Experiences What makes for an interesting character?

[Astraea]

I know everyone has their own preferences, I'm just curious as to what everyone else thinks.

I happen to find witch characters as absolutely fascinating - I always love when I'm writing with someone whose characters use magic. Some people use magic from certain books or movies, and others mix them with their own twist. It's interesting how many ways the same idea can be done ^^

 

[Cealen]

honestly, speaking in general terms, an interesting character is a character someone (either you or your partner) obviously enjoys writing. you can tell when a character lacks the passion behind them, which makes them... bland. boring. because the person writing is not invested in them, they stay a static character, or just gets “reaction replies”- where the character just reacts to everything happening and doesn’t actually do anything. if you don’t care about a character, why even attempt to make them interesting?

so i think what makes an interesting character is really someone who just wants to go crazy with a character. want to have a dynamic character who they want to do introspection on and make them their own being almost. that makes a character so much more interesting!

i know it’s kinda a given answer (“motivated people want to make interesting characters”) but it is so true. the hardest rps i have been is where the person obviously does not give a single crap about their character and expects me to find their character “interesting” somewhat.

if we’re talking about specific character traits that make a character interesting, any character that’s a “weirdo” is so fun to write. no one ever fits a perfect societal standard in real life (yes, everyone in a “weirdo” in their own right!) so why try to make a ““normal”” character in a rp? people get really caught up on realism and not wanting to make a mary sue that they end up making a very... “””normal”” character. using heavy air quotes there, i don’t know if “normal” really fits here. but it’s like people are so scared of making a mary sue that they make a bland character that has nothing “”mary sue”” about them, in there eyes.

people don’t care really about mary sues. people love overpowered characters. they only dislike badly written ones. there are so many characters in popular media that if you break them down you realize they’re actually what would be considered a “mary sue” if they were introduced in an rp setting. don’t make a “bland” character in order to avoid making mary sues! write a character you find is fun to write, while keeping in mind that flaws make a character even more fun to write. bam. interesting character you got there because its someone you actually wanna write, not someone who fits the rps rules to a t.

hopefully i made sense and didnt misinterpret your question!

 

[Redfork2000]

What makes for an interesting character? I think for me it all has to do with the character's key personality traits. Their motivations, goals, fears, wants, their personality as a whole. More than certain powers or certain interests, the personality is what really defines a character for me. At the core of a great character is a great personality. There isn't just one kind of way to do this though. But the process of making a character feel like an actual person, a three-dimensional being with their own unique traits and nuances that make them feel unique. Throughout my years of writing I've discovered that the roleplays I'm most engaged in are those where both me and my roleplaying partner have known how to develop characters that feel three-dimensional, they have their unique flavor to them. I'm not sure if I can exactly explain this correctly.

Ok, so in a roleplay, if each character is written with a unique and distinct personality, there's a point where you get a strong feel for who they are, you can hear their own unique voice, and there's even a point where you could read random quotes from the roleplay and tell exactly who said them in the roleplay just by the personality of the character who said them. It reaches a point where you no longer feel like you're just writing sentences and paragraphs, but rather the characters feel alive, real and dynamic.

There are some characters who have what I call "informed personalities", that is, the player explains what their personality is in the character sheet, but it never actually shows up in the roleplay. Like a character who is said to be very snarky or witty, yet how they are written doesn't demonstrate this snarky or witty personality that was mentioned in the character sheet. If you ask me, a character in interesting when they feel like they have a personality, they are dynamic, they feel real and three-dimensional.

What happens when your character doesn't have motivations, goals, fears, wants, personality traits, or at least they don't show in the roleplay? The character feels bland, generic, lifeless. As a result, they become boring, and the whole roleplay suffers as a result, since in my opinion, characters are the heart of any roleplay. If the characters are boring, then chances are I'll feel the RP is boring as well, even if the plot is good.

