Kay's Guide to Characters

What's one of the most important parts of any story? The characters. It doesn't matter how amazing your plotline is, if you don't have good, balanced, interesting characters, it'll be hard to keep readers interested.
There are a lot of pitfalls about characters: too many in one story with the same or very similar personalities, dull stereotypes, Mary Sues, etc.
If you think your characters might fall into one of these categories, don't worry too much about it. No one can write perfectly right away, and it's very subjective.
But, if you want to learn how to avoid common mistakes, that's the point of this guide. I can't guarantee that any of my tips will help you, as everyone has a different writing style, but possibly some good will come of this.
This guide is designed to help you start from scratch with only a plotline planned. If you already have characters written, be prepared to consider changing them significantly.
The order of sections in this guide is a possible order to work on character design, but it is only one of many. Specific recommendations are made in some places, but otherwise, read them and work based on them in whatever order feels right to you.


1. What's a Mary Sue? Balance and individuality.

This section is, in my opinion, the most important to read first, because if you don't, you might well end up having to rework an entire character, and you won't want to do that. It can also be harder that way, because your perception will be influenced by the first version. I do recommend, though, that you also read it after you're done creating a character.
A Mary Sue/Gary Stu is either 1: an unbalanced character, one who's perfect in almost every way, is good at almost everything, and who everyone either admires or is jealous of. 2: A character based on yourself, or who you pretend to be, in a way that affects your writing badly. (note: not all self-inserts are necessarily bad, but you're probably better off avoiding them at first)
If one of your characters does turn out to be a Mary Sue, don't freak out. Nearly everyone writes Mary Sues until they get the hang of creating characters.
So, two simple rules of thumb. 1: Flaws are good. And not little unimportant ones like a phobia of something that never actually is relevant, or a slightly imperfect appearance. Think about some people you know. Can't you find all sorts of reasons to complain about them? Your characters should be just as human. It will also make their strengths stand out more. 2: If your story is based off your daydreams, your D&D campaign, or your real life, take a looooong and very hard look for problems, and possibly consider taking the interesting elements and basing a different story around them. Things that are nice from your perspective may be very dull to read about as someone else, and your opinion (good or bad) of yourself can easily have a negative affect on your character.


2. Goals.

This is nice and simple. If you plan to write a story, you may well know the plot already.

If so, what is your character's goal? What is it that they're trying to do?
Examples: Ash's goal is to become a Pokemon Master. Mario's goal is to rescue Princess Peach. Harry Potter's goal is to defeat Voldemort.
With that in mind, you'll need to construct a character who's capable of reaching that goal. A two-year-old can't save the world believably. That's a rather extreme example, but if your character needs the Super Amazing Awesome Sword of Evildoom to have a chance against the most minor of baddies, or needs their parents, their mentor, or God to show up and bail them out of the final confrontation, then they're probably not up to the task.
A particular mistake is making characters who are far too young. When you've got a situation where all the adults are too closed-minded to attempt something, can't think of a solution to a problem, or are outdone in every way by 9-year-old so-and-so, without an unusually good explanation, it's generally not good.
Most fictional children are astoundingly precocious anyway, so even with a character you've already designed, it's generally easy to just make them a few years older with no real personality change.

If you don't know the plot already, taking a look at who your characters are can help you figure it out. For each main character, including antagonists, ask yourself the following questions.

What does this character want most? What is it that they're striving for, daydreaming about, or looking forward to? What is their goal before the start of the story?
What does this character fear most? Both the surface manifestation of that fear (ex: failing an important test) and the inner reason for it (losing approval from authority).
What sort of person does this character worry most about being? What is the dark side of them that they don't like to think about?
What does this character have to do to achieve the answer to the first question? What changes in their personality would help?

