Ghant
TNPer
Character Development
Character development is an essential aspect of writing stories. It’s the characters with which the readers identify and become invested in the story that you’re writing. This is true for any sort of story, whether it’s war, a social event or a day-to-day story.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’re between two RP ideas for your next project. The first involves a war with another nation. The second involves a soldier who goes to fight in a war. He’s leaving his beloved behind, and there’s the possibility that he will die in battle and never go home.
Both of these RPs share the basic concept of war. The distinction however lies within the depth and scope of the narrative. The second RP involves a character arc showing how the war affects said character on a practical and psychological level. I’d argue that the character’s personal journey is what is enticing to the reader. Without those personal stakes in the war, who cares about it?
If I were to cover every fundamental aspect of character development, this essay would be far longer than would be appropriate for the venue. Therefore, I will cover ten areas on the subject:
Goals and Motivations
Every character in every story has goals. Protagonists and antagonists, primary and secondary characters, and background characters all have goals that they are trying to achieve.
Here are three examples from fiction of characters and their goals:
The motivations behind those goals are the following:
Ask yourself this, “what would make your character happy?” That’s the motivation. Then ask yourself, “what could your character achieve to get it?” That’s the goal.
“The Why Game” is a tool that you can utilize to better understand a character’s goals and motivations. For instance, let’s say a character wants to rule the world. Why? So they can have the ultimate power. Why? Because deep down they’re insecure about feeling powerless. Why? Because they were abused as children. Why? Because their father was an alcoholic. So on and so forth.
External and Internal Conflict
A dynamic character needs to have external and internal conflict that drives them through the story. The character’s reaction to events unfolding in the story is interesting, and how they overcome obstacles. For instance, if Neo took the blue pill instead of the red pill, then his story would’ve been over, and that wouldn’t be memorable. It’s the fact that Neo took the red pill, was “reborn” in the real world and learned about the Matrix that drove the story.
In fact, in the Matrix there are two conflicts present. The first is Neo vs. the Agents (character vs. character) and the second is Neo vs. Neo…his inner conflict about realizing that he’s the One and fulfilling his Destiny. Characters should go through an internal conflict that makes them question themselves and their purpose in the story while at the same time struggling with the external forces that work against them.
There are six primary types of conflict in fiction. Depending on the story, one of the six could be the primary obstacle for the character in question.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Every person has strengths that help them achieve their goals and weaknesses that they must overcome to achieve those goals. The same is true for characters in a story, and it is those weaknesses that make them vulnerable but relatable to the reader. For instance, Jon Snow is honorable, brave and virtuous, but he’s also naïve and reckless, both of those weaknesses put himself and others in dangerous situations. Similarly, Thor is strong, courageous and brave, but also arrogant and conceited, both being traits that alienate him from his allies and have allowed enemies to gain ground on him.
Any character should have the ability to overcome the challenges a story presents them, and whether or not they succeed is a part of the story, as is how they react to their success or failure. Part of an engaging story is having such dynamic characters that you wonder what will happen to them. Will they live or die? Succeed or fail? Win or lose? Etc.
Static vs. Dynamic
Some characters change during the course of a story, while other characters change to varying degrees. The former is called static, the latter is called dynamic. Whether or not a character is static or dynamic depends on the story in question and the intentions of the writer.
Characters That Don’t Change
James Bond is a famous example of a character who doesn’t change during the course of the story. James Bond is simply that, James Bond, and all of his stories about how he overcomes various villains, mysteries and obstacles to beat the bad guy, save the world and get the girl. If James Bond changed as a result of his adventures, then he wouldn’t really be the “James Bond” that we all know, and the story would be different as a result. For James Bond, that’s a strength and a flaw, because he wins the day due to who he is, while the flaw is that he doesn’t learn from those experiences and is doomed to repeat them.
Characters That Change Substantially
A dynamic character is altered by the conflict(s) that they face. This might be a subconscious change, such as Theon Greyjoy from A Song of Ice and Fire’s transformation into Reek. Or the change might be more of a conscious decision, such as Neo’s decision to take the red pill. These are traditional dynamic characters.
Characters That Don’t Change in Order to Change the World Around Them
These are characters that are both static and dynamic to varying degrees, because while they don’t change much during the course of the story, the story is changed because of them. An example of this is God Emperor Leto from God Emperor of Dune, who seeks the release of death from his immortal life by enabling a scheme that leads to his demise, all the while steering humanity down the “Golden Path.”
Backstory
A character is a sum of their experiences that shape the person that they become. This is the backstory, or the story of a character up until the story you are writing involving the character. Arguably this is the most important aspect of character development, because it forms their beliefs, perspectives and personality.
