How to make a Character (because I've been holding back my process for too long)

[Eshai]

So if you're here, you've probably made a character, rather drawing them, writing a character description (probably you D&D players), and perhaps even both. Some of you may be wondering if there is a right/wrong way of doing this. I have ideas, but these are theories crafted by my own experiences. 

 

This is more for if you're forming a character for a story. It does work for casually made characters as well, but tbh those with any character description should have enough depth. 

 

0. NOT THE NAME.

If you think that the name is important, it isn’t, at least in the beginning of a character’s creation. Names don’t really define who people are. You could’ve been named John, Marty, Sarah, Sue, or something else and it wouldn’t have affected your character unless the name is important in context in some way, like royalty, nationality, or gender.

 

1. Theme and Setting

Sometimes this is easy, like in High School Anime, where you just slap magic on it and shove it in Crunchyroll's face. Sometimes it's a more character driven story in the modern world, so Setting is just where they live and Theme is whatever you want. Sometimes you're Made in Abyss, Ender's Game, Hunter x Hunter, Lord of the Rings, or Dark Souls and have an entire setting you built using your imagination. This depends on how you want your audience to feel when reading your story. You may have several feelings you want to express through the story, but typically well themed storytelling has a single feeling that’s capitalized on, like optimism in My Hero Academia, family in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and immaturity and community in Lord of the Flies. This will probably define everyone involved in the story, whether the character’s promote, feel, or foil the ideals of the theme you decide on.

 

2a. Stereotypes

*Insert the SJW mob here

But the title “SJW” is a prime example of stereotyping. The acronym has different reactions from different people, whether they believe in the seraphs of equality or an over the top group of witch-hunters causing more trouble than they're worth. Couple questions to ask yourself about your character in relation to their world:

• How do people see your character?

• What might people infer about your character from an outside perspective?

• How might they abide by or reject these stereotypes?

• How do they interact with the stereotypes given to them?

This is the first half of developing the core to the character.

 

2b. Personality

This is the more factual interpretation of the character, typically not fully understood until the end of the story. While Stereotypes are more reactive to the Themes/Setting, the Personality is more innate, typically ingrained in themselves from very early in their life. It can be a smart idea to reference how your character has developed their Personality with back story, but probably pace it with the plot so it doesn’t feel ham-fisted. Some people might just name off a couple traits for the personality, but if you’re cool, it’s a good idea to dig a bit deeper. Here are a couple ideas to get your imagination going:

• Take a couple Personality Tests roleplaying as your character. Myers Briggs is fine, but there are a couple other valid options. However, do not take the personality descriptions as fact. This is used to further your understanding of your character and  fill a couple gaps in your characterization you may have had, not be your character word for word..

• Get a couple controversial questions together to interview your character. Maybe find 20-30 questions they can answer somehow. These could be politically controversial, but you could also have them more as if in their hobbies or workplace. These answers will probably be more rooted to your character’s experiential biases, so make sure your character acts according to the theme/setting.

 

3a. Morals

These can be defined as rules placed on one's self, rather for convenience or personal reasons. This can be as simple as obeying the law and not killing people, or it can even be something like not getting in the way of other people as a response to anxiety. Although usually it's "never give up" because how else are you going to get a character to move the plot forward if not just making them do it for the sake of doing it?

 

3b. Motives

What drives your character to act, and how does their Motives conflict with their Morals? Most of the time character motives are simple and agree with their morals, but it’s always really interesting when that doesn’t happen. Fullmetal Alchemist has this in spades within the first couple of episodes when they figure out what a philosopher stone is made out of (if you don’t know, Watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) Sometimes the climax can have to do with a compromise or an alternate solution, or them realizing their wrong and do what they can to correct themselves.

 

4. Quirks

While this might be a direct refence from My Hero Academia, you could actually include Quirks here. This is just misc. stuff about your character, like hobbies, talents, faults, weaknesses, tendencies, etc that are meant to ground the characters in your world, and further humanize them. Humanization is complex, but it's important if you ever want your audience to ever actually care about your character. Unless your character is One Punch Man, at least include 1 relevant weakness so conflict can arise in one way or another. While it isn't strictly necessary, it can help beginners. I will say it has to be something that can actually screw your character over, since a time limit on their power level isn't going to matter from a meta perspective unless it's a very short duration or your character actually runs out of it mid battle (see Digibro's Asterisk War Sucks videos for further details).

 

5. Appearance (Artists you can go nuts now)

Knowing all you know now about your character, how would your character express themselves in their place in the world? You can be annoying and make the anime typical high school uniform, but you can also make them look cool like in My Hero Academia, Mob Psycho 100, Kill la Kill, Code Geass, or Toradora (you thought I only watched Shonen didn't you?) In other settings your characters are probably not forced to wear particular kinds of clothes, so this will probably be up to them. How and why would your character choose what in particular to wear? This can be as simple as "my Mom bought it" or "it was my last piece of clean clothes" and that probably says a lot about the character to begin with, but you can also add some deep meaning, like a tragic event or some memory that makes them treasure that trinket their wearing. You could also say "because they thought it looked cool" but it's a rule you have to get that character in a position to say those words exactly. Otherwise there isn't a reason.

 

6. NOW YOU CAN DO THE NAME

Happy? Knowing what you know, do something cool with it. Maybe give some insight on a race you made by making a weird sounding name, or make it a pun if you're going for more of a comedy. You could reference a mythological or historical figure, but that'll probably be for more moral based stories, unless said figures are involved in their parents lives or actually existing in the story.

Knowing what you know now I hope you can use this to improve your character creations (I'm not calling them OCs because the name is the opposite in societal context of what it's actually supposed to mean. Stop calling them that.) Please comment if you have any questions, ideas, suggestions, or, y'know, comments on the process. This took me awhile so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

 

Knowing what you know now I hope you can use this to improve your character creations (I'm not calling them OCs because the name is the opposite in societal context of what it's actually supposed to mean. Stop calling them that.) Please comment if you have any questions, ideas, suggestions, or, y'know, comments on the process. This took me awhile so I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I have to disagree about the name. Well. At least I have to say you didn't elaborate on the actual importance of the name. It's not necessarily the first thing you need to do but it is something you need to put thought into.

 

You're right in saying that any kind of name can make for a good character but the important thing to remember is that the people reading will have certain expectations given the name is often one of the early things you find out and is something usually said multiple times.

If you're in a modern world and give a character an ethic name but they are not of that ethnicity it will throw people off and break submersion. Similarly for way too modern names in a fantasy setting or vice verse.

 

You have to think about the readers when giving a name. They'll get certain ideas in their head and, while it's nice to subvert these thoughts, it's not a good choice to completely forgo thinking about what people will think when they read the name.

For an extreme example. Something like Butch or Clint gives off a tough guy vibe. Sure you can give your science nerd a name like that but it's a risky move. I'm not saying all nerds have to be named the same three names, and in fact it's bad to go too cliche, but taking a name that is so heavily thought of as one thing and giving it to another has an off-putting effect.

 

Now there ARE times when this is fine. The classic "give the strong scary guy a name like Tiny or Terrance" comes to mind. But that's usually reserved for either nicknames or a one-off joke.

[Catterjune]

I have to disagree about the name.

