The Dimension of a Good Character

As it sometimes does, a link on Facebook lured me to click something about making your bed each morning after you've exited, of course. Sometimes, I can guess which way comments will lean on these, umm, important issues, but this time I wasn’t sure.

As you might imagine the comments stomped loudly on both sides.

People stated there are mental health reasons for both making and not making your bed. Not making it meant freedom from rules. Making your bed meant…well… freedom from chaos. Then there were people who believed that making one’s bed spoke of good character in a person vs. not good. Then there was the physical health of it, where leaving a bed unmade is healthier since it allows the bedding to “air out” in between uses.  Other people sort of used it as a mood ring. IF they made their bed, those people enjoyed a good mood all day. IF they did not make their bed, they felt terrible. 

To each his own, I suppose. After all, people are individuals. 

This made me think about characters in books, on TV and in movies, the dimension of a good character. The characters we create should be individuals with their own quirks and individuality with good and bad habits that get in their way. Adding dimension to our characters allows them to be identifiable and adds complications to the storyline. 

Readers like that.

A great example of a complex character is Adrian Monk from the now defunct TV show Monk. Adrian Monk obsessed over everything in his personal life and his work life as a detective. Often his idiosyncrasies got in the way of his crime solving, but he always got his man (or woman). 

Characters need to be interesting. Now, go make your bed.

Do you make your bed after leaving it?  Do you like to read about characters that have quirks? Writers, where do you start in shaping your character into a real--fictional character?