Have you considered how age impacts your characters over the course of your novel? In a new post on her blog, Tiffany Yates Martin urges writers to consider how time of life alters our perspectives and desires. “It may seem like a minor detail—I’ve even seen authors seem to almost randomly assign an age to their character—but being deliberate and mindful about considering your characters’ ages can deepen characterization, reflect and impact stakes, influence and guide the plot, and even heighten suspense and tension,” she writes.
Some of the effects of age are obvious, but it’s worth considering less subtle elements as well. Yates Martin suggests:
- Physicality and body awareness. In addition to wearing glasses or having grey hair, an older person may feel very aware of limitations in flexibility, agility, and movement. Younger characters may be full of energy, but start to calm down in their 30s and 40s, and become more cautious in their 50s, 60s, and beyond. Consider also the effects of disability, which can affect the youngest person, or health consciousness, which can help us maintain a higher level of activity well past our prime years. “Reflecting these changes may add verisimilitude to your characterizations—or playing against them may suggest something unexpected or unique about them,” Yates Martin writes.
- Financial situation/security. Younger people tend to have fewer resources, especially for unexpected costs. A major car repair may be a burden and a down payment on a house an impossibility. For many of us, as we age, we become more thrifty, more conscious of our savings. We might have better jobs or a spouse to work with. As we get older, most of us will live on a fixed income, and become more mindful of extravagances. Of course, there are plenty of people of all ages who let money drip through their hands like water, no matter how much they have.
- Vocabulary, vernacular, and communication. Slang changes over time and it’s natural for characters to hold onto the vernacular of their youth. Two characters catching up after not being in touch may fall back into the speech patterns of their youth.
- Frame of reference. Have you ever repeated a catchphrase from a 40-year old Saturday Night Live skit and received blank stares in return? That’s because you may not share a cultural frame of reference with your audience. Fifty years ago, just the word “Watergate” was enough to get a laugh from an audience. Today, not so much. “Considering a character’s frame of reference could be a great way to convey personality, or backstory, or create a setting or time period,” Yates Martin writes.
- Aesthetic and taste. Our tastes change over time and our characters’ should as well. Unless you’re working with contrast, your older characters aren’t likely to dress the same as they did when they were in college, and may not like the same food, entertainment, or fashion. Older characters may prefer sedate choices – healthy foods, calming colors, comfortable shoes – while younger characters may dress to impress or be more adventurous in their appetites.
- Perspective. They say that history repeats – or rhymes – and older characters have witnessed this in action. They’ve also lived through various heartaches and disappointments, and know that they can get through them. “A young first-time mother may behave and act and feel very differently than from an older parent who has already been around the child raising block a time or two,” Yates Martin writes. “Young love feels different from mature love.”
- Number of fucks. This is a major change. Those of us of a certain age are confident about our indifference to a number of challenges. Older characters don’t react to triggers in the same way. They don’t care what other people think. On the other hand, older characters can be more close-minded or resistant to change.
- Sense of and orientation to time. Science has shown that we experience time differently as we age, literally as well as figuratively. “When you are younger the world stretches out before you and it feels like you have an eternity to do everything you dream of,” Yates Martin notes. “When you’re older you realize some paths have closed and time is finite and fleeting.”
- How other people treat and regard your character. Older people may gain respect, but they are equally likely to become invisible. Younger characters may not be taken seriously. Characters of any age might be pampered or treated as though they are fragile, for various reasons. Your character might be considered too young or too old to understand.
- Priorities and values. Along with perspective and fucks, our priorities and values change. Time becomes more important than status or money. Health is more important than entertainment. Companionship becomes more important than material objects. As you age, what you desire and how you spend your time will reflect your evolving values.
