What makes a character interesting?

[maximumthemokona]

They must want something that is difficult, maybe impossible to obtain.

[Thesleepypencil]

With 7 billion people on the planet. Everyone is going to find different things interesting. Though all the same everyone will want characters that are more than one side. Characters with flaws and problems or quirks.

The most attractive thing to me as a character is when a character is KIND. From aang in the last air bender, to Rey and finn in the force awakens, to even Max in Mad max. These characters are extremely appealing to me. They are all different with different characters, and those other traits add to it. And with kind characters the story with constantly throw morally grey issues that they have to react to or evolve with and i find that so interesting to view

at the end of the day you give me a character who is unbridledly kind and I'll be all over that.

[kazukitakamura126]

What I think makes a characters is how the plot can make them evolve.

For example, you have a vengeful character who wants to kill the bad guy for taking the life of someone important to him/her. What would make them interesting is they discover that them and the bad guy are more relateable then they thought and starts to empathizes with them. Then when they finally meet and realize both their goals still clash they will still fight. However, the main character will fight the villian not because hatred but for honor. Another option would be that their is something bigger then the both of them and it turned out the important character that died was actually alive and planned to destroy them both. (I know this sounds cliche or convenient cop out but, if executed correctly can make for an interesting development)

If the story makes the character question their values and ultimately change to some degree you have written a good character. Well, this is just my opinion anyways.

[AnnaLandin]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing about a hero having a goal of defeating a villain that killed someone of value to them (it's only natural that they could feel this way), if you have the character branching out over the course of the story and caring about other things than just that goal.

Yeah, it's possible to do the revenge-plot well, but I've seen it handled badly so many times that I'm wary of it.

One thing that it often does is make secondary characters hollow and expendable, especially if you place the tragic event at the start of the story. You've barely had time to get to know these characters, and now suddenly one or more of them is dead simply to give your hero/ine some convenient tragedy to get upset about. There's no weight to it, and it's a very external motivation. It - and the entire adventure - is being thrust upon your character from the outside, and tells us very little about who they are on the inside. It's part of the whole blank-slate issue - if you remove the revenge, who are they?

I don't know - I just dislike seeing characters killed off for motivation. It feels cheap, and it hardly ever has the emotional weight that the creators intend.

I'm not saying characters should never die, but I dislike it being something that happens JUST to motivate the hero/ine. If you're going to kill the characters, at least let them have some agency in it - let them do a heroic self-sacrifice, or something. Let their death come at their crowning moment of glory, after we've gotten invested in them and their lives, and build up some of the hero/ine's motivation to defeat the villain before the death happens.

[isaacfriedman]

Give them the ability to change. That doesn't mean make them perfectly adaptable and have them behave differently in every situation; that means be consistent with how they behave and what their beliefs are, but if they are presented with sufficient stimulus or catalyst, they will react internally and change the way they think about the world and the way they act around other people. If they don't change under a great deal of stress of one kind or another, provide a reason that explains to the reader why they are so unphased by something so traumatic or straining, but don't just dump it on them then and there, build it up over the course of the "first act" or setup.

[keii4ii]

And just like onions, they make you cry (for joy or sorrow) as you get through those layers...

One thing I want to add to this discussion is that even when two people list the same thing (e.g. "believable flaws"), they can still have very different opinion about a given character. Person A might LOVE the character; person B might find them flat and uninteresting. I believe most people will agree with me on this, but it's still worth noting.

[Greg_Dickson]

I put the concept of some characters already been killed off in the beginning to add a sense of urgency and to raise questions. Plus, you haven't had time to experience how much time I'm going to be putting into developing my secondary cast, and you don't know exactly what my prologue is speaking about. I haven't laid out the outcome so cut and dry. There's a lot of details and things to come that I haven't exposed yet. By going back into the story, you get to see the lives and actions of these characters, even when there's ultimately death in front of some of them. Plus, my main character has a lot to learn and grow from over the course of the story. She wasn't talking like, "yeah, I killed them all and now I'm super awesome". She had regrets, and as the main villain is saying, she can't use their powers right now. There's a lot at stake, and there's no obvious cue as to what the outcome is going to be. I've thought of things very far ahead of time, and I want to develop my characters, as ridiculous as some of them may seem. Plus, while the heroes she's battling is initially a means to an end, there are a lot of grey areas in between. A lot of opportunities for her to learn about what she's doing, and wiggle room for her to make different choices than just to kill all the heroes and then the final villain, and then live happily ever after. Yes, I've labeled her as killing the heroes and absorbing their powers, but there's a lot of content that comes before, during and after those events before the final confrontation. I've only made things seemed obvious, but I haven't blown all of my information right in the prologue. I'm holding a lot back. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what that is, or I'll spoil my story.

Also, I only have 4 pages of content so far. That's not enough time to learn anything about my characters yet. Also, I had my whole story planned ahead before the prologue. I added the prologue afterwards, because I wanted readers to have a glimpse of what the stakes are at. Obviously, it's not going to appeal to everyone, but I like the direction, and plenty of others have too.

