Character's Reactions

Character's Reactions

My birthday was the 18th, and my mom gave me a ring.

Yes. This is significant to the post. Just wait.

So, I open up the ring and it's pretty and all. It's a silver heart with little sparkly things that my eyes are too bad to identify. And then there's a smaller heart on top of that that's almost a coppery gold. And mom says, "You like it? It's real!"

My stomach plummets.

It's real. I'm too good at losing things to own something real. I'm totally going to lose it, or break it, or accidentally wash it like my iPod. (Oops...)

She tells me to put it on. I try, and it's too small.

Today, I'm wearing it for the day on my pinky finger. Mom says if I like it, we'll get it re-sized. She said try it for a day. I agreed to it.

It feels weird. For context, I don't wear jewelry. Every time I look at my hand, it doesn't look like my hand. It looks like my mom's... or a teacher's... or Sydney Sage from the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead. (Which is weird because she doesn't wear rings either. But that's not the point.)

Why am I telling you this?

Well, do I seem like more of a real person than I did when you clicked on this article? Probably. Because now you know something about me, and you know how I react to this kind of thing. Then there's underlying things. Because you got to hear that this is how I react to this situation, you can easily predict how I'll react if I get another piece of jewelry.

You need to do this with your characters. Your characters need moments that let the reader know they react to things, even little things. My ring looks weird on my finger. I find it weird to say "my ring". Don't just have them react to the big plot points. If a person would notice it, so would a character.

Find something small for a character to notice. Maybe they were bored and painted their nails. Now they feel weird because they usually never paint their nails, and every time they see their hand, they have to do a double take.

Maybe a kid gets a chocolate bar for his birthday, and instead of eating it, he puts it in the fridge. And he always wants the candy, but he wants to save it for later. Then he doesn't know when 'later' is, and he realizes he's actually stalling and eats it. But then he feels bad because he should have saved it  for later.

A college student and her friend enter a cafe and their favorite table is taken. One is mad at the people, though she knows she shouldn't be. And her friend barely cares.

All these situations develop your characters. And it's not a significant plot point. (It could be I suppose...) But it is important. Because these are the things that make your characters feel real.

So "If you (love) it than you (should) put a ring on it!"

Alright, I will go before I quote anything else...