… was the title of one of the panels I did in Seattle. Here’s the list I came up with:

• Desire – they have to want something and be prepared to go after it. To my mind essential for the central character or “engine” of a story. An inactive central character is a terrible burden for a story. I don’t say it can’t be done, but it’s “advanced writing”.
• A certain amount of unreasonableness. Bloodymindedness, I call it. The disinclination to listen to sensible arguments.
• Faith. I realised, writing the list, that my characters have some fundamental faith in something, whether deity or equation. They believe the universe is ordered. This probably betrays my Presbyterian origins. The world is ordered. But it could be ordered better. Both my heros and villains are out to order the universe better.
• Blindspots: imperfect knowledge of themselves or estimation of others. Characters who are decieved by others aren’t nearly as interesting as those who at risk of decieving themselves.
• Appetites. Kind of goes with desires, but not entirely. The example I use was the wonderful bit of characterization of the political officer in Babylon 5, the voracious little blonde who turned up to subvert and seduce John Sheridan. Usually when one has a slim and wicked woman on a TV show, if she eats at all, she sips a drink and nibbles on a salad. But this one noshed! I think she had three meals, and at one point was tucking into what looked like pasta! (Or maybe it was gagh!) That was characterization!
• An area of mastery. I like writing about characters who are good at something.
• Weird hobbies. They have to have some area of interest that is completely irrelevant to the story. It may never make it into the novel – they may be running too fast to indulge in it – but I know it’s there.
• A distinctive way of expressing themselves. Ideally, I’d like any sustained bit of dialogue to be immediately identifiable as being theirs.