Agreed, though I don't know if I can really talk about names considering all my characters for anything I've ever written have been stupid jokes.

 

If you give someone a name people are gonna have stereotypes in mind. If I say "Gertrude", you're gonna picture a little old granny. If I say "Becky" you might imagine a teenager whereas if I say "Rebecca" you might imagine an adult. If you want an adult to seem younger, you'd give them a nickname.

 

Secondly, a name can also instill an emotion. Would you really root for a guy named "John Hitler" or someone named "Nancy Poopface"? I mean, extreme examples of course but people react differently to different types of names and it's important to recognize so you can elicit the right emotional response from your audience. When I first read "Longbottom" in Harry Potter I thought "this guy's gonna be a real doofus!" and anytime I read "Hermione" I thought "wow, this girl's gonna be super pedantic and overly corrective cause I bet she had to correct people on the pronunciation of her name all the time" and for the most part I was right.

 

There's nothing wrong with playing with stereotypes, as long as you recognize what you're doing.

[Eshai]

I was more implying that the name shouldn't be done first despite what we habitually do. The steps prior to it typically give you a good idea of what kind of name your characters are going to have, so I figure that part of name conception would be done there. I was just making it clear that there's a time and place, and that isn't the beginning of conception.

 

There will be edits though, since it was late at night and edits will always be a part of the writing process. I think I'm going to make my points and opinions a bit more clear, and probably add some examples that aren't from video games or anime, since that might come off the wrong way from another kind of perspective.

 

EDIT: Edits completed for now

[Catterjune]

I was more implying that the name shouldn't be done first despite what we habitually do.

 

And I'm saying you're wrong. There's a reason people habitually do it. Heck, I'm sure your mom and dad already had a whole bunch of names in mind before they named you. And even if you do happen to change your mind as you think about your story more, there's nothing saying you've couldn't go back and rename your character after giving it some thought.

 

For my sake, I prefer to get names down as early as possible because I don't like just saying "the girl" "the detective" "the hero" "the villain" when I'm discussing or thinking about my story unless there's a reason or a stylistic choice behind it. Maybe it's a tough gangster who goes by a tough gangster nickname? Maybe there's legal or technical reasons behind it? For example, Yugi Moto is a person that exists in my fanfic however if they ever have to talk about him they just refer to him as The King of Games because the story, while taking place in the same universe, is far enough away from the established Yugioh-verse I don't really want to allude to it.

 

In any case, once I have a name I begin thinking about their parents. What were they like? Why did they name their kid whatever it is they named them? John's kind of a regular name. Maybe his parents were boring whitebread folks? That then leads me to imagine what kind of childhood he would have. Boring, whitebread, run of the mill, plain, those kinds of things.

 

Yet if I named my character Xavier or Zachariel oe something less common, I'd imagine his parents would be a bit more outgoing. What kind of childhood would they have for little Xavier or Zach?

 

And then if none of it makes sense... I go back and rename them. I'm not married to the first idea that pops into my mind. That's how I typically create characters anyway.

 

 

BUT ANYWAY!

 

I had an idea. Since this is a place where we critique fiction, let's go ahead and do that to this guide too:

 

1. Theme and Setting

 

Why are you including themes and setting in a guide called How To Make a Character? I would assume the theme and setting get hammered out elsewhere.

 

Secondly, and more importantly, the guide here is pretty bland and generic. "How do you want your audience to feel?" is a good question. But then you don't really answer the obvious question of "how exactly do I do that?"

 

My Hero Academia is all about optimism... okay, but how? I've never seen it so I can't compare it to what you say.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy, again, something I've never seen. Can't really comment on it.

 

I once wrote in a fanfic (paraphrasing) "The class room was arranged like an ampitheater. If you don't know what an ampitheater is that's too bad because it's the only description you're gonna get." It was meant to be a joke, but this is meant to be a guide, yet I'm kinda feeling like you're doing that joke on me. "My Hero Academia is all about optimism. If you haven't seen the show that's too bad because it's all I'm gonna say about it."

 

I've read Lord of Flies, and the fact that you think you can summarize it in two words is laughable. But even then, 'immaturity and community'. Okay, WHAT ABOUT THEM? Is the concept of immaturity a good thing or a bad thing? Is the concept of community a good thing or a bad thing? What drove you to those conclusions?

 

To make a long story short:

 

a) This section doesn't really need to be here because it provides no advice on making a good character

b) This section is also just stupid and bad. "You want to make them feel something! Also, here's some examples of anime and how they made me feel one word about them!"

 

 

2a. Stereotypes

 

I was gonna do kinda like a point-by-point rebuttal, but people who do that are being disingenuous to the work as whole. I'd prefer to grade this whole section as a section itself instead of "Question A is stupid because blank." "Question B is stupid because blank."

 

- How do people see your character?

- What might people infer about your character from an outside perspective?

- How might they abide by or reject these stereotypes?

- How do they interact with the stereotypes given to them?

 

Your four questions can be summed up into just two shorter ones:

 

a) what do other people think of your character?

b) What does your character think of themselves?

 

And while it's a good starting point, it's JUST a starting point. What they feel is a good way to get it down, but WHY they feel the way they do, that's the crux of it all.

 

"This girl is popular."

 

Okay, but why?

 

"She's very pretty and she has a lot of money, which means she can afford to have big crazy parties where everyone has fun. However deep down inside she worries if she became all ugly or if she lost all her money she'd lose all her friends."

 

"This boy is nerdy."

 

Okay, but why?

 

"Growing up his parents were quite poor so he had no moey for video games and TV. Instead as a kidhe went to the library, which is free, and spent hours and hours reading. He wants to get a good job after graduating and etc etc"

 

Yeah, they're boring plain kinda one sentence wonders. But they provide more info then just answering "how do people see them" and "how do they see themselves"

 

2b. Personality

 

I'm of the mind that there's three or more different types of "personalities". The way you are between strangers, the way you are between people you know, and the way you are when you're all alone. Instead of sucking Meyers Briggs dick or taking an OKCupid test, imagine what your character acts like among other people or when placed in certain situations, because 99% of the time, that's what your fanfic will end up being.

 

Don't get me wrong. Certain high level writers may be able to pull a convincing story without any interaction between characters but you're reading this off YuGiOh Card Maker Forum. Odds are pretty high you're not the next William Shakespeare so cool your jets there Hemmingway.

 

SInce your story will likely be a multitide of people talking, interacting, and involved in silly scenarios, start by imagining THAT. It does you no good to imagine "my character finds it difficult to introduce themselves to people" and then stick to it 100% like it's gospel. People aren't that simple. Instead imagine it as "the main character just saw a girl at a bar that he thought was very cute. Would he introduce himself? What would the consequences to the story be if he did not meet her? What would it take to get him to say hello?"

 

3a. Morals

 

Again, I believe morality is relative. Killing someone is bad. But what if killing someone could save a life? What if it could save a hundred lives? What if the person being killed actively wanted to die because they were in terrible agony? What if it wasn't 'pulling the trigger' or 'stabbing the knife' but just making a decision that you believed would end a life? There's a lot of moral gray area and I wouldn't say hard and fast 'they wouldn't kill anyone!' because then you open up a can of worms as 'what do they define as killing someone?'

