Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.
We do this with types of people as well. The dumb jock. The dumb blonde. The homeschooled student. The band geek. The nerd. The Christian prude. The rich girl. The gay guy. The stoner. The, the, the.
People are so much more than any one label. As writers, it’s easy for us to start out with these labels. We want to create a group of characters that are varied, so we might jot down a few of those labels I used up above to help ourselves create a diverse cast. And it might work at first. But if we stay there, with those cliche archetypes, we will write cliche characters: one dimensional characters.
Let’s not.
Instead, challenge yourself to create a culture in your book, whether you’re portraying a real culture from the world we live in or a made up culture in a fantasy setting. Culture is varied. It’s rich. It’s different. No one person on this planet is the same as another. Not through DNA and not through life experience. We are all human. And we are so much more than any one stereotype. Our gender, race, parents, siblings, income, religion, country, hometown, friends, teachers, sexuality, interests, profession, skills, life experiences, and quirks … these things combined make up part of who a person is.
So play with that list. Don’t just have The Nerd. Instead, have an only child whose parents are both doctors. Since it’s always been the three of them at home, our guy has never really felt like a kid. He’s been a little grown up from day one. And, frankly, he finds other kids his age obnoxious and juvenile. So rather than playing basketball or video games with his neighbor, he practices the piano, reads history books, and studies French so that when he travels with his parents to France each year, he can work on his accent.
Don’t just have The Dumb Jock. Have a guy whose dad is hard on him. Nothing is ever good enough, though he’s always gotten praise from his dad when he does good on the football field. So he works harder at football than anything. And, yeah, he doesn’t study as much as he should. But as long as his dad is happy and not picking a fight… And maybe he does tend to pick on smaller guys at school, but it’s what his dad does to him. It’s good for those little guys. They’ll be tougher because of it. Plus it makes our guy feel better to be able to dish it out some when he’s always having to take if from his dad at home.
Do you see what I mean? No matter how you and I might label people, whether we mean to or not, no one on this planet is a label. We are all so much more.
Have you ever labeled someone? How might you try and get to know that person better?
And what about your characters? Do you have some cliche stereotypes in your book? How might you build them into flesh and blood people who have depth and are unique?