To every well-crafted plot there is a secret ingredient that is at once both subtle and evident. It peruses nearly every page of the book, yet is so common place the reader hardly notes its presence with any diffidence. The name of this mysterious ingredient? Character.
Authors must take much care to craft their characters very uniquely. The goal is to produce a fully replete human being who, to a degree, imitates the complexity of our own persons. As the epitomes of human vices and virtues, a single conglomeration of characters must represent right and wrong, good and evil, in ways both inward and outward that we may relate to.
But the difficulty in crafting a character is making him both recognizable and unique so as to keep the reader engaged. Charles Dickens was a master with this technique. In A Christmas Carol his lead character is an unusual choice. Instead of representing right, Ebenezer Scrooge represents the wrong in this world and throughout the tale comes to realize right. Even though very few readers can relate to the extent of Scrooge's miserly ways, we can still identify with perhaps more base feelings of selfishness. His life tale actually turns out to be not unlike our own life stories or that of those around us. The extent of his hardenedness, however, has intrigued readers for over a century now, even though it is unlikely that very many of us will ever attain that level of blinded unfeelingness. Thus, Dickens gives us a touchstone of sorts when telling Scrooge's tale so that we may easily relate to enough of his character in order to follow his full personality throughout the tale.
In essence, this is what I am trying to do with my latest work, Two Shillings. Set in London in 1848, Two Shillings is about a ring of kids with criminal backgrounds who have escaped their confinements and are intent upon doing good and possibly righting their wrongs. They search for mysteries in hopes of reconciling themselves to the government by solving them. I have decided on the ring having five members (three girls and two boys), whose individual personalities and talents both work to aid each other and cause further complication in the plot. One is a gentle keeper of the home, one a mastermind, one a sophisticated young lady, one an acclaimed actor, and one an Irish child with a daring side. Sounds simple enough, huh? Well, tack onto each of those a criminal background with the reasons that lead to that action, and you've got pretty complex individuals on your hands!
As I write these characters, however, I am building a touchstone with each of the characters that both I and my readers might easily refer to. I accomplish this by putting little pieces of myself into their inward being. Perhaps it is some preference, such as writing or acting, or maybe it's a personality trait, such as being deeply romantic. Whatever little thing it is, I put it in the character so that he or she might savor of genuine humanity while having a life of his or her own within the pages of my book.
