Character Creation Guide

There are no hard, permanently set rules for creating a character, but there are things that work and things that don't.

The Basics:

By this point most people are familiar with the term 'Mary Sue' or 'Gary Stu'. They're words used to categorize a particular brand of underwhelming characters. A 'Mary Sue' is just an extreme stereotype example, just as some other terms are. Everyone who knows of them knows how to avoid making one -- or think they know. A character that isn't a 'Mary Sue' is not immediately compelling. The avoidance of the extreme does not mean the character is awesome, it just means they don't suck at the most extreme level.

For all intents and purposes a character is a person separate from their creator. Sometimes a character might be the embodiment of what a owner wants to be or how they see themselves; we call this a self-insert, and this should be avoided. Each character is going to have a different style. Each will speak, think and communicate different from the next character. How they present themselves, what motivates them, how they deal with conflict -- externally and internally -- are all heavily influenced by their history and base personality. Even if two characters had the same history they're likely to have dealt with it differently and become different individuals.

Everything that makes up a character is reliant on their personality and influenced by their past. There should be a reason for nearly everything. Their personality affects how they deal with conflict, which becomes their history, which then changes or expands on their personality. How they view themselves and their lifestyle might affect what they wear and how they choose to look, which in turn will affect how others see them.

A character should be more than the embodiment of everything the creator thinks is cool.

Context:

What's the character for?

If a character is being created for something like a short story -- where the creator knows all of the characters, the plot and how things should go -- then there's endless possibilities for the direction a character can be taken. Any character can become involved or necessary depending on the plot and can be tweaked to fit in with the grand scheme of things if necessary. Changing or altering a character can be done at any time and is easy to go back and fix.   It becomes necessary to consider the context for a character when it comes to collaborations or public interactions, like role-plays. In these scenarios the creator might not necessarily have much influence, knowledge or bearing on the plot (if there is one) and will not be able to control the other characters. They might not even know much about the other characters. This makes it especially important to make a character that people want to interact with. Having a character who's quiet, a complete recluse and rude, a character who walks away from most interactions if he's not insulting another character, is not a good idea if the creator wants to actually be involved in a role-play. This character would get little to no interactions, and the few they might have somehow stumbled into would end abruptly when their character walked away and wouldn't leave most characters wanting to see them again. It could work in a novel where the creator has control of everything, but it doesn't work in a community setting. If a character is too anti-social or impossible to get along with the creator should be aware of what they're getting into and be capable of dealing with less character interaction. These characters can still be interesting -- but aren't necessarily the best choice, especially in a role-play where the character limit might be one.

Creator versus Character:

It's also important, if not more important, that an owner makes a character they can successfully portray. This does not mean making a character that is exactly the same as the creator, this just means making sure to stick to what the owner can pull off. If the creator is not clever and witty then making a character that is clever and witty is entirely out of the question. If someone has a hard time making friends and cannot grasp how to get along with everyone then making the suave gentleman is not a good idea for them. Likewise, if a person doesn't understand how to fix cars and doesn't want to research then making an auto-mechanic is out of the question, too. Their book won't get published or the character won't turn out the anticipated results in a role-play scenario. If the creator can't pull it off then their character isn't magically going to be able to. Their character isn't them, but it's just not possible for a character to do something the creator cannot and know something the creator does not.

History

The personality and history of a character are practically inseparable. Both influence and change the other. History is being discussed first, but there will be relation to personality in this section, too.

Why?

History is just as important as the personality of the character. It heavily influences how a character might act and respond in certain situations and, in more extreme cases, may have altered or changed their entire perspective of something, or forced a change in their personality. For the most part a changed personality isn't usually immediately important in a role-play or story but might play some significance later. A anti-social character may reveal life lessons or confide in someone they trust, telling them that they weren't always that way, or a brazen, courageous character may break down when confronted with a certain type of enemy due to past experiences. The history of a character plays to their secrets and will usually come up as a point of interest to others. A character that doesn't have a back-story, or a very limited one, often becomes a 'flat' character. These characters act in one specific way, usually never change and don't have a reason for acting the way they do. While there are irrational things that could influence a character there should be a rational reason for the majority of how they act and usually that reason will come from their history. If a character is scared of broccoli 'just because' they won't be as interesting as the character who's terrified broccoli because they once got food poisoning from something that had broccoli in it, or nearly choked on some.

