Making Memorable Characters

[BlueB]

I'm pretty new here, but I'd like to get some some experienced opinions.

When listening to a lot of newbie writers and VN makers, I often hear "Is this love interest sexy?" "Is this yandere scary?" etc etc...

But I never hear "Do people enjoy my character?" It's a question I'm always pondering when developing my own. It's not that I want players to love every character they see; in fact, many times the opposite when it comes to villains and the like. But I do want people to remember my babies, and enjoy hating or loving them.

So to all you writers out there: how do you think writers can create memorable, interesting characters that grab a readers attention?

[Cith]

So to all you writers out there: how do you think writers can create memorable, interesting characters that grab a readers attention?

The easy way is to make them funny.

The hard way is to give them depth.

[SimonLayton]

Most people's advice is that if you want a memorable character, the character has to relate to the player/reader. Have something in common with them. Do they have the same interest? Do you feel the same way when they have their emotional moments?

In my personal opinion (and probably a baaaaaad advice to a lot of people), memorable characters have memorable moments. Think about favorite historical people. What are they rememebered for mostly. For their work? Good deeds, bad deeds? Their most epic moment in history?

Now what do you think your character will be remembered for? For having a good character development? For betraying one of the characters? For defeating the Big Bad all by themselves? For creating the most powerful spell in the universe, after so many years, so much, blood, sweat, and tears shed?

There's also a downside to this advice, because sometimes a memorable moment tend to be the defining moment of the character. Because, think, this is how they're going to be remembered. If a good character is remembered for a bad deed they've done, they might be defined by that bad deed. Unless that is intentional, to show everyone that your good character is not always good. I think a few people will like that more (including me).

I'm not saying that you have to force a moment for them so they could be memorable. Let them flesh out. Let them be people. Let good guys be bad guys for a single second. Let them move on their own. Depth is the hard way, like Cith said, but it's very important when it comes to writing characters.

[BlueB]

Very interesting perspective, and I definitely think that defining moments can lead to very memorable characters. However, I think that small, every day things also make characters stand out. It's like you said: if the big, bad villain is defined by his big, bad deed, that's what people will remember him as. But that doesn't make him stand out among the crowds of villains (unless you're a very skilled writer and make it an awesome experience.)

I think the realistic approaches to characters are the ones that stick to me most. How did the villain like his coffee? Did he ever fall in love? Did he die a tragic hero in his own mind? Of course, not every character can be this fleshed out, and it's like you guys mentioned: depth is hard but necessary for a good character. I suppose the take away is balance? Give characters detail without taking away from their shining moment?

Any thing else that can make a character really stand out? Which characters (doesn't have to be from a VN) stood out to you the most?

[Omniknight]

So to all you writers out there: how do you think writers can create memorable, interesting characters that grab a readers attention?

The easy way is to make them funny.

The hard way is to give them depth.

That's my new signature.
However, I'd advise you to start giving your characters depth ASAP, as comic humor can only get so far.
Commonly known as dimension establishment, the beforementioned technique is absolutely necessary if you want to upgrade from anything like this to this.

If I might add a little more, I'd like to say that giving characters definite personality and characteristics is vital if you want to graduate from being an amateur hobbyist.

[Cith]

My words have been immortalised.

I can now die a happy man

[Flowers from Nowhere]

Characters, like so many other aspects of stories, fall into the classic "write what you know" mantra. I'm not suggesting that you only write modern-day slice-of-life (my least favorite genre). I'm saying that human emotions and characteristics are pretty universal under a wide variety of of situations. Think about your characters' motivations and what they are and aren't willing to do to get what they want.

Say you're writing a sci-fi story about a few dashing rebels trying to overthrow an evil empire. (What? you've heard this before? Nonsense. I'm sure it's completely original. ) How do you write what you know about that? Think about it. If YOU were growing up under the thumb of an evil empire why would YOU be rebelling? If YOU were the ruler/ruling council/whatevs of the evil empire how would that affect YOU?