For instance, Jon Snow was raised as a bastard who was hated by his father’s wife, Catelyn Tully. Jon Snow’s life is framed around his bastardry and has shaped his worldview, attitudes and behaviors. Another example is Harry Potter, whose early life experiences being raised by his neglectful aunt and uncle, and the unfortunate death of his parents while an infant, helped shaped his character after his arrival at Hogwarts.
Characters who are genuine, who are independent and three dimensional are incredibly tough to create. The character development process, whether you call it creating the character's backstory or past, is one that often takes years to complete. Not only do you have to understand your character, you have to understand all the characters who play a role in your main character's life, however small. You have to know their life inside and out. Generally I go back to the grandparents or great grandparents. When you're that far back, you can allow yourself to be a little less in depth because you're just looking for a starting off point. Then once you figure them out, you move to the parents. This is a step often neglected. People will say "the character has a strained relationship with her father." Well, why is that? Maybe it's because the father has a hard time relating to the daughter. Why is that? Because the father was born in the Midwest to a poor family, and made it big, bought a house on the beach in California. His childhood was so different from hers so he can't relate to her which strains the relationship.
Continuing off that example, you have to ask yourself in what concrete ways was the relationship strained. Think about a couple of scenarios in your head about incidences where the relationship was particularly strained. Then ask yourself how exactly the strained relationship effected the girl's life. Again, think about a couple of scenarios in your head showing how the strained relationship affected her life.
Once you've done all that, repeat the process with another aspect of the relationship between the father and daughter. No relationship can be defined as just "stained." There were also good times, there were times he protected her, there were times when he had disappointed her. Play out those stories in your head. Once you feel you have that relationship figured out, say to yourself "congratulations” and repeat the process with every other character who has a major influence on your main character. Usually this is going to include parents or parental figures, other family members, best friends, teachers etc. This could, of course, be wildly different for your story, but that's up to you to figure out.
The whole "60% of your character's backstory shouldn't be reveled" is a good saying to have, but isn't based anywhere in reality. You have to decide how much of your character's backstory or past to reveal, and you have to understand why. The things you reveal should have intention. But the point of all that is; If you don't know your character's entire backstory, their entire past, you wont get to choose what to reveal, you'll be forced to pick from a limited supply of details. If you know it all, you have more freedom to pick and choose what to incorporate and where to incorporate it so that it best serves your story.
External Attributes
In the process of character development, at some point you’ll have a mental image of the character in your head. What do they look like? What are their physical attributes? Let’s say your character is blonde, or maybe they are deformed. An example of this is Tyrion Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire. Tyrion is a dwarf, and his dwarfism is the defining external attribute of his character and the central theme of his experience in the story. Another example is Quasimodo and his hunchback in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Determining a character’s external traits doesn’t stop with things like eye color, hair color or skin color. Consider the nuanced aspects of the character. What does their nose look like? Do they have birthmarks or blemishes? Are they tall or short, thin or fat? So on and so forth.
How do they talk? How do they walk? Do they have habits, behaviors or tics? These can help distinguish a character and make them stand out. Here are some examples. Harry Potter is acutely aware of his forehead scar and will rub it when he’s distressed. Stannis Baratheon will grind his teeth when he’s agitated, and Piglet fidgets when he gets nervous.
Also keep in mind that emotions are not the same for every person. People display fear, anger, joy, etc. differently, varying from person to person. In terms of anger, some people internalize it while other people externalize it. Some people flare up while others sneer, so on and so forth. Think about what the character is like, or how you’d like to present the character to the reader and develop those attributes accordingly.
Plausibility
You need the right number of characters, and all of them need to be built from the ground up in such a way so they feel real and believable. The reader must perceive those characters as actual people because that's the way readers connect with them. The reader must be able to put himself into the shoes of a character and get a sense of realism, of plausibility, but also feel entertained and emotionally connected.
You've probably heard this before: create 3-dimensional or multi-dimensional characters, be aware of and avoid flat or cardboard characters. What does that mean?
This advice spawns from the fact that nobody in our real world is a one-dimensional individual. Nobody is just bad or just good, or just stupid or just smart. People are generally bad about some things, and good about others, they are stupid about certain things, and smart about others. They have positive traits and negative traits, and all of them together make that person who he is.
Moreover, a person develops over time. A person is influenced by his environment, his family, teachers and friends. Someone who started as being a cynic might change later on when a stressing event occurs. Someone who was a loving person might turn into a misanthrope after they had lost their loved one to an accident; a god-fearing person might turn into god-hater after they had lost their child to a disease. Either way people often change (except James Bond) - in good or in bad ways - and that makes them real too.
The combination of personal traits and the way that those traits change during one's life are what define that person in multiple dimensions. It's what makes that person unique. In the context of fiction, it's what makes that character interesting and worth caring about.
