***How to Cook an Onion!..Well, Create a Character

Alright, I'm no expert but I'm going to pretend I am!

Without further ado, welcome to....

A good character is like an onion. No, we're not playing about or talking about Shrek, although he is a great character, we're talking about character creation. We'll start with the first layer of the onion, aka that lovely crinkly brown skin bit. Sometimes it's purple, to be ~*fancy*~ I suppose. Anyway, let's take the onion and dissect this special snowflake, shall we?

A good character starts because of a good idea. That is the very first rule of writing a good character. Any character that you have to squish out like it's the remnants of your tooth paste is not going to be good unless you are a literal genius. Trust me, I know.

But if you're trying to come up with a good idea, here's my method:

The best advice I can give when it comes to writing is to draw from your own experience. Every little piece, every character gets their breath of life, their soul persay, from me. Whenever you make a character, give them a bit of you. My four top characters that I feel that I am the best at writing are as follows,

Avon Mione Lightwood - In her, I placed my terrible habit of not really liking to show people how I really feel. I'm the type to run around with a smile on, even when I feel like curling up into a ball and dying. She was driven by love for her siblings, and a very cold guilt that she carried, in not being able to save them from the harshness of reality.
Colt Hanlon - He's a gullible guy with an amazing outlook on life although he was born with a debilitating case of Dyspraxia. His sense of self worth however, is still somewhere down a giant hole, although he pretends to be incredibly confident. Again,a bit of me in there.
The Detective - The Detective is one of my favourite people to write, and his brain is essentially what I wish I had. So in him, is my wish for genius.
Ender Winters - Ender is everything I am not. He does drugs, drinks hardcore, and is a mad talented musician. His sense of guilt and self loathing is again, from me. His easy confidence is also from me however, and that's why I can write him.

The gist of this is that you have to be able to write your characters to make them believable.

In a way, that's almost harder than taking a character and making them entirely apart from you. Sometimes it means, facing who you are inside, and accepting it, so that you can write.

Another thing to remember is that, If it means something to you, it will mean something to them. Never use throw away sentences when you want to get your character across. Make your character one that people can believe, by giving the character yourself.

If you really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, want to make a character for a plot, then do not take exactly what the person has given you for a description of what they want. It's good to use what they want, but if the character does not belong to you in some way, it will be hard to write them.

eg:

Oliver is the (possibly twin — in which case he would share the James McAvoy FC - we never finished sorting that out) brother to Dresden Blacklion and is 18 or older if they're not twins. With a greedy greedy greedy passionate love for money, despite not having much, Ollie is a blue collar factory worker with a serious gambling addiction (and a shameless tendency to bet against his prizefighting brawler of a brother).

I wrote:

I feel like Ollie here would always have something to prove, and all this pent up anger at things because nothing ever seems to go exactly right for him. I can see how he is a bit of a loud mouth, but at the same time he doesn't really say much in the meantime, unless it's to taunt, because he isn't extremely sociable. He used to like to fight like his twin brother until he once did some serious damage to another guy and it put him off it. To combat his need to fight, he knows when it's coming because his fists curl up and he feels heat forming behind his eyes, he gambles and watches the fighting. There is always a cigarette behind his ear or in his mouth, however, he barely ever smokes them. Basically only when he's tired, he uses them for a pick-me-up. He just likes to have it there for the question of whether he would ever actually light it or not. (TFIOS) REF.

He feels like he's spiraling out of control at the same time that he's living life so closely to the edge that he never seems to get enough of it. Life goes on rather normally until he meets Bang Bang who literally flips his whole life upside down b being incredibly annoying AND NOT GIVING HIM HIS MONEY GRAHHHG. He dislikes her from the start, her odd way o dressing, her strange beauty, the way that she makes him want to punch her in the face even though he doesn't want to fight. She brings out the absolute worst in him and makes him CRAZY AND HE HATES HER FOR IT. At the same time he can't stop won't stop going back to that junk yard even if his life depended on it.

He's got this weird sense of personal honour even though some assume that he has pretty much none of it. It's almost feudal in the way that he's so old fashioned. If you damage his honour, expect him to challenge you to something or other.

