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April Behind the Scenes: Character Building
🕑 Added 2024-04-23 02:58:30 +0000 UTC
A lot of people enjoyed the worldbuilding post last month, so for the first behind-the-scenes post in April, we thought we'd review character creation!
In the worldbuilding post, we talked about day-to-day life for a person in your world. When it comes to crafting your main character (MC), this will help you determine how they're the same and how they're different.
For example, will this be a character who's lived in the world? One who was isekai'd/sent there? And if it's a character who's lived in your world, are they from another part/continent where their ideals will be different?
This creates the beginnings of your character's backstory.
Shortlist Your Background
If you're a discovery writer like us, try not to get caught up in every detail during this process. For Matt, we knew that he was down on his luck, desperate for a girlfriend, and struggling to make friends, but he was a good-natured guy. And really, that's about all we knew about him going in. Other parts of his character, like his fierce loyalty, sense of humor, and his family past developed over time, and we let him speak to us.
Find Your Character's Truth
This is one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. Whether it's your main character or your side characters, give them one truth to always search for.
For example:
Matt: I will protect my friends at all costs.
Keke: Follow in her mother's footsteps.
Cannoli: My faith will guide me.
Ceres: Protect and serve. Failure is not the end.
Just having this one piece to your characters changes them from 2D to 3D. It helps establish their perspectives, their motives, what they hold dear, and how they go about certain situations. Even with these four, they would approach the same situation very differently (i.e. Kirti using her stones to heal Ceres).
Character Archetypes
The word "trope" gets thrown around a lot like a slur. But archetypes are what have helped writers build characters and backgrounds for hundreds of years. Now, you don't have to use the ones you don't like, and it's fair to believe that some are overused. However, it is important to draw a baseline from them. For example, there are hundreds of Shi Island maids, but only one Ceres.
If you like tsunderes, kuuderes, book smart, street smart, cinnamon buns, wise; any particular personality types, go for it! Write the characters you want to explore and spend time with. Because you will be spending the most time with them throughout the writing and publishing process, it's incredibly important to enjoy it!
Deciding on Matt, Keke, and Cannoli's Classes is also when we started talking about what kind of Party composition we wanted to run. Being as Matt was the type who wanted to protect people (and dreamed of being fawned over), he immediately went the tanky route. Cannoli wants to help and heal, so that is reflected in her class. Keke wants to be like her mom, so she picked up the bow.
We try to figure out what's missing in certain compositions when we're creating new characters. Cailu's third Party member after Yomi had to be a healer, but it didn't mean we had to go the traditional route. Same with Tristan having Destiny as his healer. There are hundreds of fantastic RPGs to draw inspiration from, but try to decide how you want the final line-up to be.
Can Everyone Do Everything? Why or Why Not?
This goes along with the rules of the world. For example, can everyone cast magic/is magic something unique? Are some people inherently born with traits that cannot be obtained?
You'll want to decide if your main character has access to world-established means like magic, and whether or not they have access to something no one else does. For example, skills and abilities. Are these accessible by the world's citizens, or specifically the main character? In Nyarlea, sub-classes are unique in that only the men have access to them. That gave the men a reason to keep fighting and leveling up multiple classes - the more they cap, the more they can test out what meshes together best.
There are a ton of awesome character sheets online to help you get started, but remember, don't get caught up in brainstorming hell. Oftentimes, a majority of the questions will never come up, and you can write yourself into a corner instead of naturally letting them evolve through the story. Events and confrontations will change them, and they should!
And never forget...
Your story is awesome!
Thanks for reading!
We hope you enjoyed the brief dive! We'll finish up this series with the RPG elements next month. See you tomorrow with a new chapter!
