How to Add Depth to Character

[Lucy1212]

How do you keep characters from becoming cardboard cutouts, especially when dealing with a lot of characters? What techniques do you use?

Just curious, since it's recently been pointed out to me that my characters sometimes lack depth.

[Holland]

I characterize in a really round-about way since I have a lot of time at night to develop them, but the basic jist of it boils down to thinking of them like real people.

I think the best way to characterize them is to just stop thinking of them as characters. Don't go scouring the dictionary to figure out what words best describe their hair color and their personality traits. Imagine if you were talking to them and figure out how they'd react to you - what they'd say. What've they been through to cause them to say it? If they're mean, then why are they mean? Can it be fixed? Maybe it's not that they have a terrible past of abuse; maybe they just had an epiphany at the arcade one day, when a girl was shrieking about them asking to borrow a quarter, that people just aren't worth being nice to? Those little things do impact people in the real world.

Once you know what their personality is, why it is that, and what their past is, think from their point of view about what they would wear, how they would talk, and in what way they'd react to the story and other characters. That gives them depth.

[Lucy1212]

Thanks for the input. It helps.

[kitsubasa]

Seconding Barabisama, the really, really obvious way... you just gotta treat them like real people. Everyone's got their own ways of working on that, and there are more aspects and angles to consider than anyone can comprehensively cover in one post, so here's a couple of my main points of consideration when I'm character building.

1) The devil is in the details. The broader the traits you give your characters, the less realistic they'll be. For example, say you create a character who's meant to be interested in sport. The further you hone in that trait, the more specific you make it, the more true to life they become. Your friends don't just 'play field hockey', they play field hockey as a left wing, their front tooth got chipped in a game a year back, and they hope they don't have any more 6AM games this season, ugh. Your uncle doesn't just 'watch rugby', he's going to a sports bar on Saturday for the game against Argentina, but last time it smelled funny and some beefy guy nearly threw up on his new shoes, so he's starting to think about just getting cable and skipping the outings in the future.

Make sure your characters are specific in their tastes, their feelings, their work and their play, and they will be more individual for it. If you don't know much about the things they're into, learn about them-- read books, watch films, the works. If they're fantasy characters, build their world in better detail as well.

2) Ensure they've got a full emotional range. Everyone has things that make them angry/sad/happy/afraid/bored, and creating characters who are only ever shy or pissed off or cheerful is just plain silly. When I work on characters one of the first things I do is make a list of little things that make them express different emotions, like 'no queue for the supermarket checkout makes them happy for the next hour'. Once you know how they react to certain scenarios, extrapolate on that. Why do they celebrate not queuing so much? Because they're a super-busy person who values their time too much to wait. Why are they so busy? They fill their time up with activities they don't need to do. Why do they do that? Other people's laziness upsets them so if their flatmates fail to do the chores, they will do EVERY CHORE. On and on and one until you have a picture of their personality.

3) Find an interesting centrepiece to build them around. Having a deep character requires a lot of layers, but just like a pass-the-parcel, if you get all the way through unwrapping them and find nothing interesting, it can feel like a waste of time. I usually start with a role in the story for them, and a major personal problem they have. Recently the main character I've been writing is 'role: intelligent friend who can offer smart solutions to tricky situations' and 'personal problem: crippling fear that their avant-garde lifestyle has cut them off entirely from friendship and romance'. What this means is that people who read will both appreciate the character's input, and have a reason to care about them as a person once you peel back their pierced-up labcoat-wearing musical-loving exterior.

Anyway, those are the three things I've been mostly focusing on lately to make engaging, enjoyable, deep characters... but granted, my word on this kind of thing is probably pretty flimsy, since I haven't released any games yet to prove I'm remotely decent at characterisation. Ah well. All I can do is hope my unproven ideas stimulate some thoughts. : D

[sasquatchii]

I like to use the 'somebody wanted, but so' approach. It's important to remember that everybody wants something, even if that something is small, like a glass of water to drink. Giving your characters wants & needs really helps build them out. Figure out what they want & you've already taken another step in defining who your characters are.

