Advice on developing characters outside of roleplays?

[jiminie]

Hello! 


I've got a couple characters I am extremely interested in developing and expanding on, but outside of roleplays and writing short stories etc, are there any good ways to help develop the characters? I've been trying to use them in RPs but I don't want to rely on them and I'd like to create some solid, self-standing characters.. if that makes sense? I'm wondering if things like character sheets are good, but then I'm not sure where I would find some extensive/detailed ones, so recommendations would be appreciated. 


Any advice? 

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

So, to clarify, you have several characters that you use in roleplays, but you want to have character growth outside of any RP or story?

 

[jiminie]

So, to clarify, you have several characters that you use in roleplays, but you want to have character growth outside of any RP or story?

I have two characters currently, neither are in roleplays and I have a description of their personality and background, fairly in depth. But they aren't as developed as they would be if they were in active roleplays.. So I'm looking for ways to develop those characters and figure more of their personality/backgrounds/quirks out without roleplaying (but not just using simple character sheets). 

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

One thing you could do is take a personality test as those characters (I uses 16 personalities, personally). Another thing is to put your characters in a variety of situations and see how the react (you can do this part in your head if you'd like). You could also Google random quirk generators, if you are wanting random chance to help you.


The problem with devolping your characters outside of actual roleplays/stories is that it happens in a vacuum, essentially. You say you have detailed histories and personalities for your characters, so the only real way to develop them further is to put them in a story or RP, so they can grow in the story. When a character changes a part of their personality, or gains a quirk, or develops in any other way, shape, or form, it's a result of the scenario they are placed in. Trying to have them develop without a place to develop them is kinda pointless.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Sometimes, overly detailed character sheets are more of annoyance than anything else. We don't need to know specifically how often his voice fluctuates or her cup size (I've seen a roleplay that asked for that...) So aside from writing short stories or roleplaying, I'm not all that sure how this could be done. Another thing to note is that you might have a very detailed and specific history for X character, but it wouldn't work in Y roleplay or Z short story. Being flexible is key if you reuse those characters.


I have maybe 5 I use shamelessly and are rather developed. Yet I believe this is because they began paired with the character that belongs to a close friend of mine, and so we would constantly drill each other on likes, dislike, habits, etc. Even if it was unnecessary at the time.

 

[ElDuderino]

1. Put them in hypothetical situations and start wondering how they would act. (e.g. a stuck elevator)


2. Improvise a conversation/interview with that character.


3. Find TV/film characters that are similar to your characters and take inspiration from that.

 

[eclipsa]

I've used extensive character sheets (masterlist here), personality tests, and situational development. How they would react to certain things, etc. I've got a few characters that are very well developed because of this!

 

[Tedronai]

Some great ideas here already. I tend to use character sheets but they're very simple in nature. They have three categories' only: Appearance, back story, personality.


I believe that the appearance and backstory shape the character's mind, for instance a beautiful woman born to a rich family is unlikely to have the same personality as an ugly man who grew up in the slums.


I then fill it in but in no particular order. If I think of a cool piece of history for my character i ask myself how that would have effected them (Nothing bugs me more than people who have tragic back stories and are happy smiley people with no issues or mental scars. If it left no impression on the character why include it?). If however the story requires a character who's misanthropic I work backwards and ask myself what kind of events would have made someone like this.


If I'm writing a novel I then revisit the character as I develop others to make sure they're well orchestrated (not too similar so as to make one redundant or so different as to make them comedicly mismatched). If it's not a novel you can do this with other characters in an RP, a character from a book or tv show that you could imagine existing in the same world, or even yourself. As someone else said, imagine interviewing them.


Until the story is finished I'm not too precious about changing any detail. It's all fluid until I write the words "the end" then I put it to one side and start all over again. ☺