Your Character's Personality

[J.Day]

(If there is already a thread about this in existence, sorry in advance.)

What are your characters like?

I thought it would be helpful to have a set of questions to ask yourself when you're in the early stages of developing your characters.

Here are some questions you might want to consider when starting out:

What are your characters' greatest strengths?
Their greatest flaws?
Do they have any particular weaknesses?
Do they have any odd habits?
What hobbies, interests, pet peeves, etc. do your characters have (if any)?

Did anything tragic happen in any of your characters' pasts? How did your character(s) deal with it?

Are they close to their friends/family/classmates/coworkers/etc.? How do these relationships affect your character?

What are your characters' greatest fears?

Is there anything that your character is embarrassed about/won't ever admit to anyone else?

What would they like to accomplish?

How do you plan to further develop your characters?


Feel free to share what your characters' personalities are like. If you come up with any questions you might want to ask when creating a character, then feel free to share those, too.

[Anya the Purple]

My character, Joselyn:

What are your characters' greatest strengths?
Would it sound cheesy to say she's loyal? Because she would literally die for her brother, Colin. She's also physically strong and very ambitious. She handles authority well and can make friends easily, if given the chance.

Their greatest flaws?
She's stubborn and headstrong, and rarely looks before she leaps. She gets into arguments a lot. The same ambition that makes her push herself to be great also makes it hard for her to hand authority over to others (even when it was never hers in the first place)

Do they have any particular weaknesses?
Her first instinct is always to protect Colin. This doesn't work so well, as he's the subject of a dangerous prophecy. She tries to help him, but often ends up just getting in the way.

Do they have any odd habits?
None that I know of, but I may give her some.

What hobbies, interests, pet peeves, etc. do your characters have (if any)?
Joselyn is a huge overachiever, so she does a lot of extracurriculars (she's middle school-age, at least at the beginning of what may become a multi-book series). She's on an after-school soccer team and also takes piano lessons. In their spare time, she and Colin love reading fantasy novels together.

Did anything tragic happen in any of your characters' pasts? How did your character(s) deal with it?
No. Colin and Joselyn are the "Normal kids flung into fantasy setting" type, so their pasts are pretty boring.

Are they close to their friends/family/classmates/coworkers/etc.? How do these relationships affect your character?
As I've stated, Joselyn is extremely close to Colin. As Colin was always an outcast, however, she was unpopular by association. Her closest ties are those to her family, after that her teachers.

What are your characters' greatest fears?
Her worst fear is something happening to Colin. She would fear something happening to herself, but the thought never really crosses her mind. Subconsciously, she fears the feeling of powerlessness-thus the dislike of giving up authority. She also hates reptiles.

Is there anything that your character is embarrassed about/won't ever admit to anyone else?
She tries not to show weakness in general, but I'm sure I'll think of something in particular eventually.

What would they like to accomplish?
More than anything, Joselyn wants to be important. To her, an unmemorable life isn't worth living.

How do you plan to further develop your characters?
I've been playing around with scenes from Joselyn and Colin's childhood, as well as snarking with them. I'm trying to just let them out the way they are in my head. I'll probably have to do more when November comes closer.

[arcanius]

Here is one of my characters Arhan


What are your characters' greatest strengths?
Mind, a quite smart person, he's the one to always find solution, that ingenious sage that you should listen to, supporter of logic, one to keep his grip on reality


Their greatest flaws?
Not really sure which one, perhaps that he's incredibly stubborn, nobody and nothing stops him from doing something if he already decided to, he also overthinks everything making him unsure what to do before he decides it, his own strenght to always think and plan everything through slows him down

Do they have any particular weaknesses?
He's a weak fighter, because he overthinks his own moves

Do they have any odd habits?
Not sure

What hobbies, interests, pet peeves, etc. do your characters have (if any)?
He likes to make sarcastic remarks and joke about everything that goes wrong or to people that hate him, does that count

Did anything tragic happen in any of your characters' pasts? How did your character(s) deal with it?
Bad childhood, with no friends, dead parents, his own mentor was killed by the elves during a raid of the arendians

Are they close to their friends/family/classmates/coworkers/etc.? How do these relationships affect your character?
He has no family left, though he does keep his friends close, which as evil as an author I am does tend to get in the way, you know, villains capture them and demand stuff in exchange, some of them get killed off and he falls in a state of sadness and so on

What are your characters' greatest fears?
Arhan fears himself, his heart vs mind inside combat


Is there anything that your character is embarrassed about/won't ever admit to anyone else?
He's in love, kind of self-explanatory

What would they like to accomplish?
He seeks to find a way to unite all the nations against the invading draylocks, while trying to destroy the corruption eating men, elves and dwarves from the inside without having to destroy them(Which is tricky since a 10 000 year old sorcerer did not find a way to save his own race and killed them all)

How do you plan to further develop your characters?

Actually I don't plan this, I make the character, and then think - if that was a person, what would they do if....