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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41196
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

## It actually takes very little to make a character unique

It's not in the clothes, but it might be the clothes. It's not in the color or gender, but it might be the color or gender. But what do I even mean?

## Uniqueness is contextual

Is a character the only guy in a crowd of C-suite folks who's wearing jeans? Or maybe the only research scientist who wears a suit to work? Or even the token [insert minority group]? He's unique! (Or she.)

I don't think that's a good answer, though.

## It's all about the reasons for being different - and that is depth

The real question is not how a character is superficially different, but why, and what the implications are. That one executive wearing jeans... Why hasn't he been fired (or pressured into dressing differently)? Does he expect to be fired, and he's passive-aggressively rebelling? If he's expecting to be fired, is it corporate intrigue by someone else or something he did wrong? Or is he a genius who can do whatever he wants, because he's that valuable and he knows it? Or is he a genius, but so oblivious that he doesn't realize he's supposed to dress differently - and nobody quite dares to tell him? Why are they afraid to tell him - is it him being temperamental, or the others being afraid they'll annoy him and he'll leave the company (but he wouldn't, really)?

Any number of very different characters could arise from the starting point of "that one guy who wears jeans".

Notice, though, it's still contextual. It's not just that your unusual executive is different, but what his relationship with the others is. It's easy to throw in minority status, or flamboyant wardrobes, or whatever, as a decorative skin on top of a shallow character who isn't really connected to their environment. Even in a book like Pride and Prejudice, what made Elizabeth Bennett memorable was contextual. If every character in the book was a fiercely independent and proudly intellectual woman, Eliza would have seemed bland. In fact, her gentle, kindly oldest sister seems just as unique as her rebellious and selfish youngest sister, because all of them are fleshed-out in relation to their relationships with each other.

Texture is in how characters are different from each other. Not just cosmetically, but REALLY different. And this comes from each character's "why's". And that is how you make your characters feel unique.

Original score: 5