drawn by: Nili DooL
This post is made to help you write unique characters. It's a bit of a longer post as it also includes some additional ideas for giving your characters distinct personalities. Make sure to read until the end for some additional tips~.
Let's begin!
DEPTH
While not all characters need to have depth, this is something you could consider when wanting to write about someone unique. As a writer, I like to slowly reveal a lot about a character as the story progresses, not only their interests and hobbies but also their opinions, inner beliefs, secrets, etc.
Similarly to real human beings, I like the character I'm writing about to seem like an onion whose layers you can never peel to the end. I like when there's always more to the character, something they're not saying, something they don't reveal to the world (be it out of fear of difficult past or anything in between...)
PLAY WITH STEREOTYPES
I like taking well-known stereotypes and putting a spin on them. If you think deeply and carefully enough, you can make any stereotypical character dynamic and interesting. This also helps with reducing and subverting a number of harmful stereotypes present almost everywhere.
Let me give you a lighter example: a nerdy student who studies a lot. These types of characters are often excellent students and tend to be presented as someone who is only concerned with school. From simply thinking more deeply about it, I made this character more suspicious of others, someone who is proud of their work, someone who is overworked, but also fights back and stands up to injustice whenever possible. This also works nicely with the kind of story I'm writing, so it goes hand and hand.
FEARS AND PHOBIAS
Giving your character a human fear and/or a phobia is something that will make them more vulnerable and make readers understand why they sometimes act the way they do. A phobia doesn't have to be rare, but it can be if you're familiar with it (and wish to spread awareness/educate about it). Furthermore, any phobia and/or fears that serve the story and plot, or simply enrich the character, would be highly appreciated by readers and follow writers.
Your character doesn't have to have an arc where they overcome their fears or phobias, but you can do so if you wish. It's fine to leave some fears and phobias remaning. It could simply be something that can add to their personality, their view of the world, the reasons why they don't do certain things, or why they do them a certain way. It can be something simple or complex.
For example, I'll use my own, a phobia of heights, will make a character avoid going to the mountains, cliffs or roller-coaster rides, etc.
Another example can be a fear of losing a family member might make a character more protective of their loved one, and so on.
SKILLS
You can easily make a character unique and stand out by giving them a specific set of skills that other characters in your story don't have.
This could be creative work such as woodwork, sewing, crocheting, painting... These works can also serve as something practical, depending, again, on the type of plot you're writing. If the plot contains operating large machinery, dealing with nuclear power, a shop and such.
A character who is skilled at something or is continuously improving is something dynamic and engaging to read. If you can't add such skills, something as a hobby can add so much to the character and their personality. It can make them more interesting.
Ask yourself:
- Does your character practice their skills in secret or in the open? If so, why?
- Have they been mastering this skill since childhood, teen years, or have they started it recently?
- Is this skill beneficial to the story, or is it simply something additional that a character does for fun?
ADDITIONAL: ideas to give your characters distinct personalities ~
I've decided to turn two of my posts into one, so everything is in one place. In short, here's what I use and how I make my characters have distinct personalities, which in turn makes them more unique. You can apply some or none of these, but it still goes along with the rest of this post.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
This speaks for itself. It relies on the types of people you meet around you, the kind of friends or legends you're surrounded with. It's easier to draw inspiration from others around you because those people are so unique and interesting. Everyone is leading their own lives, and I find something so beautiful and inspiring about it.
FAVOURITE BOOKS, SHOWS, MOVIES
Similarly to personal experience (also as a part of said experience), you can easily draw inspiration from your favourite media. In this case, remember to be creative about it, morph as much as characteristics as you can, change up your mood, and have fun with your newfound inspiration.
Amplify what you like about these characters, and make worse what you already hate/dislike about them. This goes without saying, but don't make these characters so similar that it looks like a carbon copy, and respect the original creators with their vision. This is why taking as many characters and morphing them into something greater can work wonders.
MBTI
Also called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a self-report test that indicates personality types. It presents these categories: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. These things alone can serve as a great source of inspiration when it comes to your characters.
Don't just stop at the letters; you can study cognitive functions as well. Trust me, it's so much fun once you actually understand it.
I use this test (I don't take it too seriously, by the way) for my characters to make them as unique as possible. Usually, I also read up online on personal experiences people had with the specific type and go about it that way. It makes characters seem more interesting.
Our blog contains in-depth analysis of these personality types. Here are four groups of them and links to the blog posts about them: sentinels, explorers, diplomats and analysts.
Additionally, as a bonus, there's also enneagram. You can read up on it as well. These five blog posts were written by Shell, so go send them some love.
HOROSCOPE
Okay, hear me out! I'm not talking about the daily horoscope that people usually read (although even that can give you some ideas for scenes and so on). I'm talking about zodis themselves. MY family has around three books about horoscopes and astrology. So, I grew up surrounded by those things. One of the main reasons why I got into it was that I wanted my characters to have specific personalities and values. Furthermore, you can use any type of horoscopes from around the globe (Chinese, Natal, Western, Vedic, Celtic, etc.) and these could help you greatly.
For example,
Virgo - born August 23 - September 23
Symbol: The Virgin
Element: Earth
Planet: Mercury
Qualities of Virgo: analytical, hardworking, sensitive, smart, magnetic
All of this information (and there's plenty more you can search for) can be useful while creating your character. You don't have to follow everything word-for-word; you can play around with it, making it the total opposite, be expressive and creative as you want. It can also help with keeping up with the birthdays of all characters (something I sometimes struggle with).
Lastly, remember to have fun while creating these. You can also use a combination of multiple zodiacs and play around with stereotypes to create something and someone unique and new.
DICTIONARY
I'd take a large dictionary and I'd one a random page. The first word I'd see, I'd try to make a character out of it. This is the easiest to do with nouns and adjectives, so don't get discouraged if the word you get is "the".
I used to do this trick a lot when I was still learning English, so I'd spend a lot of time with the big, thick dictionary of mine. This was the trick I came up with to pass the time or when I was out of inspiration.
For example, I opened the dictionary at a random page and the word "frog" stood out to me. You can easily make up a character that has a similar personality to a frog or has some unique traits connected to it.
If you don't have the dictionary, here's the random word generator. Have fun with it!
ADDITIONAL TIPS
Every time I write a character, especially main ones, I can't help but add a little piece of myself into them.
There's a certain fear I have since childhood, so this causes me to put an amount of my fear and anxiety into some of my characters.
There's also a certain wrath that I have and put into them by making them stern, angered for certain reasons.
There are certain vulnerabilities and desires I have and put in my characters not as a way to explore those parts of myself, but to explore them, my characters.
It always makes them so human-like, almost as if I'm seeing a real person in front of my eyes.
by: Nili
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