This isn't a negative comment about your story, but I don't know much about your characters either, but you're way ahead of me in terms of progression. Yet, I'm sure you have something planned, as you're taking time and care to tell your story. I can tell by how passionate you are about Grassblades, that you take so much care and pride in your work. Honestly, I feel that a wandering warrior with a curse is a seemingly generic premise, but you do it well, which kept me hooked to your story. Will there be some truly amazing and original plot twists and character revelations? I can't say. But even if there's not, there's a lot of personality in your cast already. If there isn't major payoff in the end, does that make the journey getting there not important? And I'm saying that, since your comic has been all about the journey so far.

Am I saying to invest time into my story? Well, no. If it's not your thing, then I can't make you be interested. But please don't assume from only 5 pages of content (including a cover), that my story will be hollow, and that my secondary cast will be truly expendable. Even if you know the outcome of some characters ahead of time, it doesn't take away from the stories those characters tell, and the personalities they show up until that point. Just because I have a concept that isn't popular, doesn't mean that I can't take it in my own unique direction. And even in the end, if you don't like it, that's perfectly okay. Because I know that it appeals to some people, and I've done the absolute best I can, considering that I'm not a writer at heart, and that this is my first story.

Keep in mind, I'm saying this all with the utmost respect, Anna. I've been and still am a huge fan of Grassblades, and I love what you've done. I'm not expecting the same in return, but in terms of this being a thread about what we think makes a character interesting, I was just giving my opinion on the subject. And I know you're talking in generalities, but since my prologue seems to line up perfectly with what you're expressing about not liking, I'm assuming that it's being talked about as well. Lastly, it's perfectly fine for you to not like the revenge trope. But I hope you can give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm not going to make a bland monster-of-the-week revenge story, and will take every opportunity that I can to give my cast some much needed character.

P.S. - My comic's premise and format (it's part action/comedy) isn't meant to have a super-deep and provoking tale, But I do aim to give my cast as much personality and room for flexibility as I possibly can.

[AnnaLandin]

@Greg_Dickson I'm not speaking specifically about your story, Greg. I'm sure you'll be able to pull it off just fine! It IS possible to locate the death of secondary characters at the start of a story, and then use flashbacks to build them up! It's a method of storytelling that works for other things as well - like putting a big, flashy fight-scene at the start of your story, and then cutting back to way, way earlier in the timeline and building back up to it, etc.. If you handle it well, it can be a very good hook for a story!

And I'm not passing judgment on your story in particular. Please, please don't feel personally insulted by this, that really isn't my intention at all. I haven't read your comic, so I literally cannot have an opinion on how you handle it.

When I brought this up, it was to point out the times when it is done badly. There are PLENTY of stories in which revenge over a cardboard no-personality secondary character is a hero/ine's entire motivation, and that's the bad thing about it. I said I'm wary of the trope, because it's often mishandled - but not always.

But my personal opinion on a trope shouldn't keep you from using it! For example, I personally despise love-triangles - but that doesn't mean love-triangles should never be done, or that the people who do them are bad writers. It just means that I've read too many stories in which love triangles are badly done, so I personally choose to stay away from it. Using the death of a character to motivate another isn't inherently a bad thing - revenge is a powerful motivator, in real life as well as in fiction - but it can be handled badly, and it very often is.

I'm of the opinion that each decision you make with your story should be made with some kind of intention in mind - and if killing one character to motivate another is something that will make your story work the way it's supposed to, then by all means, do it! If you can lend that death some emotional weight and meaning after it's happened, then that's great! My post was mainly about those instances when the creator doesn't put in that effort, which unfortunately happens a lot.

ETA: I just want to make it doubly clear - when I used the word "you" in the main body of my second post, I wasn't specifically referring to you, Greg. I was referring to storytellers and/or readers in general. English is my second language, and sometimes I'm not as clear/understandable in text as I would like to be, and I should maybe have structured that post better.

[Greg_Dickson]

@AnnaLandin Thanks Anna, I'm glad you cleared that up. You've never seen like the type of person to insult anyone, so that's why I was so taken aback and confused. I've also seen plenty of stories with cardboard cut-out revenge stories. Naruto drove me nuts for that reason, as one character NEVER learned or tried to change his mind until the end of a seemingly 15 year long series. Plus, he never acted differently than being angry at every single thing in the world. That's why even though revenge is a motivation for my main character, she will have the ability to make choices, learn things, and express a wide range of emotions (positive and negative) by the end of my story. I get what you're saying about love triangles too. I typically hate them, but it doesn't mean that anyone who tries one can't succeed, or at the very least, add anything of value to their trope.

Again, thanks for messaging back so soon, and I still appreciate the tips you gave me to help me with my cover work last week. I'm looking forward to more Grassblades, as always.

[AnnaLandin]

@Greg_Dickson You're welcome! In these threads, PLEASE assume that when I write "you" and don't mention your comic or characters by name, I'm using a general-you, not speaking of you and your comic specifically.

