Character Creation
Characters are the focus of all stories and so need careful attention to make them believable. In role-playing or fluff development a suitable backstory for the character and way of being is required to give the character depth and purpose. All of these aspects will be covered in the various sections below to develop a character of any kind, because in addition to main characters there are: secondary & tertiary characters, characters that are briefly mentioned or have a momentary appearance in the story
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Contents
1) Developing a Personality for your Characters
2) Deciding on your Characters wardrobe
3) Coming up with a Name for your Character
2) Deciding on your Characters wardrobe
3) Coming up with a Name for your Character
1) Developing a Personality for your Character
A personality for your character is the first thing you should come up with because a name and look for your character can be thought of afterwards once you know what your character is like.
One way of developing a characters personality is to base it on stereotypes/archetypes for certain characters.
For example, generally the main protagonist (or Hero) of a story in fantasy/science-fiction is a young-ish boy about the age of 17.
Quite frequently he has a kind nature always willing to help people and has a strong sense of justice. He cannot abide intolerance and accepts everyone for who or what they are.
He can be quite rash and quick to anger when people do things he thinks isn't right and can say things other people can't because even though they are often offensive, the honesty of his words and his complete ignorance to social differences is found endearing by the very people he insults. He doesn't intend to offend anyone but speaks his mind and will not let anyone tell him to speak otherwise.
He uses a sword as his main weapon, although when he gets one he isn't particularly skillful at all and wins his first few fights with it by sheer luck. He becomes more skilled with his weapon over time and tries hard but because he isn't battle hardened he panics a little in battle and he does not like to kill.
Did any of that sound familiar? It should because it the most common and basic archetype for a main protagonist and his personality is clearly defined. Honest, sincere, hard working, good-natured, virtuous and just. Note how he uses a sword as his weapon, this is an indicator of his personality because the sword is viewed as an honourable weapon. His youth adds to his naivete, honesty and purity.
This kind of general archetype is a great foundation for building a main character but it is very common so it is wise to stray slightly from the norm, to create a character with a bit more flavour that is a bit more memorable. An example of this is Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games who is a girl who uses a bow. It is not often that a female takes centre stage but if done well it can have great results.
So to develop your characters personality you need to define a couple of main features of his/her personality. Are they generally happy and outgoing or shy and retiring, are they moody or hateful? What do they like to do? Do they come from a small town that they want to escape from for greater things or are they from a big city and have gotten lost in its vastness?
One way to male this easier is to take two aspects of your own personality 1 positive and 1 negative and build up your character from that. No character is perfect and by giving them the same kind of flaws we have we add to their realism. For example, the character is great at riding horses (good trait) but gets stage-fright and so cannot perform at shows even though he/she wants to. The story could then progress so that the character learns to overcome their stage-fright.
Click here for More Character Archetypes similar to the Main Protagonist example
So the kind of things you need to know to create a personality for your character are:
Male or Female
Age
Sexual Orientation
Likes and Dislikes
Outgoing or Shy
Religion, if any
Culture, where raised and the beliefs of the culture
Raison d'etre, the characters reason to be and why they do what they do
Background and history
Strengths and weaknesses
Fighting style, if any
Attribute or Element, if relevant to the type of story you are doing
Here's a small list of Personality Generators to give you more ideas on what to include as part of personality creation-
http://amriah.deviantart.com/art/Character-Personality-Creator-86634391- This is quite a long list of traits to include but is a great basis for determining general aspects of a character.
http://rpg.ashami.com/- This is even longer than the previous one and goes into a lot more detail, I don't understand the percentages thing but if you ignore it it will still work.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=generalperson- This is a generator that creates a personality for you, a direct example looks like this- "This lazy gentleman has deep-set blue eyes that are like two turquoises. His fine, straight, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a dragon's scales. He is short and has a wide-chested build. His skin is white. He has a high forehead. His wardrobe is sexy and elegant, with a lot of violet and green".
One way of developing a characters personality is to base it on stereotypes/archetypes for certain characters.
For example, generally the main protagonist (or Hero) of a story in fantasy/science-fiction is a young-ish boy about the age of 17.
Quite frequently he has a kind nature always willing to help people and has a strong sense of justice. He cannot abide intolerance and accepts everyone for who or what they are.
He can be quite rash and quick to anger when people do things he thinks isn't right and can say things other people can't because even though they are often offensive, the honesty of his words and his complete ignorance to social differences is found endearing by the very people he insults. He doesn't intend to offend anyone but speaks his mind and will not let anyone tell him to speak otherwise.
He uses a sword as his main weapon, although when he gets one he isn't particularly skillful at all and wins his first few fights with it by sheer luck. He becomes more skilled with his weapon over time and tries hard but because he isn't battle hardened he panics a little in battle and he does not like to kill.
Did any of that sound familiar? It should because it the most common and basic archetype for a main protagonist and his personality is clearly defined. Honest, sincere, hard working, good-natured, virtuous and just. Note how he uses a sword as his weapon, this is an indicator of his personality because the sword is viewed as an honourable weapon. His youth adds to his naivete, honesty and purity.