Age:

Think about your day, if you just woke up think about yesterday. How much did you do? How much did you accomplish? Learn anything? Make a new friend? Enemy? Got in a fight with anyone? Learned something unsettling? Now think about how much you do in a week. Now a month. Then a year. A lot can happen in one year, but once a creator starts playing with numbers for an age sometimes the significance of one year becomes lost in the desire to make a character a certain age. The creator wants to make a rough-tough thirty-something year old and places a few events throughout this character's life by the year when many events could have happened in one year. Even the spacing of more impacting events can affect how a character deals with these events and how they are going forward as a character. Multiple problems arising over the course of a few weeks will have a different affect than having these same events spaced out over a few years. The more time that has passed means the more time for a character to have developed and changed. Even the small things, something they learned or notice, can result in some small change and leads to an accumulated knowledge for that character. A seemingly unimportant conversation had with a girl at the local pub may have spurred some sort of epiphany within a character - it's not a major event but it still might have changed their outlook on something. It is not necessary to make a calendar with the days split into hours with each and every event a character goes through over the course of their life written down but a creator should keep in mind how old the character is and how much has happened in their life to result in the present character. If a character only has one thing in their life worth talking about or that has seriously affected them then there is a serious problem with that character.

Impactful Events:

A angst-filled history makes a character interesting, right? Actually, it doesn't. Usually, characters purely motivated by angst are pretty stupid. A character completely obsessed with their own misery just isn't interesting and tends to be annoying. Not to mention that angsting constantly is unrealistic, unless the character is fourteen. It's not the kind of character anybody wants to interact with or read about. More often than not this angst comes from one event in a grown character's life-span. One event that winds up defining them and, to the creator, 'justifies' them being miserable. There is no one event that solely motivates the entirety of a person, so there shouldn't be only one event that completely dictates how a character should act. Angst can be done well. Usually angst that's written well is more reflective and speculative and a mixed contrast of the good and the bad. There also tends to be more than one 'good' event in a character's life, and more than one 'bad' - sometimes the good and bad lead into one-another. For example the character who runs screaming from a kitchen knife because, once upon a time, their sister tried to stab them is entirely unrealistic. Even if the sister was successful in stabbing them at most they might not trust their sister at all, but that doesn't mean they would overreact to every instance of a knife. If the creator does choose to do that, the character better be a complete spazz about everything or have a very good reason for why the character acts that way.   Different situations will have varying impacts on different characters. One character might be able to shrug off a break-up as if it were nothing. Another character might become convinced they're a horrible person, that they did something wrong, and try to avoid relationships in the future. Similarly, two characters can experience the exact same scenario and take entirely different things from it. Jenny's adventures in Wonderland could be a vastly different book than Alice's, and Jenny could learn very different things and become a very different person than Alice did.

Confiding to Others:

Certain actions a character does can relate back to emotional baggage they might have. Certain topics in conversation may trigger certain memories in a character - even the way another character moves, speaks or looks might influence a bit of a flashback in another character. When these things happen they shouldn't be excessively obvious; a subtle cue like a tensing of the body, a twitch or slight change in tone or avoidance of the subject is better than the character immediately breaking down into hysterics at the word 'dog' or immediately launching into his or her life story. Most people are not willing to talk about serious past events. The reasons vary from person to person but most people don't run around broadcasting things that have hurt or weakened them. Character's shouldn't do it, either. The creator might have a really complex and interesting back-story for their character but part of the intrigue and interest is generated in a character refusing to fill in details yet give signs of discomfort when a certain subject is breached. It encourages other characters to build a relationship with the creator's character in order to find out or a character who became close without knowing may find out about these past issues because the troubled character trusts them. A character that runs around telling everyone their history from birth to present is boring and the self-obsession can be irritating to others.   This all depends on the character, but as a general rule any character that runs around telling everyone they were raped as a child comes across as someone who is probably attention-seeking and a compulsive liar.

