August's Round Robin Blog asks the question: How do you develop a character who is different in personality from all the other characters you have developed, or from yourself?
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This question made me scratch my head because I was hoping ALL my characters are different. Different from me and from each other. But as I thought it through I realize there are bits of me in all my characters. I created them, after all, so it makes sense that this one favors chocolate ice cream and another is a night owl. One has kids, another spent two years in the Peace Corps. One is impatient, or politically conservative, a Catholic, or one might like to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. But beyond those hints of me that peek through, I really do try to make all my characters different and memorable in their own ways.
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Early on as a newbie writer I kept hearing the advice, “write what you know.” But even that had to be taken with a shaker full of salt. If every one of my characters had the same career that I was personally familiar with my books and stories would get boring really fast. So, I began to pick other occupations that I had friends or relatives in whose brains I could pick. Then I reached out to folk in entirely different fields. Research and reading is al
ways required when sitting down to write a story. Unless all your stories are set in the same town you’ve lived in for years and perhaps even grew up in, and all your characters work at the same job, shop in the same stores and have the same hobbies, eventually you have to do the research.
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One book on my shelf is from the Careers for your Characters that includes a lot of initial information to help you choose a career for your new character. But then, if you think perhaps he should be a dentist, you might want to visit your dentist’s office and ask questions, look around, take a few photos of equipment, ask the names of things etc. Not everyone who reads your book will have any more familiarity with the dentist’s office than what they see while stretched out in his chair with their mouth open, but you can bet someone will be a hygienist or married to a dentist and they’ll catch any mistakes you made.
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Another book I refer to often when creating characters is the Birth Order Book. There are always exceptions, but the influences having older or younger siblings and where in the order your character fits, and their gender makes a difference in the person they become as adults. Depending on the characteristics you want your people to have, you might give them siblings that enhance those tendencies.
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Then there is the: A Writer’s Guide series: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait The
saurus, and others where you can find dozens of ideas on things that inform who your character is and why he or she does the things they do.
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I’m betting all writers are people watchers – standing in line at the grocery check-out, waiting for a flight at the airport, in a doctor’s waiting room, on the curb watching a parade, eating in a restaurant – just about anywhere you find yourself with a few minutes unoccupied by other concerns, you can watch how people react to different situations. How the clerk behind the counter copes with an angry traveler, how a mom with a cranky toddler deals with the tears, a child jumping with excitement when the clown strides by on stilts, a couple trying to argue without drawing attention at the 
next table over. All these people are not you and they all have different ways of coping, of reacting and have different views of the world and the people in it. So people watching is an excellent way to gather fodder for your character creation files.
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My first two books were inspired and written because of things my brother experienced during and after his return from Vietnam (The Candidate and Worry Stone) so there is a lot of Scotty in them, but I also read dozens of other books like The 
Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and The House of Purple Hearts by Paul Solotaroff to better understand the grief, disillusionment and anger those men endured. It wasn’t enough to read about current day soldiers because the way our country treated those returning heroes was far different from today and I needed to know those differences to get those stories right.
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My contemporary romance series was a far less demanding task because I’d fallen in love, broken up, been married, been hurt, met new loves and found my happy ever after moments. But my new series has been a total challenge, even the setting which happens to be a real place, the county and town where I live. I decided to write a heroine in law enforcement. Now, I have zero experience with law enforcement beyond a couple parking tickets so I had to start at the beginning. Watching Law & Order or Blue Bloods on TV does not give you a solid place to write from either. Partly because they have to solve a murder or a rape and get it to the DA in one hour so you don’t see the long slog in between the inciting event and the resolution, only the high points. Or get even a hint of the mountain of paperwork they deal with. So where, did I begin? . . .