So first, you figure out who the somebody is. What is their name? Gender? Physical Traits? Personality? There are a lot of resources online to help plan this all out, if you like to:
http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html
http://dehydromon.deviantart.com/art/Bl ... -298561173
http://fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment.tum ... r-creation

After you work that out, you need to figure out what they want. What do they aspire to? What are their goals & dreams? Maybe they're pursuing something or someone. Or it can be a lot simpler, as I said earlier, maybe all they want is some water to drink, or to go outside for a walk.

Next, the but. What's getting in the way of what your character wants? Without the but, the conflict/antagonist, you don't have a story.

Lastly, the so. This is how your character overcomes (or fails to overcome) the obstacles before him. Somebody wanted _____, but _____, so x happened. What is the end result? That's completely up to you

[SinSisters]

There are literally so many character development guides, outlines and tips. Scour the internet until you find one character development sheet that you like. Even if it's just answering questions like their favourite colour, it'll help you to start thinking in their head. If you're starting at the basics and you're thinking about flaws, don't pick something 'quirky' or insignificant, like that they're a perfectionist. Choose something meaningful, something that's them. If you choose something and then later think that it suits another character better, so be it. You're the creator, you have the power to change the characters.

Start by looking at the people you know. Are they jerks to people close to them, but kind to strangers and respected adults? Why is that? Or is it a despicable sexist man, who thinks that women are something for him to win? Are these traits something that the character can change, or another character could influence? Or is it a part of them so deeply ingrained that the character and ever other one will simply have to learn to deal with it?

There are many, many different sides to people and many things I could talk about regarding characters. Flaws and negative character traits are simply something I find often overlooked or badly done, so I thought I would mention it. The easiest way to build characters is by mirroring real life people. "But _(name)__ would never do ____!" Well, then either find a good reason for your character to do something, or don't have them do it. Pick people that are interesting. I wouldn't recommend total realism and consistency to the person, because then otherwise you won't have an interesting story or characters.

That's all I can think of for now! "Character Development" will always get you places in the Google search engine.

-Nat

[breadslam]

I always start out with a role in mind. "I need a friend for Protagonist X to tie the narrative closer to school" is a pretty standard example.

Then, I think about what they'll do on screen, based on the tone and pace of the narrative. If they're only going to be on screen or in the story long enough to tell the protagonist about a club, they don't need much fleshing out. If the narrative is all about the aftermath of a fatal accident, it probably wouldn't be appropriate for them to crack jokes about car crashes or falling off cliffs (unless you're going for the dramatic irony angle or you're looking for some dark humor).

So let's say that Protagonist X's friend is female, on the quiet side, and plays soccer at the local rec center. She invites the protagonist to go to the gym, thereby unlocking the "exercise" action, and has a few bonus scenes where she comments on the protagonist's progress or gives a bonus to the athletics skill if her action is completed a certain number of times. That's a really bare-bones description, but you have to have the skeleton before you stick all the pretty bits on top.

From there, I elaborate a little more. Perhaps Protagonist X's friend is quiet because she doesn't know very many people at her school and is therefore much more social at the rec center/gym. Maybe she's busy with improving her grades because she spends too much of her free time working out. Why does she like sports and exercise? Was she inspired by a professional athlete at an early age? Does she just like doing what she's good at? Or, conversely, has she always been physically weak so she wants to improve? The best question you can ask when you're creating a character is "Why?".

After all that, I touch up some of the character's relationships. When did she and Protagonist X meet? Were they instantly friends? Did they forget about each other for awhile and eventually start talking? Was it more "hate on first sight"? How are they compatible as people? How are they not? Do their separate interests get in the way of their friendship or give them enough time away from each other that they don't get sick of hanging out?

This isn't an extensive guide or even a very good one, but I hope it helps someone out there somehow.