Need urgent help on Characters!

Hi! I need serious help. I'm useless at developing characters and including speech in stories. Has anyone got any helpful tips for me or something please? I am currently writing some stuff and i've come across a stumbling block - how am i supposed to keep the reader interested if the characters are soooooo boring? HELP ME!!! thanx x

Characters....I find, to add interesting aspects to a character, is to create a background for them. Do it to explain why they act in a certain why and how they react in certain situations. Then, mention it sometime sin passing or in detail, in the story, and it helps the reader to get interested in the character and allow them to empathise with the character.

E.g. One of my characters, Ravin, had a rough time growing up with his father when he was young, who was a bad father to Ravin because he was never good at expressing his feelings. This made Ravin a man of little words, a serious tone, a hard expression, and made him very mysterious as it keeps his feelings in.

I think it helps the reader, in this example, to understand why Ravin can be so difficult with people sometimes.

I have a friend who adds serious personality quirks to her characters. She also has a lot of speeches.

Good backgrounds are good for characters. That sounds like a slogan or an add....Make each character different from the other in personality, even just a little. I have two girl characters who are similar in personality. But one is a little bit more daydream-ish than the other. And if you've already started your story and don't think you can alter it to fit your 'fixed' characters, have something happen to them that's life-changing or really impacts them. Like I have one of those two girls do something horrible completely on accident, and it makes her stop using magic for a while.

Characters... well, giving them pasts always helps. Nothing more interesting then a dark secret in the past, I always say... I think it helps to think of them as real people, and you should know them backwards (although how you get up to these stages is beyond me... sorry, I'm not much help) hmmm... if YOU think they're boring, them the chances are that the reader will too, so... are they steryo-types at all? Like evil mad villin, or handsome, but silent hero? Because you might want to keep well away from steryo types. (they are the very essence of boringness, if you've read about one evil, mad villin, you've read about them all.) Give them as much personality as you can... invent things about them, like their occupation, and if they like it, or are good at it; or their hobbies, whatever. You want to know every tiny itsy bitsy detail about their lives, how they think, why they think that way etc. Can't think of anything else just yet... hope all that helped.

thanx for all your help guys... if you think of any other helpful pointers please tell me! You have all really helped me!! x

A character questionnaire is always great to use to help you build and provide a good character.

I agree with all of these points. Really get to know a character before you start writing about him/her. Pick a random situation and think of what the character would do in that situation. If you can't think of their response right away, chances are you don't know your character well enough.

I definitely agree with the backgrounds. Characters without backgrounds are just props. I actually created the background for Saphirus while roleplaying.. The site asked for a background of the character, and that helped me immensely in my story! His history isn't explained until a while after he is introduced, because I want my readers to wonder about him for a while, to be drawn into the mystery. Then once he trusts Crystalia enough to share his past with her, everything is explained. It's really fun lol.

Another thing I've found is that in order to create realistic characters, you have to THINK like them. Would it be logical for this soldier to know this much information? (Thanks Z, you were right lol. He knew too much..) So even the minor characters that only show up once or twice should be logical. Otherwise it throws the reader out of the story, and that's a bad thing. (By the way, I am working on that soldier's past and his knowledge.. I'm making it more of a rumor and opinion than an actual fact.)

Reads books.

Talk to people.

And by people I don't just mean your friends. Talk to people. Really do it. Really listen.

Don't just wait for your chance to speak.

The only way you can create people is to know people.

You always have to mention your Saphirus-baby, don't you Crysi? lol! mas_wink: (not that I mind! It lets me bring in Romshon-baby!) I hope you're going to post more on your story. How long until he comes in, anyway?

(ok, back on topic!) Yes, creating characters with dark pasts, or characters with dramatic pasts(or something...) is fun!! You don't know much about Romshon when you meet him, except for what he is and does. But there's no mention of family, and how Romshon learned or became some things. You learn about his closed-in, dark personality, though. Hinting things is was of the funnest parts of it! I've written one hint that can be taken a different way than what it is actually refering to. And you only find out about his past when soldiers are making jokes at him. Which gets him closer to this other character. You may not actually wonder about him too much. But the other character's pasts are more revealed than his, so maybe you would be....Anway, as Crysi said, it's fun!!!

You do have to think like your characters. You have to know how they'd react to certain situations and stuff, and how they'd say things. Also, what they'd like, and what they'd hate. Vices and Virtues. You have to make the character a real person.

My main character was deeply affected by something in her past, someone tried to murder her (I havn't figured everything out about that, I need a reason why he was trying to murder her...) and you don't know that right from the start. She doesn't trust anyone, and it takes her a while to reveal it. But it's so much fun to write about ... *grins evily* Values and Virtues, that's a good one, and DEFFINATLY know exactly what each and every character would do in any situation you throw at them ... if you don't, you're in BIG trouble.

My mains a Kansas girl. Yup...

And now she has some crappy stuff happening to her...

It's always fun to take the sweet young things and do stuff to them. So much fun.

Perra wrote:You always have to mention your Saphirus-baby, don't you Crysi? lol! mas_wink: (not that I mind! It lets me bring in Romshon-baby!) I hope you're going to post more on your story. How long until he comes in, anyway?

Of COURSE I have to bring him in! I'm obsessed, haven't I told you?

I'll post.. when I finish the second chapter! Which actually isn't too far away.. I got a lot done today. I will have to go through and edit a lot, though. You should see my paper! Full of marks!

He actually doesn't come in for a long time.. *sniff*

Guess I'll just have to torment you guys by dropping hints

lol, crysi, please don't! lol jk jk, ya know we all love ya

oh, my main character is tourtured by her brother. her sister (the other main) is older, and a bit oblivious and thick headed.. lol quite fun

I'm writing something at the moment were the main character is not exactly human but i don't want the reader to know it from the start. I wnat them to wonder if it is human or not and then begin to question their own thinking about it, if you get what i mean.

As you lot are all so good at character stuff i thought it wudn't do much harm asking you if you have any ideas of how to create this style of character? thanx x

Hehe, I'm not always perfect at the character thing, I really should take my own advice from time to time...

OK, so you want a character who isn't human, but you don't want the reader to find this out for a while? Hmm, well, it depends what you want the character to be like. If you want someone a little darker and shadier, you could make them very secretive. But, it would be a nice shock if you made them cheerful, happy, fun to be around and so forth maybe having a few suspicious incidents occur around them (nothing obvious), then completely surprised the reader when you reveal they're not human.
Also, is it bad the character isn't human? Like would this mean he would be descriminated against or works for the bad guy or whatever? Because that could have a major affect on the character too.