Compelling characters are at the heart of good stories. From their funny quirks to their unique passions, every detail contributes to making them feel like real people. One of these details is hobbies. A character's hobby can play a crucial role in shaping their identity and adding depth to their personality. However, selecting the right hobbies for your characters can be difficult and time-consuming as it requires careful consideration of various factors. Thankfully, this article will explore the practical tips to guide you through the process of choosing hobbies that resonate with your characters. These tips will help you craft characters whose hobbies bring them to life. Keep reading!
Brainstorm
The first thing you should do when choosing hobbies for your characters is to brainstorm. Once you have an extensive brainstorming list of all the hobbies you can think of, you can sift through it to find the hobbies that best fit your character's personality, background, and narrative arc. Brainstorming before choosing the hobbies for your characters allows for added creativity and exploration, ensuring that you consider a diverse range of options before making your final selections. Brainstorming also helps ensure that you don't get stuck or experience writer's block. Listed below are 10 possible hobbies for your characters:
Baking
Chess
Dancing
Dog-Walking
Gardening
Gymnastics
Painting
Video Gaming
Writing Poetry
Yodeling
Consider Their Backstory
Secondly, you should consider your character's backstory when choosing hobbies. Our upbringings and the ways we grew up contribute more to our identities than people realize. That is why if you don't consider the backstories of your characters, your story may end up lacking depth, realism, or authenticity. So, as you craft your characters, it is important that you keep their backstory in mind. For instance, if your character grew up on a farm, their hobbies might involve something related to agriculture, like gardening or animal tending. This example illustrates how a character's environment can impact their hobbies. But, experiences and trauma can also affect a character's hobbies. For example, if a character had a traumatic experience related to water as a child, they might avoid hobbies like swimming or sailing. Their background can also influence their access to certain hobbies; a character from a wealthy family might have hobbies like horseback riding or golf, while a character from a lower-income background might have hobbies that are more accessible, such as reading or playing basketball at the local park. By considering a character's backstory, you can create more coherent and believable characters, whose interests are shaped by their past experiences and environment.
Showcase Their Skills + Interests
Showcasing your character's skills and interests through their hobbies adds realism and also provides opportunities for character development and plot advancement. If your character is a music historian, their hobby could be playing an instrument or composing music, which might be a central aspect of their identity and contribute to their storyline. Similarly, if you have a character who is passionate about the environment, hobbies like hiking or scuba diving would showcase their values and motivations. By selecting hobbies that correlate with your character's skills and interests, you create opportunities for them to shine, grow, and engage with the world around them in meaningful ways. Overall, make sure that the hobbies you choose for your characters showcase their interests and possibly even their skills.
Connect Their Personality
Connecting your character's personality with their hobbies is crucial for crafting a believable and engaging character. Hobbies that resonate with your character's personality traits not only add depth but also add to your book's realism. For example, an adventurous and thrill-seeking character might enjoy hobbies like skydiving or rock climbing, while an introverted and chill character might prefer to read, paint, or journal. In general, aligning your character's hobbies with their personality traits is critical. It helps readers understand your character on a deeper level and allows for better character development.
Reflect on Their Lifestyle
Similar to the previous point, your character's hobbies must match their lifestyle. For instance, it could be strange if a character who was born and lives in a country where American football is not popular has a hobby of playing it. That is why the hobbies of your characters should match their lifestyle. And how do you determine if their hobbies make sense in their life? Well, by reflecting on their lifestyle. As you choose the hobbies for your characters, make sure that you are considering their lifestyles. You don't want to accidentally choose hobbies that don't make any sense for a character's lifestyle. Another example of this would be to have a character who lives in the middle of the Amazon but spends their days bobsledding. As a result, when choosing hobbies for your characters, it is essential to ensure that their hobbies align with their lifestyle.
There are so many hobbies in the world, which is why it can be so exciting to choose the hobbies that your characters have. In some cases, you may even feel that you are experiencing that hobby through your character. But on the other hand, it can be difficult to make sure that the hobbies you pick are realistic and meaningful. However, with the tips above, you now have the tools necessary to select the perfect hobbies for your characters.