How do you create your characters? Do you use charts or something? Or do you just write them? How do you come up with their names? What's your favorite kind of character? What's your least favorite kind? What kinds are too cliched?

I'll post my awnsers later, I've got to go to bed, now.

Any new questions/discussion topics about characters are welcome!!

Favorite - any that fits the story. As long as it's good.

Create - don't know - usually just think of scenes and act as the characters.

like my character Vhon for instance. He's a nut job. you know how i got that? Internet. you see a pic, you like it, it sets up a lot of help for the basic mood of the character. internet, music, literature, tv, all help me. especially manga, the characters they got are pretty nuts.

The looks come somewhere in the middle, for me...a lot of my characters (perhaps a majority) have various national/ethnic backgrounds, mostly Japanese or Korean, so some looks come from that; I find the white girls (and hair! Hair dye is so common now...) the hardest. For clothes, it sometimes helps to have a role model, but I sometimes struggle to keep in mind that not all characters are fashion plates.

The names usually come last...sometimes, they just pop up and feel right, while others I have to research for hours. I still don't have a final last name for one of my main characters; the name I chose as a drafter just doesn't sound right. It should just -click-, y'know?

Favorite characters: ones who have issues but don't hate the world for it; ones who are well-developed and relatively consistent.

Least favorite: 1)Any cliche or stereotype (worst: school god/goddess, outcast who hates the populars and/or the world). They are completely overused and usually lack the subtlety and nuances of real humans. 2)Any character who seems obviously a carbon copy of and/or a podium for the author and his/her views.

What I normally do for character names is I get a pic of them in my head. Then I turn it around in my head for a bit. After this, I normally pick a random letter and form together names with random letters. (This normally works only when you're writing an old name of a made up kingdom or world or whatever, not normally in modern times.) Then I keep changing letters until it feels right. I'm normally satisfied with what I get, and it normally only takes twenty-thirty minutes. Based on their character, though, I sometimes look up words on the internet. Like I use dictionaries and try to find a word like in latin or whatever based on what their character is. If you're using characters in modern times, the best thing to do is just find names that fit them based on the normal names of their times. If you're still having trouble, you can also look in baby books based on the age of them. (Fantasy name): Elana. (Real name): Elaine (like an older librarian, because that's like an older name)

Hope I helped!

~T.Rose~ "Money cannot bring happiness, but temporary satisfaction"

I don't know if alot of people do this or not but actually, i go to deviantart and look up random drawings, i then make my own character chart and fill it out however i think this drawing would be in a story, i just make a story from a picture.

I have to draw every night for homework (I go to an art school), so that's usually where my characters come from. Once I know what they look like, I think up a scenario for them. I pick out the name last, since I like to use a lot of symbolism in names.

Good question! I enjoy reading how other people develop their characters and what not :)

As for me...Let's see. Usually I get attacked with an idea first, and then I try to think of what kind of person would make the story plot most unique, without completely detaching from the plot itself. After I get a feel of who the character is, I then try and come up with a name. I like to use names based in a language or culture because they mean something, coupled with names I just plain like (take for instance one of my characters Josiah Whelan: I picked "Josiah" because I've always like that name, and "Whelan" because it's Irish for wolf, which compliments his character). But yeah, just don't make the same mistake I do in picking names that sound or look too similar - I have a tendency to choose names that start with the same letter. It gets mad confusing if you do. Good luck with your writing!

Hmm, it depends, honestly. Sometimes the story comes with the characters, and sometimes the characters come with the story.

Like, I imagine my mind as a bunch of worlds. On one world, there are a bunch of little people walking around, and every so often I pick a handful up and they all come with their own backgrounds and personalities and such, and I tell their story. On another world, there are unwritten stories scattered everywhere. Sometimes they are already complete and just waiting to be written down, and sometimes they need to be combined with other stories in order to be complete. Personally, I prefer writing around my characters, because it gives me more freedom to let them make their own choices. If I'm writing according to my own story idea, I sometimes feel limited to that idea.

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