 

This is why I prefer to define my characters in situations. Instead of "John never kills" it's more like "John would probably kill someone if it meant protecting his wife and kids from death, but it depends on various other situations." There's other things that could change my answer. What if his mom was brainwashed by aliens to kill his wife and kids? What if his wife and kids were turned into zombies and there was no hope of recovering them and he had a pistol? There's no point in asking stupid questions about morals, because your character will never be asked about their morals. Focus instead on situations, since that is what your story will likely be, a collection of situations.

 

3b. Motives

 

"If you don't know what Fullmetal Alchemist is, that's too bad because it's the only example you get."

 

Again, I prefer imagining it as 'situations' over morals and motives. Defining them first though is a bad move. When you grew up you probably wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter or a king or something. But then as you grew up you probably changed this over time. That's perfectly acceptable to change as the story goes. This guide seems to state that once you define something it can't be changed, but slightly worse than that when you do get into conflicts it doesn't give you the tools to resolve them.

 

"What happens when motives and morals are at a crossroads?"

 

"... It's really interesting!"

 

Like, yeah thanks a lot for that Siskel and Ebert. I know the audience finds it entertaining. But how AS A WRITER do I solve these quandries?

 

What I recommend for writers seeing themselves in a predicament like that, write out simple scenarios and imagine where they might go.

 

Conflict: A man has just pulled a gun on John, Mary and Timmy and says he will kill them if they don't hand over all their money.

 

Solution A: They hand over their money. They live in fear for a bit but eventually get over it.

Solution B: John fights back, wins - non-lethal. He becomes a big hero.

Solution C: John fights back, wins - lethal. He kills the mugger but is left with PTSD.

Solution D: John fights back, loses - non-lethal. His wife and kid are beaten but still alive. They all move out of town and live in fear forever.

Scenario E: John fights back, loses - lethal. His family dies. He has nothing left to live for. John becomes Batman.

 

And just kinda go down this rabbit hole, see which is the most interesting idea. If you realize halfway into it that an idea won't go anywhere or it's just stupid and contrary to what you've been building up so far, don't be afraid to drop it.

 

So that's my tip really. THINK about not just "a solution" but come up with "all possible solutions" for this dilemma, and don't be afraid to drop ideas you think are bad.

 

4. Quirks

 

I don't think it's enough to say "throw in a quirk!" Instead imagine it as WHY do they have this quirk.

 

She's a normal student, so why did she take up painting? When she was little she stared at a solar eclipse and it scarred her eyes. The doctors were able to save her vision, but for those six months she couldn't see a thing. She doesn't ever want anything to be forgotten so by putting it onto paper it kinda makes it more important. That big tree in the park is being cut down tomorrow, but this painting of the tree will still be there long after it's gone.

 

5. Appearance

 

I kinda don't like to pigeonhold my characters into a certain exact way that they look. I imagine them as just generic ordinary unassuming people, and I base their lives and their scenarios off of that. "What would a normal person living in a major city do in this situation?" or "what type of situation and past events would cause them to be a happy upbeat girl? What would make them a womanizing young man?" and so on.

 

For the longest time, I didn't described anyone in my fanfic other than gender and how tall they were. The main reason was, nothing changes depending on what they wear or what they look like.

 

If my character is a happy and upbeat girl, it doesn't matter if she has brown hair with brown eyes or blonde hair with blue eyes. She'd still be happy and upbeat regardless.

 

I had a character that was described as the most beautiful woman in the world... and I didn't physically describe her at all. The importance was placed on how she made the other characters feel instead of what she physically looked like.

 

To sum it up, appearance is not that important.

 

Emma Watson played Hermione Granger for about 8 years and she's white. Noma Dumezweni played Hermione Granger in The Cursed Child and she's black.

 

6. NOW YOU CAN DO THE NAME

 

I kinda answered this on top so I won't do it again. I could instead give my process for creating a character but it's probably much more boring then yours.

 

a) I begin with a generic kinda plain character and just apply all the generic labels. This is also where I usually come up with their name. As stated earlier, I believe there's three types of personalities. How they are with strangers, how they are with friends, and how they are in private. Because we, the audience, are technically strangers to this person all we see of them are the quick labels when we first meet them.

 

b) As we become "friends" with the character, more quirks and more of their personality comes through. Their personality is developed as I write, usually not too much beforehand, and again it's usually developed in a "situation" type of way. If I have an end goal already set up (and I do, it's the generic labels I put when I first started) my next step is to find out how they got to that position and set it up as their history.

 

c) As the story continues we get to their "private" life and have more intimate moments with the character. They're pushed to the limits of what we thought they could do. We see what really makes them tick, what their morals and motivations are, and ultimately what it would take for them to betray either of them. As the situation in the story escalates, they grow and change and evolve.

 

To sum up my critique of this guide:

 

Your character creation guide is boring, underdeveloped, and generic. It gives some okay ideas, but doesn't go far enough in some points and it just namedrops animes like I'm supposed to know who they are. It's a bad guide and I'm pretty certain nobody reading it going to come out of it having a better understanding of their character.

[MewMew3]

I was thinking of putting my two cents in, using the three most important characters in my Yugioh fanfics as examples, but it's very long and detailed. If you want massive TL;DR just holler.

[Snatch Steal]

I'd like to disagree with point one. You can incorporate the name of a character into various aspects of their culture or upbringing. For example, perhaps someone's father is Italian while their mother is Cambodian, so while the child is mixed race, the parents decide upon the name "Lorenzo" while "Valentino" is the inherited family name, so it's an Asian with an Italian name. This can amplify the reality of a story, if needed.

 

I somewhat agree with point two because you are correct in that the setting plays an important role in making readers feel something. Dorian Gray uses flowery imagery in the very beginning to promote the theme of hedonism, while Fahrenheit 451 has an air of suspicion and secrecy to it—because of the cityscape and the mannerisms implied by it—that sort of behooves the reader to keep Montag's secrets as well.

 

I won't argue on anything else since it's late and I don't want to stir up too much trouble.

 

I think for me, personally, I'm so in-tune with my characters that I pretty much just assume that everyone who reads about them will totally know what I mean, and I don't want to talk to people like they're stupid. Maybe there's an in-between for "Show don't tell" and "Explain more"

 

Also, lol, Yugi Moto

[MewMew3]

I wasn't thinking of Yugi, but he is a fine character nonetheless.  

[Eshai]

Catterjune! This got long so I put everything into spoiler folders. Should be pretty clear. [spoiler: Initial Statement]

I'm saying you're wrong. There's a reason people habitually do it [make names]. Heck, I'm sure your mom and dad already had a whole bunch of names in mind before they named you.

 

In our culture yes, in some other cultures no. Cultural tendencies are fine if that’s what you’ve determined in your setting which can just be regular life, but you could also have names change over time, like in Native American culture, where they would be renamed in adolescence and even later on in life. There’s also the language factor, where character’s names could be from other countries. There name is defined by where they come from, but if they’re from there the name is probably going to be different, which means listing stereotypes (like ethnicity, fluency, and such) has to be done before figuring out your character’s name. JJR Tolkien had entire languages and cultures for his characters, and their names were influenced by them. Figure out your world before your story, because if your story’s world is built off of the character you made first, then typically it’s going to be a very boring world.

