What do I do to give my characters more room to shine in my story?

[JoshRaed]

I'm almost done with the first draft and it's pretty lacking in character personality, outside of specific moments once every few chapters.

[Rai_Muffin]

Try some writing exercises where you put them in an unfamiliar situation.
Say they walk into a book store; what do they go for? Is there a genre they prefer? Are they going to grab a bunch and lose track of time? Do they think books are lame and start browsing their phone?
What about their supporting cast? Do they get on? Who do they gravitate towards? Is there any they argue with?

It sounds simple but seeing what characters do on their down time can help bring out more personality in my opinion.
The Tapas forums have a bunch of challenges like this, asking "what would your character do?" kind of things.
Let them grow in your mind then start working that into the story.
Pretty soon they will develop a voice all of their own that your audience will associate with them.

[midnightsun]

You could try to present them with something in your story that will make them show a new side of their personality and emotional range. Something I’ve noticed that often makes characters seem like they are lacking in personality is when we only see them display one or two emotions. This could be something that embarrasses them, scares them, angers them, excites them, etc. Just something to momentarily change up their emotions and behavior.
New conflicts big and small are also a great way to show how characters behave under pressure, and how they resolve those conflicts can tell us a lot about their personality.

[vapidink]

What POV are you writing in, and how much are you exploring your character's thought process?

A lot of people have an issue where they tell the story without really giving their character's much of a voice, so their writing comes out very factual, I guess you could say. Like, they're telling the reader what the characters are doing and how they're doing it, but they're not exploring their thoughts and emotions.

[Lensing]

What do the characters want?

[JoshRaed]

One wants to be cure of his advancing Flea-human hybrid transformation, the other wants to help him do that and also survive life as a full time hybrid himself.

[Lensing]

Is he self confident about it or doubting himself? Why does the other one help him and how
does he want to survive? Are they friends? How did they meet? Where do they live, what
do they live on? I would ask myself questions like that to know the characters better
and know how they react and the better I know their situation and their goals, the better
I can tell an interesting story which explains their motives / circumstances by their actions

[JoshRaed]

Is he self confident about it or doubting himself?

I don't know what you mean by this. Which "he" do you mean, and confident/doubting about what thing?

Why does the other one help him and how does he want to survive?

Initially it's partly due to an irrational sense of guilt where he initially thinks he gave him a weird mutant STD to make him turn, but also because he has feelings for him, and also because he knows that he will need someone else helping him given this whole situation.

He wants to survive because... he wants to not be dead. I don't know what else to tell you.

Are they friends?

They're childhood friends turned lovers.

How did they meet?

They met in high school, were split up by some complicated circumstances, then met again by chance when one became a journalist looking for a story and the other ended up inventing a potential cure for everything, which is the ultimate story to be breaking.

Where do they live, what do they live on?

One lives in a decent apartment in the and the other lives in a suburban house that doubles as his personal science lab.

[Lensing]

That´s something to work with, are they the main characters of that story?

[JoshRaed]

Yes, they are the two main leads.

[Lensing]

Upload the first draft when it´s finished, then it will be easier to say what you can do to give
your characters more room to shine

[JoshRaed]

So I have a finished first draft of something already, that I finished in october so it would be out of the way by nanowrimo. Do you want to see it?

[JoshRaed]

Just finished the draft of my story due to the first draft coming out way shorter than I intended, so now I have a 9 chapter, 151 page, 30,148 word first draft.

Do you want to see the draft now? It's not properly finished, sometimes italics aren't there and there's [this bracket] instead, and often there are notes for things that should be added later.