Creating Quirky Characters for Your Stories

My mind is populated by less by the heroes of stories and more by the quirky characters who add color, humor, and strangeness. Dickens was my on-ramp to these weirdos, and his work provides many examples, from the obsequious and ‘umble Uriah Heep to the implacable Madame Defarge to the unmoored Miss Haversham to the garrulous Alfred Jingle.

Those kind of high-relief characters often provide a lot of the fun, but also pathos. I think of the Weasley twins in Harry Potter whose pranks provide relief, but who are deeper than their jokes. (The Weasley family has always reminded me of the Cratchit family, but more fun.) From dramas like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to sitcoms (I think of Taxi), quirky characters provide essential ingredients.

What defines a quirky character? The answers are infinite, so I’ll offer a few common examples:

• They may be people with obsessions or cravings they can’t control, but it’s often in a small way (a pickpocket, not a bank robber). If they are aggressive, they rarely actually hurt anyone other than themselves.
• A fish out of water is quirky because their habits, customs, and appearances are out of place. Think Crocodile Dundee.
• There are delusional characters who imagine they are Lotharios or geniuses when they aren’t. In fact, people with false beliefs undermine their own best interests (pursuing imaginary, impossible goals or avoiding opportunities because of superstitions).
• Many are damaged and can’t move on from the harm. Often these, unlike most quirky characters, have out-sized power. On a lesser scale, they could be cowards or fools or gossips.
• Some create a deceit about themselves they believe is invisible to others (and it isn’t) or are successfully deceptive (making many of their choices inexplicable until the secret is revealed.
• Characters like Sherlock Holmes and Raymond Babbitt (Rain Man) are neurodiverse and face challenges in trying to fit in.
• The list goes on. Oddballs and pests. Characters who need protection and others who charge in at the worst moments. Schlemiels and schlimazels.

Almost all comedies include quirky characters since one quality of most comedies is putting the audience in a superior position. Quirky characters have been created (and looked down on) in a deliberate way at least as far back as the creation of the commedia dell'arte characters about 500 years ago. But beyond humor, quirks and quirky characters may be used to:

• create obstacles for the protagonist (Charlie Babbitt)
• present an inclusive environment (think of depressive Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh)
• illustrate the consequences of bad choices and, perhaps, forgiveness (Ralph Kramden)
• challenge societal norms (The Little Tramp, Forrest Gump)
• humanize a hero (snake-phobic Indiana Jones)
• break rhythms and patterns in a story (characters who have panic attacks or get completely distracted at inconvenient moments)
• create immovable objects (let the wookie win)

An easy way to create an oddball character is to use what’s above to build a character who’s quirky (or modify one you have who isn’t). Or you can recall people you’ve met or know now who are eccentric and amplify their weirdness. Nowadays, mine tend to appear within stories as I write them (so recognizing them has value). And since interviewing characters is part of my development process, they often give themselves away to me when they provide unexpected answers.

I think of that quote “we all have that one friend.” I think it’s true, and, whether they are endearing or exasperating or both, they are memorable. So writers who include quirky characters do more than generate more plot options, they also create the possibility of making their stories memorable.