 

So yeah at least do Setting and Stereotypes first. Everything else as well depending on what cultures and mythology you’ve developed.

 

And even if you do happen to change your mind as you think about your story more, there's nothing saying you've got to keep the name.

 

Sure. Not saying that you can’t have names in mind, just saying the name should be made last.

For my sake, I prefer to get names down as early as possible because I don't like just saying "the girl" "the detective" "the hero" "the villain" when I'm discussing or thinking about my story unless there's a reason or a stylistic choice behind it.

 

You’re correct. Don’t. “Protagonist” and “Antagonist” are more proper, since your terms are so derogatory to what humans can be written as in storytelling. “Side character 1/2/3” could also be used, or placeholder names associated with their personality like “Entertainer, Debater” from the Myers-Briggs theories, “Timmy, Johnny, Spike” from Magic: The Gathering’s theories on having different cards appeal to different kinds of people, or whatever rough draft names you can think of for the time being. You can give a name before you make the name. As for “Detective” and “Girl” you could do that, but if you don’t prefer using stereotypes as placeholder names that’s fine.

 

Maybe it's a tough gangster who goes by a tough gangster nickname? Maybe there's legal or technical reasons behind it? For example, Yugi Moto is a person that exists in my fanfic however if they ever have to talk about him they just refer to him as The King of Games because the story, while taking place in the same universe, is far enough away from the established Yugioh-verse I don't really want to allude to it.

 

Gangster, as in probably going into the Stereotypes category, which you have to figure out before giving the nickname. As for the Yugi Moto thing, that’s a part of Setting. You picked the Yugiverse before you made your character, didn’t you?

In any case, once I have a name I begin thinking about their parents. What were they like? Why did they name their kid whatever it is they named them? John's kind of a regular name. Maybe his parents were boring whitebread folks? That then leads me to imagine what kind of childhood he would have. Boring, whitebread, run of the mill, plain, those kinds of things.

 

Well, you have to figure out your setting first, because what if in that setting that’s not how people are named? I’m going for a very linear approach for making characters, taking in all kinds of situations where which prior steps are necessary to make a intelligent decision on the matter at hand. Maybe for your world going through with everything and making your world’s culture isn’t exactly what your going for. That’s fine, just decide on that before making your character’s name.

Yet if I named my character Xavier or Zachariel or something less common, I'd imagine his parents would be a bit more outgoing. What kind of childhood would they have for little Xavier or Zach?

 

Are you even making the parents into characters? Was your character even named by their parents? Hmmm… wonder where that information would go in.

I mean... that's how I typically create characters.

 

Doesn’t make you any more or less right, but if it works well enough for you that’s fine, but even the most famous works can be lacking in story quality, like most Nintendo games, where story was never really the point to begin with and SAO, which just has a writer whose overworked to turn out books every 3 months.

[spoiler: Theme and Setting]

Why are you including themes and setting in a guide called How To Make a Character?

 

Because the world around your character is what makes your character. They are taught by those around them what the world is, and even sometimes what their reactions to that world should be. An example is religion. If you’re raised in a religious family, you might have strong feelings towards religion. That’s a setting thing, which is done before your character. This setting can also define stereotypes, like how they feel about other kinds of people, whether race, sex, hobbies, art, technology, or whatever else.

 

Simply put, your character doesn’t affect your world as much as the world affects your character.  Well, unless your story is incredibly unrealistic wish fulfillment, in which I have mixed feelings about.

Secondly, and more importantly, the guide here is pretty bland and generic.

 

Kinda the point. It’s not like the Essay making process has to be a essay long. If I want to make something that can be applied to every character ever made, then it has to be bland or generic. Undetailed is probably what you mean though, in which I say yeah, it’s undetailed. I’m working on it.
 

"How do you want your audience to feel?" is a good question. But then you don't really answer the obvious question of "how exactly do I do that?"

 

That’s kinda for you to decide. It’s more of an art than a science, in which you have to “git gud” at writing stories in order to properly do. Typically this in the done through the atmosphere you create with your writing, or the colors and framing with your drawing. There’s also how you describe or draw how a character is feeling, which might strike chords in your audience since they probably aren’t heartless meatbags. If they aren’t though, then that’s probably due to bad writing.

My Hero Academia is all about optimism... okay, but how? I've never seen it so I can't compare it to what you say.

 

Well I mean that’s your problem, but I can give you a coupled links (seriously just watch My Hero Academia it’s a great show with fantastic writing, animation, and pacing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptZGYGNMmyw

Guardians of the Galaxy, again, something I've never seen. Can't really comment on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8AkCQo75kk

I once wrote in a fanfic (paraphrasing) "The classroom was arranged like an amphitheater. If you don't know what an amphitheater is that's too bad because it's the only description you're gonna get." It was meant to be a joke, but this is meant to be a guide, yet I'm kinda feeling like you're doing that joke on me. "My Hero Academia is all about optimism. If you haven't seen the show that's too bad because it's all I'm gonna say about it."

 

I mean yeah. Watch My Hero Academia. Why haven’t you watched My Hero Academia?

I've read Lord of Flies, and the fact that you think you can summarize it in two words is laughable. But even then, 'immaturity and community'. Okay, WHAT ABOUT THEM? Is the concept of immaturity a good thing or a bad thing? Is the concept of community a good thing or a bad thing? What drove you to those conclusions?

 

What about them? The whole story in itself is revolved around Community, and the challenges of a community. A theme is something you explore, not something that is “a good thing or a bad thing” community is something in the story that they had to achieve and maintain, despite being children.

To make a long story short:

a) This section doesn't really need to be here because it provides no advice on making a good character

 

I’m sorry, but are you telling me that the Theme and Setting, aka your literary intentions as a writer, are not important to making a character? You seem to think these things are separate, but the character and the world, like you and this world, and connected. Who would you be if you were born in 1920 Germany? Probably very different than you are now.

b) This section is also just stupid and bad. "You want to make them feel something! Also, here's some examples of anime and how they made me feel one word about them!"

 

Ok, yeah I’m working on it, but also wtf you think I felt one word about them? Themes are something a story explores, not something they just make you feel. It’s not like I know everything about these series, and it’s not like you have to explore only 1 topic. I guess I did this a bit wrong but you don’t have to come at me like they’re meaningless (especially when they’re incredibly important to storytelling)

[spoiler: 2a. Stereotypes]
Your four questions can be summed up into just two shorter ones:

a) what do other people think of your character?
b) What does your character think of themselves?

 

Opinions and Actions of characters can be separated, but yeah 1 and 2 can be merged I’ll probably do that. (cutting out some of the parts I find redundant or filler I’ll just cut out so I can get my main points and opinions across, because analyzing each part in particular is going to take a while.)

And while it's a good starting point, it's JUST a starting point. What they feel is a good way to get it down, but WHY they feel the way they do, that's the crux of it all.

 

Yes. A starting point, as in the first part of making the particular character. The next steps go deeper into that character. The “Why” is rather in the Setting where you would explain how the character has produced the stereotypes they have, or the why could be in the Morals or Motives later on, where the “Why” is because the Morals and Motives rather support or conflict with whatever the current situation is.

"This girl is popular." Okay, but why? "She's very pretty and she has a lot of money, which means she can afford to have big crazy parties where everyone has fun. However deep down inside she worries if she became all ugly or if she lost all her money she'd lose all her friends."

