Nerdinabottle
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have quite a few ocs and I love creating them, but does anyone have tips and tricks on creating a fleshed-out character with a good backstory and fitting personality?
Advice/Help Advice on character building?
- Thread starter Nerdinabottle
- Start date
myfanwy
forever tilted
i can't speak on backstories too well, however, i know a bit about personalities.
myer-briggs
traits
real-life
myer-briggs
this is a very good first step for a personality. i would either take the test with the mindset of your character or just look at which letter stands for what and then going from there. write a short paragraph as to why they're an extrovert, why they're introspective, etc. it doesn't have to be too in-depth as it is only the first step.
traits
i find it helpful to pick a few broad personality traits and going more in-depth with it. for example, one of my characters is calm. that in of itself is a broad term, but the main thing you have to ask is: why? why is he calm? what made him calm? this also helps me form the backstory of my character.
an important thing to remember, however, is to avoid clichés unless you do it in a tactful way. avoid saying that they're 'depressed' or a 'loner', that people love them, that they get along with every single person that they meet. if you're not careful, it can very easily stray in mary sue or gary stu territory
an important thing to remember, however, is to avoid clichés unless you do it in a tactful way. avoid saying that they're 'depressed' or a 'loner', that people love them, that they get along with every single person that they meet. if you're not careful, it can very easily stray in mary sue or gary stu territory
real-life
if you're not happy with the way the first two steps turned out, you could always look at someone's real life personality and base it off of that. personally i've never done that, however, i know it works for some.
Lord Aphrodite
To conquer death, you only have to die.
For backstories, make sure they make sense, and that you can find the placement of chronological events easily, and remember them. No one wants conflicting backstory events, unless that's part of the RP.
It may be helpful to pick out some crucial moments in the character's life, then build around them. It's not realistic that your character is always dealing with a major personal moment or challenge for their entire life, they'll develop some sort of mental illness, surely.
As for the integral link between backstories and personalities, make sure they make sense. If your life has been utter shit, for lack of a better term, would it make sense that your character would have what I like to call a "Debbie Downer" personality. If their life has been great so far, not many challenges, and they come from a loving family, they'd have a "Bubbly Bobbie" personality.
Debbie Downers can be the dark, abusive characters that some people make, or the broken, depressed characters that others make. These characters are generally marked by tragic backstories and other dark themes. If you have a character with this type of personality from a good background, it tends to make your character... Off-putting.
Bubbly Bobbie's on the other hand are marked by beautiful lives where everything goes their way. These characters can be snobby and pretentious, or humble and kind. It really depends on the character. If you have a character with this type of personality from the saddest, most tragic background, it gives me the air that they have some magical god-level mental coping. It's weird to me.
And like the above person said, don't be afraid to base it off yourself or someone else, that can help.
It may be helpful to pick out some crucial moments in the character's life, then build around them. It's not realistic that your character is always dealing with a major personal moment or challenge for their entire life, they'll develop some sort of mental illness, surely.
As for the integral link between backstories and personalities, make sure they make sense. If your life has been utter shit, for lack of a better term, would it make sense that your character would have what I like to call a "Debbie Downer" personality. If their life has been great so far, not many challenges, and they come from a loving family, they'd have a "Bubbly Bobbie" personality.
Debbie Downers can be the dark, abusive characters that some people make, or the broken, depressed characters that others make. These characters are generally marked by tragic backstories and other dark themes. If you have a character with this type of personality from a good background, it tends to make your character... Off-putting.
Bubbly Bobbie's on the other hand are marked by beautiful lives where everything goes their way. These characters can be snobby and pretentious, or humble and kind. It really depends on the character. If you have a character with this type of personality from the saddest, most tragic background, it gives me the air that they have some magical god-level mental coping. It's weird to me.
And like the above person said, don't be afraid to base it off yourself or someone else, that can help.
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
Character building is an extremely personalized thing, and it's hard to provide advise without pushing too much into a field which is more closely reassembling how onself makes a character, which is problematic because two people will not necessarily be compatible with the same methods. That said, there are a few general guidelines that I think can be used to generally produce a character that is above the "pretty good" line.
