Characterisation

What is Characterisation?

Characterisation is how you write your characters’ personality, actions and foibles. When you read a story, the characters are a big part of what makes it work or, in some cases, not work. Everything from dialogue to character choices tells us who a character is and what we should think about them. Characters are a way to get a reader to emotionally connect with a story. E.g. the characterisation of the Dursleys – in canon – makes us feel for Harry, it makes us care about what happens to him. 

Why judge characterisation?

There is often quite a bit of debate about this category, and is one of the most complained about categories in judging. There is an argument that this is fanfiction, so does it matter if Draco was sorted into Hufflepuff and just can’t get enough of that drop dead gorgeous Muggleborn bookworm? The problem is, it is also a competition, so we need to hold everyone’s characters up to the same measuring stick: Canon. This is the only way to make this category fair to all participants. 

Writing ‘in character’ characters

If you are writing a character within canon, then the character themselves should be in character. Headmistress Hope is writing a character profile for each issue. This will give you a range of ideas to include for different characters to help keep them in character, or even to flaunt their character. 

There are a variety of ways that you can nod to a canon character’s characterisation, and for this section I will use Molly Weasley as an example. 

1. Descriptions

When introducing a character give a description that shows of their known traits. Molly Weasley is often thought of as ‘the ideal mother’ and a replacement mum for Harry. She is big, warm and cuddly, and seems to always have exactly what any of her children need; especially food. You could include describing her apron: flowery, well-worn (as they don’t have much money) dashes of flour and a wooden spoon and wand peeking out from the pocket. 

There are a variety of other ways that you can describe Molly that will give your readers a very motherly impression, her stance, her facial expression, the list is endless.

2. Dialogue

Thinking about how a character speaks is very important. There have been points docked for characters using words that they would not ordinarily use. Once, for comedic purposes, I had a character swear — a lot. Molly Weasley, for example, would not swear. She uses words like ‘peaky’ to describe an underfed Harry, or she might refer to any of her children as ‘young man’ when chastising, and in these moments can have a fierce temper. 

‘Action Beats’ after or before dialogue can really set the scene of what Molly is saying. ‘With her hands on her hips’ or a description of how something is said can nod to how Molly is saying something and leave your readers imagining the great Julie Walters in all her Weasley Glory!

3. Action

Molly will not do things that other characters might do. Sirius Black was okay with Harry knowing things that happened within The Order of the Phoenix, but Molly is far more protective and motherly, so you might have actions that show that side of her nature. She does not rejoice in the kinds of pranks that her sons, Fred and George, pull, so including this aspect of her personality will likely show your readers that they have the real Molly Weasley. 

4. Character-isms 

Character-isms are little things that a particular character does that really let you know that it’s that character. No other character but Luna would talk about fictional beasts as though they were real. Molly has these too. She loves to feed Harry when he leaves the Dursleys. She is has turns of phrase that she uses, just look at Headmistress Claire’s articles as ‘Aunt Molly’. She will refer to any child as ‘dear’, using terms of endearment. Molly is also known for her fierce temper — particularly when the children do something wrong!

Writing characters ‘out of character’

Sometimes we want to write characters that are not behaving the way that they might in canon. Sometimes we want things to go differently than they did in canon, and sometimes your prompt or theme will demand it! Many students have said that they felt penalised for writing characters out of character and want to be able to do so without losing points. We are not against writing characters out of character — how could we be, I am particularly known for writing Severus Snape, and he is often out of character. That is why I am going to use that character to demonstrate how. 

1. Repurposing canon traits

When writing a character in a way that they do not appear in canon, it is important that they are still recognisable, otherwise you are really writing an OC with a canon character’s name. The way that I like to do this is to repurpose traits that are recognisable from canon but have a different purpose. An example of how I do this can be seen in many of my Severus Snape fics. I will take his predominant characteristic of of being moody, grumpy and mean, and I can alter this slightly into a darker sarcastic sense of humour that really shows that mean streak but still makes him a nicer, happier person than he was before.  

2. Reasoning behind changes

Often we make changes and additions to a character that do not make sense with their canon story. For example, why Lily forgave Severus for calling her a Mudblood, especially, if like me, you are going to pair Lily and Severus. One of the major ways I will do this is change history:

1. Severus gets sorted into Ravenclaw.
2. Severus realises his error and works hard to show Lily he has changed. 
3. Fifth year incident with the Marauders and the Whomping Willow causes Remus to express his own feelings of remorse and eventually becomes a good influence on Severus, preventing the moment from taking place. 
4. Building some of the above into reasons why Severus was a spy straight from Hogwarts for Dumbledore.

It is important when doing this to keep and explain details from canon if we want events to still take place like they did in canon. For example, Peter Pettigrew is the one that reveals the prophecy to Voldemort. Essentially, we want to make sure these changes work with the character, and, where necessary, to give explanations for the changes within our narrative that make the new actions and attributes of a character believable for their canonselves. 

We hope these tips and tricks will help you excel in writing personable characters that really captivate your readers. If there are any tips or tricks you think we have missed, let us know in the forum below, or in a comment on the blog.