’ eyes and actions. Follett is a master at bringing every character
alive.
Dare the reader to run with
the main character. Allow him or her to experience the same pain, fear, joy,
terror, and suspense. Challenge the reader to anticipate and possibly
experience the main character’s endearments, repugnancies, logic, and
conclusions. There’s something of each author in the characters they create
showing up mostly in their dialog. Above all, keep characters from sounding
alike
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ROSEMARY AND LARRY MILD, cheerful partners in crime,
coauthor mystery, suspense, and fantasy fiction. Their popular Hawaii novels, Cry
Ohana and its sequel Honolulu Heat, vibrate with island color, local
customs, and exquisite scenery. Also by the Milds: The Paco and Molly Murder
Mysteries: Locks and Cream Cheese, Hot Grudge Sunday, and Boston
Scream Pie. And the Dan and Rivka Sherman Mysteries: Death Goes Postal,
Death Takes A Mistress, and Death Steals A Holy Book. Plus: Unto
the Third Generation, A Novella of the Future, and three collections
of wickedly entertaining mystery stories—Murder, Fantasy, and Weird Tales;
The Misadventures of Slim O. Wittz, Soft-Boiled Detective; and Copper
and Goldie, 13 Tails of Mystery and Suspense in Hawai‘i.
ROSEMARY, a graduate of Smith College and former
assistant editor of Harper’s, also delves into her own nonfiction life.
She published two memoirs: Love!
Laugh! Panic! Life With My Mother and the acclaimed Miriam’s World—and
Mine, for the beloved daughter they lost in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am
103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. On her lighter side, Rosemary also writes
award-winning humorous essays, such as failing the test to get on Jeopardy;
and working for a giant free-spending corporation on a sudden budget: “No new
pencil unless you turn in the old stub.”
LARRY, who was only called Lawrence when he’d done
something wrong, graduated from American University in Information Systems
Management. In 2019 he published his autobiography, No Place To Be But Here:
My Life and Times, which traces his thirty-eight-year professional
engineering career from its beginning as an electronics technician in the U.S.
Navy, to a field engineer riding Navy ships, to a digital systems/instrument
designer for major Government contractors in the signal analysis field, to
where he rose to the most senior level of principal engineer when he retired in
1993.
Making use of his past creativity and problem-solving
abilities, Larry naturally drifted into the realm of mystery writing, where he
also claims to be more devious than his partner in crime and best love,
Rosemary. So he conjures up their plots and writes the first drafts, leaving
Rosemary to breathe life into their characters and sizzle into their scenes. A
perfect marriage of their talents.
THE MILDS are active members of Sisters in Crime where
Larry is a Mister in Crime; Mystery Writers of America; and Hawaii Fiction
Writers. In 2013 they waved goodbye to Severna Park, Maryland and moved to
Honolulu, Hawaii, where they cherish quality time with their daughters and
grandchildren. When Honolulu hosted Left Coast Crime in 2017, Rosemary and
Larry were the program co-chairs for “Honolulu Havoc.”
Over
a dozen worldwide trips to Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand,
Cambodia, Burma, Great Britain, France, Italy, Israel, Egypt, and more have
wormed their way into their amazing stories. In their limited spare time, they
are active members of the Honolulu Jewish Film Festival committee, where Larry
is the statistician and recordkeeper for their film ratings.