1st: know what you want and what you need.
What is that you want from your character? What is your goal and/or your core idea in their making? It may seem obvious that a character made to be a badass speedy fighter and a character made to be a comic relief clumsy waitress should not be designed the same way. Of course, though, a character can be both a badass speedy fighter and a comic relief clumsy waitress, but knowing what's really important to you about the character first will help you choose perhaps the most important aspect of writing in general, which is knowing when to "kill your darlings". If you never heard that expression, it's used when a writer has several great ideas, but some of them are gears that don't fit or when there is only limited space or design space, hence the need to remove things even if they would otherwise seem great. Knowing what you can sacrifice, as well as having a source to give direction to your design, thus making the character actually be a single unified unit, are both benefits of simply understanding your goal.
That said, another big design element is knowing where the character fits in the narrative, world, group and roleplay. knowing what the character will have to be doing and having even a vague sense of their placement can help you complement their design and shave some rough edges that could have made them harder to work with later on. Speaking of which...
2nd: Cooperation trumps vaccum
Your character isn't being thrown into a vaccum. When you design the character, that basic awareness is required for good quality. Jumbling together traits, obviously, isn't going to make a good character (unless you're so skilled that you actually know how to connect random traits into cohesion, but you should always expect yourself to underperform), and making a character that is unable to move into the plot or interact with the other characters is also problematic.
So when you design the character, you need to keep two questions in mind:
1. How does each aspect of my character play off the whole of my character or other individual traits they have?
2. How does each aspect of my character affect my standing, motivation and interaction towards the plot and other characters?
Now this is a very case by case scenario, so it's hard to give concrete measures, but the rule is simply that you should, usually, design your character towards being more cooperative. That doesn't mean you need to be all bubbly and sushine and be the healer of every party etc... It may just mean, say, giving your brooding edgelord a really damm good reason to want to see the group's mission down to the end, thus confronting characters about their problems and being the one trying to get the group to always push foward, even if they are just doing it for their own motivation. It could be giving your shy meek character a hobby that really stands out and an interest in someone in the group. The poossibilities are endless.
Balancing your character's power level, trying to fit a niche role rather than being even decent at everything, favoring flaws and weaknesses over qualities and strengths, all of these go a long way towards making you more cooperative as well.
3rd: Consistency
Over time, I've come to realize that when it comes to good world-building, character design and so forth, one thing that always came to truly standing out was consistency. Consistency may just be the single most important thing that I know of when it comes to any part of writing. However, this is complete consistency I'm talking about. I'm talking about the world being internally consistent, with actions having causes, results, consequences and circumstances all playing off each other and deriving from one another.
Try justifying as much as you can, always within the rules of the universe and area your character is in, don't try to be "the exception". Always make sure the consequences come from the combining circumstances and that even in the backstory the character's decisisons are Backed by who they were and what the circumstances.
It's a pretty broad concept and it's hard to word now that I am attempting to. But hopefully you got the gist of it.
Withthose three steps, your character should be plenty good. Naturally, this is a very case-by-case thing and even those rules have exceptions, though you better have published a couple successful novels already if you want to tackle those exceptions and expect a good result.
That said, I'd like to also bring up a couple of worries and common mistakes that might be useful to keep in mind:
*Originality is important, but originality is not always different- A lot of people are constantly worried about standing out, being special, being original. But truth be told, they usually go about it entirely wrong. Why? Because you can't be original on the broad strokes. Yes, it's possible to describe every character in existence entirely in tropes, because that's cutting what's actually original about them. If you wanna be original, focus less on being different, and more on seriously exploring in your own way (which is the only way that is unique to you) something that already exists.
*You reap what you sow- While it's not always guarantee of an actual successful character, the truth is putting in effort to research, typing things out explicitly , and really considering everything about the character in-depth can, even if it takes a lot of effort, seriously improve the character's overall quality.
