L agniappe. A little something extra. An unexpected bonus.

As a Louisiana native, this is a familiar idea for me, and quite often, I find the bonus to be more valuable than the expected gift or purchase.

Basically, all people – real or imagined – exhibit predictable behavioral traits.

Such was the case when I attended a local workshop featuring Deb Dixon. She spent an entire Saturday giving an in-depth presentation on her much-famed Goal Motivation and Conflict; The Building Blocks of Good Fiction. Awesome experience, and if you ever have the chance, I urge you to attend. But for me, the real gem in that weekend was the mini-workshop she presented the night before.

In little more than two hours, Ms. Dixon opened my eyes to greatest secret of Character Development, what she refers to as a character’s WEAPONS. This powerfully simple concept, when used properly, can keep the people populating your imagination in line. Gone will be the days when your assertive heroine suddenly withdraws into a Kleenex and ice-cream fit in order to deal with conflict. Or worse yet, your close-to-the- vest hero develops an uncharacteristic habit of peppering his conversation with personal antidotes.

Basically, all people – real or imagined – exhibit predictable behavioral traits. If you explore a person’s backstory, you’ll find the origin of these reactions. Take me, for example. I was a pudgy teenager, and whenever I found myself in “boygirl” gatherings, I tended to hide in the bathroom rather mingle. To this day, my bladder kicks in whenever I find myself in an awkward social situation.

So, how can you use my painful adolescent memories to improve your character development? By realizing that if you endow your characters with well-motivated weapons, you can create true-to-life heroes and heroines who respond believably and predictably to the situations you place them in. Allow me to paraphrase Ms. Dixon and better explain.

Patterns of Behavior

These are your character’s typical outward reactions, and every pattern of behavior is rooted in a childhood event, usually traumatic since we’re dealing with large-than life fictious people. For instance, if your hero was picked on as a child for being a late bloomer, he might see strength as a purely physical thing and be unable to relate to your strong-willed heroine. Some Patterns of Behavior are: Contributing money rather than time to a worthy cause; Working out frustrations physically, like hitting the weights or jogging several extra miles; Showing affection through deeds rather than words; Concentrating on career when life gets sticky; Maintaining an emotional distance; Sleeping around; Abstaining from sex.

Identifying several of your character’s primary patters of behavior can be fun and educational. Once you’ve explored their past and identified these habits, you’ll not only know your character better, but you’ll also be able to keep him or her from acting uncharacteristically.

Coping Skills

These are your character’s “armor,” their methods for keeping their own world in balance. I find that in most novels with characters to die for, their soul mate is the person who forces them to abandon these idiosyncrasies and face life and love unarmed. Not only can pinpointing your character’s coping skills help you get and keep a good handle on these people, pairing them up with someone who copes in exactly the opposite way can be such devious fun.

Coping Skills can include sarcasm, putting on a brave face, doing for others, engaging in short-term superficial relationships, becoming a workaholic, an alcoholic, a shopaholic.

Characteristics

These are the easiest to define, but that doesn’t make them simple. And remember, just like patters of behavior and coping skills, characteristics are formed during your character’s youth. If your heroine is self-conscious, you, as her creator, must know why. Did she have buck teeth as a child or was she perhaps an early bloomer? Was your hero’s loyalty formed in an urban gang or on the high school baseball diamond?

Common characteristics include: stubborn, protective, soft-hearted, nurturing, intelligent, optimistic, helpful, insecure, short-tempered, gregarious.

In the end, the most beneficial element to outlining your character’s weapons is always knowing the answer to the age old question, “Would my character read do/say that?” Check your weapons list. If the action can be supported by the personality traits and backstory you find there, you’re golden. If not, then it sounds like your creation is thinking too far outside their own box.

I hope you find this little dose of Lagniappe as useful as I did. Once again, my sincerest thanks to Debra Dixon for sharing this simple yet brilliant concept in terms I could grasp. Character Weapons are the most used tools in my writer’s toolbox.

Dawn Temple’s debut novel, A Will To Love, will be a Fall 2006 Special Edition. She credits the discovery of character weapons for keeping her books going past chapter four, where her natural inclination is for everyone to get along, the heck with the complicated backstory she’s developed.

Copyright © 2006 Dawn Temple. All rights reserved. Used with permission.