He's collecting his money away because one day he wants to own every single body in the stupid District because maybe then they'd look at him differently, and he would get the respect he deserves.

Necrophilia kind of grosses me out completely, but I'd like to make him an insomniac. He walks through the District at night fucking shit up, looking for that telltale glow of junkyard light, and occasionally getting into some dirty business.

The point is, You can take it so much information from one little tidbit of someone's idea. Then you can make it your own!

"A character's appearance is usually so very boring to write, omg, isn't it? Why can't we just post a picture of what our character looks like, and then it's fineeeeeeeee. Ugh we already know they look flawless anyway right, like why do I even have to describe them. This is just a waste of my precious roleplaying time, and you people are ridiculous for making me write an appearance."

A common misconception about photos is that they are better than writing or descriptions because they just show what you mean to show through your writing. That is a very wrong, wrong, wrong, no good fact, and whoever said that needs to be taken out and shot. An appearance is very important for a number of reasons, that I am too lazy to number here.

Here is a list of what I see in this picture, in paragraph form.

Logan has short hair that's swept to the right of his face. It's slightly curly in an offhand way as if it got bored of curling and took up knitting instead. Logan has a thinner body than most because he doesn't eat well enough because of reasons, and he likes to wear a lot of black because it looks good on him. He has squinty eyes, and a pointyish jaw.

...

YAWN.

Let's look at all the things this photo doesn't tell you about your character.

• How tall he is. - When rping, the other person might want to know this.
  
• What type of hands he has. - What if another character wants to take his, but wants to describe them?
  
• Scars? Bruises? Cuts? - This can explain background information.
  
• Birthmarks? - Anything weird or oddly placed? Nothing Mary sueish. Ew.
  
• Straight/crooked teeth? - Is there good dentistry where your character is.
  
• Why he stands that way? - This can lend to personality/history
  
• Eyecolour? - When Pika is looking soulfully into his celestial orbs, she needs to know their colour.
  
• weird feet? - Hey, you never know.
  
• ETC? - More interesting things!

Just like when you're trying to come up with a character, it's important to make them realistic. NO ONE is perfect. Not even celebrity faceclaims. (I know, isn't that a crazy notion?) One of the most important things to give a character you are creating, is a flaw. No one is flawless. You aren't flawless. I'm not flawless. That's why the word perfect is so stupid, but I'll tangent about that another time. Flaws can be anything from greasy hair, to pimples. From debilitating injuries to scars.

It also gives a partner more to work with if you carefully describe each part of the character's appearance with precision. For example, I can take

"Logan has short hair that's swept to the right of his face."

to

Logan's hair is such a dark colour that in some lighting it can almost appear blue. It's shaggy, and mostly unkempt. Just over his right eye, his bangs are carefully cut away. This isn't because he cares, but more like when it grows too long in that particular spot it annoys him. When it does grow too long, he usually swipes it over his forehead so it rests just above his eyes. His sideburns grow in points past his ears, and his hair is usually ruffled from drawing a hand through it.

The more you write for appearance, the more your roleplay partner, or innocent bystander of a reader can visualize your character. Visualization is important, as it brings the character to life.

When I write my characters, I try to describe them from head to toe. Or I simply do an overall look at their bodies. For example, we have Jude Ripley. Now not only is Jude more of an overall appearance guy, but he's also someone who's history and personality rule his appearance.

For example,

And it's not so much that Jude looks like he's been defeated, but it's the way he looks like he's six feet under a little before his time. The boy seems to have the world on his shoulders, like every responsibility falls on him. It brings his height down almost two inches when he's upset, although his go to posture is tall as a tree.

It's important that you as a reader and writer understand how personality and history can effect a character.

Hopefully as you've been reading this, or at least skimming it, you've noticed a simple but elegant theme. If you want to write a character like I do, which I've been told is pretty acceptable, then you must use linkage.

Notice my very poorly made diagram. Everything links back to the other. A person's appearance is going to effect their history and personality, and vise versa. That's how it is in real life, well by gosh, that's how it's going to be when writing as well.

I think a personality should have some basic components.

• The character's mental state overall - happy, sad, neutral
  
• eg. how does their past/present situation lend to this?
  
