Hey guys! Today I’m going to talk about how I create characters in 7 easy steps. 

Step One: Base Traits

For Jade, this was as follows: She’s stubborn, she’s a hothead, and she’s incredibly good in combat. That gives you a rough outline as to what the character is and what they’re like. 

Step Two: Contradictions

Next, dive into that and make some contradictions. One of the things I like to do is actively push away from what I first think of. For Jade, while she’s excellent in war and fighting, she’s terrible with leading others or organizing an attack, and she’s awful in interpersonal relationships. She really struggles making and keeping connections due to her bull-headedness. This means that despite being a valuable asset, her arrogance has kept her from really developing many emotional ties.

This creates conflict, which is important when creating a character. You want conflict to seep into most everything you write, and this includes the character. So think about what other conflicts the character might have with the world and the people around them. For Jade, the world’s caste system deems that she’s demonic, and must be eradicated. This means that not only is she fighting a war for people that want to kill her, but she has to hide who she truly is to keep from being hurt and killed. You can tie that into her struggle to have personal relationships, and that can make for an interesting character.

Step Three: Endear Them To Us

Of course, not everything a character can do is conflict and contradictions. You should at least make them endearing to the reader in some way – and if your plan isn’t that, make them engaging enough that the reader can enjoy their story. You can make them sarcastic, snarky, or brash, but give them that one crutch that shows a softer side. For Jade, her main goal was to escape her enemy’s clutches in order to return home. And home, to her, is her best friend Aris. You see her deeply care for this woman during her struggle in the Viridis Series, and that helps a reader sympathize with the character as she makes her way through the world. Her determination and ferocity to survive can also be endearing to readers. 

Step Four: Motivations

Give them a motivation. This one should be a given, but it’s completely necessary you give your character a drive and goal. Even better if their goal conflicts with those around them. For Jade, her initial goal is to survive the war, but when she is captured by enemy forces, her goals shift. Not only must she escape, but when she learns her enemy has a superweapon that could easily kill her best friend, Aris, she has to juggle staying behind enemy lines to stop them, and running home to warn her friend. 

Step Five: Limitations

Make sure they have limits. As suggested with some of the earlier points, giving the character flaws is important and that’s what makes them human. For Jade, she can’t make friends easily, she’s not able to organize well-thought out attacks on enemy forces, and, due to some torture at the hand of the enemy years before, she also suffers vivid hallucinations. They shouldn’t be able to surmount each obstacle they come against, either, as you don’t want to accidentally make a Mary Sue.

Step Six: Representation & Accuracy

Lastly, make sure your character represents the group you’re talking about well. I think it’s incredibly important to ensure that if your character is something other than you – say, a different race, or suffers from an illness you do not – then you need to do your research and talk to people who have experiences in that group. You don’t want to write something that misrepresents the people you’re talking about. 

And those are some of my tips! I know it’s not a fully comprehensive list, but hopefully it helps you start brainstorming. I’ve included some links to character questionnaire sheets that have helped me get started with a character in the past, though I’ll admit, I almost never finish them. I enjoy learning about the character more as I write them, and though this means I have to rewrite many scenes afterwards, it makes the process of storytelling much more exciting and exploratory for me. I hope you guys enjoyed this video, and stay tuned for more tea reviews and writing discussions!

Stay safe out there!