What makes a character interesting?

[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.

[PorcheJ]

That's very interesting. It's like the "Iron Giant". Great movie with wonderful and unique characters. If you haven't see the "Iron Giant", PLEASE DO. Also, spoilers.

What made me like the Iron Giant was that he was always curious and tried his best to be gentle. Despite looking like a terrible monster, he made a human friend that saw him like a little kid in a giant's body. And in the end, we all rooted for the Giant because he sacrificed himself for a good cause. At the same time, our hearts were broken.

Killing off characters may be a big risk. However, if you create a character that everyone enjoys and they're killed off... once you see the readers/audience in tears or shock, then you know you did something right.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

I do think shock factor can be gratuitous if that's the only thing at play, and that it should have an effect on the story. The Red Wedding, for example, had repercussions for the story line even in this season of GOT. I think if it was ultimately inconsequential, then GOT wouldn't be as popular.

I also liked [insert characters name]'s death in season 3 of the show Black Sails despite the fact s/he was an interesting (and becoming more so that season) character. The manner of the death also catapults the story in a big way for all the characters, to the point where we'll probably see the effects throughout the next season. I've kept this spoiler free because if you haven't watched Black Sails yet, WATCH. IT. =]

[HyoRei]

Basically, character development. The design for a character can be amazing with great art, but without development for the character, in the long run they will start to get a little "dried out" is how I'd describe it

[LCT_m_a_d]

A lesser technical answer would be relevance. Everyone is relevant regardless of how marginal it may be. We don't necessarily have to relate to every character, but they consume time, space, resources, indentity. Some characters in stories have almost no role and yet they're completely lovable. I have also seen movies where a main character can be so completely disconnected from everything that is happening because of how they are presented in the story. I don't think there's a specific thing or set in stone criteria that makes a character relevant considering this is something that just happens in nature, regardless of our actions and influences.

[cecylinares35]

I think a character with a deep background, a solid personality and a with flaws makes it more interesting. As long as you can see how the character progress along the story.

Also its important to not forget how the character is related to the main story, sometimes it happens that he/her has a great background but it has nothing to do with the main problem of the story so it ends up being boring and unnecessary.
It happened to me once, I had a main character who´s mission was to defeat demons, she was just the chosen one. Then when I created her backstory it was about the relationship with her sister and how she motivated to make friends and all that xD but that didn´t have anything to do with her kicking demon butts xD
So yeah I had to relate both things and ended up pretty bad xD

So if the main story and the character´s development works pretty well together, the character will become more interesting

[69Michi]

To me, an interesting character is someone that has flaw. Someone that isn't all good and lovable, someone that can also be selfish given time and can stand up for themselves. A character with solid background and logical sense of reason will click with me the most. I found myself going "Why??" at a lot of action the hero decide to take in comics. Also like I mention, someone that is usually nice and naive and BASICALLY A WALKING SAINT will turn me away. Character can be good, but tbh who can ever be /that/ nice? Was they raised like that? Don't they have any selfish thought? Not even once in their lives? Maybe I'm just too harsh, but overly-nice characters are boring to me.

[jennula]

Hmm, I'm trying to think what kind of characters I like, and, I'd say characters I can somewhat relate to, as in they aren't perfect, but have different flaws (an example is the Engelsfors trilogy where everyone in the main cast is broken in some way or other, and I just can't wait to read more about each and every one of them). Keep their lives a bit mysterious and reveal a part of it every now and then to keep the reader interested in them.

I am also a sucker for characters that are a bit eccentric and/or underdogs in some way or other. But I'm not sure if that makes them interesting, or just that I sympathise a bit more with them =)