Take the character's goal, and make it so they have to surpass their fear to reach it. The antagonist should be someone who resembles the answer to the third question, and the character should change over the course of the story as described in the answer to the fourth question. These guidelines are not absolute, and you should think outside the box about how to apply them. If you want your story to be less mundane that it would be based simply on the answers to the questions, magnify the goal and fear. Instead of a character trying to pass a test to win his parents' approval, have them be recruited for a top secret government research project to learn about invading extraterrestrials, with the threat of being assumed to be a traitor if unsuccessful. The core of the goal (proving knowledge) and the fear (ostracism by authority) are unchanged, despite the scale increasing.


2. Motivation
Like it or not, not everyone is completely selfless and altruistic. If I came to your house and told you that the world would end soon if you didn't go risk your life on some incredibly dangerous quest, what would you do?
Likely enough, you wouldn't believe me, and certainly not at first, and you might very well not do anything even once you did. No, that's not meant to be remotely offensive. Don't take it that way.
So, why does your character set out to do whatever they need to do? It could be that they were offered large sums of money to attempt something. Or maybe they just got caught up in some disaster. It's a lot easier to decide to risk your life on some stupid adventure if you're already stranded on another planet, for example.
Maybe they tend to be reckless, overconfident, proud, greedy, emo, rebellious, foolhardy, or just plain dumb, and this character flaw enables them to be tricked into doing something.
Maybe someone they care about was killed, hurt, or kidnapped, or something like that, and they're out for revenge, or trying to save them.
Maybe one of their most fundamental moral principles was challenged, and they got dragged in over their head from there.

So, figure out exactly what motivates your character to do things, and make sure it's realistic.


3. Personality

You can either design your character's motivation and goal to fit their personality, or their personality to fit their motivation and goal. Just connect them in some way. A character who abides by an ascetic lifestyle throughout the story and enjoys doing so will probably not travel in search of treasure and riches. A very forgiving or selfish character is unlikely to seek vengeance. They may realize over the course of the story that they want things they didn't think they did, but you'll still have to make that realization understandable and sensible.
There are two sides of everyone. Their inner self, what they think, believe, wish for, and consider, and their outer self, the actions and manifestations based on the inner self. The outer self will never be as broad as the inner self. Everyone has thoughts and feelings that you never see them act based on. It is what we choose to do and not do that determines what kind of person we are, after all.
If you've already decided anything about what your character is like, write it down as specifically as you can now. You'll need to know those things to ensure the rest of their personality meshes well with them.
Second, figure out traits the character needs for the plot, if you already know any.
Next, figure out the core aspects of their personality, that everything else about them stems from. I'd suggest that there should be maybe three. This could be a view that they were raised with and didn't question for many years if ever, a natural attitude, a strongly held belief, anything that can be considered a base of the rest of their personality. Then, figure out what other views or habits or such they would have developed because of it. For example, someone who is cowardly is likely to dislike traveling to new places. Someone who is terrified of disease might be a clean freak. Write these down in a "tree", gradually adding more things. Here's an example, my interpretation of an existing character I used to write some fanfic about.



You may notice that this character can seem at times to contradict her own core personality, behaving in an antisocial manner despite caring for people being a core trait. You should consider how the character will always act, but what I mean for the core personality is what caused them to become who they are at the time of the story. They could even end up hiding their core personality completely. Think outside the box about how they might be affected by things. Many people overreact to what they feel was a big flaw, and end up changing completely. For example, here's part of a character tree for an OC of mine:



He started out as a trusting person, and after being betrayed and walked on by too many people, started to feel that everyone else was dishonest and became suspicious and dishonest himself. Such a character could easily add interesting elements to the story because of how easily they could end up hating themselves or people like themselves.
Don't worry about writing down every last detail now. Just figure out a framework at this point. Write down the details, particularly about their actions, later. Once you have your personality tree finished, you can figure out what your character's skills and interests are, and work them into the story. My OC, for instance, might end up being involved in politics, since his rule-abiding might give him an interest in laws and the making of them, and having already become jaded about deception and manipulation, he might not be as disgusted by the worse side of politicians.
Try comparing your characters to real people or other fictional characters, to see whether the connections in their personality make sense.


