Giving a character a good personality

Hi! I have a question and I’d like to read more points of view about it.
How do you create a character with a good personality? (By good I mean a well structured one, not good as in not evil)

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Well I have always been a fan of flaws in characters. It makes them look more human. Example: Lynn can be sweet and caring, but is very selfish when it comes down to it. Even though it might “Hurt” to give you character bad traits (cuz you obviously want them to be liked) it’ll give the character some dept. And dept in your char will prevent he/she/it feeling flat. I know it’s a big step to take for some people, but I feel like this is the best way to go when creating a personality.

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This is what I need to understand - I feel like every character other than the MC is just flat, so I write less and end up not finishing anything

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You should give them some flaws aswell. Give them a small backstory. So that when the MC or readers or who ever confronts them about it you’ll always have the back-up/backstory to lean on. The Harry Potter/Percy Jackson movies have teached me a thing or two about giving background characters dept. Even though Hermione wasn’t the MC she still felt like a real person. Someone that we cared about. I suggest watching these movies and study how they feel so alive, and interesting.

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I always use character turns alone to formulate a character and some key points are zodiacs, family trees and mental health!

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You could try…

Come up with three basic personality traits. For example, let’s say we’re making me into a character. You would come up with three bullet points-

  • Funny
  • Kind
  • Friendly

Then try to come up with three flaws.

  • Underconfident
  • Oversensitive
  • Panics easily

Then you could try to come up with one personality trait that makes this particular character unique. I can’t think of any for myself, but it will make your characters easily distinguishable from one another.

Ask yourself why they’re this way. Maybe they were brought up to be confident, maybe they went through some stuff and became more mistrustful. And then imagine that the character existed in real life. Imagine what kind of things they would say, their body language, their fashion taste. Just come up with some basic facts like music tastes and favourite colours. You could also base them off of people you know in real life (but make sure it doesn’t get so personal that they can be identified).

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Moved to General Chat since this doesn’t seem to be solely about Episode characters. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. :wink:

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Thank you!!

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Give them some backstory. Smth like that hurted them and shaped them as a person. I hope this helped :slight_smile:

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I choose their personality and I put it to its extreme or I put a situation that questions their values.
For example, if I write about a character that’s really rational, I would put someone that questions his rationality (in my case I put someone that he loves so he has to go against his own values to protect him).
Or if I write about an extroverted character, I’ll do him extremely impulsive.
It really depends on how I vision them, I try to match their backstories to their personality so there’s a “why” to every their flaw

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rude…

I was gonna answer in the same tone you did, and honestly my answer was sooo good but love, have a good day :sparkling_heart:

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Flag and ignore, it’s just a troll

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Don’t worry their account says they are suspended

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small bump

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But it’s true

it’s true; but it rude tho

Think of your character’s as real people and not just characters. They’re individuals with their own motivations, desires, morals, etc. If your character’s only purpose is to be an extension of the MC they’re not a good character. You need to not only build their personalities but think about why they do what they do. You don’t have to include every character’s backstory in the actual story but keeping that characters motivations in mind is a good way to make sure they aren’t flat. It’s okay to use a characters action to move the plot along, but moving the plot along should not be the only reason for that action

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One exercise I like to use is creating an interview between me and the character I’m writing. So I’ll ask questions like

What do you look like?

How old are you?

How do you spend most of your days?

What do most people think about you?

What are your parents like?

What makes you happy?

What do you hate most in the world?

How did you get into this story?

Describe your state of mind when the story begins.
And then I go through and try to answer these questions how my character would answer them so for example:

What do you look like? You mean other than my perfect golden locks, flawless skin (no seriously, touch it it’s like a flower petal), adorable chocolate brown eyes, hot body, full soft lips, and cute nose?

How old are you? You should never ask a lady her age… but seventeen and proud

How do you spend most of your days?

What are you? A stalker? I mean, not that I blame you. I’d stalk me too if I weren’t me. You can probably find me at the mall, or at the beach, or at the gym, or getting my nails done, or…

What do most people think about you?

They love me obviously! They either aspire to be me or aspire to be with me. I’m a role model for so many people.

What are your parents like? Well I never knew my dad, I’m not even sure my mother knew my dad, but I like to think he’s some big time celebrity who got completely trashed with my mom one night. Ooooh or royalty, I’ve always felt like I was meant to be royal. My mom? She’s great, a fashion icon for her age and She’s not even wrinkly yet!

What makes you happy?

That’s easy! Shoes! If there’s one thing I can count on (other than my brother Jason of course) it’s a nice pair of (insert fancy shoe brand here)

What do you hate most in the world?

Wednesday’s. If I hear another jump day joke I will personally hire someone to make them disappear.

How did you get into this story? Because my life’s so interesting! Who wouldn’t want to read about me!

Describe your state of mind when the story begins.

Bored. Bored out of my mind.

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Thank you sooo much hun :sparkling_heart: