Movies like Pinocchio, Ted, Night at the Museum, and the Toy Story series show us the enduring attraction of using inanimate objects as living characters. In an article for Writer’s Digest, Katherine Quevedo offers advice for making these characters relatable while retaining the qualities that make them unique characters.
- Don’t make them too human. “If your object character has all the same qualities of a human, it erodes some of the value of why you chose to write them as an object in the first place,” Quevado writes. “It becomes a missed opportunity to craft an unforgettable nonhuman character, one that leads the reader right up to the limits of their empathy and encourages them to stretch beyond those a tad more.” Instead, pick a few traits – such as empathy or communication – that will be closer to human and imagine how your character moves or thinks differently.
- Give them constraints. “If your object character has limitations in how they move, communicate, or otherwise pursue their goals, it opens up great possibilities for ratcheting up the tension and adding depth to your story,” Quevado says.
- Give them fears. “You can make your story crackle with tension if your object character harbors a deep-down fear that they either admit through the course of the story, or reveal to us without realizing,” Quevado notes. Connect their phobia to their nature. The toys in Toy Story are afraid of being broken, given away, or abandoned by their kid, all natural fears for a toy.