 

“She has a lot of money” can be a stereotype in itself, where people would see her as a rich girl, which has implications in its own right. The second bit (her fears) would probably contribute to a motives and/or the plot of the story, where she would move, hide her identity, and try to make friends that don’t care about that stuff.

"This boy is nerdy." Okay, but why? "Growing up his parents were quite poor so he had no money for video games and TV. Instead as a kid he went to the library, which is free, and spent hours and hours reading. He wants to get a good job after graduating and etc etc"

 

So he’s a poor kid, which could also be a stereotype. You realize you can have more than 1 stereotype, hence “stereotypes”.

Yeah, they're boring plain kinda one sentence wonders. But they provide more info than just answering "how do people see them" and "how do they see themselves"

 

And you can make those descriptions in the stereotypes section. I don’t see why not, it’s just that they could probably be placed in other sections as well.

[spoiler: 2b. Personality]
I'm of the mind that there's three or more different types of "personalities". The way you are between strangers, the way you are between people you know, and the way you are when you're all alone. Instead of sucking Myers Briggs dick or taking an OKCupid test, imagine what your character acts like among other people or when placed in certain situations, because 99% of the time, that's what your fanfic will end up being.

 

Myers Briggs is 2 people, and I used it as an example, because none of it is actually scientific. However, it’s a starting point that can fill in some holes to your character (AKA what I said), and Personality isn’t all of your characters, hence the point of this entire post.

Odds are pretty high you're not the next William Shakespeare so cool your jets there Hemmingway.

 

...ok? Don’t see how that diminishes myself in any way. Didn’t say I was either.

SInce your story will likely be a multitude of people talking, interacting, and involved in silly scenarios, start by imagining THAT.

 

Well, that’s humanization, making more mundane scenarios where the characters are doing stuff just for the shits and giggles is pretty entertaining when the story isn’t oversaturated with it.

 

It does you no good to imagine "my character finds it difficult to introduce themselves to people" and then stick to it 100% like it's gospel. People aren't that simple.

 

It’s not that people are or aren’t simple, it’s that people aren’t typically consistent with situations that don’t involve their morals and motives. Typically recent events and moodswings will factor in a lot more in these scenarios, which isn’t character restricted so I’m not going to make it it’s own category, unless tendencies can be a part of Quirks.

 

Instead imagine it as "the main character just saw a girl at a bar that he thought was very cute. Would he introduce himself? What would the consequences to the story be if he did not meet her? What would it take to get him to say hello?"

 

Extroverted or Introverted? Didn’t you say something about not agreeing with the Myers-Briggs tests? Anyway yeah that’s a good example but did you even read the “get some situations to put your characters in” part? Because I said to do exactly this.

[spoiler: 3a. Morals]

I believe morality is relative. Killing someone is bad. But what if killing someone could save a life? What if it could save a hundred lives? What if the person being killed actively wanted to die because they were in terrible agony? What if it wasn't 'pulling the trigger' or 'stabbing the knife' but just making a decision that you believed would end a life? There's a lot of moral gray area and I wouldn't say hard and fast 'they wouldn't kill anyone!' because then you open up a can of worms as 'what do they define as killing someone?'

 

Hence Motives, which can conflict with Morals and make said situations complicated for the character, which I said (starting to question how much of this you actually read). I even implied that it was a overused moral. Morals are just “rules placed on oneself”. They can have exceptions. You can say “would only kill murderers if it came down to it” if you wanted, and that would be fine as well. Don’t know what you were trying to say here other than self-justified beliefs, so...

[spoiler: 3b. Motives]

"If you don't know what Fullmetal Alchemist is, that's too bad.”

I have a feeling you don’t watch too much anime. It was rather spoil it or give a bit of reference, so I took the second for people like you. Also it’s “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”. The original isn’t very manga adapted.

Again, I prefer imagining it as 'situations' over morals and motives. Defining them first though is a bad move. When you grew up you probably wanted to be an astronaut or a firefighter or a king or something. But then as you grew up you probably changed this over time. That's perfectly acceptable to change as the story goes. This guide seems to state that once you define something it can't be changed, but slightly worse than that when you do get into conflicts it doesn't give you the tools to resolve them.

 

Having those Morals and Motives before hand can create those situations. Having a couple put down isn’t that bad of an idea as you may think, and can give you some ideas for making a interesting plot. Of course they can change over time, so say what has changed at particular points in your story when the time comes. Not that hard writing a simple sentence for review later on.

"What happens when motives and morals are at a crossroads?" "... It's really interesting!" Like, yeah thanks a lot for that Siskel and Ebert. I know the audience finds it entertaining. But how AS A WRITER do I solve these quandaries?

 

I mean, I wish it was obvious, but with all the crap we get sometimes in literary mediums I might as well be blunt. How you ask? Depends on the character. Find some situations where your characters morals might conflict with motives, although this would be PLOT RELATED, which I can’t include in a guide to make CHARACTERS right?

What I recommend for writers seeing themselves in a predicament like that, write out simple scenarios and imagine where they might go.

 

Now look who’s being obvious

Conflict: A man has just pulled a gun on John, Mary and Timmy and says he will kill them if they don't hand over all their money.

 

Sounds more like backstory than plot, but even then that’s really dumb. Why wouldn’t he just take all of their money, and kill them individually after the fact? If you’re going to make a antagonist, maybe dwell into their backstory too. Otherwise is sounds a bit cliche.

Scenario E: John fights back, loses - lethal. His family dies. He has nothing left to live for. John becomes Batman.

 

Very original (although it’s a point not a prompt). Although I think Punisher would be a bit more accurate, since his backstory was similar. I will say though his was a lot more interesting, where his family was caught in the crossfire of a Mafia gang war, which gave him a more focused group of people to antagonize.

don't be afraid to drop it.

 

Or, make a theme and setting before the character, so you at least have something to fall back on.

So that's my tip really. THINK about not just "a solution" but come up with "all possible solutions" for this dilemma, and don't be afraid to drop ideas you think are bad.

That really only depends on how you implement the guide. Also if you already have a intention for where your going with the story and the characters from the help of having a Theme and Setting you made prior, motives get a lot easier. Just a suggestion.

[spoiler: 4. Quirks]

I don't think it's enough to say "throw in a quirk!" Instead imagine it as WHY do they have this quirk.

 

I think it’s important to say why in everything. You can delve into it as much as you want, but you should probably make sure it fits with your intended theme and setting. Also Quirks are typically more influenced by your Themes, Setting, and Personality, so maybe make those first before you just “throw in a quirk!”

She's a normal student, so why did she take up painting? When she was little she stared at a solar eclipse and it scarred her eyes.

 

Sounds like a interesting clumsy sort of character character. Does she get super powers?

 

The doctors were able to save her vision, but for those six months she couldn't see a thing. She doesn't ever want anything to be forgotten so by putting it onto paper it kinda makes it more important. That big tree in the park is being cut down tomorrow, but this painting of the tree will still be there long after it's gone.