*You don't need to make it right away, but don't postpone either- You may have found yourself in this dilema before: You need to make a character for an RP but you are simply not feeling like you can churn it out right away, but if you hold on making the character for a while you may forget details or even end up taking too long to make the character and stall out the RP. What if I told you there is a third option? Simply make your character over time. Whether by notes or making a point of filling a bit of the sheet as the ideas come to you or a bit everyday, making steady progress over time can help you keep the quality of your design without fatiguing as much or taking so long you forget or loose motivation to even join, provided you can keep yourself organized.
*Contradiction is not complexity- Humans beings are complex, yes, but we are not contraditory. Simply, in the persuit of the same goal with the same thought process, different circumstances can cause that same root to branch. Don't worry about following what I just said too deeply unless you're interested, and more importantly, focus on the message: A character that is not internally consistent (as mentioned earlier) is not a good character. They cna act differently for different situations, but that should be because the same set oftraits manifests differently in different circumstances.
*Character sheet does not replace growth- some people have convinced themselves that somehow what you write in personality and backstory "locks in" the growth of the character, and they take two wrong conclusions from that wrong assumption. One is that defining a solid personality somehow prevents the character from growing the other is that therefore they don't need to have any character growth so long as they have a good established personality. Both of these are dead wrong. You need a solid personality to be able to have it grow and develop, but you can'tignore either if you want to make good characters.
*Flaws are only real if they hurt you for real- The big question I usually have people ask is this: Will this flaw make me fail at an important time? If not, it's not that it isn't a flaw necessarily, but it isn't anything that's actually bringing conflict, interest or balance to the character.
*Be decisive and commit- The best characters become their own people, have almost a life of their own. You're not gonna be able to do that if their personalities are formless masses that lack direction. Don't try to be vague or have a character thta cna perfectly adapt to every situation and circumstances, be ready and accepting of taking losses and having the character sufer difficulties they have to work through by being a person of their own. If you decide to make a character have a certain behavior, commit to it. Don't go adding conditions or backtracking about it or saying "sometimes", no, if they are something, make sure they really are that thing.
I hope this helps!
1st: know what you want and what you need.
What is that you want from your character? What is your goal and/or your core idea in their making? It may seem obvious that a character made to be a badass speedy fighter and a character made to be a comic relief clumsy waitress should not be designed the same way. Of course, though, a character can be both a badass speedy fighter and a comic relief clumsy waitress, but knowing what's really important to you about the character first will help you choose perhaps the most important aspect of writing in general, which is knowing when to "kill your darlings". If you never heard that expression, it's used when a writer has several great ideas, but some of them are gears that don't fit or when there is only limited space or design space, hence the need to remove things even if they would otherwise seem great. Knowing what you can sacrifice, as well as having a source to give direction to your design, thus making the character actually be a single unified unit, are both benefits of simply understanding your goal.
That said, another big design element is knowing where the character fits in the narrative, world, group and roleplay. knowing what the character will have to be doing and having even a vague sense of their placement can help you complement their design and shave some rough edges that could have made them harder to work with later on. Speaking of which...
2nd: Cooperation trumps vaccum
Your character isn't being thrown into a vaccum. When you design the character, that basic awareness is required for good quality. Jumbling together traits, obviously, isn't going to make a good character (unless you're so skilled that you actually know how to connect random traits into cohesion, but you should always expect yourself to underperform), and making a character that is unable to move into the plot or interact with the other characters is also problematic.
So when you design the character, you need to keep two questions in mind:
1. How does each aspect of my character play off the whole of my character or other individual traits they have?
2. How does each aspect of my character affect my standing, motivation and interaction towards the plot and other characters?
Now this is a very case by case scenario, so it's hard to give concrete measures, but the rule is simply that you should, usually, design your character towards being more cooperative. That doesn't mean you need to be all bubbly and sushine and be the healer of every party etc... It may just mean, say, giving your brooding edgelord a really damm good reason to want to see the group's mission down to the end, thus confronting characters about their problems and being the one trying to get the group to always push foward, even if they are just doing it for their own motivation. It could be giving your shy meek character a hobby that really stands out and an interest in someone in the group. The poossibilities are endless.
