Creating Believable Characters

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Creating Believable Characters

Note: this is not intended to supplant Jacen's tutorial. This is a guide for rounding out characters only.

There are as many methods for creating characters as there are authors out there. All of them have strengths and weaknesses, and you should use whatever feels best to you. The following are guidelines only

The more fantastic and unbelievable your setting, the more believable your characters need to be. It is through the characters that we experience and accept the world, and if they themselves cannot be accepted, then the world can not be.

Remember, villains and antagonists should be rounded characters, too! Everyone has motivations for what they do, and very few believe that they themselves are evil. Even Hitler thought he was doing the right thing for the right reasons.

1. Determine if your plot drives your character or your character drives your plot.

This depends on you as a writer. Are you the kind of person who plots out your stories in detail before beginning writing, or are you the type of person who lets a story flow organically from beginning to end?

If your story is already plotted out before you flesh out the character, your character must fit into the plot. If he’s to be a great warrior who vanquished evil for all time and rescues damsels in distress, he’d best be suited, physically and mentally, for heroics. However, if you’re creating your characters first and your plot after, you have more freedom in your character design, and correspondingly less when it comes to the plot.

This isn’t a black and white issue, you will often run into times where your character drives the plot in a new direction despite what you had planned, or where your plot demands you change the character in some way to better suit the story you want to tell. Never be afraid to change your story or characters. They will be stronger for it.

2. Start with a base.

If you’ve already plotted out your story, you know what sort of role the major characters are going to play. If you only have a setting and possibly and outline, here’s your chance to have fun.

Is the character male or female? Where does he or she live at game open? What does he or she do? What is his or her role in the game? What is his or her name? How old is he or she?

Example

Aislin
Thief living in the slums of a major city. 15-17 years old (not established ingame)

3. Start making the basic structure

Now that you have a character, start outlining the basics of their circumstances, relationships, and personality. If you so desire, you can use lists of traits, horoscopes, or existing people as a base. Do keep in mind that these are a framework only, they do not in and of themselves make a fully fleshed out character. Don’t forget flaws! Real people have flaws, and your characters should, too.

Example

Orphaned at around age 9 by a plague. Taken in by a thief trainer, where she met Taver, who is still a close friend. Currently living with Taver in the Warrens (as friends). Makes her living as a thief, a hazardous occupation since those caught are sent off to the salt mines (an effective death sentence).

Friends:
Taver (see Taver’s bio)
Kae – a girl about her own age who is a good cook and occasionally feeds the two of them. Although Kae calls her friend, Aislin is still a little reserved and distant with the outgoing girl.
Andrei (and wife) – the kindly middle-aged smuggler sees a little of his dead daughter Anya in Aislin, and Aislin has cultivated that to wrap the man around her finger. Despite the fact that he often offers to take her in, saving her from the road she’s on, she always refuses.
Caelach – Caelach is actually Taver’s friend, but she feels some warmth for the younger thief.

Personality: Bubbly and cheerful. Flashes of a darker, more troubled side at times.

Faults: Interrupts people when talking, rebuffs friendships, takes foolish risks.

4. Going deeper.

Now we really need to flesh out the character’s backstory. Take what you outlined above and do more with it. We also need to outline how a character is going to change throughout the story, if he is.

Example

Orphan: Although her mother died in the plague, her father had left them both many years earlier. He was a merchant, and often gone. One day, he left and simply didn’t come back. No one knows if he is alive or dead.

Thief Taker: Was actually her uncle, estranged from her mother. Took her in to care for her, not to train her. Only when she nearly killed herself trying to train herself did Taver clumsily try and teach her himself. Later, they managed to convince her uncle to relent.

Taver: Single closest human relationship. She considers Taver family. It is the only relationship where she doesn’t hold part of herself back.

Thief: the thief taker vanished after being wanted by the law. The boys being trained split up, many of them leaving the city for richer pickings. Taver felt some responsibility for Aislin, and they set up as partners-in-crime. They have so far avoided being arrested for it.

Personality/Faults: Her bubbly exterior is a mask for her deep uncertainty. She is subconsciously convinced that anyone she gets close to will die or otherwise leave her, so she pushes people away to protect/preempt them. The only exception is Taver, who she clings to ferociously, but at the same time unconsciously tries to sabotage their relationship in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Her risk taking is a symptom of her self-destructive impulses.

Changes: Aislin starts the game as an essentially selfish creature with intimacy and abandonment issues. Throughout the game, she will grow up and start caring about the greater world. She will open up to the party members, particularly Lucien. By the end of the game, she will still be daring, but it will now be with good cause rather than foolish risk.