 

You should watch the first episode of “Gamers!” Sometimes those kind of motivations can get a bit ham-fisted and unrealistic. For example, I like art and drawing, for no other particular reason other than I just so happen to like art and drawing. I don’t have this crazy motivation, but that in itself is interesting. I don’t have a motive for what I do, so without anyone to look up to I feel aimless and depressed. If this was a story, I would find some characters that help me find a motivation, but this isn’t a story, so I’ll probably continue wallowing for a couple more years.

[spoiler: 5. Appearance]
I kinda don't like to pigeon-hold my characters into a certain exact way that they look. I imagine them as just generic ordinary unassuming people, and I base their lives and their scenarios off of that. "What would a normal person living in a major city do in this situation?" or "what type of situation and past events would cause them to be a happy upbeat girl? What would make them a womanizing young man?" and so on.

 

You don’t (I even mentioned having a couple different looks so nothing gets old). However, this is more of an Art medium thing, because animation and/or character design are easier with less outfits.

For the longest time, I didn't described anyone in my fanfic other than gender and how tall they were. The main reason was, nothing changes depending on what they wear or what they look like.

 

Except that appearance descriptions can tell you a lot about the character? More raggedy clothes can imply that he/she is poor without having them have to say it. Show, don’t tell right?

If my character is a happy and upbeat girl, it doesn't matter if she has brown hair with brown eyes or blonde hair with blue eyes. She'd still be happy and upbeat regardless.

 

Unless it’s a more artistic medium. It doesn’t matter but you have to at least have a hair color.

I had a character that was described as the most beautiful woman in the world... and I didn't physically describe her at all. The importance was placed on how she made the other characters feel instead of what she physically looked like.

 

That seems rather dull, but if people were fine with that I guess it would be interesting.

To sum it up, appearance is not that important.

 

You really need to watch anime, and get this whole “show don’t tell” thing up your alley, because Appearance is a lot more important than NAMES.

Emma Watson played Hermione Granger for about 8 years and she's white. Noma Dumezweni played Hermione Granger in The Cursed Child and she's black.

 

And Kid Flash is a redhead but is depicted as Black. Ethnicity does not = appearance, but the stereotypes themselves matter because it’s a part of them, and simply ignoring those factors will feel very awkward.

[spoiler: 6. NOW YOU CAN DO THE NAME]
I kinda answered this on top so I won't do it again. I could instead give my process for creating a character but it's probably much more boring than yours.

a) I begin with a generic kinda plain character and just apply all the generic labels.

As stated earlier, I believe there's three types of personalities.

How they are with strangers, how they are with friends, and how they are in private.

Because we, the audience, are technically strangers to this person all we see of them are the quick labels when we first meet them.

 

The 3 Personalities thing is fine, but all of those factors have to have reasons why they have them, which can be placed in morals, motives, and quirks. If it was multiple personality disorder or something more extensive and plot relevant, probably just put it in the Personality section.

b) As we become "friends" with the character, more quirks and more of their personality comes through. Their personality is developed as I write, usually not too much beforehand, and again it's usually developed in a "situation" type of way. If I have an end goal already set up (and I do, it's the generic labels I put when I first started) my next step is to find out how they got to that position and set it up as their history.

 

You mean your characters are always likable? That seems limited. Anyway you seem to be more spontaneous, like writing your characters as you go. THAT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA. Sword Art Online was done this way. (I will source if you like), and we all know that the quality on that isn’t what we call spectacular. In fact, there was a abridged that did it better than the original, which doesn’t happen too often.

c) As the story continues we get to their "private" life and have more intimate moments with the character. They're pushed to the limits of what we thought they could do. We see what really makes them tick, what their morals and motivations are, and ultimately what it would take for them to betray either of them. As the situation in the story escalates, they grow and change and evolve.

 

Still seems pretty limited. There are tons of ways of ordering your story and plot, but tbh, showing the stereotypes and then the more depthful stuff like personality and morals of the character isn’t all that revolutionary (because that’s what you’re doing). You should watch My Hero Academia, they do something like this.

 

My problem is that sure, ordering it that way is all fine and good, but MAKING STUFF UP AS YOU GO is NEVER a good idea. There’s this thing called a brain storm, and you basically skip it. If this is your writing style, then I will ask you to consider changing it up. Tbh I hope I’m wrong that you actually do this, and that this is a misunderstanding. I notice you say “I come up with a couple basic traits” but that’s not how you character.

 

Although if it works for you, and you get a bunch of rewards, go for it.

To sum up my critique of this guide:

Your character creation guide is boring, underdeveloped, and generic. It gives some okay ideas, but doesn't go far enough in some points and it just namedrops animes like I'm supposed to know who they are. It's a bad guide and I'm pretty certain nobody reading it going to come out of it having a better understanding of their character.

 

“I could instead give my process for creating a character but it's probably much more boring than yours.” Literally a paragraph ago. Underdeveloped? The point of posting it was to get constructive criticism, not a “why?” or “that’s not how I do it” every paragraph. As for generic, kinda the point. It’s supposed to be adaptable to whatever you're writing, so I’ll take that as a compliment.

 

Hope this addresses most of your of your concerns, but it's a long read so do what you will. This was long so if there was anywhere I got a bit annoyed just ignore it if it feels personal.

 

MewMew anything constructive helps. This is only a Rough Draft of an ordered process, so go nuts if you think it'll help. Tbh I just want to find the "right" or "best" way of doing this.

[MewMew3]

Oh right, I can use spoilers! YAY!

 

I will describe my principles, then use my three central characters as examples, as I have thoroughly developed them over the years, so they (hopefully) make instructive examples, since examples are good chances to illustrate a point. This is also a chance to tweak my characters and instruct myself. I develop my characters through no real order as they "grow" within me spontaneously, but I do put certain principles above others. The order is not set in stone, especially not for the first and second principles, but this is the general way I try to follow these days.

 

Notice how I won't mention Yugioh a single time despite them technically being Yugioh characters. Mr. Plinkett devised a little test for characters when reviewing Star Wars Episode I: describe a character without mentioning how they look like, what do they dress, their job, or anything related to Star Wars. If a character is strong and well-done (like Han Solo or C3-PO), then you should describe them thoroughly. If a character is weak (like Qui-Gon Jinn or Padme) then describing them will be hard as there will be little substance to grasp. I tried to follow this test as best I can.

 

[spoiler=The most important principle is the character's "heart": the fundamental role(s) they play in the story.] This can include a characters fundamental nature, "type", or an established archetype, or even creating a new "archetype" of your own. If you establish strong roots, the rest of the tree will grow strong: more superficial things like motivation, personality traits, wants, needs, everything else the books mention, will come out a lot easier. In my experience, such roots usually come from a strong idea, emotion, or impression. Then it becomes my task to think about said idea for a long time. A root can be used to construct a plot, setting, or theme in the story, not necessarily a character. My depression created Xiaoyi, but I can use my depression to develop a setting or story. What matters is that I fully explore the idea, like depression, and use that to build a story or character in a very specific way to convey my ideas. This latter skill of being an "architect" comes in part from having a sense of proportion that you can only get through experience. I still get the architecture to be not so ideal.    

 

So what is the fundamental nature of Xiaoyi, Maya, and Sophia, who are so important together I treat all three at once? At bottom, they are three distinct forms of a supreme and evil intelligence. It's hard to describe what that exactly is; the closest I can come up with is a creative, dangerous, and subversive philosophy, or way of living, that seeks to destroy every facet of the modern world we live in to replace it with something new.   