4. Appearance.
For this section, you will probably want to already know who your character is inside. Now, who are they outside? It's time to figure out your character's physical appearance.
If you thought this would mean fun, random stuff, sorry to disappoint you, you're going to have to think hard some more.

First, if you did a good job on your character's personality, maybe you can figure out, say, whether they prefer to be inside or outside, and therefore tanned or not. Whether they would be morbidly obese, dangerously skinny, or exactly where in between. Whether they would spend time looking good, or wear the same clothes three days in a row. Try to think of how their habits, interests, and attitudes would affect their appearance.

Then, figure out how they want to look. An extremely cheerful character is less likely to wear black all the time. A paranoid character might hate to dress in a way that makes them stand out. A lazy character might have wrinkled clothes and messy hair. A silly, lighthearted character might be a fashion guru. Your character should dress close to the way they want to, no matter how cool or beautiful you want them to look.

Once you've established everything that can be affected by your character's personality, things like height and natural hair color can generally be up to you. Have a blast.


5. Peculiarities, quirks, and habits

Before starting this section, you probably should already know a fair bit about your character.
Real people do strange things sometimes. Your character should too. What do they do when they're nervous? Do they tap their fingers on a table? Smooth their hair? Bite their lip? Is there anything they do that just seems really weird, like insisting on eating chocolate pancakes every single morning? Do they pick their nose when nobody's looking? What if they have an expensive hobby that they just can't give up?
While hardly any main protagonist has time to be goofing around while they're off saving the world, they all have weird things that they do back at home, and giving those up may well affect them later. Everyone has habitual movements, like swinging their feet or crossing their arms. If you know these things, throwing them into your story here and there will give it a bit of extra depth.
Adding a few idiosyncratic quirks to your characters makes them more real, and it's not nearly as complicated, so why not try it?


6. Language

If you know someone well, you can notice details about how they speak. Your character should also speak in certain patterns. Are they formal, vulgar, curt, chatty? Is their grammar bad, do they misuse or mispronounce words? What is it they usually say to greet someone, to indicate that they're listening to someone, when they feel uncomfortable? Does their use of language indicate that they're a hick, a gangster, a foreigner, an aristocrat? Don't overdo language quirks, but make them consistent. Be wary of writing in accents. I stopped reading the Redwall series purely because I didn't like taking five minutes to understand what someone was saying. A subtle accent goes a long way. Hagrid (Harry Potter) is an easily accessible example of an accent done right.


7. Getting to know your character.

Don't go near this until you have at least a nearly finished character. Do you feel like you really know them yet? Most likely, you know what words your best friend will use in a particular situation, how they feel about their parents, where they first lived, etc. Your characters will be put in situations where things like that will be relevant, so you should know them that well, too.
However incredibly weird it feels to you, try answering all of these in your head. See how many you can figure out right away, and what you would have to make up. Pretend that your character's answering the questions themselves in an interview and try to answer the way they would, if you want. Add some other details. Just play around and get a feel for who they are.


1. Full name, including middle name?
2. Birthday?
3. What kind of sense of humor do they have? Normal, morbid, dry, none, etc.
4. Childhood influences?
5. Talents, skills?
6. Weaknesses, vulnerabilities?
7. Introvert or extrovert?
8. Active or passive?
9. Optimist or pessimist?
10. What was their family like?
11. Have they had any jobs?
12. Education?
13. Favorite food?
14. Personal hygiene habits?
15. What do they do for fun?
16. Pets?
17. What movies would they like?
18. Most treasured possession?
19. Places to spend time?
20. Favorite saying?
21. Rivals and enemies?
22. Reactions to stress?
23. Favorite quote?
24. Favorite time of day?
25. Superstitions?


