Character traits and how they can help enrich your writing

Hi all,

Very recently, several of my writing buddies have been mentioning characters that have specific traits (from liking a particular color to enjoying a vacation to a certain city) in novels and how these traits/quirks has helped them either relate to the character, help to feel sympathy for the character but most importantly, make the fictional character seem ’real’ to the reader.

So, after reading all that, I sat down and thought about my universe. Do my characters have interesting habits/traits/quirks? Yep, they do and I wanted to mention a few. Mina Harker as a human sleeps with one of the most powerful vampires in all the world, Dracula, her soul mate below the Paris Opera House. Yet, she hates to sleep in the dark and always burns a gas lamp low to keep her room in only semi-darkness. Yeah, when you think about it, it doesn’t really make sense (vampires are more dangerous) but when I thought about giving Mina that trait/quirk, it seemed like a very human thing that someone would do and possibly would allow the readers to be able to feel a ‘connection’ to the Mina character when they read her.

My Dracula character can perform physically during lovemaking. It was never clear in Stoker’s book whether Dracula or any other vampire had the physical ability to make love. After much thinking, I decided that my vampire characters could consummate the act though Dracula is pretty miffed that Stoker didn’t include that little aspect in the book. I thought it would be a fun trait for Dracula to have and something interesting to include in my universe (the idea of Dracula not being able to perform is the issue that bothers him most with the Stoker book). And though that is illogical (Stoker documented many more atrocities in various journals in the book), I dunno but I think that might be the one issue that would bother a proud male vampire the most.

Finally, I’ve given my character, Quincey Harker, born in the first book but growing up in the second book, two traits. A love of reading and an interest in horses. As a kid, he’s going to walk around carrying horse dolls. Which I think is a cute trait to give a kid.
Quincey also has some scary marionette dolls. But then, they were made for him by his Uncle:)

So, in closing, I guess I’d say that it’s not the general details that you give your characters (hair color, handedness (Dracula and Erik are left handed, Mina and Christine are right handed)) but the intimate details (Mina will always love to bake and sew, even after she becomes a vampire and cannot eat the food) that make the reader more able to ‘connect’ with your characters and not only enjoy them, but also, enjoy the entire novel.

Happy New Year all!
Chris