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The Lead characters will determine how good your story is and where it goes. You need to flesh them out so that they are just as interesting as the story and will be remembered long after the reader is done reading.
To create your lead characters:
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE MAJOR ROLES YOU NEED TO FILL
Focus on your genre and/or idea and choose characters that are common to that type of book. For instance in a mystery you'll need a detective (amateur or professional), a victim and the criminal. A Romance will need two potential lovers (guy and girl or guy and guy or girl or girl). For your fantasy fiction you'll need a lead, his/her sidekick (s) and the powerful enemy (dark lord, evil witch, monsters etc) while for your horror you'll need a victim and the purveyor of horror (monster, zombie, serial killer etc). As long as you know what genres you'll be writing and you have a basic story idea, you can figure out the critical roles that you need to fill.
Once you know which specific characters you need to drive your story, give them all holding names. These names will probably change as you plan so don't take the whole year browsing baby names. Just something off the top of your head will do.
STEP 2: GIVE YOUR LEAD A NAME
When you're naming your Lead Characters, consider their country of origin, when they wereborn and their parent's characteristics. Every country has names that are common for them. Armed with your character's birth year and nationality, go to Google and check common names for children born in that year in that country. You may want to name your character GuJin-hu but if his parents aren't Korean and he comes from some place in Texasthe name doesn't make sense at all (unless that's what you're going for).
Of course there is room for parental foibles i.e. hippies naming their daughter Rainbow but you'll need to make this clear in the book. Also not that though unique names are great, don't be so unique that no one can pronounce your character's names.
Other ways you can find names for your leadsinclude looking at TV Show and Movie ending credits, countries or cities, babyname sites, the obituaries or name generators like FakeNameGenerator.com
PS: Consider the letters that begin your Lead Character's names. If you have more than one character with names that begin with the same alphabet (e.g. Alex and Adam) then you risk confusing readers. Your main aim with naming is to make it as easy as possible for your readers to remember all the important characters.
STEP 3: KNOW YOUR LEAD CHARACTERS COMPLETELY
Before you start writing your story, you should know who each Lead character truly is. That way their actions in the story will be completely understandable. Things you need to know include their:
- Bio-data. This includes their name, date of birth, ethnic background etc.
- Physical appearance. You can pick a celebrity for this.
- Personality. Personally, I use the Myers Briggs 16 Personality Types to come up with personalities for my characters.
- Status. Including marital status, significant past relationships, children etc
- Their past. How their childhood was and how it has affected who they are now, major traumas in their life etc
- Family of origin. Mother, father, siblings, any significant extended family members. Their past relationship with the lead and their current relationship with them
-Relationship with other outside their family i.e. best-friend, other close friends, opposite sex, co-workers, boss, underlings, secret crush etc
- Goal in this story. What is the end goal for them in your story? How would they like this story to end.
Below is a handy character chart to help you flesh out your character
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STEP 4: MAKE YOUR LEAD CHARACTER'S SYMPATHETIC
If you want your readers to root for your lead then give them a character trait that ups their likeability factor. Such traits include;
- Altruism and Kindness
- Active. Active characters work to resolve their problemseven if they are not in the strongest position. Weak characters who hide forthe whole book and only act when they are pushed to are not that much fun.
- Code of ethics/morality. Your character needs a line they won't step overespecially if that character is an anti-hero. For instance if you have a conmanmaybe his code is that he never goes after people who aren't crooked. A robbermight have a code of never using a weapon etc.
- Flawed. Don't make your characters too perfect otherwiseyour risk making them look like caricatures rather than real people becausereal people have flaws.
- Someone else who loves and admires them. Humans are groupanimals. They see one person liking something and they want to know why. At thevery least this technique will make your readers more curious about yourcharacter.
STEP 5: GIVE YOUR LEAD AN ARC
The events in your story should help one or all of your lead characters change or grow in some way. If Candace is afraid to confront her bullying sister at the start of the novel, by the end of it she should have learnt how to stand up for herself. If Kirk was a workaholic, by the end of the book he should know that there are more important things in life than work.
It could also go the other way. Idealistic Nancy who used to look at the world through positive spectacles could learn that the world is a cruel place and thus become more of a realist. Damon could be so beaten up by the events of your novel that he becomes jaded or maybe even transforms into a villain himself.
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