 

Xiaoyi's "archetype" is Satan. The role she plays can be likened to Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust, Satan in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger, or Palpatine in George Lucas' Star Wars. She is the supreme negator, whose skepticism is so extreme she destroys the foundations of any character, value, or idea. To call her a nihilist is false, as even nihilism can be negated. Spiritually, she is a black hole, or a bottomless black pit, a sound metaphor for my unhappiness and depression at its lowest points, and so is the Big Bad or Dark Lord of my entire series. Ironically, all her destroying functions like a forrest fire, giving the space for new creations to emerge, but creating is something she cannot do. Her dark powers and talents are immense, seemingly limitless, but they do have a glass ceiling. Xiaoyi reached her maximum potential very early but can never grow and change as a person or in her powers because 1. she is incapable, and 2. she arrogantly doesn't bother to. Who would dare challenge her? She curb stomps anyone who does. If you can compete with her, she will struggle lasting for a long time, and gracelessly too.

 

Maya's "archetype" is Lucifer, a Prometheus-like figure who creates light. The fundamental themes in Maya's life are darkness and heroism. She has similar dark and subversive impulses as Xiaoyi does, but it goes alongside the defending of deeply held convictions; it helps her to do immense creative feats, that often go with great struggle. Her real life equivalents are Milton, Beethoven, and Nietzsche. In fiction, she is like Darth Vader from Star Wars, Juliette from Sade's novel of the same name, and even BoJack Horseman. Her good and evil are inseparably bound, and so always dance together. Maya is me who I try to be every day. She is like a corked volcano, burning with strong impulses, ideas, and emotions, always in a state of readiness, yet takes great pains to restrain herself. Or the loftier simile, Lucifer as an overflowing fountain of light. Over time she learned to redirect her passions to sublimate them into positive things, as opposed to suppressing them.   

 

Sophia's "archetype" is Sophia, the deity representing wisdom. - I will admit I still have trouble with Sophia's character because it is hard for me to see past Xiaoyi and Maya. - As of now her potential is unrealized, as a buried seed waiting to sprout. She has made it her goal in life to try to enlighten and assist humankind, a selfless person, as opposed to the profoundly selfish Xiaoyi and Maya. Yet though selfless to a fault, she has some concern over the self; she likes to tinker with little projects and missions, go exploring to odd places, growing her own garden, and so forth. She is at heart a miniaturist as opposed to the grandiose schemes of Xiaoyi and Maya. Maya in particular burdens her with being a successor of sorts and to defeat Xiaoyi, and while Sophia does fulfill that obligation out of selflessness, once she fulfills that mission she takes charge of her life for good; she casts away Maya's expectations and lives freely. Her real life counterparts are Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, and a woman I know. Her best fictional counterpart is Luke Skywalker.

 

[spoiler=Second principle, is the character's motives and struggles that, in turn, mold the plot of the entire story, or at least a character's arc.] The character's struggles should be deeply related to their character and the plot should, of course, be built around the struggle. Interest in the character's struggles, lives, and persons, is usually the number one reason anyone reads a book or watches a movie in the first place. So the first two principles MUST be compelling, or at least meaningful to the author. I have tried to do both. Writers often advise you to write what you know, to base a characters' struggles on your own. But you don't have to necessarily do this. What you should do, however, is know how to lengthen and deepen the struggle in proportion to story itself. Ideally (at leas to me) it should truly test a character, force her to change and grow as a person, or perish. And you, the author, must undergo a similar struggle and your readers must struggle too.

 

If the reader refuses to undergo such a struggle, they won't be able to fully appreciate the story. We are often told, as authors, that we must bend over backwards for our readers; we must make a protagonist relatable to the average reader, write clearly and simply, make a plot easy to follow, make a relatable antagonist, and so forth. Most of this advice is sound... to a point. There is a certain line you have to draw, when you will have to challenge your reader and make them uncomfortable, scared, contemptuous, even confused or bored at times, forcing them to do some work on their own. My massive TL;DR right now is such a test. The more you read and ponder, the more you learn. 

 

Palpatine, as an example, wants to destroy the Jedi, turn the Republic into an Empire, and rule the galaxy with Darth Vader for 10,000 years. He is the villain we're supposed to hate, but he, by far, goes through the greatest struggle in all the Star Wars movies. He has to manipulate countless political parties, hide his true nature from the Jedi, orchestrate a war by playing from both sides, and turn Anakin to the Dark Side. So naturally the Star Wars Prequels are molded to be a space opera on an epic scale to match such grandiose ambitions. And naturally Palpatine will fight against rivals who push him to his very limits. He has to use all his manipulation to hide from Yoda, and then use all his strength to defeat him in a duel. His seduction of Anakin to the dark side can, again, be seen as a mighty struggle where he discovers all of a person's life, history, and trauma, then exploits them.    

 

Xiaoyi's goal is to wipe out the entire human race, make homo sapiens extinct, while she rises above the human condition into a higher being. Her reasons why are odd. She is not especially angry or hateful to humankind, at least not in her conscious mind, but feels contempt towards human beings, as an elephant may feel over a fly. She even refers to people as humans, as if she wasn't human herself. According to her, her matter-of-fact desire to drive a species into extinction is natural and lawful, as a river flows from the mountain into the ocean or the laws of gravity. Humankind, with its laziness, obesity, enslavement to its own technology, threat of nuclear war, and destruction of the environment, as reached its zenith, and cannot go any higher, so it peters out into a toxic carcass and slowly declines. Thus Xiaoyi comes to take out the trash. 

 

She has no internal struggle, so her entire struggle is external. She must come up with a plan, and make it come through; to that end she needs to ensnare a powerful human being to use as her companion and ace card, so this is where Maya comes in. Maya's goal is to save humankind from eminent destruction and pave the way for its elevation into higher beings, partly by liberating the oppressed on a global scale and crushing our global hegemony, a task she is willing to do by any means necessary. But Xiaoyi wants to corrupt Maya, to prove her point correct, and make Maya her slave. They enter a tricky partnership where Maya makes a deal with the Devil and Xiaoyi becomes a Svengali figure. Maya's own motives stem from a very abusive childhood and her fair share of discrimination, yet also genuine feelings of justice and loyalty. Xiaoyi tries to destroy Maya's ideals and convince her they are a scam by revealing the ugliest parts of her nature. Maya fights back with her own plans to subvert Xiaoyi's scheme, secretly preparing Sophia to one day challenge Xiaoyi and win, and by proving her heroic values to be right.    

 

So what about Sophia's struggle, as she is caught as a pinball between the two titans? Sophia's struggle is to simply realize herself as an independent human being, as she has to deal Maya's enormous pressure, to fulfill a crushing responsibility no woman in her early twenties can handle well, and overcome her issues of self-effacement. Her task is to take the best skills and beliefs of Maya and Xiaoyi, while overcoming the bad, in essence turning darkness into light, and overcoming two grand but deeply problematic characters.