To better achieve plausibility, don’t be afraid to do research. Read, watch videos, and think about how you can make your character more believable to the reader. Is your character a genius? Then show the reader how they’re a genius by having them think about or present information indicative of that characteristic. Maybe you as the writer are not a genius, but you don’t have to be! All you need to do is hint at it.
Suspension of Disbelief
The term “suspension of disbelief” was coined by 19th century poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817, who argued that if a writer could integrate "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative.
The key to any character is that they should seem believable to the reader. The main thing you’ll want to avoid is when the reader is reading your work and is somehow reminded that you are the writer by what they read in the text, because the characters seem more like ego manifestations or wish fulfillment fantasies of the writer. Therefore, a character’s strengths and weaknesses should have a sense of balance to them. You don’t necessarily have to counter every strength with a weakness, but you most definitely want to have weakness that are as consequential as their strengths. Superman’s weakness to Kryptonite is a famous example.
Character breaking suspension of belief is when characters do stuff that they normally wouldn't in order to drive the plot. It’s especially bad if problems are solved this way. This sounds like it would be really obvious but it often creeps in unnoticed, such as antagonists being ruthless killers who decide to monologue for the protagonist (unlike James Bond, where such a thing is expected of the villains).
Let’s say your character is a beautiful blonde vixen with blue eyes and a heart of gold who knows how to do anything and is the best at everything. There’s nothing compelling about that and comes off as wish fulfillment fantasy. Now, if said character was a beautiful blonde vixen with a heart of gold who could learn anything, but struggled with insecurities and a fear of failure which led to her struggling to becoming great at anything, now there’s something interesting.
Character Study
A character study is essentially a neutral summary of a character’s history, mental traits and motivations that serves as a primer for yourself and for your peers and readers. I recommend these exercises for characters because it provides a written summary that you can refer back to on the character. For the sake of leading with an example, I’ve provided a character study that I produced for the Emperor of Ghant:
Without question, Nathan IV had a difficult childhood growing up. The eldest prince of his generation, Nate was followed by several siblings and cousins. Prince Nathan did not foster anywhere, so his chief male role models were naturally his father John and his grandfather, Emperor Albert. John was a spare man, increasingly busy with running Ghant on behalf of the Emperor and unable to afford much time to raise his son. For his part, Emperor Albert was an incredibly distant man, reluctant to show affection to members of his family, given his habits of drinking, hunting, whoring and playing cards. Nathan’s mother, Caroline Zuria, left him and his family when he was a toddler (this has a profound effect on a young child) due to John’s affair with Princess Isabella of Latium. Worse, Nathan was only 6 when his father died in a plane crash, and 9 when he became Emperor. His Uncle Albert, having been appointed regent, forbade Caroline from seeing her son, leaving him without any form of closure for that emotional wound.
He would fare no better among his kin. A young Nathan would develop into a weak and sickly lad, lacking at martial ability, a poor hunter and even worse, unable to make friends with other boys his age – all things that are expected of an imperial prince in highborn Ghantish culture. As the oldest, Nathan might expect himself to establish a fine example for any male relatives that would follow him (and be a bit better). Unfortunately, those aforementioned male relatives would all develop talents to outshine him.
Starved of affection from his parents and recognition from his role models, coupled with being outshone by most of his male relatives, it isn’t hard to believe that Nathan IV has a deep-seated inferiority complex. Many of his later actions, especially his appetite for women, could be seen as an attempt to drown out his perceived lack of worth from his family members. The court admired him for his wit and intellect, but as his generation aged, each of them was known for being the best at something. What was Nathan to do? Nathan could prove them all wrong by one simple way: demonstrating to all the he could gain the affection of women and the envy of men. It was not a healthy coping mechanism, but it does help explain Nathan’s personality (while certainly his own predisposition to lust has a great deal with the reason why he selected this particular coping mechanism).
With his childhood firmly understood, the portrait of Nathan begins to become fuller and richer, less a caricature than a true person, albeit one who emphasized the worst aspects of both leadership and humanity in general. Nathan IV is truly a festering pit of self-loathing, turned increasingly to hedonism to drown out his self-doubt, and filling his court with sycophants who could make him believe that people loved him as much as he so desperately craved. The satisfaction of his ego seemed to be paramount in all aspects of his tenure on the Throne, yet with a little logic and understanding of human nature, we can see why he craved approval and affection so much that he would let himself go to waste.