[greyshire]

A vague answer, but I've always found that when an author cares a lot about a character or has fun creating them, they are usually well-developed and interesting be default. So chances are if an author loves their characters, other people will too!

[maxzaguishi]

do not copy the features of a character that already exists, at least in their personality,This can be seen more in the manga, the character cliché, It is better when your character resembles you, you have your same personality which in some ways is unique,, that's my method.

[guilleum2]

Conflict and motivation definitely help. I take a certain piece of advice to heart because it's simple and can condense your backstories/traits.

Answer 6 questions about your character in one sentence. Questions like "what gets them into trouble?" "what is their biggest fear?" Things like that.

[indagold]

Uh, it's kinda a broad thing because you can't sum it up in a few words. They are relatable, believable and don't exist for any other purpose other than be part of a story and be fleshed out through being part of it.

Honestly it makes me scratch my head some authors can't let their character go through conflict and bawl like a baby if they have to make their poor sunshine flower be challenged.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

Going beyond flaws, relatableness, likeability, etc; I think its important to develop a characters history and to ask the question why are they the way they are? Some reasons appear during the story, like when you have characters undergo a transformation and you see what motivated the change. But I think its interesting when things are revealed about a characters past that demonstrate who they are now and shed light on things you might not have realized right away. I think its especially interesting when you realize that a certain aspect of a characters personality, even if its as subtle as a verbal tic (Hodor?), was shaped by a past experience.

I recently saw the Boy and the Beast, which is a pretty standard child-meets-imperfect-surrogate-father/mother-figure-and-begins-a-heart-melting-journey-into-adulthood story. I found it interesting when it was revealed that Kumatetsu (the beast and father figure) was pretty bad martial arts instructor because he had to learn on his own, being an orphan. He never had a teacher so he didn't know how to explain things well. While his orphanhood played a role in his character being an outcast throughout the story, it also had an effect on this separate aspect of his character. This made for an interesting relationship with the boy as the title of master and student were evenly shared by both.

[KSlinger]

To me an interesting character is one who (to their mind) is already complete, as they think they know who they are that they fully understand themselves.

These characters interest me because I want to see their opinion of themselves subverted over the course of the story. I love seeing how characters handle the unexpected, especially when the unexpected is how they feel or the things they've done. A villain who can't bring themselves to kill the hero like they intended, or a hero who thought they could handle their success but becomes cocky and arrogant and everything we hate. A racist character who finds themselves giving exceptions because they got to know certain people better. A character who thinks they are acting because they have to and finds that it's because they want to. Falling in love with the wrong people, defying my expectations and their own. So interesting. I could read things like that for days.

[joca]

I think the number one way to make characters interesting is to give them lots and lots of depth, and I think the best way to do that is how they interact with other characters, and situations. In what situation are they happy, angry, nervous, scared, determined, can't think straight etc. What's important to your characters? What/who would they go out of their way to help.

//shameless plug: I've been told that Toxic For You has really realistic characters, because all of them have flaws, they all act differently depending on who they're with, different people bring out different traits, and that's how people are, its not a two-faced thing, depending on your comfortability with others, changes how you act.

So you can do all those over-used tropes, love triangle, hero-revenge, etc, if you give each of your characters their own personality, responsibilities and sense of moralities. not some cookie cutter "this person is shy therefore they're shy with everyone in their life"

[PorcheJ]

You all gave amazing and helpful advice on creating a character. Creating a character can be difficult at times. But at the same time, it can be a fun experience. With characters, you have to make sure that they make choices, connect/have chemistry with other characters, treat them as people, and give them motives and conflict.

Character arc helps as well. Without character arc, how will your characters change for the better? How will the reader/audience connect with them? Be sure that character arc is included in your story.

[VermillionWorks]

If you're going to kill the characters, at least let them have some agency in it - let them do a heroic self-sacrifice, or something. Let their death come at their crowning moment of glory, after we've gotten invested in them and their lives, and build up some of the hero/ine's motivation to defeat the villain before the death happens.

Very true.

I'll say if you want a death to just be horrific and shocking, then sure, make it bloody, terrible or even abrupt, this is good for horror n' such, but if you want it to actually be tragic, then a death along the lines of what you've mentioned would be better. Too many think that brutal and shocking also equals tragic, it doesn't...even if it's a character you've been following for a while, the impact of their death is lost when it's done that way because you're just left in that state of "WHAATT WTF JUST HAPPENED" They might be shocked and appalled, sure, but they won't be moved.

And the "going down in flaming glory" death also isn't used enough!

Err, yeah, kind of talked about something else there for a sec, sorry. ^^;

[nessiefynn]

Mainly a multifaceted personality. Characters with contradictions in their personality can be especially interesting if done right, like ruthless villains who care deeply about their loved ones, or heroes who fight to bring peace and justice to the world but don't realize when they're being cruel themselves. I love that kinda stuff.