Real Historical Events:

If a character is on earth and they happen to be as old as dirt, knowing historical facts is important. When it comes to anything involving a character with history, the creator should do the research before they look stupid. When a character is older than the average human lifespan or set in an older era it might be tempting to have had that character meet or influence important historical events or people. This can work, but more often than not it just comes off as obnoxious. A clever or creative interpretation of historical events and legends is more likely to be accepted. A character who doesn't boast about it is more likely to be believed than a character who smugly tells everyone he's been best buddies with Socrates, Queen Elizabeth and Anne Frank. Involving a character with too many historical figures directly can make them seem far too important and, especially in a community setting, dwarf other characters or make their histories seem less significant by comparison. Having your character loosely connected to a ruler or battle by having them play a minor role - one of the foot soldiers - instead of a major role - the King's consultant - can make these events more believable, too. Chances are if a character is only involved in a historical event because the creator thinks it would be cool and has given it little to no real thought then it's not a good idea to have the character involved in it.

Personality:

This is the base of a character, the personality is everything that is immediately apparent about them: how they speak and act. Their personality becomes how they interpret information and act on it, making for either interesting and dynamic individuals or flat and irritating characters.

Keep in mind that a personality is transitory, it can and will change over time.

Why?

A character would not be a character if they did not have a personality. A character would not be a very good character if they had a simple or flat personality. Both are not worth anyone's time.

External:

Everything that's on the inside is not constantly expressed on the outside. How characters present themselves to the outer world is not exactly what they're thinking and feeling. How they present themselves relates to how they feel and think but is not a direct and exact projection of everything on the inside. Personalities are going to differ between individuals, and a lot of that will tie back to their history or how they've learned to deal with others. It's much more than just being arrogant, licentious or a goody-two-shoes. It's important to understand how your character presents themselves and why so that they don't waver between a grumpy pessimist and a cheerful optimist for no reason. The best way to do this is to have a fleshed out history. Body Language: A huge factor in how people present ideas and thoughts lies in how they express themselves with their body. Fifty-five percent of how someone will interpret what another person means when communicating comes from their body language; thirty-eight percent is tone and only seven percent are the words used themselves. Adding in details about how a character is moving is crucial to fully expressing them. A character might have nervous gestures, like playing with their hair or fidgeting, and they'll have completely different physical actions when angry, happy or relaxed. All of these actions are important in expressing a character and should be used where necessary. A well placed mention of a character shifting weight or crossing their arms can add a lot more depth and meaning to what the character is saying and how they're feeling than adding 'he said sadly' to the end of a bit of dialogue. Knowing these slight physical differences in how a character acts in certain situations or moods is a great way to know a character better for both the creator, reader or role-play partner. It shouldn't be used to the point of being abused, but it is worth mentioning. Diction and Tone: A huge portion of how a character communicates, too, is in how they say things. When dealing in a text based medium - like stories and role-plays - it becomes especially important to think about how a character talks. In comics or other visual mediums a lot of the tone can be expressed through body language and facial expressions, when working purely with text things need to be stated but adding tags to dialogue, like 'Mary said enthusiastically', can get worn out and should probably be balanced with the use of body language. The tone can come through with the character's word choice. For example: "What the hell do you want?" and "Might I have the pleasure of assisting you?" Both could be said in the same situation, but both speak of completely different characters. The first line comes off as rude and unsociable, while the second is more pleasant. Both could be said in the same situation, but one is completely different from the next. There is not a single response to any situation, and every character is going to use different words and phrasing to convey their thoughts. Some characters might swear near constantly, others will speak in fragments to the point of being nearly incoherent and others still will spin words together until they're spewing poetry. Every character is a little different in how they speak and the possibilities are endless.

