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Well, this is a pretty general question, but how do you prevent characters from being too similar too each other? Is it worth it too scrap one of the characters and start a new one, or mix charactistics of one into another?

Or is it something that you shouldn't worry about?

well if you want to make them unique(when I say unique It doesnt mean flashy) you should pay more attention to making them look different

I think as long as you picture in your head(and have an small description also)of how they look phisically and how is their personality and aptitude..you could get good results

what I do, because I use to suffer from sameface syndrome, I make their posture different, agressives ones tend to lean to the front, or shy ones shrughs
body features, some are more thinner some are more filled in the bones
and lastly the face, I try to change maily three things, eyes, nose and mouth..If I want to make them more different, I consider drawing the shape of the face differently too, the ears bigger or smaller, more forehead or less..and little detais like that makes the difference hehe

same formula wont work to everyone but its nice to hear what others think!

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I like using the silhouette test on my characters. Make a line up of your characters and fill in the outline. You have to make sure that their outlines are different.

Here is a short article that talks about it: http://fablefolk.blogspot.ca/2008/04/ca ... ettes.html



Susan

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Well, actually, I was talking about how the character's personalities and relationships are too similar, but this is already a good discussion. Would it be possible to talk about both the visual aspects and personalities?

But back to Susan, how would you apply the silhouette principal to more realistic characters, with casual clothes? Do you concern yourself more with hair and clothes or more with body-type and facial features?

Writing down the characters' histories often helps me find out their distinctive voices. Why is this character the way s/he is today? The characters' "driving elements" and primary motivations also help. For example, let's take a look at Geoff (someone I'm making up on the spot). On the surface, he's a bookworm who has trouble making friends in his high school. What made him that way? Growing up, his parents never allowed any electronic entertainment in the house, so he could never connect with the majority of people who are allowed on the Internet, at the very least. You try bringing up Hemingway to your fellow seventh graders and see how they react. But, the few friends he did make in middle school, he clung onto desperately.

Geoff's "driving element" is that he doesn't want to lose the few friends he has. He'll go along with whatever they say so they won't leave him behind. He's in constant fear that they may some day get bored of him due to how he doesn't fit in like everyone else. That feeds into his primary motivation: "make sure I don't ruin my friendships. I don't want to be alone." His "voice" would be mature - longer sentences, higher vocabulary - because of all of the reading he's done throughout his life. It'd be out of character for him to ever say something like, "yo, man, what's up?"

After making up Geoff, I would do the same thing for his small group of friends. They might all have reading in common, but you have to dig deeper to make them distinctive. If you want to make them really different, it's easiest to create an opposite. In Geoff's case, it'd be a brash, loud-mouthed character. But, there's lots of ways to make friends for him that are similar, yet different. How about a girl who wouldn't mind not having friends at all? She has all the trouble Geoff has when it comes to making friends, but she's a honey badger about it (honey badger don't care!).

In my stories, I try to make sure that everyone is as distinct from one another as possible. It can be difficult, sometimes, though! That's where SusanTheCat and clua's suggestions come into play. Their visuals can reinforce their personalities. We'll pick on poor Geoffrey again. Keeping in mind the way he grew up, it can be safely assumed his parents were strict in some way. His upbringing would reflect on his clothes and hairstyle. He'd be very neat. Plain shirts - no graphic tees. No ripped jeans. No wrinkles. None of that. He'd make sure he wouldn't look like an embarrassment to his friends, so they wouldn't abandon him for looking gross or whatever. It matches his character.

I've scrapped people before that are too similar and fulfill too much of the same role within the story. Usually, I give them a second chance by adding to their characteristics. I put them in situations where you can really see how their opinions differ. I try my best to make my characters distinctive from one another. Anyway, I hope this extra long post helps!

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^Brilliant post.

Sometimes when I notice that a character is too similar to another one or not important for the story, I just merge them with another one.
(If I love the character too much to just throw him out that is.)
It normally turns out quite... interesting.

But I'm having a similar problem now.
The protagonist of my VN is really similar to the protagonist in my adventure (even physically, they start to give out the same mood /fail) - it just happens because the adventure character is just perfect for my way of writing.
Guess I should be more open about different characters - try to be it too.
It's... a nice challenge, I guess?

- R.

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A lot of good tips above. I myself like to make my characters embody an archetype when I create them - so it becomes pretty obvious when I have character personalities that overlap. While in the real world there are plenty of people who are similar - in fictional ones it is fine to just make one to embody an idea or personality that you want to express. You only have so much time and space anyway so it is just artistic license. If you have a few characters who are similar just try to find out what idea you are trying to express with them and then boil down their traits into one and move on to the next. Good luck!

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Put all your characters in one room, don't introduce them to the readers, and let them all talk about something. If your reader can't tell who's talking and who's who, then yes, they are too similar.

If I find my characters are too similar, usually I either change them or merge them (or delete one of them).

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Ouch. I just tried LVUER's suggestion and then realized only 2 out of the 5 characters would actually be talking to each other

That sounds like fun, LVUER.
Without faces and names, just text? =o

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Strange as it may sound, I find it helps to have each character have a distinctive way of talking. Are they the type of person who mutters the minimum needed to carry on a conversation? Are they verbose and overbearing? Do they wisecrack? Do they refer to everyone by their last name? It shouldn't be used as a gimmick, but it can be a good starting point to figuring out their personality and background.

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Omni actually makes a really good suggestion. Using different speech patterns is A+ in my book as long as it makes sense and isn't done purely for the sake of uniqueness. Kaleidofish also brought this up somewhat when she mentioned that Geoff would be out of character to say "Yo, what's up man?"

I think the most important thing to make sure you're characters don't end up as personality clones of each other is to make sure they have reasons for their actions. When creating characters (especially important/main characters) you really need to see where that character came from. Details like the time period and place where they grew up, what kind of family they have/had, their ideologies, etc. are all important in figuring out a character so that you can write them in a believable way.

My theater prof. gave us a character analysis activity to do that would help us in becoming a character for a scene and I think it's relevant to share in this topic

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