This kind of general archetype is a great foundation for building a main character but it is very common so it is wise to stray slightly from the norm, to create a character with a bit more flavour that is a bit more memorable. An example of this is Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games who is a girl who uses a bow. It is not often that a female takes centre stage but if done well it can have great results.
So to develop your characters personality you need to define a couple of main features of his/her personality. Are they generally happy and outgoing or shy and retiring, are they moody or hateful? What do they like to do? Do they come from a small town that they want to escape from for greater things or are they from a big city and have gotten lost in its vastness?
One way to male this easier is to take two aspects of your own personality 1 positive and 1 negative and build up your character from that. No character is perfect and by giving them the same kind of flaws we have we add to their realism. For example, the character is great at riding horses (good trait) but gets stage-fright and so cannot perform at shows even though he/she wants to. The story could then progress so that the character learns to overcome their stage-fright.
Click here for More Character Archetypes similar to the Main Protagonist example
So the kind of things you need to know to create a personality for your character are:
Male or Female
Age
Sexual Orientation
Likes and Dislikes
Outgoing or Shy
Religion, if any
Culture, where raised and the beliefs of the culture
Raison d'etre, the characters reason to be and why they do what they do
Background and history
Strengths and weaknesses
Fighting style, if any
Attribute or Element, if relevant to the type of story you are doing
Here's a small list of Personality Generators to give you more ideas on what to include as part of personality creation-
http://amriah.deviantart.com/art/Character-Personality-Creator-86634391- This is quite a long list of traits to include but is a great basis for determining general aspects of a character.
http://rpg.ashami.com/- This is even longer than the previous one and goes into a lot more detail, I don't understand the percentages thing but if you ignore it it will still work.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=generalperson- This is a generator that creates a personality for you, a direct example looks like this- "This lazy gentleman has deep-set blue eyes that are like two turquoises. His fine, straight, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a dragon's scales. He is short and has a wide-chested build. His skin is white. He has a high forehead. His wardrobe is sexy and elegant, with a lot of violet and green".
2) Deciding on your Characters wardrobe
Next let's look at the characters clothing and other attire. Like I have said before names can come later, you may think that that the name Phantom Blackhammer is a great name for your main character but if he or she ends up with the personality of someone in their late teens who wears blue and is a servant of the God of Light the name Phantom Blackhammer will not fit at all.
The characters wardrobe will reflect their personality as they will wear clothes that match it. Someone incredibly reserved and shy would not wear eccentric clothes and have an outlandish hairstyle. Instead their style choices would be restrained and would not look out of place in a crowd.
Using the example of a typical Hero from above let's look at the kind of clothes he would wear. It will likely be clean cut and simple with a flash of youthful exuberance, indicated by a peculiar accessory. Often blue is featured colour in his every day wardrobe as it is boyish and male. The simple style of his clothes reflects his simple upbringing and humble origins usually taking the form of trousers/shorts and a t-shirt of some kind. His hair would be ordinary, conforming to the fashion of his town or village. In a typical fantasy village its medium/short hair that's a bit unkempt.
If your character has a weapon then the style of the weapon will have to match the character, our Hero will not carry about a malicious looking mace that absorbs the souls of those it kills damning them for all eternity. A Hero is more likely to wield a straight sword with either a simple hilt or a more elaborate one that was passed on to him or found somewhere.
If you use the character generator listed above on Seventh Sanctum you are given ideas as to what their wardrobe looks like. This helps simplify the main aspects of a characters general appearance, but they can quite easily wear other types and colours of clothes based on their situation. Taking words form the description above 'sexy' and 'elegant' we know that this character is not a slob who would go around wearing baggy clothes covered in dirt. Also the word 'lazy' at the start of the description given paints a picture of a fat man or at least a bit more stocky than usual.
The characters wardrobe will reflect their personality as they will wear clothes that match it. Someone incredibly reserved and shy would not wear eccentric clothes and have an outlandish hairstyle. Instead their style choices would be restrained and would not look out of place in a crowd.
Using the example of a typical Hero from above let's look at the kind of clothes he would wear. It will likely be clean cut and simple with a flash of youthful exuberance, indicated by a peculiar accessory. Often blue is featured colour in his every day wardrobe as it is boyish and male. The simple style of his clothes reflects his simple upbringing and humble origins usually taking the form of trousers/shorts and a t-shirt of some kind. His hair would be ordinary, conforming to the fashion of his town or village. In a typical fantasy village its medium/short hair that's a bit unkempt.
If your character has a weapon then the style of the weapon will have to match the character, our Hero will not carry about a malicious looking mace that absorbs the souls of those it kills damning them for all eternity. A Hero is more likely to wield a straight sword with either a simple hilt or a more elaborate one that was passed on to him or found somewhere.