Internal:

Everything the character carries around inside their head, basically. Thoughts and feelings that don't always get expressed outwardly. What goes on inside a character's head is the meeting ground of the history and the external personality: their core being. Decision making and emotion handling is done here. A character can lapse to day-dream or force a smile onto their face while they think of all the ways they'd like to murder someone. This is the part of a character that might not be immediately presented to an audience or role-play partner. Some characters think more than others, and even for those that don't there are still things left unsaid that float around in a character's head. Knowing these thoughts can help when depicting body-language. A stray memory or idea influenced by an outward conversation will spur a certain thought process in a character which will, usually, show up subtly in body language. Their thoughts and feelings directly affect their outward persona. In order to convey a character to their fullest the creator should be aware of what these thoughts are. A character could be in a complete panic in their head, and their body language might suggest it but they don't say anything racing through their head and instead sputter a "W-what!?" or a character could feel hurt by the actions of another and, instead of asking the questions they want answers to like 'why?', they might hurl verbal insults at the offender and storm out. It adds another layer to a character and should most definitely be known by the creator. This also means that a character and their personality, inward or outward, should not be describable in one word. A character is more than just arrogant, optimistic, happy-go-lucky or paranoid - any character could be all of these things. Certain words could be used to describe them but, in general, if it only takes a few simple words for a creator to feel that they have completely conveyed the personality of their character then there probably isn't too much depth to them. Note the 'completely'; a character can be described in a few words but there should be more to them - exceptions to those traits or an expansion on what those traits actually mean or how they come into play and when. A character's mood can have a large bearing on how they act. They may act entirely different when scared than they will when happy. Anger will differ from depression and even these will differ depending on the individual or situation a character might be dealing with and the extremity of the emotion. Just because a character might scream at another when angry doesn't mean that they'll scream at everyone when they're angry.

Mental Problems:

If a character has a mental illness the creator should definitely do their homework first. Trying to talk to people who have the illness or looking up documentations or dialogue from people with the illness the creator wishes to apply to their character is recommended. That and doing more research on what the illness is, where it comes from, symptoms, signs, everything. Deciding to give a character a illness and then failing to portray it properly is likely to offend some people.

Appearance:

Ultimately appearance comes from the character's present lifestyle and personality. Other than that it's pretty much free range. There are some features that would be completely out of a character's control unless they live in an age of hair-dye and nose-jobs. Other features a character has complete active control over and others still might be permanent but occur after birth.

Born With It:

Genetics determine what people look like, most people are going to look like their parents - and might have some recessive genes from either bloodline brought to the surface, which means that a couple who both have dark hair could very easily have a blonde son or daughter, just a blonde hair colour gene would have had to enter the bloodline of both families at some point in the past to be passed down. It's a good idea to try and keep a character looking closer to their family unless they were adopted. Tall parents mean the character should be reasonably tall themselves, if both parents have blue eyes then the child should probably have blue eyes, too. If the parents have completely different features there's more to choose from, a character can look almost entirely like one parent and next to nothing like the other or be a mix of both. If a character isn't born in the standard way, or if the creator doesn't know what their parents look like, then the character's base appearance can look however they want. If parents or biological family come up later, though, they should probably resemble their child. The creator just has to work backwards. Most importantly is to have the character look normal for the universe they're in. If they're a human living in modern earth they probably shouldn't have animal features, if they live in a world vastly populated by individuals with excessively bright colour palettes then having a dull character is a bad idea. This, of course, doesn't matter if the character is supposed to have been zapped from their normal realm into a place that they do not come from, then the contrast in appearance may be important to the plot.    

