How To: Create Your Fantasy Hero/Heroine

4. Strengths, Weaknesses and Fears

I feel like this is what people struggle on the most when building their hero personality. When you are creating a hero, you want them to be physically and mentally strong. You want them to be unafraid, but doing all of that just makes an unrealistic character. Even superheroes have their weaknesses. Nobody is fearless. Ane even strengths have their limits. So, let's break down these three things.

Personality Strengths and Weaknesses: Yes, your personality can be a strength or a weakness. Consider your hero's backstory. Consider what their personality is because of their backstory. Will their personality be helpful in their quest, or make it harder for them? Let's think of the five main personality traits and how they could influence your hero:

Open/Closed - Openness means that a person is open to experience. They enjoy adventure and they're curious. An open-mind may be considered a strength; it means that your hero is probably more likely to embrace the adventure, in fact, it could be something they were searching for. On the other hand, if they're closed-minded, they're less likely to embrace the adventure. However, that being said, being open-minded could also be a weakness. Perhaps, in some circumstances, being cautious is better than throwing yourself straight into the action. It all depends on your hero's circumstances.

Conscientiousness - To be conscientious means that you are organised. A conscientious person will want to fulfil their duties to the best of their ability, so, they're a bit of a perfectionist.

Extraversion/Introversion - An extravert is a social butterfly, someone who isn't afraid to take charge of social interactions. An introvert is the opposite, although they can be sociable, they just prefer to kind go along with whatever, because they won't speak out about how uncomfortable they are. These are the most recognisable traits. So, is your hero an extravert or an introvert? Again, they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, confidence can develop to become arrogance and cockiness.

Agreeable/Disagreeable - If a person is agreeable, it means they are naturally warm and kind. They're likely to cooperate with people because they are trustworthy. Disagreeable people tend to be more suspicious of others. Yet again, this personality trait can depend on the situation. Perhaps your hero is usually disagreeable but has no other option but to make a deal with some stranger. Or perhaps it's the other way around, normally your character is agreeable and would take somebody under their wing who needed help, but this person who is asking for their help seems suspicious so they have to turn them away.

Neuroticism - If a person is neurotic, it means they constantly worry and often suffer from anxiety. That's pretty much all there is to say about this personality trait; either your hero is overly-anxious, or self-assured.

Whether your hero's personality traits are strong or weak can depend on the situation they're in, as I mentioned a few times. Also, your character won't just have one of those personality traits. They will have a mix of all of them, some more extreme than others. Just make sure they don't contradict each other. For example, an open-minded person is probably likely to be agreeable. A disagreeable person is probably likely to be introverted. Also, your character may still be developing their personality, or perhaps this journey they embark on will change their personality.

Those are the main personality types. They will determine how your hero deals with their quest. You also have to consider small yet common personality traits that you want your character to have (determining small things about your character's personality will help you understand which one of the main personality traits they fit into). Just remember that everyone has positive and negative things about their personality. Some worse than others, but in general, everyone is equally as bad as they are good.