How Weird Are You?

I had a friend try to sell a detective series a few years ago. The problem, at least as editors saw it, is there wasn't anything particularly unusual about this detective to make him stand out in the overcrowded genre. He was smart. Most detectives are. He was a wise ass. Name one in the genre who isn't. He was complicated. But he wasn't memorable. He lacked a weirdness factor.

Now, by weird, I don't mean he needed to talk to dead people (though that's a little weird) or be a transvestite (not weird, per se, but unusual). But he didn't have enough of those instant adjectives. You know, "I read this really cool new detective book. The guy is a blank, blank, and a blank. He is blank." The person you are talking to goes ah-ha, that sounds good and rushes out to buy the book.

The thing is, as writers you're taught to perfect your pitch. You can summarize your plot in 50 words or less. You have the Big Idea. But your characters should be equally interesting, and equally weird and you should be able to summarize him or her in a few different, weird, eccentric, or unusual words and traits.

Look at chick lit. "Susie Q. is a plus-sized peon at x company who discovers her boyfriend is cheating. She decides to quit her job and become y, and along the way loses 25 pounds, finds the man of her dreams, and discovers she didn't need to be married anyway. And oh, she has a complicated relationship with her mother." I have heard this a zillion times. Well, maybe not a zillion but a LOT. It's not unique. Now maybe the writing makes up for it--and someone has to be the FIRST to do a book like this--thus Bridget Jones. But now, you need more.

For me, this has never been a problem. Characters are my strong suit. I think it's because I am weird. Not kidding . . . I am. And I am immensely comfortable in my weirdness. And so it doesn't take much for me to depict someone with lots of eccentrcities being as I have them myself.

Real people are complicated, and they are full of contradictions. Yes, look over at my picture on the right-hand side of my blog. What does it say? Yes, a bundle of contradictions. I'm a Buddhist who still crosses herself when someone says Amen. And I knock on wood when anyone discusses something bad. I like martinis--but always order them with a sidecar of Coke. Not Pepsi. My family? Don't even get me started. Weird but loving. Am I so unusual? No, though I've been TOLD I'm really weird. The thing is, without eccentricities and oddities, your characters just won't stand out.

Billie Quinn, my character, has her second book coming out on Monday. Called Trace of Doubt. Billie is a criminalist. She has a background in chemistry and is a genius. She's also "connected"--her father heads a New Jersey Irish crime ring; her brother is in and out of prison, the last time for selling pirated DVDs. She spent her childhood visiting prisons up and down the East Coast--Clinton (cnicknamed Little Siberia), Sing Sing, Rahway--on visiting days seeing Dad, and Grandpa, and Uncle Sean. Her boss is from New Orleans, but every time he things of that beautiful place drowning, he drinks. He's in love with a nun, and he has a pet tarantula. He also has a skull collection (long story). The characters, I think, are memorable, and that is what drives people to buy the books. A really cool plot can sell a first book--but the characters are what have people coming back for more.

So . . . who are your favorite eccentric characters? What are their quirks? And more importantly, how weird are you?