This is a brainstorming exercise. You obviously don't want all of your characters to be you. However, you do want them to have recognizable human goals and characteristics. To get that, you have to borrow them from somewhere else. You can use traits from yourself, things you've seen in other people, even other people's fictional characters can be a good source of inspiration. Look at characters you like, think about why you liked them, juggle those traits around.

I also recommend googling "creating good characters", "writing good characters", and related searches to get other people's insights into the process.

[noeinan]

In my personal opinion, memorable characters have memorable moments.

I completely agree with this-- but I also don't think it has to be big events. You can give them a really memorable, close conversation with another character, or have them express a certain quality about themselves in a memorable way.

Doing things or saying things in a way that makes the player think "wow, they obviously think about things when I'm not looking at them." This can be as simple as confessing a past experience to another character, or getting upset about something that is specific to *them* as opposed to something "relatable" that would piss off just about anyone.

Ex. Hey, that guy bumped into me and spilled my drink-- generic. But something that pisses them off because of a past experience, or their belief about something turns them into more of a person.

[Steamgirl]

I'm not an experienced writer, but I think that memorable characters are ones that are infused with personality in each line their speak. For example.

Generic: "Come sit at the table, I have made dinner for everyone."

Annoyed/Bossy: "Sit. Now! Eat and be grateful for it."
Sweet: "Make yourselves comfortable, darlings. I've made your favourite meal."
Fatalistic: "Why doesn't anyone take a seat? I don't know why I bother making food, it's all pointless."
War hero: "Please, sit with me. Each meal may be our last, but if this is to be my last meal, I will be damned grateful to have shared it with you."

And so on. I don't think this necessarily makes character memorable in the long run - what SimonLayton said is probably more true in that case. But I do believe that in the short term, in the moment of you reading a story, it's the characters that speak with personality that will be easier to remember.

[sothcsp]

The easy way is giving them a story and a shroud of mystery. The hard thing is giving them personalities that seem quite common yet seem quite new.

Ask yourself these questions.

1. What does my character look like?
2. What does my character like?
3. What does my character hate?
4. How does my character talk?
5. What is my character's weak spot?
6. What is my character's flaws?
7. What is something that can make my character unique but not that unique?
8. What is my character's story?
9. Does my character have a goal? If so, what is it?
10. How does my character move?
11. Is my character worthy to be loved by the player?
12. Is my character not a waste of time?
13. Does my character have a definite story?
14. Does my character have some specialties to make them unique?
15. Is my character unique? If so, how?
16. Will my character bond with the player?
17. Will my character bond with the story?
18. Does my character have conflicting views against something?
19. What will I make to make you love my character?
20. Can this character relate to me?
21. Can this character help widen the story? If so, how?
22. Can this character help progress the story? If so, how?
23. Can this character give emotional impact to the player? If so, how?
24. Can this character give psychological impact to the player? If so, how?
25. What can I do to make my character stand out but not stand out too much that it shadows the other characters?

Ask yourself these and you might know the answer.

Have a nice day~!

[Omniknight]

My words have been immortalised.

I can now die a happy man

Thou so beautifully put what's easy to say but hard to do.

[Akai85]

One warning I'd have to give is don't get too involved in the minutia. It's a common amateur mistake to focus on answering categorical questions and think that leads to depth in a character... it doesn't. It just leads to a grocery list with a face.

Visual novels typically have stock character types or "characteristic sets" that go together. For example, the shota yandere, the strict megane, the nice childhood friend. Now, I'm not going to say that you can't do this but if you do just be aware of the competition out there. Copying off existing characters in this situation will make your characters as memorable as generic possesive kinda mean shoujo boyfriend #51.

To give characters depth you have to read between the lines and know things that might not end up in the final game. For example, take our stock strict, dissaproving and somewhat condescending Megane. Why is he so uptight and such a downer all the time? Maybe strict megane is controlling because his dad is always gambling instead of paying the rent. Surprisingly he has to look after his siblings and get a job to support the household. The guy you thought was effortlessly cool and smart actually studies hard but doesn't plan on going to college because he knows he can't afford it.

