What is your basis when creating a character?

[IceBrand]

How do you normally keep tab of a character and make sure everything is in order? For me I always keep this simple list when making a character:

Name

Age

Sex

Quick Bio

Likes

Dislikes

How relevant will this character be?

Importance to plot

Importance to arc(s)

How well is this?

[Thor Odinson]

idk, whatever get me inspired

sometimes i start doodling and characters happen

other times i think of characters and then design to them

Like hell sometimes I can go upwards of 20-30 iterations of a design before settling on something for the time being

and then do that repeatedly over the course of 5 years

I take character design very seriously

Edited July 5, 2015 by Thor Odinson

[IceBrand]

idk, whatever get me inspired

sometimes i start doodling and characters happen

other times i think of characters and then design to them

Like hell sometimes I can go upwards of 20-30 iterations of a design before settling on something for the time being

and then do that repeatedly over the course of 5 years

I take character design very seriously

20-30!!?? Wow. I usually do around 10 before I stop( then again my designs are pretty bland). I usually get my inspiration from music. Listen to certain songs gives me a design for characters.( listening to techno gives me a sc fi design. Country a more western look for settings and characters.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Noble Rapier

[Thor Odinson]

20-30!!?? Wow. I usually do around 10 before I stop( then again my designs are pretty bland). I usually get my inspiration from music. Listen to certain songs gives me a design for characters.( listening to techno gives me a sc fi design. Country a more western look for settings and characters.

At least it's not in one sitting

I just draw a shitton of iterations until I get it right I'm really anal about it

[IceBrand]

At least it's not in one sitting

I just draw a shitton of iterations until I get it right I'm really anal about it

Well at least you know there as perfect as you want them. I usually feel bad when I finish a design and start all over again.

[Anacybele]

It depends on what kind of character I'm creating, honestly. For FE, I start with a class and name (sometimes this gets changed later though) and go from there, coming up with the design and personality and all next.

For something like Zelda, I start with a race and name and go from there (and again, sometimes the name changes later).

For anything else... Well, it kinda goes back to race/species and what they do. Like, I could decide that I want to create a horse character that pulls a wagon. Then I work my way from there.

[IceBrand]

It depends on what kind of character I'm creating, honestly. For FE, I start with a class and name (sometimes this gets changed later though) and go from there, coming up with the design and personality and all next.

For something like Zelda, I start with a race and name and go from there (and again, sometimes the name changes later).

For anything else... Well, it kinda goes back to race/species and what they do. Like, I could decide that I want to create a horse character that pulls a wagon. Then I work my way from there.

When you create a character, do you normally match their personality with their design?

[Knight]

For me, when I create a character, I usually get inspired with a design, role or personality. I think "I want my character to be this role/design/personality, what role/design/personality would work best with what I want? For example, in my current novel, I wanted a witch as a secondary character to the main character, so I thought that she should be about the same age, and I thought of how I wanted her to look. Then I decided that I want this character to be opposite in personality with the main character, the protagonist is timid, uptight and passive, so I decided she should be confrontational, free-spirited and assertive. I must like all three, the personality, role and design of a character, before I use them, otherwise it's back to the drawing board.

This isn't always the case, however. Sometimes in a story, I force myself into a corner where a certain character must exist for the sake of the plot. In those cases, I leave them be until I can find traits and ideas I like so I can inject them into them. Sometimes characters I originally hated become some of my favourites. I do a lot of planning before writing, it's important that you have a complete outline first with all the necessary characters and plot points.

A character's personality doesn't always have to match their design, you can do the opposite for a bit of irony or to betray the reader's expectations. It's a great trope that can be used to advance the plot, or use it for comedy, or both.

I think a bio/history of the character should be the last thing to think of for the character unless it's crucial for the plot. A lot of writers make the mistake that creating a cool or complex origin story makes the character cool or complex, but actions always speak louder than words.

My best advice, find inspiration, analyze your favourite characters, tear them down to their parts and pick out of each of them what specifically makes them some of your favourite characters. Don't necessarily cut & paste different things from your favourite characters, but create your own with the knowledge that you've gathered. Perhaps even there's an understated aspect of one character you like that you would like to be a main part of your original character.

When you fall in love with your character, for whatever reason, that's usually a good sign. (and no, I don't mean by waifuing or husbandoing them.)