Balancing your character's power level, trying to fit a niche role rather than being even decent at everything, favoring flaws and weaknesses over qualities and strengths, all of these go a long way towards making you more cooperative as well.
3rd: Consistency
Over time, I've come to realize that when it comes to good world-building, character design and so forth, one thing that always came to truly standing out was consistency. Consistency may just be the single most important thing that I know of when it comes to any part of writing. However, this is complete consistency I'm talking about. I'm talking about the world being internally consistent, with actions having causes, results, consequences and circumstances all playing off each other and deriving from one another.
Try justifying as much as you can, always within the rules of the universe and area your character is in, don't try to be "the exception". Always make sure the consequences come from the combining circumstances and that even in the backstory the character's decisisons are Backed by who they were and what the circumstances.
It's a pretty broad concept and it's hard to word now that I am attempting to. But hopefully you got the gist of it.
Withthose three steps, your character should be plenty good. Naturally, this is a very case-by-case thing and even those rules have exceptions, though you better have published a couple successful novels already if you want to tackle those exceptions and expect a good result.
That said, I'd like to also bring up a couple of worries and common mistakes that might be useful to keep in mind:
*Originality is important, but originality is not always different- A lot of people are constantly worried about standing out, being special, being original. But truth be told, they usually go about it entirely wrong. Why? Because you can't be original on the broad strokes. Yes, it's possible to describe every character in existence entirely in tropes, because that's cutting what's actually original about them. If you wanna be original, focus less on being different, and more on seriously exploring in your own way (which is the only way that is unique to you) something that already exists.
*You reap what you sow- While it's not always guarantee of an actual successful character, the truth is putting in effort to research, typing things out explicitly , and really considering everything about the character in-depth can, even if it takes a lot of effort, seriously improve the character's overall quality.
*You don't need to make it right away, but don't postpone either- You may have found yourself in this dilema before: You need to make a character for an RP but you are simply not feeling like you can churn it out right away, but if you hold on making the character for a while you may forget details or even end up taking too long to make the character and stall out the RP. What if I told you there is a third option? Simply make your character over time. Whether by notes or making a point of filling a bit of the sheet as the ideas come to you or a bit everyday, making steady progress over time can help you keep the quality of your design without fatiguing as much or taking so long you forget or loose motivation to even join, provided you can keep yourself organized.
*Contradiction is not complexity- Humans beings are complex, yes, but we are not contraditory. Simply, in the persuit of the same goal with the same thought process, different circumstances can cause that same root to branch. Don't worry about following what I just said too deeply unless you're interested, and more importantly, focus on the message: A character that is not internally consistent (as mentioned earlier) is not a good character. They cna act differently for different situations, but that should be because the same set oftraits manifests differently in different circumstances.
*Character sheet does not replace growth- some people have convinced themselves that somehow what you write in personality and backstory "locks in" the growth of the character, and they take two wrong conclusions from that wrong assumption. One is that defining a solid personality somehow prevents the character from growing the other is that therefore they don't need to have any character growth so long as they have a good established personality. Both of these are dead wrong. You need a solid personality to be able to have it grow and develop, but you can'tignore either if you want to make good characters.
*Flaws are only real if they hurt you for real- The big question I usually have people ask is this: Will this flaw make me fail at an important time? If not, it's not that it isn't a flaw necessarily, but it isn't anything that's actually bringing conflict, interest or balance to the character.
*Be decisive and commit- The best characters become their own people, have almost a life of their own. You're not gonna be able to do that if their personalities are formless masses that lack direction. Don't try to be vague or have a character thta cna perfectly adapt to every situation and circumstances, be ready and accepting of taking losses and having the character sufer difficulties they have to work through by being a person of their own. If you decide to make a character have a certain behavior, commit to it. Don't go adding conditions or backtracking about it or saying "sometimes", no, if they are something, make sure they really are that thing.
I hope this helps!
