sabina: APPLICATION

[Numinosity]

I’m not a great writer myself, but in my opinion the most important part in creating good characters is to give them believable and story affecting flaws. Character strengths are great, but in my experience, most positive traits end up becoming little more than chekhov’s guns narrative-wise.

A great way to get more characterization once you have given characters in your story flaws is to make the character’s flaws play off one another. Giving characters little quirks could also help create the illusion that there are more to the characters than what is being written (George R.R. Martins Iceberg being ice on a raft). Of course this comes at the cost of pacing, so watch out there.

This was just the things that came to my mind when reading your post. I might come up with more later, or go more in-depth of what I consider a great character. Anyways hope this was somewhat helpful for you.

[sabina1]

I’m not a great writer myself, but in my opinion the most important part in creating good characters is to give them believable and story affecting flaws. Character strengths are great, but in my experience, most positive traits end up becoming little more than chekhov’s guns narrative-wise.

A great way to get more characterization once you have given characters in your story flaws is to make the character’s flaws play off one another. Giving characters little quirks could also help create the illusion that there are more to the characters than what is being written (George R.R. Martins Iceberg being ice on a raft). Of course this comes at the cost of pacing, so watch out there.

This was just the things that came to my mind when reading your post. I might come up with more later, or go more in-depth of what I consider a great character. Anyways hope this was somewhat helpful for you.

Thank you for the advice, Numinosity. It has indeed been helpful.
I find that writing a full rounded main character is something I can sometimes get right. It is the other characters that often feel flat. Perhaps a matter of creating proper back stories for each of them?

[sabina1]

I’m not a great writer myself, but in my opinion the most important part in creating good characters is to give them believable and story affecting flaws. Character strengths are great, but in my experience, most positive traits end up becoming little more than chekhov’s guns narrative-wise.

A great way to get more characterization once you have given characters in your story flaws is to make the character’s flaws play off one another. Giving characters little quirks could also help create the illusion that there are more to the characters than what is being written (George R.R. Martins Iceberg being ice on a raft). Of course this comes at the cost of pacing, so watch out there.

This was just the things that came to my mind when reading your post. I might come up with more later, or go more in-depth of what I consider a great character. Anyways hope this was somewhat helpful for you.

Thank you for the advice, Numinosity. It has indeed been helpful.
I find that writing a full rounded main character is something I can sometimes get right. It is the other characters that often feel flat. Perhaps a matter of creating proper back stories for each of them?