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There are a lot of people out there asking for help on character development, personalities, interaction with other characters, and the dreaded sue. In this thread I hope to help people learn how to create a good character, expand on them, and make them believable. I defiantly ask for other writers to help me expand on this guide and to criticize me if I give any information that might mislead someone in need. I’m a bit of a bias jerk so I’m writing this on what’s helped me along and a lot of people who have read my character information say that my characters seem real and original, yeah that made me sound like a jerk, but I’m just saying. :3

Step 1, the Appearance

In your writing you are God, the Fates, or any sort of divine being(s) that is said to control our lives. You create men and women from clay and give them a purpose that fits them and adds to their world. When you create the ugly, lumpy, blob monster that is the beginning of your character you have to think about something… What do they look like? Knowing how your character looks and moves is a way of understanding your character’s personality. Try to envision them, see them doing their daily routine, imagine them doing what they do best. Sketch them if you want to, I do that because I feel it helps me.

I’m going to use an example from my story, a character I have dwelled on for almost a year, trying to make him perfect. His name is James Wong, one of the major antagonists of my story. Wong is a westernized version of the Yellow Peril, where way back when people feared that immigrants from Asia would take over. He is tall, menacing, and feline like. His mouth is a permanent scowl with flashing, hawk like eyes. His hair is clean cut and neat with a long Fu-Manchu moustache and matching beard. Despite the cliché look of the Evil Asian he wears a dark, Victorian styled, gentlemen’s suit.

Wong is a threatening figure whom looms over most people like a dark shadow ready to strike. His sly and cunning build shows that he is not a man who just thinks with muscle but also with his brains. His scowl shows that he is not a man who has seen happiness unless it was something cruel. He looks well groomed which shows that he is very tidy and clean; probably obsessed with the way others perceive him. As you can hopefully see a character’s appearance can give a reflection to their personality.

Step 2, the Goal

I think it is common to think of a character’s goal before we think of their past or future. What are they aiming for in the story? Who is opposing them? What can this person do to stop the character from reaching his goal? What can the character do to stop this opposing force? How does he plan to carry out this goal? Can he fulfill it on his own or does he need help? Who can help them?

The goal is the most important part of the character. Without a goal the character is pointless. Every character must have a goal. This goal will help the character progress and move the story along and might even lead you to discovering something about the character you didn’t even know!

I’m going back to my example. Wong’s goal is to take vengeance of Europe. In the past the English enslaved him and he automatically associated any white person as someone against him. He was humiliated and was basically pissed at the entire world. He joined a secret militant/terrorist organization and eventually became leader. He started using this organization as a weapon to use to enslave and kill off the White Man. Wong’s goal is to make everyone feel as he felt all those years ago and wants to crush everyone’s spirit because of his massive ego. He’s basically the hidden Hitler in charge of a secret empire.

Step 3, Strengths and Weaknesses

Every character has a strong point about them. They may possess a special item or a skill that gives them an advantage in certain situations. You don’t want a weak character that can’t do anything in a situation but you don’t want an overly powerful character to the point where they are almost godlike. The readers like someone they can root for, or if it is in the author’s intentions, hate, but you don’t want a character that is hated because they are so powerful.

Flaws are important, but like strengths, you don’t want too many of them. If you make the character’s life suck and he bitches about it all the time then your character is going to be labeled as angst filled emo that no one but the lowest dregs of human society can relate to. You want to try to aim for the middle where a character will be liked or accepted.

Strengths can be characterized by heroism, strong will, or the need to help others. Flaws or weaknesses can be characterized by disabilities, pride, or hatred. Those are just some examples; there are a lot more that can be used.

Also if you’re writing science fiction or fantasy strengths and weaknesses could be strength in fighting, magical skills, curses, power, or magical items that the user possesses.

Back to my example of Wong, Wong is basically his worst enemy when it comes to strengths and weaknesses. He has a very strong will and will go through almost anything to reach his genocidal goal. His intelligence and skill at fighting give him a great advantage over his enemies but is flawed from his obvious narcissism, his pride, thinking that he is always right, and disregarding the people’s feelings around him. He also keeps a variety of magical items on him such as the Elixir of Life, which makes him immortal. (I’m a Science Fantasy writer.)