I should note that this is only advice for a written character, I don't know too much about drawing characters. I wish I could draw my characters... :(

Edited July 5, 2015 by Knight

[Happiest]

For me, it depends. Generally I start with a personality. Then, with the design, and the name is generally the last thing. But sometimes I start with the design, then the personality, etc. I like to make the designs match their personalities, unless when I want an unexpected character, like someone who looks very smart and calm, but it's actually nervous and hot-headed.

I like to have a big variety of different characters to make the story vivid and attractive.

At least that's what I've been doing with the characters from my FE game. I know it's very simple, but a small beginning is always better than no beginning at all.

[Dual Dragons]

I usually start with traits but how I put the traits on the character differ.

1) Hotchpotch of traits that I figure out how to connect

2) A single trait that I then "expand" that affects other traits or aspects of life

3) In cases where historical events matter, there's a "before" that is mentioned and the story I'm writing is the character formed "after" the event has happened

I keep reworking on the traits and how the character expresses the traits constantly. I'm that picky over traits.

The rest come to me in time. I would probably fill out what you (the OP) have on the list.

[Anacybele]

When you create a character, do you normally match their personality with their design?

Well yeah. It wouldn't make sense not to do that.

[Shin]

I pick a theme I want to explore, whether it be manifested in a trait or an ambition of the character. The rest of the details usually follow after that.

[Kon]

I tend to create personalities for characters before anything else, though I've come up with designs before fleshing out the personality. Other times I've come up with a scenario I like and try to create characters to act out the scenario if the characters I have already don't fit.

And then I have some characters that I've been developing for almost a decade that I've never even once managed to write a story for orz

[ghast]

honestly, a lot of characters i come up with have like a one dimensional trait that defines them. Like X is the funny guy. Y is the depressed guy. And as the story develops, they develop as well and become deeper chars. A lot of my character's appearances are based off my real life friends or experiences. Basing a character's personality off someone/ something you have first hand experience with makes them a lot more believable, or at least that's how my brain werks

that or sometimes i just get wasted and improvise new characters out my butt

[Melodi]

Oftentimes my characters get their start from a drawing, and then grow from there because I end up having to develop their personality as I draw them more. My favorite and preferred method of fleshing out characters is trying to imagine them doing really mundane tasks (for example: How would X character dance? How would X character hold their glass while drinking? What about a tea cup or mug? How does X character sit in chairs? How do they display boredom? etc), which gives rise to their personality and those little things about them that make them more real. All the basic info and whatnot happens somewhere along the line as notes in my sketchbooks too but it happens more as an along the way piece of the puzzle rather than the trip itself? Idk that's just how I do things.

[Sunwoo]

A good portion of my characters are inspired by my friends or other people I know. My trick to developing characters is that I don't try to develop them all in one go. I try to imagine how they would react to various scenarios, and if I find a reoccurring element in how they act I'll think about why that element exists and what started it. It's also a good exercise in really thinking about why your characters react in a certain way and how they react. Sometimes, I'll focus in on different aspects of my friends' personalities and build their character around that trait so I can have multiple characters based on the same person who are still very different from one another.

There are also times when a character's personality just shifts over time because you change and how you view a certain trait will also change. One of my original characters started off as a very non-serious and hyperactive person who was intellectually smart and focused, but often lacked common sense and was a bit of a nuisance to the people around him. Over time, I focused in on his "intellectually smart and focused, but lacks common sense" characteristic and dropped the part where he was a bother to people, so now he's a guy who takes his studies very seriously and gets along with people well enough, but is seriously lacking in common sense and forgets about everything around him when he's studying.

Something about characterization that I find other people do at times is that I really hate "shallow" reasons that are given for what a character likes and dislikes. For example, if someone says that their character "dislikes liars", that's a bit of a no duh, doesn't everyone? Why is this dislike strong for this character as opposed to your other ones? If a "generic" dislike such as that is going to be on a character's "dislike" list, there had better be a good reason for it.