Using this information, Nathan's pursuit of Sophia is easy to understand. She was considered the greatest lady of the realm, and the one that all the men wanted. So naturally, N4 had to have her. Sophia and Nate grew up around each other, largely due to John and Malibar being lifelong friends, and Elizabeth Mutu's family being in the south. Sophia and Nate shared common interests in history, literature and philosophy, and according to both of them, nobody understood each other better than them. All of their "firsts" to put it mildly were with each other, and while Sophia claims she always loved him, she had her reservations about being with him because she knew that he would hurt her, and that his impulses would mean he'd never be loyal to her. Sure, maybe he would be for awhile, but sooner or later some whore would sink her claws into him. For the longest time she tried to fight it, but eventually chose to accept her feelings and deal with it, and be the Empress Ghant deserved.
Internal Consistency
“The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” is a chapter in Carl Sagan’s 1996 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark in which he provides several points that are useful for maintaining objective processes. Since I consider character development to be, in an ideal world, an objective process, I’ve applied these points to the area of character development.
Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.”
This is why I strongly suggest collaboration and peer review of character development, so you can get an outsider’s assessment on the character and their attributes. Humans can never be 100% objective and very often we overlook flaws in characters that we like, so having that outside perspective is critical to the process of developing a dynamic character.
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
“Evidence” in this context would refer to written material pertaining to the character, whether that takes the form of RP posts, wiki articles or Discord comments. It is better to allow the reader to make an assessment of a character than for you as the writer to force an interpretation upon them. If you know what the various interpretations of the character in question are, then you will have a better understanding of how the character is presented and how they are received by the reader.
Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
There are no creative authorities in roleplaying aside from you, for ultimately you are the master of your own work. Never let another roleplayer attempt to exercise authority over your own work. However, it is perfectly reasonable to acknowledge that there are experts who are highly knowledgeable in the field of roleplaying. It is important to take expertise provided to you constructively, especially when it comes to character development. It can be hard to receive criticism of a character that you’re fond of, but often times that criticism can help you make the character more dynamic.
Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives, the hypothesis that resists disproof in this Darwinian selection among “multiple working hypotheses,” has a much better chance of being the right answer than if you had simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
I apply this point in the areas of action / reaction and cause / effect. A character has at any time a number of choices that they can make or decisions that they can render that will affect not only their arcs, but the path of the story. In this sense, it is best to consider various scenarios for the character. If they do this, what happens next? Think about which scenario best matches what you think the character would actually do in that situation, and consider what you think would make the story “better.” Again, “better” is entirely subjective.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.
This is important because in many instances, people will not pursue a narrative course for a character because they find it unpleasant. Things like subjection to violence, painful circumstances or even death. As I’ve said before, your objective should be to try to remove yourself as much as possible from the character development process, and if you find yourself admitting that you like a certain path for a character for reasons not pertaining to the story or to what the character would actually do, then that’s a problem. I’d say consider what is best for the story, and sometimes, negative developments are necessary for a character to learn, grow and adapt. After all, conflict is what drives a story, and your job should be to create a dynamic roleplaying situation, not a wish fulfillment fantasy.
Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging.
If a certain action undertaken by the character can be explained, such as “the character would do this because of X, Y and Z” then that is an internally consistent decision, as it adheres to IC. Again, the action that the character take should be the one that is the most internally consistent. In that sense, I’d argue that it is easier to write situations, settings and incidents and then have the character react to these things in a way that makes sense for the character.
If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them.
In this sense, chain of argument could be construed as a chain of events. A character in many ways is a sum of their experiences, starting from when they are born to when they die. It is your job to consider how the character has developed as a result of their experiences, and how those experiences have shaped them into the character that they are in any given RP. What this point argues is that the totality of a character’s life experiences needs to make sense for how the character behaves and views the world around him, and how it influences their actions.
Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler.
The simplest of multiple explanations is more often than not the best one. In character development, this is as simple as, “the character in question is like this, so this is what they would do given a particular situation,” or “this happened to the character in the past, so this is what they would do given a particular situation,” or “this character did this in the past, so this is what they would do in the future.”
In Conclusion
It's a daunting, challenging process, character development, but ultimately, the most rewarding, and the most essential. Do not shy away from it, and call it whatever your want. It's all the same thing; material. Becoming a strong character writer will greatly increase the depth of your stories and serve to pull in the reader and get them invested in your story.
Character development is an essential aspect of writing stories. It’s the characters with which the readers identify and become invested in the story that you’re writing. This is true for any sort of story, whether it’s war, a social event or a day-to-day story.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that you’re between two RP ideas for your next project. The first involves a war with another nation. The second involves a soldier who goes to fight in a war. He’s leaving his beloved behind, and there’s the possibility that he will die in battle and never go home.
Both of these RPs share the basic concept of war. The distinction however lies within the depth and scope of the narrative. The second RP involves a character arc showing how the war affects said character on a practical and psychological level. I’d argue that the character’s personal journey is what is enticing to the reader. Without those personal stakes in the war, who cares about it?
