Roleplayers and writers alike, I’m sure we’ve all struggled with coming up with ideas for our characters’ personalities. In my opinion, character creation is one of the hardest aspects, considering you have to come up with a personality from scratch.
I’m even procrastinating on 3 characters at the moment because I’m out of inspiration.
How do you develop your characters?
Do you do their backstory first, personality after? Do you use a random trait generator for ideas?
I searched around and couldn’t find any thread on this topic, let me know if it’s a duplicate. Also, I’m not sure which category to put this in-
Well, I usually take inspo for personalities from people I know! I just think of what they would do, how they would act and stuff like that - I feel like it makes it much easier!
As for backstories - eh idk, kinda just write it accordingly to the story
Well, thats true if you want to write something new.
I once wrote a character with the idea that it’s like me, but I made the character act how i would like to act it that situation but probably won’t lol
Well, I tend to build the characters through the story when writing. I make sure there are flaws and virtues that make the character more relatable. I found that answering questions about your character really helps when developing them.
This part is something flip back and forth on. I will make a partial backstory first then add on to it throughout the story. Sometimes I will make a full backstory but that is only if it’s for a main character usually.
Nope, I have never used this before. I use name generators to come up with unique names. When I mean unique is that I merge names into one name most times.
Questions definitely help in character development! I think developing their personality as you go on with the story is the easiest way, because it makes you think how they’d react to the different situations you write
I tried merging words together for names once and ended up with t a b l e c h a i r
I do that too! Or at least draw inspiration from several people. I don’t have to know them personally either, it just makes it easier to form a picture of them
Yeah, that’s why I prefer to have at least some sort of personality outline so I’m not completely lost. It’s also hard to develop characters that way if you’re writing RP characters, the scenario hasn’t happened yet
Sometimes I base them off people I know; other times they are inspired by a fictional character (usually one that’s not well-known), and then I just go from there and think about what kind of personality I want them to have.
I also use the 16 personalities type indicator to further develop their traits.
I use that test too! The questions really make you think about different kinds of scenarios. It’s especially useful for roleplay characters that haven’t even been in a scene yet.
Thank you! I’ll be sure to check them both out, they seem to have a lot of useful information.
Okay, this may sound weird, but I have a really effective idea that works supppperrr well for me and helped me develop all my characters for my stories perfectly.
The trick? Go to:
It’s a personality test! Take this imagining yourself as one of your characters, and then get your result, and read through it. Not only does it force you to think about your characters deeper, but when you get your results, you’ll feel more connected to your character.
Honestly, I really connected and went in my characters shoes for some of the scenario’s and then I received their personality, and it seemed perfect! Try it
I did this for my story back in 2018, but I saw in one of Shannii’s blog posts that she had this tip as well, but she did it kind of differently.
I’ve seen people mention that method a bunch of times, so I decided to try it myself. It’s really helpful, especially for RPs where you have to make characters fully before actually playing them. It makes you think how the character will react to different situations and it asks all the questions you need to develop your characters.
I just think of what they would do, how they would act and stuff like that - I feel like it makes it much easier!