A character who is dynamic and complex will have defined motivations or goals. Even if it's nothing complicated or large-scaled, there will always be something the character wants or hopes for. What makes the character go? What drives them? This character not only has goals, but also fears. And it doesn't have to be a fear like spiders, snakes, heights or darkness, though those are all things that give an extra layer, but more abstract fears as well. Maybe they are very self-demanding and perfeccionist because they fear they can't live up to others' expectations. Maybe they are afraid of being themselves because they fear not being liked by other people. Maybe they fear opening up to others and developing emotional connections because they fear they'll be hurt. There's a wide variety of these.

What I like to ask myself when I play a character is: "What does the world look like through the eyes of this character?" Basically, what does your character think about the world they live in? What are their world views? What do they believe in? And I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about personal beliefs about the world and life. For example, one character might believe life is to be lived to the fullest, and maybe their interpretation of that is to not be afraid to take risks, and just go out there and do stuff. Maybe another character believes that anything can be achieved with hard work, and thus they are very determined and hardworking, working hard to achieve their personal goals. Another character might believe that the world is an amazing place full of things to discover, so they are very curious and want to learn more about the world around them. None of these beliefs are mutually exclusive, but I think part of what really defines a character is what specific beliefs define their world view and their behavioural patterns.

How do their beliefs determine the way a character lives their life? A character can have several different beliefs, but there's always one or two that are what truly define a character's personality. Here we're talking what's at the core of a character, what makes them who they are, what makes them tick. Perhaps they seek new experiences, perhaps they pursue knowledge, perhaps what they really want is to help those they love, perhaps they don't know what they want and just go wherever the wind takes them. But a character needs to have something at their core that makes them go.

That foundation is what I think goes at the core of any character. After that you build the rest of the character's personality. What their interests are, how they behave around people, what things are more important to them. From there you can go on to the more surface-level traits, like tastes in food, music, etc, though that's mostly an extra.

That's why I love character creation so much, and why I love roleplays where character interactions are the main focus. I love exploring the core personality traits, developing a complex character that sees the world and walks through life in their own unique way. I love seeing how different characters with different personalities interact with one another, see what interesting dynamics develop. That's what I love the most.

 

[grimmmy]

• characters with motivation, who want something
• characters with a unique voice: either internal narration or dialogue
• characters that encourage interesting dynamics
• characters that have a consistent logic behind their decisions rooted in their personality and experiences that you have to puzzle out
• characters with room to develop

honestly it's a lot of work to make a genuinely interesting character, but i've started to collect the ones i think got closest to some of these bullet points cause they're worth more than gold

 

[Jannah]

people don’t care really about mary sues. people love overpowered characters. they only dislike badly written ones. there are so many characters in popular media that if you break them down you realize they’re actually what would be considered a “mary sue” if they were introduced in an rp setting. don’t make a “bland” character in order to avoid making mary sues! write a character you find is fun to write, while keeping in mind that flaws make a character even more fun to write. bam. interesting character you got there because its someone you actually wanna write, not someone who fits the rps rules to a t.

Azula comes to mind here. I always found her to be over-powered and she's never truly defeated until she has her mental breakdown.

 

[Big Brother Jack]

Villains to me are more interesting then the hero because they pretty much make the main conflict, like how Voldemort/Tom Riddle just wanted to not die and take over the wizarding world. The most tragic thing is that he could never feel love for anyone and the closest thing was Bella for him but she got killed by Molly Weasley and for the moment you are like, "Yeah fuck her up Molly!" But when you think about it that is very sad because Voldemort has no one now and you can kind of see why he is the way he is.

 

[Melpomene]

Oooh such an interesting question.

There is no one thing that makes me look at a character and go: "huh... I like you." but it usually is everything combined about them. Both in RP and literature do I love dynamic and complex characters that not only do I feel I can connect with at some level, but more than that I can practically see them, breathing and alive, as my eyes flick over the words. It takes talented writers to make such come up, springing with a life of their own so much so that I can feel every emotion between myself and them.