• How they feel about the world around them.
  
• Likes
  
• Dislikes
  
• Odd habits
  
• Basic abilities - what are they good at?
  
• Basic shortcomings - What are they not so great at?

And then more things should be involved as well.

That being said, don't make your character into an accidental sue by making your character be, let's say, a really good singer, a dancer, a piano player, an amazing chef, and really sweet, with a lot of friends. To make a character realistic, they should also carry some bad or odd habits that takes their seemingly obvious perfection and flips it around. For example, I have a character that looks really cool with tattoos all over his body, but he has thei absolutely weird fascination with death that puts most people off.

We're going back to the theme of 'nobody's perfect'.

Don't you dare try and answer me with, "WELL MY SUZY MCSUE IS," because I'm sorry love, it just doesn't work. I wish I was perfect, hell, everyone does, but you're not. The reason a character can become so beloved is because they aren't perfect, and it's best to love your characters like they are extensions of you. That being said, I give my characters a lot of my social problems. For example, Jude Ripley carries my problem of being unable to let others see how upset I am because I don't want to let them see how not put together I am. Unsurprisingly, that's a recurring theme in most of my characters.

Another way to make your character more fun for you to play with, is to give them a mental disease. Be very careful however, as you can easily drive your character right over the cliff of normalcy and into the ravine of mary-sue. If you are going to give your character a mental disease, then you should research it very thouroghly so that you know what you're doing. When writing, one must stay realistic. Unless your character is a my little pony that goes to Hogwarts, you're most likely writing about a human being. Surprisingly enough, even fictional human beings have thoughts and feelings, and mostly they just want to be written properly.

So, if you're going to give your character a mental disease, please take this oath.

• I promise to write my character(s) realistically. Before I decide to give my character(s) a disease/mental disease, I will respect my character(s) and my fellow roleplayers by researching the disease I will be writing about. I promise never to write a character who's main plotline is that they have a disease. I promise to not let my character(s) turn into a mary-sue(s) because of their disease.

Alrighty, we're cool.

Let's just get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible.

LOL.

In all actuality, most people's history are really a lot longer than the rest of their bios, and they are almost always incredibly sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it. Most people don't like reading about people who are happier than they might be, and besides who cares about a generally happy person? To make a character interesting, their history should be interesting. If happy is boring than it's most likely going to be sad.

That doesn't mean you should be skipping off into mary-sue land to create your character's history. It does mean that we're going to be linking again though.

At the core of every character is their history. A history shapes emotion, reactions, likes, dislikes, and even appearance. So a history is very important. It's very important for a history to have a chain of events that lead the character up to the present day, and to also include anything you have alluded to in the personality or appearance section that hasn't been taken care of yet.

What's another important rule?

...

Yes, exactly, spot on, keeping it realistic. Now, not that I'm saying you can't use this, but it is a very mary sueish technique to use rape as an important history plot point. Like diseases, you have to be very careful with it, it isn't something that you can just do, "oh yeah, she/he was raped, and then they threw dirt at her, and then the whole town hated her/him because she/he was gross for being raped, and now she/he eats bugs." The thing about rape, is if you're going to use it, again it is something you respect by researching it, and thinking carefully about it. It is never a write off things, along with every other sad or bad thing out there. If you're going to say your character was raped, it is going to have a long term affect that will effect personality and maybe even appearance. (links!!)

When you as a writer make the decision to use something like rape in your writing, you have to be careful to not be offensive about it.

Rape victims struggle with the fact that they have been raped for a very long long time, if not all their lives. So if your character has been raped, there will be long term affects.

Basically, if you're going to put anything in a character past, make it realistic, and link it to everything else as well.

That is what will make your character three dimensional.
A good way to order your history:

• Birth
  
• one quarter to current age chedck-in
  
• half to current age check-in
  
• three quarters to current age check-in
  
• current

If there is a major event that happened in your character's history, make sure to highlight that as well. There are also histories that literally only highlight the important event and then give some detail to birth, aging, and current. That is alright as well as long as it gives enough information for the reader to have a good understanding of your character.

So....I guess I'm done here. Also it's best to clean up as you go along, and if cutting up onions hurts your eyes, wear goggles.