If I were to cover every fundamental aspect of character development, this essay would be far longer than would be appropriate for the venue. Therefore, I will cover ten areas on the subject:
- Goals and Motivations
- Character Strengths and Weaknesses
- External vs. Internal Conflict
- Static vs. Dynamic
- Backstory
- External Attributes
- Plausibility
- Suspension of Disbelief
- Character Study
- Internal Consistency
Goals and Motivations
Every character in every story has goals. Protagonists and antagonists, primary and secondary characters, and background characters all have goals that they are trying to achieve.
Here are three examples from fiction of characters and their goals:
- Frodo’s goal is to cast the One Ring into the Fires of Mount Doom.
- Hamlet’s goal is to avenge his father.
- Stannis Baratheon’s goal is to claim the Iron Throne.
The motivations behind those goals are the following:
- The fate of Middle-Earth depends on the destruction of the One Ring, and Frodo wants to save his world from an evil fate.
- Hamlet seeks to bring justice to his murdered father who’s throne was usurped by his murderer.
- Stannis Baratheon claims the Iron Throne “by rights” which he believes are his and his alone.
Ask yourself this, “what would make your character happy?” That’s the motivation. Then ask yourself, “what could your character achieve to get it?” That’s the goal.
“The Why Game” is a tool that you can utilize to better understand a character’s goals and motivations. For instance, let’s say a character wants to rule the world. Why? So they can have the ultimate power. Why? Because deep down they’re insecure about feeling powerless. Why? Because they were abused as children. Why? Because their father was an alcoholic. So on and so forth.
External and Internal Conflict
A dynamic character needs to have external and internal conflict that drives them through the story. The character’s reaction to events unfolding in the story is interesting, and how they overcome obstacles. For instance, if Neo took the blue pill instead of the red pill, then his story would’ve been over, and that wouldn’t be memorable. It’s the fact that Neo took the red pill, was “reborn” in the real world and learned about the Matrix that drove the story.
In fact, in the Matrix there are two conflicts present. The first is Neo vs. the Agents (character vs. character) and the second is Neo vs. Neo…his inner conflict about realizing that he’s the One and fulfilling his Destiny. Characters should go through an internal conflict that makes them question themselves and their purpose in the story while at the same time struggling with the external forces that work against them.
There are six primary types of conflict in fiction. Depending on the story, one of the six could be the primary obstacle for the character in question.
- Character. For example, Simba vs. Mufasa in The Lion King.
- Society. For example, John Galt vs. Society in Atlas Shrugged.
- Nature. For example, Santiago vs. the Marlin in The Old Man and the Sea.
- Technology. Sarah Connor vs. the Terminator in The Terminator.
- Supernatural. The Ghostbusters vs. Ghosts in Ghostbusters.
- Self. For Example, Pink vs. his inner demons and insecurities in The Wall.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Every person has strengths that help them achieve their goals and weaknesses that they must overcome to achieve those goals. The same is true for characters in a story, and it is those weaknesses that make them vulnerable but relatable to the reader. For instance, Jon Snow is honorable, brave and virtuous, but he’s also naïve and reckless, both of those weaknesses put himself and others in dangerous situations. Similarly, Thor is strong, courageous and brave, but also arrogant and conceited, both being traits that alienate him from his allies and have allowed enemies to gain ground on him.
Any character should have the ability to overcome the challenges a story presents them, and whether or not they succeed is a part of the story, as is how they react to their success or failure. Part of an engaging story is having such dynamic characters that you wonder what will happen to them. Will they live or die? Succeed or fail? Win or lose? Etc.
Static vs. Dynamic
Some characters change during the course of a story, while other characters change to varying degrees. The former is called static, the latter is called dynamic. Whether or not a character is static or dynamic depends on the story in question and the intentions of the writer.
Characters That Don’t Change
James Bond is a famous example of a character who doesn’t change during the course of the story. James Bond is simply that, James Bond, and all of his stories about how he overcomes various villains, mysteries and obstacles to beat the bad guy, save the world and get the girl. If James Bond changed as a result of his adventures, then he wouldn’t really be the “James Bond” that we all know, and the story would be different as a result. For James Bond, that’s a strength and a flaw, because he wins the day due to who he is, while the flaw is that he doesn’t learn from those experiences and is doomed to repeat them.
Characters That Change Substantially
A dynamic character is altered by the conflict(s) that they face. This might be a subconscious change, such as Theon Greyjoy from A Song of Ice and Fire’s transformation into Reek. Or the change might be more of a conscious decision, such as Neo’s decision to take the red pill. These are traditional dynamic characters.
