Writing Tips and Reviews

How do I Create Characters?

I made this little ramble on a group chat and decided to share it here. This is personally how I create characters. Your method might be different. But for those who are just starting, this might be helpful.

The way I create a character is that I think of what role they could play in the story. If it's a fan fiction, I think of how they work in the game or show's world. If it's original, I typically build the world first before adding characters. Things like their personality and backstory start first. Even if it's vague to be molded with the world later.

After that comes their design. I'll use Subeamus again since it's the upcoming region of my story. I had to understand what type of area Subeamus is. Which is a desert inspired by the Sahara with large mountains and a rainforest on the outskirts. (Aka the rain shadow effect.) The people dress like they're in the Sahara desert but with a fantasy vibe. So they wear a lot of colorful cloth with spider pendants and decor as they worship the spider gods. But they also have rainforest and mountain climbing outfit sets that they switch to. So when making a character, I have to take into consideration the way they would wear those clothing styles.

The next part is integrating them with the other characters. How do they play off each other? Main character, protagonist's friends, antagonists, and side characters all come into play because this is an expanding world. You can also choose to have a solo run but I haven't seen many stories with a single protagonist going through a world without meeting anyone in a long time.

As far as info dumping goes, you can wait. I got some questions on when to explain a character's backstory and the answer is "whenever it's needed". My main protagonist Carmen doesn't get her backstory explained until Subeamus. Which is also why I'm excited for the arc, since it's her story.

Antagonists, meanwhile, just oppose the protagonists. I've been plenty of villain protagonists and hero antagonists, so anything works with those two. So long as they counter each other.