***Death's Guide to Character Creation

We would like to thank the lovely member Death for this fantastic guide.

**Death's Guide To "Birthing" The Vivacious Character- For Beginners**

Every character deserves the chance to be vivacious- which means life filled. But how does one make a realistic character? By creating balance. Just because they are a perfectionist goody two shoes who gets on everyone's nerves does NOT mean that they can't have outstanding honesty. In fact, this may be why they get on everyone's nerves... Including your own.

How does one create a balanced character? Well first we will need to find a good definition. *looks it up* Here we are!

balanced (adj.) 1. being In harmonious or proper arrangement, adjustment, proportion, ect.

So there we have it. The first step in creating a character is to have them proportional to their role. Just like Luna states in her Guide To Something, each character will either be positive, negative or neutral. This means we will need to create a "formula", if you will, for each type of character.

Positive Characters

Ah, the positive character. Normally characterized by their lack of faults and general likable-

WAIT!

No, a positive character is most definitely NOT perfect or lacking in the bad. That would be a MARY-SUE my friend, and those characters are beyond unpleasant. While not evil, they are not fun to role play with and well are generally too bland for real life. They are not realistic and so, they would not be a balanced character.

All positive characters have their faults. Let's take a look at some of the Hunger Games' characters... Shall we?

Cinna!

Cinna is probably my favorite character. Ever. Characterized by kindness and a gentle understanding, he was and continues to be the only Capitol person Girl-On-Fire Katniss could ever have been stilled by. But, he also has some traits that are not so desirable and actually led to his death. He had a quiet anger that ate away at his insides and flowed into his work. Why is this bad? It means our dear Cinna does not seem to forget a single thing and no doubt holds a cruel and cold-shouldered grudge. How's that for an undesirable trait?

Collins found an excellent balance for this character. He was not perfect. He was not horribly, awfully Capitolistic. He was Cinna, a unique character that stood out because of his.... Say it with me!

BALANCE! *woot woot*

Now, let's figure out Cinna's formula and see if we can turn it into an equation for fictional life.

-Patience (Good )
-Understanding (Good)
-Kindness (Good)
-Grudge-holding (Bad)

...what does that look like to you?... A ratio perhaps?

Yup. The easiest thing to do for a character's traits are for every three good traits, you put in a bad. It's not a required formula, but it does help you to find an excellent balance for your character.

You can toggle with the formula as you want to and be sure to always create the character how you think they would be best represented... Unless it's a Mary Sue.

Onto the....

Neutral Characters

Now we move onto the Neutral characters who are everywhere and nowhere all at once with their personalities. They are the people who aren't bad, but they aren't evil. They can be unpredictable and often portray aptitude for developing into a hero or a villain. In reality, they tend to be both.

Creating the neutral character requires skill, time and balance through equality. They need to have a blend of bad traits and good traits that balance each other out. We are going to do another example with a secondary character...

Johanna Mason

Johanna Mason is one of the female tribute-victors in the 75th Hunger Games and is introduced in "Catching Fire". Probably remembered best for her tendency to strip stark naked and her friendship with Katniss on her road to recovery, she is a rather interesting character who shows an incredible balance of traits on both sides. She is stubborn, with the tenacity of a bulldog and has an excellent sense of sarcastic humor but she lacks a certain instilled modesty, instead leaning towards arrogance and she often lapses into blunt pessimism that brings people down to her lonely depths. Let's check out that ratio.

-Stubborn (perseverance)
-Sense of humor (in the form of sarcasm)
-Arrogant
-Pessimistic

This is a 1:1 ratio- a perfect balance of her most important traits, i.e. the ones that set her apart from the other characters.

Neutral characters do require a balance, but find one that works for you as a role player. You shouldn't replace following rules with originality and your own comfort. After all, I am just another person.

Negative Characters

But these people aren't just some other person and they are normally determined to make you know it! Most people would categorize them as 'villains', but you don't have to be a villain to have more bad traits than good. In fact, maybe they aren't a villain at all, but are just bad people in general. But the guy we will be looking at next is most definitely a villain. Without a doubt.

President Snow

And I hiss as I say his name, for he really and truly is an evil character. Generally unfeeling and uncaring, President Snow is always seeking his way and kills any person who gets in his way. The only quality that I can think of off the top of my head is his natural drive and passion to live what he believes- even if what he believes is beyond Voldemort evil.

To be honest, I was surprised I found even one good trait about him. This guy (or at least the side we see) is truly a negative character. Let's figure out his general ratio.

-Uncaring (Bad)
-Selfish (Bad)
-Murderer (Bad)
-Passion (Good)

His ratio is the inverse to the positive character's... one good trait for every three bad. But you can make them as evil as you want. Like Sauron evil. Or Voldemort evil.

Now, please keep in mind that this is a general guide and should not be used as character making law. You should be creative and find your own formulas that work for you.

Now go out there and make an incredible character. We all know you have it in you. It just takes some time, thought and... Well, balance!