Step 4, What has passed and what is to come

What is your character’s past? Where did they come from and how were they brought up? Did they live comfortably or did their life suck? What were the morals they were brought up with? Who raised them? If you know how your character was brought up that will help you understand where they’re coming from in terms of personality.

When you’re thinking up a characters future you can approach it in two ways: One, you could think of the future as the character (After I fulfill my goals, what am I going to do?) or two, think of it as the writer who’s writing the story line.

When I wrote Wong I always knew he was going to be an arrogant, murdering a*****e but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know why he immortal or how he got to a seat of such power. I began to brainstorm and I figured that he was born long ago in ancient China by a prostitute and a merchant. The merchant left the prostitute and Wong was born. He never learned right from wrong because his mother soon died and he was left to live on his own. It was the whole world against him and he had to survive. He became a wanted petty thief and fled to a Buddhist temple. He learned combat from the monks and was learning peace. Then a warlord attacked the temple and ruined Wong’s perfect life. Before he escaped the head monk gave him the recipe for the elixir of life. Wong escaped and watched the temple burn to the ground. He got the mindset of “how dare anyone step in and ruin my world! This is my world and I will live in it as I please! No one will stop me because no one can!” You know the rest from a previous example. He’s a man who rose from a street urchin to the most feared man in the world.

Wong doesn’t know what he’ll do once he gets to a point where he can reach his goal of destroying the white race. He hasn’t decided whether he’ll just kill them all off or enslave them to humiliate them. I know that he’ll most likely do both but I want the character to be uncertain. He’ll decide once he gets there and all the battles are won.

Step 5, the Personality

Okay so we know what the character looks like, his past, his strengths and weaknesses, their goal, and what they hope to do after they fulfill their goal. With all this information do you know how your character thinks? Have you got this character in your conscience that it’s almost like you know them as a person? I hope you do from reading this or else I just wasted twenty minutes of my life.

Understanding how your character thinks and reacts to situations is how you know how he’ll react with others and how he’ll react to the situations thrown at him. Will he be outraged that what has just happen will interfere with goals? Will someone or something remind him of something from his past? How is he going to tackle this person or event? Personality is what drives the character, their goal is what they’re aiming for, their strengths is what will help them on the way, their weaknesses hold them back, and their past will help you, the writer, to the character’s future.

I have a feeling people will say this is crappy but I just want to help! Feel free to add to it or criticize me, as long as it is in a gentle and civil manner. Hopefully you read the whole thing before you go for my throat.

Thanks and I hope it helped!

stares, nods, clicks away.
I will come back to this later...I haven't tooken my ADD meds 2day SO...
JK i don't have ADD

I would like to point out something about strengths and weaknesses:

A lot of people tend to treat strengths and weaknesses as a grocery list, and this usually results in contradictions. Strengths, and particularly weaknesses, should instead be treated as logical consequences of the character's past. Past, strengths and weaknesses are one whole, not three separate pieces, and thus should be treated as a whole. It requires you to think, of course, but it also results in more believable characters.

A child whose family smothered them and treated them with kid-gloves, but had a relatively humble upbringing in an isolated, rural area that stresses family values and community is going to stumble out into the world naive, generous overly trusting and likely very open (unless their parents also bred xenophobia) as opposed to "street-smart and quick witted, but also has the tendency to be rude and a little selfish."

Hi there - I just thought I'd note here that contradictions in a character's personality is by no means a bad thing; many people are full of contradictions... it helps to create that internal conflict which is interesting.

Again, this seems to be a very good guide. I agree with others, yes your character has a goal. Should have a goal, should strive to complete said goal. However, he should run into obstacles, should feel like his goal is unreachable, stood think at one point that maybe his genocidal goal is too much and wonder at what he's doing. Or maybe he's got baby steps to reaching said goal .... not everything is achieved immediately.

Your characters past is important. It should be revealed throughout the story. With my main character nobody would know exactly what she's done that is so terrible until the very end of the story, where my protagonists actually can be seen as the antagonist. My real antagonist only has a select few chapters where they are important. Little token clues, the past, all together, cannot be said is gone forever. It's here, it's reality, and it shapes who your character is today.

Otherwise, I found your guide useful. Much fun to read.

its good to think about your characters for ages before u start th actual story