I would say it is a combination of personality, goals, struggles, and possibly most of all the writer themselves.

Personality, really, I only hope they have one. More than that, one that is actually something I want to see written out. I think it is worst when characters and the narrative insist a character is one thing but that character never acts like it. You can claim your character is smart OOC, you can have other characters claim it, you can even have the narrative claim it, but until I see them do something smart I am not going to list "smart" as one of their attributes myself. That... is actually probably what makes me dislike the character the fastest, haha. It is also the biggest sign of an ill-written character for me. Often this comes along with the character being flawed, but the narrative or others insisting these flaws don't exist.

The writer letting the character well... be the character it is possibly is one of the easiest way to make a character interesting to me. Not only that, but it is so fun when characters begin writing themselves. It is like I am just copying an event rather than writing a new experience when this happens. But more importantly, letting them suffer the consequences of their actions. So my character isn't that smart (at least in certain areas). That's fine, and people can know they are not that smart and then people can treat them accordingly. My character is an asshole? Completely and utterly? Then a lot of people are probably annoyed or don't like them and they have to deal with that.

See for me a bland Mary Sue character isn't an OP character but rather a character who the author won't let just... exist realistically in the world. The type that will be a dick and then get praised for it. Or will ruin people's lives but for some reason those same people still love them. The type that the narrative actively refuses to acknowledge their flaws and gives them unearned virtues.

Because well... flaws are what makes me want to see a character achieve their goal. What a character's goal is doesn't actually matter to me as much as they have one, and it will be some type of struggle for them to achieve it. The most important part to me is the struggle. What makes a character the most interesting for me is how their personality, flaws and virtues, mesh with their struggle to reach their goal. This is why I put such an emphasis on the author letting them grow and act without babying them.

To me an interesting character comes from seeing them work with the flaws they have, to try to be better and reach their goal and the struggle that comes with it.

 

[Pilgrim59]

I know everyone has their own preferences, I'm just curious as to what everyone else thinks.

I happen to find witch characters as absolutely fascinating - I always love when I'm writing with someone whose characters use magic. Some people use magic from certain books or movies, and others mix them with their own twist. It's interesting how many ways the same idea can be done ^^

Big. Animu. Pixels.
I am quite discriminatory towards low-resolution faceclaims.
Keep moving along, cropped pictures. This is a high-resolution neighborhood.
Ahem.

Real talk. Any character that can make you sit back and think about their existence for three-days straight before you can reply is an interesting character in my book. Sass, murderous, fluff, or corny. It don't matter none. If they leave an impression on you, they're interesting.

If we're talking about kinks. Well. I must confess that I do appreciate characters that can cook. Especially when they go in-detail about their step-by-step culinary procedures.
All of that without an apron, because I'm dangerous like that. That's right, ladies, best hide your househusbands.

 

[counterfeitcowboy]

I think the most interesting characters are the ones who are allowed to make mistakes, and the ones who are allowed to be bad at something that has a genuine negative effect. Morally infallible characters feel unrealistic. My favorites (that belong to other writers) are the ones who think unkind or selfish thoughts sometimes. The ones who struggle and have to rely on another character for something despite their own pride. Good guys who make an irredeemable mistake and have to live with it. Characters who can lose arguments or be humiliated.

 

[Jannah]

I think the most interesting characters are the ones who are allowed to make mistakes, and the ones who are allowed to be bad at something that has a genuine negative effect. Morally infallible characters feel unrealistic. My favorites (that belong to other writers) are the ones who think unkind or selfish thoughts sometimes. The ones who struggle and have to rely on another character for something despite their own pride. Good guys who make an irredeemable mistake and have to live with it. Characters who can lose arguments or be humiliated.

Ah yes, I feel this. I'm writing a character now who has made some pretty selfish decisions and is now living with the dangerous consequences.