One of my OCs for my Etrian Odyssey 4 guild is a person whose two biggest dislikes are: "being told he's incapable of doing something" and "himself". That sounds generic, right? The reason these two things are listed as his dislikes as opposed to being on anyone else's list is because both of those things had drastically shaped his character. Because people tell him he doesn't have what it takes to do something, he will do things he does not necessarily have passion for just to prove people wrong in a bit of an immature way of showing them up. However, he sometimes has to compromise his own beliefs in order to do so and along the way he realizes that he's only doing these things not for himself but to earn the approval of other people. He also knows that he will never be the person that society expects him to be, and he hates himself for it. In his background, two generic dislikes are suddenly made less generic.

Characters shouldn't be at all simple, because a believable character is like a real person and real people aren't that simple either. I don't try to create them all at once or describe their personalities and backstories in a simple paragraph because in real life we don't know everything about a new person all at once, and we can't really describe ourselves using one simple sentence or even a paragraph list of descriptions. They should have their own purpose, and not exist just to carry out the author's wish fulfillment fantasies.

[Xylaugheon Daily]

There is so much to consider. What am I writing, what genre will it fit, what is the purpose of my tale, what is necessary, etc. etc. These are all things I brainstorm prior to creating characters. Once everything is in order, depending on what I've decided on, I approach them differently. One thing I try to always do is avoid cliches. Predictability is boring and so uninteresting. It is a shame, as some of these assets could make for good storytelling. Best leave them alone and let yours stick out, for better or worse.

[Rapier]

I usually base my OCs in other characters that I know, settings that I know that fit within the theme I want, people who I know, and sometimes a bit in myself, then extract a bit of everything and form a character.

For example, when creating a warrior woman, I automatically think of the Claymore series, Brienne of Tarth, Johanna from Diablo III and so on. I base bits of their designs and personalities along with other things I want to add that seem cool, and that's it.

I think that's a good template. I often brainstorm unconnected ideas that end up being forgotten, changed or not used at all. Also note that I don't do designs because I can't draw to save my life, and I'm too lazy to learn.

[Loki Laufeyson]

A character should come naturally like a person. They just happen. When creating a character, i do not go through a checklist of tropes and things in order to outline them. (i find that really bloody limiting anyway and i actually advise against doing that if it can be helped.) I go through what kind of person they are. It can be a process that happens instantaneously, or over the course of a few days (or weeks). Setting and time frame does effect some things. Like i have a character who is basically a ghost from turn of the century San Francisco (1906 earthquake) who haunts a house, but remembers her actual human life. Her tastes were bizarre for her time, like she would sometimes fake illness just to see inside a doctor's office(s). Or she would collect bird bones, and hang out in cemeteries. (basically an old timey goth) And the reason she haunts, is because shes longing for a friend. This character came to me very instantaneously when just...i was literally dancing in a nightclub when i got the idea for this character and the story im gonna write for her.

Yet at the same time, ive had this other vampire character ive been seeking to perfect as an organic being in terms of narrative flow, for the better part of 16 years. Yeah. You read that right. Vincent is a character that keeps evolving and changing and becoming something a bit more than originally planned. Good characters can take a great deal of time. Some dont take any real time at all. But the whole point is to let them come naturally and do not force it. Otherwise, a character might come off as very artificial and lacking in very human qualities.

[Irony]

I tend to have dreams of scenes and characters. For example, a recent dream of mine had a protagonist killing another protagonist, whilst a third protagonist watched. From there, I tried to work out what events led to that moment and who the characters were. So, I know that the three protagonists were called Noctis, Roland and Elise and I now know why Noctis killed Roland.

Now that I have the characters and the plot summary, I just need to write a list of 20 things. These 20 things are facts about the protagonist that I don't directly reveal, but rather imply throughout the story. For example, Noctis might be a fan of sweet things. However, instead of saying that "Noctis has a sweet tooth." I can say that "Noctis placed 10 sugar cubes in his cup of coffee."

[I'm gay dabadeedabada]

I get random ideas from "Oh hey, this would be cool!" then iron out the details so the character fits into the setting and stuff. This often happens while I'm doodling something, which turns into a character.

When it comes to design, I like to pick a theme then roll with it.

Usually the name is just completely random.

[Knight]

I put way too much thought into naming characters. I always have to think of country of origin, ethnic background, what does the name mean and does it fit thematically. If it's a fantasy, but I'm using real names, I try to make names of one fantasy nation all have the same language of origin. Ultimately it's just an inconsequential thing, but I get so paranoid about finding the right name. People who like to read into things and get linguistic references and stuff will like it I guess.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Knight