So, characters. Your people need to be believable.
You should include some basic stuff about them.
Name:
Make it unusual. Most names are really overused. Stuff like Kylie and Willow are very common. I find name inspiration from random things.
Like, my little cousin's name is different. She's named Jaelynn. Her baby sister's name is Roxie Audreyanna.
I find pretty names in books, and adapt them slightly.
My most used character is named Waterlilie. Weird, right?
Nicknames are important too. Nicknames normally correspond to the real name somehow. Perseus, to Percy, Jonathan, to Jace, Ronald, to Ron, Waterlilie, to Lilly. They all correspond.
Sometimes, nicknames are linked to a certain trait. Piper is Beauty Queen, Percy is Seaweed Brain, Annabeth is Wise Girl, Jason is Superman or Sparky, and Leo is Repair Boy.
Age:
Most characters that I've seen in fanfics are around 15-17. This isn't a big problem, but try to make your age reflect what fanfic you're writing.
If it's about The Hunger Games, and your person is picked from the reaping, they need to be 12-18, unless it's a Quell.
If it's about Harry Potter, don't make a fourth year anything but 14.
Percy Jackson fanfics are more flexible for age, but I prefer to keep the age in line with most of the original characters from the books.
Appearance:
Most characters don't have a ton of variety in their looks. Mostly you see tall blonde or brunette skinny girls, with blue or green eyes.
My most used character is short, with long dark brown hair and sea green eyes. She looks kinda like a little kid, or a doll. And, on another note, she's 15-24, depending on the story I'm working on.
Try to make your person look different from the stereotypical character. Try red hair, gray eyes, short, overweight. Just change up the norms, and get some variety.
Personality:
This is really important too. Not all blondes are stupid bimbos. Not all non-blondes are smart.
Normally, you go for sweet and innocent personalities. I try to use more shy, out casted characters, or rude people.
I often use my characters for multiple things, like stories, and roleplays. If you like doing that kind of thing, enter the description of your character in one, and test of how easily the personality and acting comes to you. If it's really difficult for you to pull that off, then adapt the personality so you can use it easier.
Other Things.
Personality Quirks.
This is important. Not everyone's going to be the prim little princess, with no major or minor flaws.
Make your character have a bad habit, such as biting their nails, tapping on random surfaces, playing with their gum.
Those three are all some of my actual quirks.
Major Flaws.
Maybe your person is too well behaved to have those minor annoying quirks.
Give them something like an addiction to a certain kind of food, an over usage of a certain word, or something equally annoying.
My friends overuse the word confuzzled. It's not even a real word. I overuse the word bud, when referring to someone.
Favorites.
Your character needs some favorite things. Color, food, pet, clothes, book, music, song. All these little things help you make this person seem realistic.
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So, I hope this helps!
