I like to feed my dog cheerios because the sound of her chewing cracks me up. I bookmark cute animal videos that I watch constantly to instantly turn my sour mood upside down. I lost a week of my life after being introduced to the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts—about 7 years after it would have been a cool thing to do. I have a “hall of shame” bookshelf–I even made a little sign for it. I randomly slip movie quotes into every day conversations. I keep a stash of My Little Pony and Carebear coloring books that I use on airplanes (because who has time to deal with their fear of flying when they can color?!).

People who follow me on twitter are aware that I’ve recently waged war against the mockingbirds who nest in my yard. My attempts to train them to create a symphony of John Williams’s Indiana Jones scores have been unsuccessful. Instead, the shifty creatures succeeded in turning me into this:

(FYI this is one of the videos I bookmarked and watch for giggles…)

Is it any wonder I’ve been digging through submission batches in search of a quirky heroine? I love the little elements that are added to bring characters to life. Nora Roberts has a character who constantly loses his sun glasses. Kristan Higgins wrote a heroine who, in perhaps the funniest scene I’ve ever read, has an adverse reaction to anxiety medication. Deanna Raybourn’s Julia Grey has a pet raven she feeds bonbons to.

I have such a soft spot for quirky characters—they speak of real people. We all have our quirks. Finding characters who have quirks as well make them that more fun to read about!

As Luke Wilson’s character in The Family Stone says, “You have a freak flag. You just don’t fly it.”

Let your character’s quirks come out within the story. Let those little weird habits they have and the awkward moments they always wind up in be brought to life on the page. Let their freak flags fly.

Now, since we’ve made it clear that we all have a freak flag to wave—what are your quirks? Do you have a favorite ‘quirky’ character?

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Carina Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.