8. Similarities, or lack thereof

There's a good chance that your main character won't be the only one in your story. And just because the others won't play as big a part doesn't mean they deserve less effort and careful construction. When you design the rest of the characters, you should keep one thing in mind. Make sure none of those characters are too similar. They should, in fact, generally be as different as possible.
Why? For one thing, they can act as foils to each other. If Bob is surly, Becky being chatty will make it more notable.
Second, if all your characters are very much alike, it can easily get extremely dull. Let's say your story is about a group of five traveling warriors. They're all "the strong, silent type". Their conversations will consist of a series of very meaningful, introspective grunts and ellipses. They'll make plans by glancing at things. If they ever have to interact with another character, they'll all stand around looking stern waiting for someone else to do the talking. You don't want that, I hope.
As a general rule, none of your characters should have overlapping core personality traits, and should act differently enough that none are ever redundant. Beyond simple courtesies, you usually shouldn't be able to take dialogue for one character and give it to another with no edits.
They should also not have similar names. Your readers will not remember which is which of Lizzie, Lisa, and Eliza. As a simple guideline, unless you have a reason to do otherwise, give each character a different first initial, and vary the number of syllables in their names.



9. Attitude toward other characters.

You'll probably want to read this once you already know at least some basic information about multiple characters in your story.
People act differently based on who they're around. So too should your characters. They will behave a certain way by default, but occasionally someone else in the story might bring out the goofball in an otherwise humorless character, be trusted by a paranoid character, or just drive every other character nuts.
Everyone has to have an opinion of everyone else, and act slightly different around each person.
Maybe Joe suddenly gets less talkative when Bob's in the room, because he respects Bob and doesn't want to look like an idiot in front of him, for example. Maybe when Bob and Jessica are both there, Joe laughs more than normal to try to help them feel less nervous around each other. Maybe when Jessica is around but not Bob, Joe talks too much, because he has a crush on Jessica. Interactions between different characters are essential.

Start with your main protagonist, the character you've been working on first. Then, for each other character you made in the previous step, write down their opinion of that character, and at least a slight change in behavior. Remember, as always, make connections and use logic.

Deciding two characters who act relatively similar should get along isn't always realistic. Two bossy people wouldn't necessarily get along well, they could just both try to order the other around. Two cynical people wouldn't necessarily get along well, there would be no one to lighten the mood. (Deciding similar characters get along badly doesn't work either. Two people who liked jokes a lot would probably get along well, not taking other factors into account.)

Think about how real people you know act around each other. Chances are, you can easily see this in action and make some observations to use in your writing. When in doubt, read dialogue out loud to yourself. Think about what kind of person you would say that to. A friend, a significant other, a rival, a sibling?


10. But Kay, I'm not writing about any OCs!

Maybe not, but you're doing a lot of the same work. Unless you got a brain transplant from the original creator, or they provided a lot of really detailed information, you're reinterpreting every character you write about. Why does Marisa Kirisame steal things so often? Unless ZUN stated it somewhere I don't know about, if I want to write something detailed about Marisa, I'll need to make my own answer to that question. It's probably different from your answer, and the next guy's answer. Which means we would actually be writing about three slightly different Marisas, in a sense. If you write that story about Marisa, you need to fill in all the blanks that don't have a known answer. So, you'll have to go through the same process, with a few differences.
First, make sure you know enough about the character you're writing about. You may decide to ignore some information, and that's not always a bad thing even if it's canon. But you should be informed about what you're ignoring. When someone comments with "what, why did you write X, it's supposed to be Y", you have an explanation for why you did it. You can even answer that question preemptively in your story. Have a character mention the canon information as being a rumor that isn't really true, then state the substitute information, or some other dismissal.
Where you don't differ from canon, write down the information you already have. Then follow the same steps as designing an OC, basing the interpretive parts around what you already know for certain.
If existing characters in the same story are too similar, or other problems, you can skew your interpretations to emphasize other things, or simply leave them as is if you aren't concerned about it. In a setting as wide as Touhou, you could even consider writing about a different character at times, if something really bothers you.


That's all, at least unless anyone wants to suggest something I should add. Hope it was helpful, and happy writing!