Changing the 'Born With's:

Say a character is born with brown hair, but they hate it. If they live in a world where dying their hair is possible then they can change their hair to blue, green or even rainbow if they're willing to maintain it. Always consider where the character comes from to determine if a physical alteration is possible or not. A character living in the 20th century can very easily go out and get a tattoo, but back in the 10th? Maybe they could smear charcoal on their skin daily or reapply some paint everyday. The creator should also consider if their character would do this in the first place. The creator might think giving their character a shock of neon green hair would look cool, but the character might think it looks stupid or be too lazy to be bothered to dye their hair in the first place. Likewise a character completely afraid of needles or pain isn't going to be getting tattoos or piercing unless they're forced to. There is no limit to what can and cannot be done, but remember that some things are just more ridiculous than others. Having a character who dyes their hair rainbow would need to have a fortune in both time and money to afford all the different coloured hair dyes and reapply the colours as necessary when the roots grow in. A character with a face full of piercing isn't as likely to get a normal job in the modern world. Adding or changing things isn't bad, just be careful with how it would affect a character's time, mentality and social status. The creator should be aware if the character is the type to make these changes in the first place.

Scars and Physical Mutations:

First to address something some people seem to get wrong: Scars are not open wounds, scars are part of the healing process gone wrong. A skin scar will usually form from deeper or larger wounds as an over reaction by the healing process, and will sometimes retain the general shape or pattern of the original injury. These patches of skin are usually lighter in colour and tend to stick out from normal skin in lumps of varying thickness. Sometimes they seem to sink inward but only happens when fat or muscle beneath the skin was lost and did not grow back properly. Scars can say a lot about a character, and should not be added needlessly because the creator thinks they look cool or add depth to their character. A scar alone does not suddenly make your character deep. The reasons behind the scar might, but it shouldn't be overdone. Scars can come from just about any physical injury, especially if the injury isn't treated properly, but they don't usually occur unless the wound is fairly severe. A character who has never experience physical violence should not have a large scar unless something out of the ordinary happened.. Even a character who has experienced a lot of physical trauma usually won't have too many scars; the body is usually really good at healing if it's taken care of. This doesn't mean a character cannot have scars or is immediately a bad character because they have them, it just means they should be applied sparingly and with good reason. Likewise, physical mutations are neat and all but getting the mutation or affliction wrong can be irksome and offensive to others. If a character has, for instance, anemia, leprosy or heterochromia the creator should make sure they know what these things are, where they come from and the effect they'll have on the character. It's something that might have affected their entire life and should be dealt with accordingly, or it might be something they've developed recently and, again, should be integrated into their personality and history as is appropriate.

Clothing and Accessories:

These things change daily and are recycled as often as they're washed. Certain moods might beget certain styles in some characters and other characters won't care enough about their appearance to co-ordinate an outfit. If a character is into dull tones and Tee's with humorous comments written on them that character should not be depicted running around sporting neon coloured suites. What the character does in their spare time or for a living should also be taken into consideration. A character who does a lot of running around should not be wearing tight inflexible clothing or a mini-skirt paired with a tub-top. That character would need something flexible but possibly durable if they do a lot of hitting the ground or sliding across pavement. Likewise a character who does a lot of clubbing and cares a lot about their image will probably co-ordinate outfits to compliment their assets and attract favourable attention. A character who's a lazy slob will probably be seen in a shirt they've worn for three days, may or may not be wearing pants and will have mismatched socks. Accessories might have a value to certain characters, like a necklace gifted from a friend, and other accessories might come from the character's personal sense of style or simply because they saw it and thought it looked cool. A character can have whatever accessories that suit them but remember to keep it realistic to their job, lifestyle and interests.   

Do the Homework:

If it comes to anything the creator is unsure about they should look it up. Knowing a topic or researching it definitely helps in the presentation of a character and will keep others from calling the creator out on things that are wrong or inaccurate with their character. If a creator wants to make a drug addict but doesn't know how people act under the influence of drugs not only should they do the research into the drugs being abused but extra careful researching into how people under the influence actually act. If the creator just shrugs and assumes that the drug used makes them act crazy and proceeds to make their character act over the top then someone is going to call them out on it.

If the creator doesn't do the research properly they might have to deal with someone who does and isn't very happy about it. Do the research - even if the creator is sure about a subject they should double-check just in case.