Young Writers Society

I have been trying to write an idea of mine for a while , but a problem I continually run into is that my characters aren't developed enough individually. Their actions seem too predictable. Could anyone lend some tips on how to create a 'unique' character? Thanks so much.
~Wolfare

Can you define "predictable"? What is it that makes the reader predict their next move? The narrator's thoughts? The dialogue? The overall writing? Something else?

By predictable I meant their actions are really heroic and pure, too cliche. Their life stories kinda fall around hardship and raising to heroism. But I can't get myself into a different mindset to try to shape them differently.

I think perfect characters, which sounds like the kind of character you're describing, are completely normal in the growing process every writer is going through.

Realizing, 'hey, my characters are falling into the same pattern' is step one in moving on from this phase. To be honest, what helped me grow and have deeper characters is reading books with really in depth, flawed characters. Game of Thrones is good because you get both to compare. You get the ridiculously good and the ridiculously bad. Others I can think of off the top of my head are Wuthering Heights, basically any Charles Dickens novel but the one I'm 100% sure of is Great Expectations, and The Three Musketeers. Now, every book I've named is fairly difficult, but growth in readers is very similar to growth in writers in some aspects. Younger audiences usually don't want characters that are really flawed.

I would also suggest character profiles. That gives you time to plan out your character and see if s/he is deep enough to make you happy.

Add some dark secrets, a dash of extra emotion (overly happy, quick to anger, depression), a pinch of death, and a cup of flaws. Tada!

Backstory.

What class were they born in? What were their parents like? Did the have a lot of friends growing up, or a little? How did they react to good things? Bad things? Did their parents neglect them, or smother them with affection? Were they pretty isolated, or did they have a huge community around them? Build their lives from the outside, in, and figure out how they fit in the world around them. Not everybody's grown up in circumstances that let them be heroic. They could've built coping mechanisms that plain old don't allow it.

Now, when it comes to giving them a goal. If you're building around heroism, mix it up. Give your characters other goals:

- Protecting others
- Revenge
- Pride
- Refusal to change
- Winning for themselves, not others

You have to shake up your goals for the characters in order to change how their arcs progress.

Try giving your characters richer lives, and different goals. Maybe write a character who'll be a villain. Go the completely opposite, and start working your way between the two extremes— pure and corrupt.

Try creating a character from a different viewpoint. For example, I usually create male characters in their teens who have the "perfect character" characteristics such as how you described. I almost always tell the story from an omniscient viewpoint. However, for the novel I am currently working on, my character (although still male) is older and the story is told from first person point-or-view. My character's life isn't as rosy as the other character's either.
If you're looking for a quick fix to create a sort of underdog character filled with flaws, simply pick up the closest PG-13 movie and watch it. Usually the main characters have major issues that make it hard for them to rise to the occasion.
Or you can even try mixing things up this way: Create a heroic character based off your favorite villian. What qualities does, say, the Joker from DC Comics has that make him unique? He is intelligent and doesn't conform to society. Now take that little bit and toss it into your new character. Make him/her a bit of a rebel. Now your plot has thickened a little bit just by adding an interesting element to your main character.
Hope I was helpful!
~smanske15

So you have a cliché or just undefined character? Welcome to the club. Character development is always tough, no matter the character you are developing, and no matter the writer. Sometimes it can be quite effective and pulls the reader in... Sometimes it becomes as cliché as the character himself.

Please, please! never have your character have a mark like a lightning bolt on his forehead. Ever.

Some things you can do when developing a character is just pull out pad and paper. You have three characters. How do they each respond to danger? Are all three sentimental? As a rule, girls are the sentimental ones, and have the most emotion... But that is not always the case! You can have a guy who is emotional and show his love for everyone--not cliché. You can have a impulsive character with some strange quirks--not cliché. The possibilities are endless!

Just remember, whatever you do, that character development doesn't happen over three pages of thought. It happens as a result of many pages of thought, action and description entwined together. That makes a story, and character development falls in-between those lines.

Hope this helps. Getting used to this... somewhat.
~Timmyjake

I'm not a character-template type, but it helps some writers:

Hey Wolfare! Characters are one of the most difficult and important factors to get right in a story.

I've personally never used a character template because they become too methodical, too defined.

I personally like to throw a completely undeveloped character into a situation and see what happens. What do they do? How do they respond? For example I would say to myself, I've got a fifteen year old boy, slim, brown hair and eyes. Now what would happen if he woke up one morning to find that all of his family had disappeared. Then I ask myself what would I do in that situation? Asking yourself honestly what you would is always important because it gives you a reality check and stops you from making your character completely unrealistic. So let's say you think if your parents went missing your emotions might span through something like: disbelief, horror, grief, fear, not knowing what to do, then the next thing you do is try to capture these emotions on paper as your character's reactions and emotions.

Which leads me to my second point: emotion. Sometimes it's okay to have almost perfect characters (though not encouraged at all), sometimes it's okay to have some really annoying jerk as the main character but the most important thing is to connect them emotionally to the reader. For example in A Prince of Thorns, Jorg is a horrible person who does horrible thing but I still found him interesting to read and actually liked him. I've heard similar things too about Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Following from what I said before, think about what they're feeling and think about the best way to make it tangible to the reader. I feel that it's often good to make your character passionate or care about something, emotions usually come out stronger when they care about something.

I definitely agree with Rosey about back story. Back story is what made your character the way that they are. After doing all of the above I generally ask my self: well why does he act like that? Why does this boy feel scared that his family has disappeared? Is it because it's happened before? Maybe he got lost at a shopping centre before?

Lastly character interactions. Put different types of people around your character. How do they communicate? What is their body language like? Their inner thoughts while speaking to someone? Are they shy? How about the different reactions towards different people? Say that boy from before. When he speaks to the police who question him in the disappearance of his parents, how is it different to how he speaks to a family member offering support? Just think about all of these things and remember that they are all interwoven and affect each other.

Anyways, this is just how I go about developing my characters but I hope it's been some sort of assistance.

I've gone through four novels to finally find myself satisfied with what i write. So i guess you need to write alot, or even when you are reading pay attention to the way writers develop characters.

On the other hand, one advice that came to my mind, though pretty obvious, is the characters you want to develop the most should have their povs with alot of their own perspective, feelings, etc. where the ones you want to be more mysterious to writers shoudlnt have POVs and only a little bit of insight about them.

Try to think about what do you want your character to be before even writing it down.

When creating characters I sometimes I like to think I'm playing Sims on my computer. (The Sims is a computer game). If you've ever played a Sims game before you'll know that there's a place on the game where you create a sim. A sim is a person. At first you choose the name, age, species and all that basic stuff. Second you create their appearance, shaping the sim's features and dressing them in clothes. And finally you select the traits you want your sim to have, their favourite things (likes and dislikes), and a life goal.

When you create a sim, the personality traits available are both positive and negative. Some traits don't go with others (i.e. brave and coward, charismatic and loner). If a sim is perfect with only good traits it makes the character seem boring and unrealistic, just as a sim with only bad or evil traits. There needs to be a balance to make the sim interesting, exactly like a character in a story or a person in real life. No one can be completely perfect.