Young Writers Society

So how are you supposed to make a character mysterious?
No, my character won't walk around with a dark cloak or a turban covering most of his face. I want my character to be mysterious without saying he is, you know? I just want to make people wonder, 'who is this guy?'

Thanks for any advice!

See I've never entirely understood the "Mysterious character" anyway. Is he someone we want to get to know but can't seem to learn anything about...?


I'd say make him interesting. I don't know if you could call any of my characters mysterious, but I'll find out

ME: Sam, could you call any of my characters mysterious?

SAM: Not really. They're very loud. Maybe Rosen? But Rosen is super-super gay, and that's not exactly mystery man. Clive, if anyone, is a mystery. But he's just emotionally insecure. Audrey and Alastair...nope. Maybe Vadoma? But not in a stereotypical way.

So, no.. I don't do mysterious characters xD If you could explain more I might be able to help >_<

Claudette wrote:Is he someone we want to get to know but can't seem to learn anything about...?

Exactly.

My character needs to be a shade of gray, instead of black or white (bad or good).

But how can you make a good/bad character likable? Can you really 'walk the fence'?

A mysterious character is someone we don't know much about. That's the bare bones of the concept, anyway.

I suppose my character, the Geezer, is a bit mysterious; we don't know much about him, only that 1] he's the current Lockegeo 2] his best friend is the changeling Saya 3]he likes calling people "idiot" and whacking Sherman over the head with his cane and 4] he has a nasty reputation with local children.

Not too much, is it? Thus, the Geezer is mysterious. In a weird sort of way. XD

Well, it seems you know what makes a mysterious character. Basically, I think you just need to be carefull as to what information you give your readers, and even your characters. How much information, when, where, and in what way, is the key. As to that, I have nothing more specific as to the details. Maybe you can glean a few yourself in the rest of my advice.

Make the reader assume qualities that aren't there. How you do this, I can't help you with, but it goes with the careful selection of information. His real character is always there, but your reader simply sees somethings else, and so is always off balance regarding the character and therefore making the character a mystery.

In the case of a mysterious character, as long as you keep the reader intrigued, he may not need to be likable for a while. Now, does he remain a mystery throughout the book, or is the mystery behind him eventually revealed? Besides, there are all sorts of good/bad characters out there in the world, if I interpret your use of the term correctly. Seems good, does bad? Bad things for good reasons?

A lot of my own characters fall into the gray shade, and I think they're relatable, though I haven't done a lot with intentionally mysterious characters. The most mystery I do is that a character appears to be one thing, usually a regular albeit unusual person, they are in reality anything but, this realization usually hinted at so the reader knows something's up. They are surprised at the end (or at least I hope they are), and can understand now what all those little hints were.

Give the reader enough to establish a character, but not the real character, so that when you do tell them who he really is, they can see that though you may have been messing with their head a bit, you weren't at all cheating them.

Well, I hope that makes sense to you and that it helps.

Why not make the character have done something magnificent that everyone talks about and they wonder how he/she managed to do it?

Roaming Shadow wrote:Make the reader assume qualities that aren't there. How you do this, I can't help you with, but it goes with the careful selection of information. His real character is always there, but your reader simply sees somethings else, and so is always off balance regarding the character and therefore making the character a mystery.

Roaming Shadow gave a great piece of advice here. This is a very handy way to make a character mysterious. Some tips on how to do it:

1. Layers. Give your character layers. If you want the reader to assume qualities about a certain character, have your character want the reader to see those qualities. It's like a facade. Your character can put up numerous masks, pretend to be someone they're not. However, to avoid sudden shifts and abrupt changes in personality, it's good to always have something of an inner layer leaking through. Write the character in a way that the reader can sense something more. Characters with masks tend to make their masks extreme in personality. A character may either decide they want to look happy and be so happy the reader senses something is wrong. Or the character can pretend to be emotionless to the point that the reader just knows there's something more.

2. Mystery Character Dialogue. Dialogue is one of the most handy tools for mysterious characters. If you want a character to be mysterious, chances are they are not going to start ranting about their life and emotions in front of people. Usually, mysterious characters tend to evade questions or say a lot while saying nothing at all in their answers. They might have short, succinct and shady dialogue or they might have roundabout, senseless dialogue, but a mysterious character often fights to keep his mystery through dialogue.

3. Mystery Character Actions. If you take hte layers approach, this is essential to a mysterious character. A character's dialogue can be mean and short, but if their actions don't concur with the mask they are trying to put up, mystery is achieved. Now, some mysterious characters are smart enough to act like their mask too, but almost all the time something leaks through. Whether it's a weak moment of compassion or a simple smile, if something leaks through and contradicts the mask, the reader is almost always intrigued.

4. Selection of Information. A lot of the things above come with a mysterious character, but sometimes the hardest part is writing for a mysterious character. It's hard to write a mysterious character if the author constantly gives information and lots of introspection for that character. Sometimes, demystifying a character can add even more mystery, but if overdone or underdone, it can slaughter the mystery of a character. Longwinded rants about the past in internal thoughts especially tend to do this. So, select the information you want to give wisely.