Characters That Don’t Change in Order to Change the World Around Them
These are characters that are both static and dynamic to varying degrees, because while they don’t change much during the course of the story, the story is changed because of them. An example of this is God Emperor Leto from God Emperor of Dune, who seeks the release of death from his immortal life by enabling a scheme that leads to his demise, all the while steering humanity down the “Golden Path.”
Backstory
A character is a sum of their experiences that shape the person that they become. This is the backstory, or the story of a character up until the story you are writing involving the character. Arguably this is the most important aspect of character development, because it forms their beliefs, perspectives and personality.
For instance, Jon Snow was raised as a bastard who was hated by his father’s wife, Catelyn Tully. Jon Snow’s life is framed around his bastardry and has shaped his worldview, attitudes and behaviors. Another example is Harry Potter, whose early life experiences being raised by his neglectful aunt and uncle, and the unfortunate death of his parents while an infant, helped shaped his character after his arrival at Hogwarts.
Characters who are genuine, who are independent and three dimensional are incredibly tough to create. The character development process, whether you call it creating the character's backstory or past, is one that often takes years to complete. Not only do you have to understand your character, you have to understand all the characters who play a role in your main character's life, however small. You have to know their life inside and out. Generally I go back to the grandparents or great grandparents. When you're that far back, you can allow yourself to be a little less in depth because you're just looking for a starting off point. Then once you figure them out, you move to the parents. This is a step often neglected. People will say "the character has a strained relationship with her father." Well, why is that? Maybe it's because the father has a hard time relating to the daughter. Why is that? Because the father was born in the Midwest to a poor family, and made it big, bought a house on the beach in California. His childhood was so different from hers so he can't relate to her which strains the relationship.
Continuing off that example, you have to ask yourself in what concrete ways was the relationship strained. Think about a couple of scenarios in your head about incidences where the relationship was particularly strained. Then ask yourself how exactly the strained relationship effected the girl's life. Again, think about a couple of scenarios in your head showing how the strained relationship affected her life.
Once you've done all that, repeat the process with another aspect of the relationship between the father and daughter. No relationship can be defined as just "stained." There were also good times, there were times he protected her, there were times when he had disappointed her. Play out those stories in your head. Once you feel you have that relationship figured out, say to yourself "congratulations” and repeat the process with every other character who has a major influence on your main character. Usually this is going to include parents or parental figures, other family members, best friends, teachers etc. This could, of course, be wildly different for your story, but that's up to you to figure out.
The whole "60% of your character's backstory shouldn't be reveled" is a good saying to have, but isn't based anywhere in reality. You have to decide how much of your character's backstory or past to reveal, and you have to understand why. The things you reveal should have intention. But the point of all that is; If you don't know your character's entire backstory, their entire past, you wont get to choose what to reveal, you'll be forced to pick from a limited supply of details. If you know it all, you have more freedom to pick and choose what to incorporate and where to incorporate it so that it best serves your story.
External Attributes
In the process of character development, at some point you’ll have a mental image of the character in your head. What do they look like? What are their physical attributes? Let’s say your character is blonde, or maybe they are deformed. An example of this is Tyrion Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire. Tyrion is a dwarf, and his dwarfism is the defining external attribute of his character and the central theme of his experience in the story. Another example is Quasimodo and his hunchback in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Determining a character’s external traits doesn’t stop with things like eye color, hair color or skin color. Consider the nuanced aspects of the character. What does their nose look like? Do they have birthmarks or blemishes? Are they tall or short, thin or fat? So on and so forth.
How do they talk? How do they walk? Do they have habits, behaviors or tics? These can help distinguish a character and make them stand out. Here are some examples. Harry Potter is acutely aware of his forehead scar and will rub it when he’s distressed. Stannis Baratheon will grind his teeth when he’s agitated, and Piglet fidgets when he gets nervous.
Also keep in mind that emotions are not the same for every person. People display fear, anger, joy, etc. differently, varying from person to person. In terms of anger, some people internalize it while other people externalize it. Some people flare up while others sneer, so on and so forth. Think about what the character is like, or how you’d like to present the character to the reader and develop those attributes accordingly.
Plausibility
You need the right number of characters, and all of them need to be built from the ground up in such a way so they feel real and believable. The reader must perceive those characters as actual people because that's the way readers connect with them. The reader must be able to put himself into the shoes of a character and get a sense of realism, of plausibility, but also feel entertained and emotionally connected.
You've probably heard this before: create 3-dimensional or multi-dimensional characters, be aware of and avoid flat or cardboard characters. What does that mean?
This advice spawns from the fact that nobody in our real world is a one-dimensional individual. Nobody is just bad or just good, or just stupid or just smart. People are generally bad about some things, and good about others, they are stupid about certain things, and smart about others. They have positive traits and negative traits, and all of them together make that person who he is.