 

[spoiler="Third principle, personality traits, including little quirks and relatable aspects."] This is especially important if your characters are superhuman; to bring them down to earth and make them vulnerable to the faults and frustrations normal humans endure. In my case, it helps to draw inspiration from real life people, especially great people, and especially the nuances, inconsistencies, and weaknesses of their characters. The character BoJack Horseman is a good example of how someone can be very intelligent and thoughtful, yet also a reckless, irresponsible mess of a person. Endeavoring to subvert popular stereotypes and expectations are another good way to build a character with a uniqye personality. BoJack is a Hollywood celebrity with quite a lot of wealth and drugs, but his personality is much closer to Lord Byron than Paris Hilton. And you can build a character from satire, basing their personality on a hypocrisy or fatal flaw, done to prove a point. With BoJack? Well, Hollywood is very ugly and narcissistic, and so we have a profoundly entitled narcissistic character who is also intelligent and fully aware of his doomed condition. 

 

All my three women are essentially extroverts; they are doers as well as thinkers and artists, to contrast the naval-gazing philosopher and self-absorbed artist. They like getting out into the world to rock the boat to get attention or to make a point, and get into trouble. They enjoy interacting with people, befriending them, and studying them to see what makes them tick; love to speak to people in conversation yet soft-spoken, loving to listen. And most importantly, they love to battle and game, to overcome a difficult challenge. But they are not an extrovert stereotype, and defeat the extrovert/introvert cliches. They are acutely sensitive to their surroundings and think deeply with a calculating mind, and are especially reflexive of their own thoughts and self-aware.           

 

Yet their individual personalities are diverse, Xiaoyi has a phlegmatic and nonchalant demeanor, feigning elegance, grace, and innocence to hide her savage nature. She is also immature, at times revealing a child's enthusiasm and a childlike lack of empathy for more mature human experiences. With that comes childish quirks like randomly singing songs and dancing; and she commits evil acts as a naughty child does mischief, and with it she feels gleeful joy and excitement. She likes sheep and clowns, and oddly enough enjoys animals, who are easily drawn to her, but she sees them as pets and has no true attachment to them. She is also very petty. Xiaoyi may be a grand schemer and master manipulator, but she is blind to the obvious and day-to-day. She wears simple white dresses since she can barely dress herself, cannot use a fork and knife to eat, nor can she drive a car or ride a bicycle. Her biggest weakness by far is her Pride.   

 

Maya is choleric and imperious, her character based on her darkness and heroism. Her abusive childhood molded her to be distrusting and, at worst, paranoid, seeing the world as a dangerous place. Even worse, she has an inferiority complex, never feeling good enough no matter what she does. Some abused children, such as I, retreated into a shell as a turtle. Maya put prickly spines on her back as the hedgehog, mastering satire and black humor into an art, and learned how to be a devious and powerful warrior. But such finesse come at a price; Maya has great trouble forming an intimate bond with people. She cannot keep a relationship, so anything beyond a one-night stand sooner or later sours into her abusing the other person. Even sadder, Maya purposefully avoids love because she feels she can never deserve it. Her attractions to people are intense but fleeting; she tends to be physically attracted to men and romantically attracted to women. As for the heroism, she is indeed generous and forgiving, and never asks of other people to do things she would not or could not do herself. She includes herself in a large circle of people; most of them are only tools for her to use, but the very few people she does care about she fights for and defends with a fierce loyalty. Her usual demeanor is to be breezy and funny yet dangerous and powerful. As with Xiaoyi, she has the Pride of Lucifer, her Error. She is obsessed with power, struggle, and evolution, and the various techniques used to obtain or display such things.

 

Sophia's personality is rather different, as she is a melancholic and quiet person. She is a kind, polite, and considerate person, as opposed to Xiaoyi's feigned politeness, but has a diffident and self-effacing aspect to her. She is often afflicted by feelings of sadness and, at worst, despair, rarely over any specific thing but rather as a constant malaise that darkens her view of the world, a background noise she has to shake off. She is also a sentimental and romantic person, and thus is idealistic in love and in the wider world, for better and worse. She deals with people and with the wider world in an adroit way, with little aggression or manipulation, and genuinely has other people's best interests at heart. Yet before Sophia learns to fully stand up for herself she is a drifter, drifting from place to place, social group to social group, from principle to principle. She holds great malice, wrath, and power, as do Xiaoyi and Maya, but she restrains it as most she could at all costs, fearful of losing control and hurting the people around her, and runs away from her true nature and her problems rather than dealing with them head on.      

 

All three women were born in mid-December, born under the so-called 13th zodiac sign: Ophiuchus. I usually care little of astrology, and have cared little for it since high school, but I do notice astrology's many fallacies (even by astrological standards) and how people use zodiac cliches for characters. So I take a different route in this matter, and I wish to emphasize the number 13 throughout my work as its my favorite number.

 

[spoiler=Fourth principle, appearance.] I usually like to think of how appearance compliments a characters role(s) and personality, or betrays it in an ironic way. The devious Xiaoyi looks pretty but really isn't. The strong-willed Maya has a strong body. Mathias is a large-hearted man who lives life to the fullest, thus with a large body and a large stomach. The caricature of Napoleon as the Little Emperor makes a contrast over how such a small person can wield such huge power. And so forth. 

 

Xiaoyi is only 5'3''; her pale skin, small hands and feet, and large head, give her a doll-like appearance. She moves quietly in little movements, yet her flesh is hot to the touch. She wears heavy makeup, making her face look painted, with shining dark eyes, a full face, and thin but wide red lips, and small pearly teeth. But her face and body are false. Gernand cut, burned, torn, and pricked Xiaoyi's flesh over many years; her once long and shining dark hair reduced to a few short wisps, most of her teeth pulled out, her face riddled with pits from needles, and her body covered with scars. 

 

Maya is 5'6'', with a powerful build and dark skin. Her palms are broad and fingers long, making her hands look like spiders. She has a broad forehead, a square jaw, and full cheeks, her dark eyes fiery and piercing, her black hair in thick, snake-like curls. She moves in a quick, purposeful, and strong way, her flesh hot to the touch.

 

Sophia is 5'4'', of average constitution. Her palms are narrow and her fingers long and thin, giving her "witches' hands", her soles and toes shaped in a similar way. She has a broad forehead and full cheeks, but her face molds into a gentle oval. Her dark eyes are bright and easily betray her emotions, her hair dark red, which she often likes to style in a single braid.

       

[spoiler="Fifth principle, names."] Same principles as with appearances.

 

Xiaoyi is a rare name, usually for boys; it means inspiring. The name can be interpreted ironically or straightforward regarding Xiaoyi's character.

 

Maya's true name, Marina, is a feminine form of Marinus, meaning sailor or from the sea. The prefix "mar" alludes to the war god Mars, which also applies to other such names as Marcus or Martin. Maya means illusion in hindu and water in Hebrew, in Slavic countries the name, spelled "Maja", is a nickname for Maria, and the Latin "Maia" is named after the Roman goddess of spring, where the month May comes. The last meaning is ironic as Maya was born in December. 

 

Sophia's name means wisdom, and its meaning is straightforward regarding Sophia's character.

 

[MewMew3]

Also, lol, Yugi Moto

 

If you snobbishly think Yugioh is so stupid and gay then why are you even a member of a Yugioh forum? I don't get people, in general, who play the Yugioh card game but have only contempt for the story and the characters behind it. If you just want to play a card game, just play Magic.