Writing Tips and Reviews

What Does a Good Character Look Like?

What does a good character look like? Solid backstory, a personality, skills, flaws, an attitude that probably isn't that of a whiny little kid who cries and complains when everything isn't about them. Unless they're the stereotypical popular kid in school. The development makes sense, the character doesn't act out of line or says things like "I'm going to kill you" only to make no effort into trying to kill them. If they're fighter they actually have experience over holding a weapon for two seconds. Their design doesn't look like it went through the grinder. And the creator actually put effort into their work.

So many times I've seen characters that are just plot points that are written down, a list of what's "cool", edgy for the sake of being edgy, or basically a walking stereotype. Badly done stereotype. If you put any effort into making a character, they're going to be better than "brags about horrible life and terrible people around them just for the attention". Nobody likes attention seekers.