If you use the character generator listed above on Seventh Sanctum you are given ideas as to what their wardrobe looks like. This helps simplify the main aspects of a characters general appearance, but they can quite easily wear other types and colours of clothes based on their situation. Taking words form the description above 'sexy' and 'elegant' we know that this character is not a slob who would go around wearing baggy clothes covered in dirt. Also the word 'lazy' at the start of the description given paints a picture of a fat man or at least a bit more stocky than usual.
3) Coming up with a Name for your Character
Now that we have very good idea of what our character is like let's think of a name for them. Depending on where they are from, what type of story/role-playing they are being made for, genre, race etc. the options vary considerably.
In a futuristic science-fiction setting the name is going to be closely related to ordinary, modern day names like Steven and Robert. In a made-up world the names can literally be anything, such as in fantasy. Look at some of the more well known fantasy stories out there, in the Lord of the Rings you have; Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as some of the main names. In the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan there is Rand, Perrin and Matrim. In others there is Eragon, Bilbo, Pug and Jommy, Kalam, Tattersail, Dujek, Laseen the list goes on and on for made up names.
That's not including Elvish names and names of other races.
So how do we go about deciding on a name for our characters? There are a few options the first of which is to just make a list of names and pick one which seems to fit your character. If you take names of today and switch letters around or replace letters you can come up with passable fantasy names. e.g. turn Robert into Robart or Rubert. Steven can become Stefan, Stevun, Stevan and Stevon.
For more manga style names or extreme names you can use adjectives as names such as Honour and Mystery and as a last name combine a type of animal or object and a colour like, Bluecobra or Ivorymane.
There are many name generators out there which you can use to create names for characters. They really take the pressure out of creating names and you can always take parts of different combinations to create one you like. Here's a list of name generators that should really help-
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php- This a page of name generators from Seventh Sanctum and there is a large variety of name generators.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickname- Comes up with quick names that fit into fantasy and sci-fi settings. A direct example from the website is 'Hai Ratliff'.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=fantasynameex- This is an Extreme name generator, a direct example from the website is 'Melody Banezealot'.
You may have noticed that the above name generators all go to Seventh Sanctum, this is purely because I have looked at several websites trying to find good name generators and out of them all Seventh Sanctum is the one I think is the best.
The following site is an Elvish name generator where you can also get your Hobbit name- http://elf.namegeneratorfun.com/
That concludes the section on how to create a character for stories or role-playing as we have covered name, personality and appearance. If you used one of the personality generators provided you will have more information about your character than you realised because two of them get you to look at the characters background and history and look at the reasons why they behave in certain ways. Even if you don't go into the history of a character within your story knowing it yourself helps you as the writer make the decisions that your character would because you know what they have been through.
I hope that these 3 steps to creating your own character has helped you to make your own characters that have more depth and more substance.
In a futuristic science-fiction setting the name is going to be closely related to ordinary, modern day names like Steven and Robert. In a made-up world the names can literally be anything, such as in fantasy. Look at some of the more well known fantasy stories out there, in the Lord of the Rings you have; Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli as some of the main names. In the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan there is Rand, Perrin and Matrim. In others there is Eragon, Bilbo, Pug and Jommy, Kalam, Tattersail, Dujek, Laseen the list goes on and on for made up names.
That's not including Elvish names and names of other races.
So how do we go about deciding on a name for our characters? There are a few options the first of which is to just make a list of names and pick one which seems to fit your character. If you take names of today and switch letters around or replace letters you can come up with passable fantasy names. e.g. turn Robert into Robart or Rubert. Steven can become Stefan, Stevun, Stevan and Stevon.
For more manga style names or extreme names you can use adjectives as names such as Honour and Mystery and as a last name combine a type of animal or object and a colour like, Bluecobra or Ivorymane.
There are many name generators out there which you can use to create names for characters. They really take the pressure out of creating names and you can always take parts of different combinations to create one you like. Here's a list of name generators that should really help-
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php- This a page of name generators from Seventh Sanctum and there is a large variety of name generators.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=quickname- Comes up with quick names that fit into fantasy and sci-fi settings. A direct example from the website is 'Hai Ratliff'.
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=fantasynameex- This is an Extreme name generator, a direct example from the website is 'Melody Banezealot'.
You may have noticed that the above name generators all go to Seventh Sanctum, this is purely because I have looked at several websites trying to find good name generators and out of them all Seventh Sanctum is the one I think is the best.
The following site is an Elvish name generator where you can also get your Hobbit name- http://elf.namegeneratorfun.com/
That concludes the section on how to create a character for stories or role-playing as we have covered name, personality and appearance. If you used one of the personality generators provided you will have more information about your character than you realised because two of them get you to look at the characters background and history and look at the reasons why they behave in certain ways. Even if you don't go into the history of a character within your story knowing it yourself helps you as the writer make the decisions that your character would because you know what they have been through.
I hope that these 3 steps to creating your own character has helped you to make your own characters that have more depth and more substance.