5. The Interview

Now we really need to get into how this character works. If you’re an artist, this is a good time to draw a concept of your character. If not, search through the internet or other media until you find someone that “looks” like him. Putting a face to your creation will make it easier to visualize him as a real person.

For myself, this section takes the form of an interview, in which I ask the character questions, and they answer. For those with less imagination (or maybe just less insane), just a list of questions and answers to you, the author, is sufficient.

This is your chance to fully flesh out your character, as well as determine if any weak points exist before you move forward with your story. Ask about their past, and let them tell it in their own words. Ask them about their motivations and decisions, and make sure that they make sense and are strong.

Example (warning, some Shades spoilers)

What is your earliest childhood memory?

My father leaving. I remember crying and clinging to his leg, and he pried me off and left me sitting in the middle of the floor. He left and he never came back.

What was your childhood like?

After my father left, my mother and I were always arguing. She never wanted me to wear trousers, or get dirty, or do anything fun. I resented her for it. I wanted her to leave me alone. Maybe that’s why she died…

What happened after your mother died?

I was sent to this auction house, where the orphans were going to be sold. This man came, and said he was my uncle. He bought me and took me home. There was this boy with him. I didn’t trust either of them. I didn’t look at them or talk to them. I guess I was thinking that if I didn’t acknowledge them, they wouldn’t be real.

What happened next?

He took me to this funny hidden house in a bad part of town. He gave me my own room there. There were all these boys, and they did all sorts of stuff that looked fun. They climbed on fake roofs and tried to take scarves from dummies all covered in bells. But my uncle wouldn’t let me try it. Said it was dangerous and mommy wouldn’t ever forgive him.

So I tried it myself. I got up at night and tried to climb on the roof. But I slipped and fell, and no one had set out a mattress for me. The boy who came with to pick me up, he tried to catch me. We both got hurt, but not too bad. Just bruises. He cried.

He said he’d teach me, and his name was Taver.

Did he teach you to be a thief?

He taught me some. Then my uncle caught us. He was real mad, but after a while he said he’d teach me, too. It was hard, because I was better at it than Roddie, the biggest boy, and he led all the others in teasing me and tripping me and stuff. Taver helped me, though, and this little kid named Caelach sometimes, too. Then my uncle went away because the beaks were after him, and all the boys but Taver and Caelach left town. We shared a old room for a while, then Taver and I moved into a bigger place and left the room to Caelach. We’ve been thieving ever since.

Why do you boss Taver around so much?

I don’t know. It’s just that, no matter how much he complains or says no, if I push hard enough, he always says yes. Sometimes I think that some day he’s going to say no and be angry, and that I should stop doing it. But whenever he objects, I start pushing again.

What do you want, most of all?

When I was little, I wanted to travel to all the places my daddy went and see the wonders with my own eyes. After he left, I wanted to go look for him. But that’s just a silly daydream. I guess I want to not have to worry so much anymore. To stop having to steal. I don’t know, really. It doesn’t seem so important when you have to try so hard every day just to keep alive.

When you meet Ianthe, why do you want to go with her?

It was a way out. Something new and special. With what she was promising, it could be a ticket to fame and fortune. Who wouldn’t open their doors to someone with color? The risk was worth it.

When Taver was taken, why did you go looking for him, even though you didn’t know where to start?

Taver is… well, he’s everything to me, I guess. Not like he’s my boyfriend, no. He’s the only person who’s stuck with me through everything. I can’t lose him. I can’t. I had to do something. I would have gone crazy just sitting in Havensport wondering if he was ever coming back. Ianthe needed help, and I needed a ticket to leave. It worked out.

After you met back up with Taver, why did you keep helping Ianthe?

What she showed me was real. There were these things, these Incarnations, which were sucking all the color out of the world. There were people giving their lives daily to stop them. Lucien was going to be one of them. I felt responsible for him, and Ianthe had become my friend. And Taver was going with Meliné to help her. Everyone’s path was going in a single direction, and I chose to go the same way. They had a point. Who was I to go live in comfort while the world became a wasteland? At that point I still thought I might bail if things got too dangerous, but as I went on, it’s like I started getting stubborn. It didn’t matter what happened to me, as long as I kept the world and my new friends safe.

6. The dossier

Collect all of the information, including the image, in a handy location to access again. Whenever your story changes or you’re unsure of what your character should be saying or doing, open it up and reacquaint yourself with him. Then, just ask him: what would you do?

This process can help you keep your characters in character and make them realistic and believable. And more believable characters will help your player truly immerse themselves in your fantasy world.