A page turner, please, and a viewpoint character with quirks

I like quirks in characters. In my favorite cozy mystery series created by the late Lawrence Sanders, private investigator Archie McNally has many of them–from unusual clothes items such as colorful berets to telling you what he eats at every meal to pet sayings such as, “One never knows, do one?”

I think quirks can elevate characters above stereotypes, too. Though I’ve met some unusual people, I can’t say most of the people I know are quirky. (But then I wouldn’t want to read about them either.) Whenever I’ve met someone in real life with a quirk, it’s always stuck with me, and some of my family members and friends have found themselves in my stories. For instance, my older brother is very anal retentive about his pepper. He has seven kinds of pepper, each in its own mill, clearly labeled, and arranged on his stove top from mild to hot. Well, I couldn’t let that juicy little item go by. Of course I gave one of my characters, an FBI agent, some anal retentive qualities and used those pepper mills in his kitchen, causing the protagonist to say, “Seven mills? Sounds like a tax rate.”

Anyhoo,  if you don’t know particularly quirky folks whose habits you can infuse into your characters or if you suffering from brain drain and can’t think of any qualities particular different or downright strange with which to imbue your characters, then you need to  hit some sites that role players use. Role players have identified tons of quirks on their websites and forums, more than you could ever think of if you sat down to come up with quirks and had an endless supply of paper, two free hours, and a Red Bull.

For example, I spent less than a minute on a Dungeons & Dragons  forum called 1001 Character Quirks and found lists of tasty quirks such as:

• keeps a bag filled with little jars of dirt from each nation he’s been to;
• insomniac;
• contradicts everyone about absolutely anything even the pointless things;
• constantly catches bugs and keeps them as pets in containers, isn’t aware of their need for sustenance and is deeply upset when they die;
• always steals people’s stories and doesn’t keep track of which story came from who hence occasionally tells a stolen story to the person he stole it from; and
• has an obsession with people's ears or other body part.

Then of course there’s a blog post called 100 Character Quirks You Can Steal From Me. And many, many other rich sources you can find within minutes on the Web.

Now, of course, you can’t stuff all these quirks into your book characters. But if you carefully choose one or two, you may end up with a more novel novel than you envisioned.