How to create funny characters in children’s books
BY Jack Meggitt-Phillips
22nd Sep 2026
In this advice blog Jack Meggitt-Phillips, internationally bestselling author of The Beast and the Bethany, shares his advice for creating funny characters.
All comedy is rooted in character. If you think of the times you have laughed hardest you can probably trace it back to some delicious character quirk.
The Vicar of Dibley’s kindness means she has to eat four separate Christmas roasts. Bertie Wooster’s inability to say no to his aunt leads him to unwillingly pinch another man’s cow creamer. In Ramzee’s hilarious The Cheat Book, the main character’s desire to become popular leads him to pick up a magical book that just makes his life worse.
All of these set ups succeed, because of the character work that has been done on them beforehand. And in children’s books, I’d say it is even more important to give the younger readers clear personalities for the readers to latch on to.
1. Give them a flaw and go big with it
In your first draft, paint your characters’ as large as possible – even if you border on caricature. It’s helpful to have one clear character flaw in mind as you write them, and use their every action in the story to shout this character loud to the reader.
In my book, the main character is an incredibly spoiled child named Henrik Jekyll, and his flaw is that he thinks he is better than everyone else. He plays his divorced parents against each other to get what he wants whenever he wants it. His hubris leads him to believe he can create a potion that will give him superpowers . . . only to result in him accidentally turning himself into a monster named Eddie Hyde instead.
When you’re thinking about your character’s flaw, it’s important to note that a lot of the funniest characters are those who have a view of the world that is slightly askew. Or, they react to situations in a way that isn’t entirely logical. This POV will be really helpful when writing comedic scenes later on.
2. Tell us what they want and don't let them have it
Almost all of literature is about the push and pull between what a protagonist wants and what they end up getting. In comedy this is particularly helpful in establishing the stakes in every scene – especially if the aim and the achievement are at odds with each other. For instance William Brown is one of the funniest characters in children’s literature, because I would say he’s not actually naughty. A lot of the best stories involve William trying to help his family, in his own unique way, but accidentally makes things much worse for them in the process.
3. Give them a clear voice
If you have a scene, where there is a conversation between two characters – reverse their roles, and see if that changes anything. If it doesn’t, you probably need to do more work on differentiating their voices.
Another trick I picked up from M G Leonard – who writes thrilling adventures for children, which also have a lot of good gags – is to cast your characters. Literally print out pictures of actors, or perhaps other characters from literature, and imagine them playing your role. It’s a simple trick, but it’s so effective.
For Henrik, I wanted him to have the cunning craftiness of Blackadder, mixed with the redemption journey Tony Stark goes on in the Iron Man origin story. And I found these helpful lodestars for charting his story through the book.
4. Take your characters for an outing
I love going different places, and imagining how my characters would behave.
In a cafe, I imagine Henrik Jekyll would want everyone to think he’s older than he is, so he would make his parents order him the bitterest, most expensive coffee on the menu. He’d hate drinking it, but would pretend that he loves it. Meanwhile, his best friend – and polar-opposite – Gabby would be so determined to help the baristas that she’d go behind the counter and create many more problems than she solved.
Take your characters wherever you go, and try and see the world through their eyes. The more they live in your head, the stronger they will come out on the page.
Jack Meggitt-Phillips is an author, scriptwriter and presenter whose work has been performed at The Roundhouse and featured on Radio 4. His bestselling debut children's series The Beast and the Bethany is translated into over 30 languages, and has had a major film deal announced. Jack studied on our London Writing Your Novel – Three Months course in 2019.
Jack's new book Jekyll vs Hyde: The Potion of Doom is out this week with Farshore (HarperCollins).