Now let's say you include these things in the game: Megane is always studying in the library, says he has a job to be self sufficient and is loving to his siblings. Protag doesn't know any more than that but, with you knowing all the between the lines stuff you can then set up situations in which you ask yourself questions like:

• *What does megane do if he get's sick? Who takes care of the house? And what about his job? Does megane take care of his health or neglect it for study and work?
  *Does protags blase attitude about school piss off the hard working character? Or is he jealous she gets good marks without trying?
  *Is Megane embarassed about his home life? Does he never bring friends over?
  *Does he have time to keep up with trends? At a karoake bar could he sing a song that's current? Does he watch tv? Does his lack of knowledge about teen culture bother him?
  *Maybe he thinks of himself as boring and lacks confidence in relationships. Or maybe he see's most people his age as lazy and unmotivated and doesn't want a relationship with someone who has different values.
  *Does he actually have any affection for his dad? etc.

Once you know a bit about the character you can easily construct situations in which to showcase their strengths, weaknesses and various personality aspects or bring new information about them to light. What makes a character "memorable" is being well rounded in having flaws, weaknesses, realistic goals and stuff. To name some(well-known) memorable and well-rounded characters: Light and L from death note, Edward Elric from FMA, Fakir from Princess Tutu, Gin Ichimaru from Bleach, Zabuza from Naruto, Bon Clay from One Piece etc.

All this takes a character from point A (stock strict megane) to point Awesome (Strict megane is so fast at riding his bicycle - can't afford other transport - from picking up his siblings all the time he is scouted to enter a bicycle competition. With the prize money he can afford college. Problem is he must train for this tournament... during this time you with your epic marks offer to help his siblings with their homework while he practices, relieving him of a responsibility. At the same time, you commit yourself to helping your love interest and reminding him to eat properly etc. for the competition while simultaneously being motivated and getting more serious about studying. In the end he wins the tournament and with his and your epic studying you both go to an awesome college together, his siblings throw a celebration party for you and even his deadbeat dad gives him $50 and tells him he's proud of him. You notice that from then on there's always the corner of a $50 note sticking out of megane's wallet... though his relationship with his dad doesn't appear to have changed much outwardly.)

So what just happened there? We went from a shallow love interest with a romance route based off misunderstandings and pointless cliche to a (admittedly somewhat crappy) route focusing on a struggling high school student who succeeds at his secret dream of going to college and also there is romance. This also fit's into the "hero of their own story" thing with Megane being the clear hero in his route's plot progression.

So they should also be the hero of their own story and I'm going to stop writing now because this is a mini-essay, but google Writing Excuses. It's a podcast of writing advice from three awesome writers and I know one or a few of their episodes will cover characters. (Also these episodes are 15 minutes long you really should check them out.)

[Rossfellow]

Surprisingly, characters with solid depth and interesting backstory can fall to the sidelines (Who remembers Kojiro from Fate?). Meanwhile, characters who have vague backgrounds and brief appearances can grow on the reader quickly despite not being focused on (Seiko from Corpse Party, for instance).

IMO, memorability comes from the character's meaning and purpose. They are remembered by the story, not the reader directly, so by remembering a franchise you'd be reminded of particular characters. They are the weight that adds impact to powerful scenes. They are the key players that affect and change other characters(Seiko from Corpse Party), change the way you view the story (Fuminori from Saya) and perhaps alter the course of the story entirely (Mami from Madoka).

...You can also make them notorious using the other, less tasteful methods, like making them meme material. The kinds of characters you remember because they are so outrageous they sour the experience or make you abandon the story altogether (Take that, Aizen). There are also those times where annoyingly bland characters are given spotlight but it just doesn't work.

This is all case-by-case basis of course. After all, some characters can be immortalized just by having a signature quirk in design (Black Rock Shooter) or characterization (Catchphrases. Everywhere.), but that's just not my style.