Writers tutorial entry; Use character signatures to make minor characters memorable

One secret of crafting a great story is to make
your characters strong and memorable. That's
no trick when you're introducing a major
character or 'protagonist'. But what about
those little people?
When introducing minor characters, especially
in a novel or long story, give them a ‘character
signature ’ on their first appearance. This helps
the reader to remember them later.
When we first meet a person in the flesh, we
note their physical shape, face, dress, manner
of speech and behaviour. And usually in that
order . Involuntarily, we tend to ‘file’ our
memory of that person by the characteristics
that we first noted.
Of course, as we get to know that person - as in
the case of a major character in a story - our
first impressions are overwritten by all manner
of other things. The character ‘develops’.
But if we rarely or never meet that person
again, as with a minor character in fiction, our
initial memory sticks. That is a ‘character
signature’. Here are some ideas for crafting one:
a. Physiognomy or body shape.
Be imaginative in your ‘signature’. Readers are
unlikely to remember, merely from your
description at the outset, that a person is tall,
short, thin or fat. But they will remember ‘he
heaved into the room, as massive as a bank
vault door’.
You can then remind them of his bulk later with
variations on that signature eg: ‘he eased his
weight into the chair’; ‘he smiled, and the vault
creaked open; ‘his face slammed shut’, etc.
b. A facial quirk.
In his Dr Thorndyke stories, Austin Freeman
makes his amiable inventor Polton
unforgettable with one word. Every time Polton
appears, his eyes or face ‘crinkle’.
c. A habit of dress.
We tend to prejudge people by their clothes. (If
we didn’t, the fashion industry would collapse.)
So any peculiarity of dress can give our
characters a ‘signature’ eg: ‘her scarf was a
piece of chewed string’. If the woman appears
later, we need only make a reference to
someone wearing a ‘chewed-string scarf' to
identify the character.
d. A tic of speech.
Almost all of Dickens’s minor characters have
some oddity of speech. Remember Sam
Weller’s Cockneyisms and his pronunciation of
‘v’ as ‘w’? Perhaps one of your minor characters
could reiterate a distinctive phrase eg: ‘it
cannot be denied’ (with later variants like ‘it is
undeniable’, ‘nor can I deny it’, etc).
I once gave a dotty old squire the
catchphrase ‘as you say’ so that his
friends could mercilessly lampoon him by
echoing it: ‘as you say’, ‘would you say?’,
‘do I say, sir?’, etc. Someone would only
have to whisper with a wink 'as you say' -
and the reader would know that the squire
was about to appear!
To make a character repulsive, of course, you
could have him or her mindlessly repeat the
word ‘whatever’. (Or whatever...).
e. Some oddity of behaviour.
How would you feel if a colleague at work,
whom you’ve known for twenty years, greeted
you every morning with a handshake? Gratified
or nonplussed? It depends on your culture.
What similar foible of behaviour might -
instantly - add a personality (or cultural) trait
to a minor character? A habit of chewing their
beard? Of inspecting their nails? Of covering
their mouth while they speak? Of invading
another person’s body space, intentionally or
not? Of backing away from other people? Of
avoiding eye contact? Etc.
Add this 'signature' to a minor character - and
echo it whenever they appear - and the reader
will be reminded of their personality.
Just be careful not to overdo 'signatures' when
portraying major characters. The key players
in a story should quickly become so rounded
and individual, like Sam Weller, that the reader
will be unable to forget them!