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With the Citizens Law Enforcement Academy. Well, actually, I applied for a ride-along first and it was incredibly informative. The deputy I was assigned was everything we all hope for in a model cop: patient, knowledgeable, experienced, helpful, resourceful and effective in all the encounters we had during that 7 hour shift. Aware that I was an author seeking to make my characters real, he shared some of his past experiences with me and anecdotes from all areas of police work. Then I signed up for CLEA – a 12-week course that included everything from the hierarchy and budget of the sheriff’s office to specialized units and equipment. We visited the gun range and handled a weapon, watched K-9s at work, and stepped into a building with a simulator that could put a trainee in any of hundreds of real life situations and demand reactions. We did play-acting for traffic stops and learned how tazers work, climbed aboard the mobile command unit and spent time in communications, listening to dispatchers, callers and deputies in the field. I asked for a second ride-along with a female deputy and learned more about the specifics a woman in law enforcement faces from another great representative from my local sheriff’s office, a woman who had tested for sergeant and got her promotion a week after I got to ride with her and her K-9 Ryker.
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Thus, Jesse Quinn was born. A very different person from myself or from any of my previous characters. Jesse grew up in a very different life than I had experienced and she had committed herself to a career field nothing like my own. Even her relationships different than mine. If I had a man like Seth Cameron trying to woo me, I’d have been all in – that’s my personality, but Jesse keeps him at arm’s length. We’re both moms, so I suppose we both have the worry of being a single parent in common, but the personalities of her kids are different from my real-life kids so the way we interact is different as well. But again, people watching helps me develop these very different characters and interactions and make them unique.
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So, that’s how I create different characters, but I’m eager to visit these other authors and see if I can pick up some new tips from them. Why not come along with me?
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Diane Bator 
Anne Stenhouse
Connie Vines
Dr. Bob Rich
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Rhobin L Courtright
Fiona McGier
This question made me scratch my head because I was hoping ALL my characters are different. Different from me and from each other. But as I thought it through I realize there are bits of me in all my characters. I created them, after all, so it makes sense that this one favors chocolate ice cream and another is a night owl. One has kids, another spent two years in the Peace Corps. One is impatient, or politically conservative, a Catholic, or one might like to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. But beyond those hints of me that peek through, I really do try to make all my characters different and memorable in their own ways.
ways required when sitting down to write a story. Unless all your stories are set in the same town you’ve lived in for years and perhaps even grew up in, and all your characters work at the same job, shop in the same stores and have the same hobbies, eventually you have to do the research. 
saurus, and others where you can find dozens of ideas on things that inform who your character is and why he or she does the things they do. 
next table over. All these people are not you and they all have different ways of coping, of reacting and have different views of the world and the people in it. So people watching is an excellent way to gather fodder for your character creation files. 
Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and The House of Purple Hearts by Paul Solotaroff to better understand the grief, disillusionment and anger those men endured. It wasn’t enough to read about current day soldiers because the way our country treated those returning heroes was far different from today and I needed to know those differences to get those stories right. 
With the Citizens Law Enforcement Academy. Well, actually, I applied for a ride-along first and it was incredibly informative. The deputy I was assigned was everything we all hope for in a model cop: patient, knowledgeable, experienced, helpful, resourceful and effective in all the encounters we had during that 7 hour shift. Aware that I was an author seeking to make my characters real, he shared some of his past experiences with me and anecdotes from all areas of police work. Then I signed up for CLEA – a 12-week course that included everything from the hierarchy and budget of the sheriff’s office to specialized units and equipment. We visited the gun range and handled a weapon, watched K-9s at work, and stepped into a building with a simulator that could put a trainee in any of hundreds of real life situations and demand reactions. We did play-acting for traffic stops and learned how tazers work, climbed aboard the mobile command unit and spent time in communications, listening to dispatchers, callers and deputies in the field. I asked for a second ride-along with a female deputy and learned more about the specifics a woman in law enforcement faces from another great representative from my local sheriff’s office, a woman who had tested for sergeant and got her promotion a week after I got to ride with her and her K-9 Ryker. 
Thus, Jesse Quinn was born. A very different person from myself or from any of my previous characters. Jesse grew up in a very different life than I had experienced and she had committed herself to a career field nothing like my own. Even her relationships different than mine. If I had a man like Seth Cameron trying to woo me, I’d have been all in – that’s my personality, but Jesse keeps him at arm’s length. We’re both moms, so I suppose we both have the worry of being a single parent in common, but the personalities of her kids are different from my real-life kids so the way we interact is different as well. But again, people watching helps me develop these very different characters and interactions and make them unique. 