Moreover, a person develops over time. A person is influenced by his environment, his family, teachers and friends. Someone who started as being a cynic might change later on when a stressing event occurs. Someone who was a loving person might turn into a misanthrope after they had lost their loved one to an accident; a god-fearing person might turn into god-hater after they had lost their child to a disease. Either way people often change (except James Bond) - in good or in bad ways - and that makes them real too.
The combination of personal traits and the way that those traits change during one's life are what define that person in multiple dimensions. It's what makes that person unique. In the context of fiction, it's what makes that character interesting and worth caring about.
To better achieve plausibility, don’t be afraid to do research. Read, watch videos, and think about how you can make your character more believable to the reader. Is your character a genius? Then show the reader how they’re a genius by having them think about or present information indicative of that characteristic. Maybe you as the writer are not a genius, but you don’t have to be! All you need to do is hint at it.
Suspension of Disbelief
The term “suspension of disbelief” was coined by 19th century poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817, who argued that if a writer could integrate "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the implausibility of the narrative.
The key to any character is that they should seem believable to the reader. The main thing you’ll want to avoid is when the reader is reading your work and is somehow reminded that you are the writer by what they read in the text, because the characters seem more like ego manifestations or wish fulfillment fantasies of the writer. Therefore, a character’s strengths and weaknesses should have a sense of balance to them. You don’t necessarily have to counter every strength with a weakness, but you most definitely want to have weakness that are as consequential as their strengths. Superman’s weakness to Kryptonite is a famous example.
Character breaking suspension of belief is when characters do stuff that they normally wouldn't in order to drive the plot. It’s especially bad if problems are solved this way. This sounds like it would be really obvious but it often creeps in unnoticed, such as antagonists being ruthless killers who decide to monologue for the protagonist (unlike James Bond, where such a thing is expected of the villains).
Let’s say your character is a beautiful blonde vixen with blue eyes and a heart of gold who knows how to do anything and is the best at everything. There’s nothing compelling about that and comes off as wish fulfillment fantasy. Now, if said character was a beautiful blonde vixen with a heart of gold who could learn anything, but struggled with insecurities and a fear of failure which led to her struggling to becoming great at anything, now there’s something interesting.
Character Study
A character study is essentially a neutral summary of a character’s history, mental traits and motivations that serves as a primer for yourself and for your peers and readers. I recommend these exercises for characters because it provides a written summary that you can refer back to on the character. For the sake of leading with an example, I’ve provided a character study that I produced for the Emperor of Ghant:
Without question, Nathan IV had a difficult childhood growing up. The eldest prince of his generation, Nate was followed by several siblings and cousins. Prince Nathan did not foster anywhere, so his chief male role models were naturally his father John and his grandfather, Emperor Albert. John was a spare man, increasingly busy with running Ghant on behalf of the Emperor and unable to afford much time to raise his son. For his part, Emperor Albert was an incredibly distant man, reluctant to show affection to members of his family, given his habits of drinking, hunting, whoring and playing cards. Nathan’s mother, Caroline Zuria, left him and his family when he was a toddler (this has a profound effect on a young child) due to John’s affair with Princess Isabella of Latium. Worse, Nathan was only 6 when his father died in a plane crash, and 9 when he became Emperor. His Uncle Albert, having been appointed regent, forbade Caroline from seeing her son, leaving him without any form of closure for that emotional wound.
He would fare no better among his kin. A young Nathan would develop into a weak and sickly lad, lacking at martial ability, a poor hunter and even worse, unable to make friends with other boys his age – all things that are expected of an imperial prince in highborn Ghantish culture. As the oldest, Nathan might expect himself to establish a fine example for any male relatives that would follow him (and be a bit better). Unfortunately, those aforementioned male relatives would all develop talents to outshine him.
Starved of affection from his parents and recognition from his role models, coupled with being outshone by most of his male relatives, it isn’t hard to believe that Nathan IV has a deep-seated inferiority complex. Many of his later actions, especially his appetite for women, could be seen as an attempt to drown out his perceived lack of worth from his family members. The court admired him for his wit and intellect, but as his generation aged, each of them was known for being the best at something. What was Nathan to do? Nathan could prove them all wrong by one simple way: demonstrating to all the he could gain the affection of women and the envy of men. It was not a healthy coping mechanism, but it does help explain Nathan’s personality (while certainly his own predisposition to lust has a great deal with the reason why he selected this particular coping mechanism).
