Create and Develop an Original Character

Whether you just write for fun or you're trying to start writing a book of your own, characters are an essential part of any story. And to get a good story or book going, you need to develop good characters, but more importantly, you need to get to know your characters.

Steps

  1. Decide what type of story you're writing. Is it fantasy? Historical fiction? This can influence your character a lot; even if your character has traveled back or forward in time to access the story's universe, they'd still probably be very mired in their old ways and get confused with the differences in the culture and the time period.
  2. Decide on the basics of your character. What's their name? What do they look like? How old are they? What was or is their education like? Who is their family, and what is their family like? How much do they weigh? What distinguishing features does your character have? Get to where you can picture what they look like in your head.
    • Among the basics would be things such as if your character is disabled or Make a Fictional LGBT Character. However, when approaching these topics, be very careful if you have no experience with it. When creating disabled or LGBT characters, do plenty of research before writing something that may make you seem ignorant or offensive.
    • Make sure that the character's appearance makes sense for their universe and hobbies. For example, a professional fighter wouldn't have long hair that they never pin back, due to the fact that it can be easily grabbed and put them at a disadvantage. In a real-world setting, nobody can have bright pink eyes, or have red or purple eyes without certain genetic mutations (such as albinism) or contact lenses; genetics don't work that way. And if your story is taking place in a realistic world, Alexandria's Genesis isn't real, so no using that to justify your character's purple eyes!
  3. Determine your character's basic personality. Are they cheerful and perky, or are they gloomy and sullen? Are they withdrawn? Enthusiastic? Studious? Callous? Come up with the basics of your character's personality to get a rough start on how they'll look in your story.
    • With this, you may also want to determine your character's interests and hobbies. Are they a computer programmer? A violinist? A dancer? A writer? A chemist? A mathematician?
  4. Get deeper into your character's personality. Ask yourself some deep questions about situations that can help you determine your character, such as, "What would my character do if his mother died? What would he do if he met a long lost family member? What would he do if confronted by a bank robber? If someone held a gun to his head?" These are the kind of questions you should ask, and write the answers down. By now, you should have a good idea of your character's personality.
  5. Sprinkle in some negatives. If you make your character too perfect, people will think that your story is too boring. You can't have a tall, thin, handsome, strong, honest, thoughtful and intelligent character if you want the character to sound real. Reveal a flaw, such as a drug addiction or the fact that he's too proud. Put in some complications!
    • Be careful not to make the flaw something that causes no actual trouble in the story. For example, if your character is shy and clumsy, these are not considered true flaws if all they do is get the character to land in the arms of their love interest. A true flaw would form as something such as, "Clara is so shy that she can't bring herself to say what she truly thinks, and this lands her in trouble when her friends do bad things and she can't speak up", or "Fernando is clumsy, and this ends up causing problems when he trips and drops a candle onto the curtain of the hotel he works at, causing a fire and serious injury to those around him".
    • Don't introduce too many flaws to your character. If your character's description is, "His parents died when he was little and it left him traumatized, and his foster parents lock him in the closet when he does anything wrong even just by a little bit, and he's ugly and socially awkward and nobody likes him, and he's terrible at everything he tries to do", nobody will be able to relate to your character, and may just find him annoying and whiny.
    • Be wary if you decide to introduce flaws to the character such as drug or alcohol addiction, mental illness, or disability. More often then not, this is not handled well, and makes it seem like addictions can be ignored with the wave of a hand, like mentally ill people are violent and uncontrollable, or like disabled people can't do anything on their own and must rely on everyone for every need they have when it's not justified (e.g. someone in a wheelchair who has no communication problems relying on others to communicate). These things must be researched carefully, or else you may end up offending readers.
      • Try checking out for more information on writing disability such as mental illness, autism, or so forth.
  6. Think of how you would talk to your character if you were around them. Think about his hopes and dreams, their fears, their memories. You can also consider trying to answer questions as your character, which can help to "put you in their shoes" and get a better way of seeing the world through your eyes.
  7. Write a scene with your character. If you're struggling for an idea to write about, search for an idea generator and pick one that sounds good. Make sure to show how your character reacts to given situations, not just tell. This can help you get a feel for how well-developed your character is, and if you need to go back and touch up some parts of their personality. If they are reacting to whatever's going on in the story, you're off to a good start.
    • The difference between showing versus telling is that when telling the reader about a character, there's no evidence to back it up (e.g. "Jenna cares about people."). When showing the reader, there's plenty of evidence to back it up (e.g. "Jenna reached over to wrap her arms around the shaking, crying child and held him in her arms, gently murmuring to him, "It's okay. Nobody's hurt. Everything is okay now.""). Generally, you want to show, not tell, for better writing.

Sample Character Descriptions

Doc:Fictional Character Description,Non-Fiction Character Description,Male Anime Character Description



Tips

  • Have fun with it! It's no use making a character if it bores you, because if it bores you, then won't it bore other people? And that doesn't make for a very good story!
  • Don't try to make your character good at everything - for instance, they can't be good at swordplay, archery, rock climbing, singing, social popularity, makeup, and thousands of other talents at the same time. Nobody is good at everything. Pick out a few talents for your character, select which ones they truly spend a lot of time on, and then let the rest go. Just because you want your character to be awesome doesn't mean that they have to be good at everything in the world, because nobody is good at everything in the world.
  • When you're writing your story, the characters should be writing most of the story, not you. If you introduce a plot twist and you can imagine the characters each having their own individual reactions to the story, rather than just a canned response you've scripted for them, you're doing well.
  • Consider searching online for a character sheet. You can find these by searching for "character creation sheet" or "character development sheet" on a search engine. These can help you to come up with things about your character that you may not have thought of.

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