5. Description. There are many ways to write description for a mysterious character. If expressions or vibes a character gives off are essential to the development of that character's mystery, describe them. However, if those things are not important to that development, it's often best to keep detailed description to a minimum. It really depends on your voice and the character's voice.

I've also found that making conflict charts helps with writing mysterious characters. You learn the most fascinating things that way.

And it is perfecly achievable for a character to be gray. If your main characters (labeled protagonists) are focused on a certain cause and your one character doesn't believe in that cause but doesn't fight against it either, your character often turns out gray. Sometimes the 'good' cause can be very relative, and thus characters outside that relative good appear gray while not having to go on the 'black' side. Did that make any sense? I'm tired right now; sorry if I confused you.

Well, I hope this helpd. Good luck with your mysterious character!

WD gave you great information regarding the setups involved for mysterious chars.

To follow up what she said, I have two of these characters currently. One, Welcome; there's not much mentioned about him in the beginning. Readers learn more about him through dialogue. He definately does NOT want to regale his past but events or situations force him too. He has no choice. It's suck it up and reveal or his son will be dead. Simple as that. So pay attention to dialogue. It's a wonderful tool, but it's tricky to have natural speech versus forced.

My other character is even more mysterious, which makes it that much harder for me to develope his character. Garrick refuses to talk or carry on any type of conversations with strangers. It sucks. How have I prevented this delemma, and succeeded with a char shrouded in mystery? It has been accomplished mainly through expressions, body postures, and action, like a jar thrown against the wall. That action, the jar smashing, is a sign of frustration or anger so now we know this character is clearly unhappy. If that same action is repeated but prehaps now a fist has hit the table; this character is troubled but why? He chooses not to speak. And viola! We have a mysterious character.

The most challenging task now is getting your mysterious character reconized and not ignored. Make them your own. Good luck!

OMG you guys are so awesome, thank you so much!
I'll try every method and tip you guys mentioned.

*hugs all*

This aspect is hard for a lot of writers, including me. My tips are...

1) Don't pull together the characterzation for the person all at once in your novel/story. Spread it out, reveal bits of a dark past, maybe. Just don't cram it all together.

2) Give the character a mysterious presence, have the turn up when least expected. Give the reader a reason to wonder how the character knows so much.

3) Have the character say mysteriousthings that foreshadow the rest of the story or book. This gives your reader a reason to think why the character said that.

4) Have a shock revealed at the end about the character and leave clues all through the story/book.

Those are my main tips for mysterious writing.

You've already got many good sujestions, but...too bad I'll put mine anyway ha!

Here's what I think. To make a character real enough to believe and to make the character fit into the story, your going to have to give the reader some information on the character. Your also going to have to give the reader a tad bit of the character's personality, but here's the key. Hold back on the personality! That leaves the reader wondering, and as you progress with character developement you can slowly chip away at the character, revealing more emotion, more of the reson why he/she does what he/she does, and more personality. At the beginning the reader has no explaination for the character's emotions and actions (it's not that the character has no emotion, though that is often the case, it's just that the reader doesn't know what's behind the emotions/actions). This will make the character look a tad bit unreal also, which adds to the feel of mystery, giving the reader no way to relate to your character. Obviously by the end of the story the character should be as real as possible, and the reader should be able to relate.

So, that's my suggestions.

-GJ

Mysterious characters are quite hard to set up, but a way of making them mysterious (as mentioned by others) has to be the giving of the right information at the right moment. When you think they are like this on the basis of some thin evidence and then they shock you by being different, you want to know why. The key is to keep the reader mesmirised by the character while not revealing too much.

An example could probably be Severus Snape. Maybe not so much in the first few books, but later on, when he became important he was a mysterious character. J.k Rlowing had millions wondering who was the man behind the mask, good evil. People were captivated. I think that if you can make so many people try as hard as they can to crack your character like that, you have achieved mysteriousness.

The only thing is, Fantasyartist, *whispers* I've never read any of the Harry Potter books.
I know, I know, if I haven't read them, I haven't lived life. Well, guess what? I haven't and I'm living.
I'm not allowed to. Black magic and witchcraft and all that rot.

But has anyone read the Montmorency series? I find Montmorency very mysterious and fascinating .

Ooooo...

Not read any? Well, I can't really understand the encouraging witchcraft and evil thing, but if you're not allowed to read it, it's cool. There are other very good stuff still out there.

Ooooo... Toughy. Uh, well, I would say my character, Vathen, is pretty mysterus... What I do with him is not give barely information about him. Whenever he's aproached by someone with a question giv'em the cold shoulder!

Yea, My main character, Khor, asks alot of questions and he promises to tell him later... Which he will but later than he thought... Mines stong and silent but really cool! I love Vathen! Woot. Hope that helped.

~Pol~