With his childhood firmly understood, the portrait of Nathan begins to become fuller and richer, less a caricature than a true person, albeit one who emphasized the worst aspects of both leadership and humanity in general. Nathan IV is truly a festering pit of self-loathing, turned increasingly to hedonism to drown out his self-doubt, and filling his court with sycophants who could make him believe that people loved him as much as he so desperately craved. The satisfaction of his ego seemed to be paramount in all aspects of his tenure on the Throne, yet with a little logic and understanding of human nature, we can see why he craved approval and affection so much that he would let himself go to waste.
Using this information, Nathan's pursuit of Sophia is easy to understand. She was considered the greatest lady of the realm, and the one that all the men wanted. So naturally, N4 had to have her. Sophia and Nate grew up around each other, largely due to John and Malibar being lifelong friends, and Elizabeth Mutu's family being in the south. Sophia and Nate shared common interests in history, literature and philosophy, and according to both of them, nobody understood each other better than them. All of their "firsts" to put it mildly were with each other, and while Sophia claims she always loved him, she had her reservations about being with him because she knew that he would hurt her, and that his impulses would mean he'd never be loyal to her. Sure, maybe he would be for awhile, but sooner or later some whore would sink her claws into him. For the longest time she tried to fight it, but eventually chose to accept her feelings and deal with it, and be the Empress Ghant deserved.
Internal Consistency
“The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” is a chapter in Carl Sagan’s 1996 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark in which he provides several points that are useful for maintaining objective processes. Since I consider character development to be, in an ideal world, an objective process, I’ve applied these points to the area of character development.
Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.”
This is why I strongly suggest collaboration and peer review of character development, so you can get an outsider’s assessment on the character and their attributes. Humans can never be 100% objective and very often we overlook flaws in characters that we like, so having that outside perspective is critical to the process of developing a dynamic character.
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
“Evidence” in this context would refer to written material pertaining to the character, whether that takes the form of RP posts, wiki articles or Discord comments. It is better to allow the reader to make an assessment of a character than for you as the writer to force an interpretation upon them. If you know what the various interpretations of the character in question are, then you will have a better understanding of how the character is presented and how they are received by the reader.
Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
There are no creative authorities in roleplaying aside from you, for ultimately you are the master of your own work. Never let another roleplayer attempt to exercise authority over your own work. However, it is perfectly reasonable to acknowledge that there are experts who are highly knowledgeable in the field of roleplaying. It is important to take expertise provided to you constructively, especially when it comes to character development. It can be hard to receive criticism of a character that you’re fond of, but often times that criticism can help you make the character more dynamic.
Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives, the hypothesis that resists disproof in this Darwinian selection among “multiple working hypotheses,” has a much better chance of being the right answer than if you had simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
I apply this point in the areas of action / reaction and cause / effect. A character has at any time a number of choices that they can make or decisions that they can render that will affect not only their arcs, but the path of the story. In this sense, it is best to consider various scenarios for the character. If they do this, what happens next? Think about which scenario best matches what you think the character would actually do in that situation, and consider what you think would make the story “better.” Again, “better” is entirely subjective.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.
This is important because in many instances, people will not pursue a narrative course for a character because they find it unpleasant. Things like subjection to violence, painful circumstances or even death. As I’ve said before, your objective should be to try to remove yourself as much as possible from the character development process, and if you find yourself admitting that you like a certain path for a character for reasons not pertaining to the story or to what the character would actually do, then that’s a problem. I’d say consider what is best for the story, and sometimes, negative developments are necessary for a character to learn, grow and adapt. After all, conflict is what drives a story, and your job should be to create a dynamic roleplaying situation, not a wish fulfillment fantasy.
Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging.
If a certain action undertaken by the character can be explained, such as “the character would do this because of X, Y and Z” then that is an internally consistent decision, as it adheres to IC. Again, the action that the character take should be the one that is the most internally consistent. In that sense, I’d argue that it is easier to write situations, settings and incidents and then have the character react to these things in a way that makes sense for the character.
If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them.
In this sense, chain of argument could be construed as a chain of events. A character in many ways is a sum of their experiences, starting from when they are born to when they die. It is your job to consider how the character has developed as a result of their experiences, and how those experiences have shaped them into the character that they are in any given RP. What this point argues is that the totality of a character’s life experiences needs to make sense for how the character behaves and views the world around him, and how it influences their actions.
Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler.
The simplest of multiple explanations is more often than not the best one. In character development, this is as simple as, “the character in question is like this, so this is what they would do given a particular situation,” or “this happened to the character in the past, so this is what they would do given a particular situation,” or “this character did this in the past, so this is what they would do in the future.”
In Conclusion
It's a daunting, challenging process, character development, but ultimately, the most rewarding, and the most essential. Do not shy away from it, and call it whatever your want. It's all the same thing; material. Becoming a strong character writer will greatly increase the depth of your stories and serve to pull in the reader and get them invested in your story.