How do you develop your characters?

I'm having a hard time with mine because the website I use, Charahub, is down. So, I was wondering the best way to develop characters. This has never been one of my strong points in writing. It sucks because I want to make develop them really well. D:

So, how do you guys do it?

I've never heard of Charahub, and I'm a little confused why you would depend on a website to develop characters. How does that work? Do you get a character sheet there that you can fill out or something? I'd like to understand how you've done that until now.

As for how I develop my characters... well, I don't. Not explicitly. Developing a story usually works like this for me: first comes a vague idea, just a spark. Then comes the plot. I think about the starting point, what I want to happen and how it's supposed to end (roughly). While I do that, the characters I need automatically come to my mind. First as drafts, I know what I want them to do and what role they are supposed to take in the plot. This usually determines part of their personality already. While I start writing, I flesh them out more. I develop their past (usually sparked by some minor action they take in the plot), their quirks, secrets, things I don't write down but keep in the back of my head. And while their personality gets more depth, they start influencing the plot by not behaving like I initially wanted them to, saying things I didn't expect and adding details I never thought of.

So, I don't sit down making a list of what kind of childhood the characters had, who their friends are, their secret dreams, strengths and weaknesses. I tried that once with a story that had three main characters, because I was trying to do everything right and I had found a huge character sheet in a writing guide. I failed horribly. Oh, sure, I ended up knowing more about the character than I expected, but I didn't get beyond the first one. The story was boring, all of a sudden. Why would I write it down if it didn't hold the slightest surprise for me anymore? It was predictable. Even when I tried writing the first chapter, it turned out really bad. It just felt unnatural and the character was acting like a robot. So, I completely abandoned this approach and returned to what I knew worked.

I just don't think about it too hard. I know who my characters are, but I don't have to actually name all their personality traits for this. I've never even thought about what their strengths and weaknesses are, except for that one time. Because I think it's stupid. A weakness could turn out to be a strength in a different situation and vice versa. That doesn't say anything. My characters are heavily influenced by the plot and they in turn determine the details for that. So, basically I just let them roam freely through the story and let them surprise me about where they want to go. As long as they don't throw logic out of the window, they can do whatever they want.

Tora said:

I've never heard of Charahub, and I'm a little confused why you would depend on a website to develop characters. How does that work? Do you get a character sheet there that you can fill out or something? I'd like to understand how you've done that until now.

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Pretty much, yeah. I can't explain it very well... but like, you put in a character's basic info such as name, birthday, personality... stuff like that. Then there's a tab where it asks you random questions about the character. It's much easier for me because it's right there. x_x However, they always take their sweet ass time fixing the site. One time, nobody could edit their character's information. It took them about two or three days just to realize that something wasn't right and finally fix it.

The thing is, I've always related on having people ask me about my characters. It's how I've found it easier in developing them. My brain can't really process these things on it's own because well... it's not a normal brain like everyone else's. So, I've always struggled at developing anything story related, even if it's plot or characters. D:

Oh, and I'm guessing you don't actually have the questions at hand, copied or something, so you could just fill it out in a document offline? It's kind of annyoing not to get anywhere because of a broken website, especially if it takes so long till they repaired it... :/

Have you tried brain storming or drawing a mind map? They don't work for me, but since we've established that we go at it completely differently, it might help you? I don't know where, but I've also read the suggestion once to get a pen and paper, sit in the dark without any noise to bother you and just write whatever comes to your mind, be it story related, random snippets of a conversation or just a bunch of words. I don't know if that's helpful, but other than that, nothing else comes to my mind that might help you. ~_~

Okay, no, one other idea. You could just try to write a detailed description instead. Kind of like a wikipedia entry or something like that. You could divide it into categories like "appearance", "personality", "past", etc. and write a detailed paragraph about each.

Tora said:

Oh, and I'm guessing you don't actually have the questions at hand, copied or something, so you could just fill it out in a document offline? It's kind of annyoing not to get anywhere because of a broken website, especially if it takes so long till they repaired it... :/

Have you tried brain storming or drawing a mind map? They don't work for me, but since we've established that we go at it completely differently, it might help you? I don't know where, but I've also read the suggestion once to get a pen and paper, sit in the dark without any noise to bother you and just write whatever comes to your mind, be it story related, random snippets of a conversation or just a bunch of words. I don't know if that's helpful, but other than that, nothing else comes to my mind that might help you. ~_~

Okay, no, one other idea. You could just try to write a detailed description instead. Kind of like a wikipedia entry or something like that. You could divide it into categories like "appearance", "personality", "past", etc. and write a detailed paragraph about each.

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I've tried a lot of things. Problem is, most of what I have is already done. It'd be rather tedious to have to do it all over again. I guess I don't have much of a choice. I do remember a few of the basic stuff from Charahub probably... but it's not easy to remember it all. I've always been really bad at doing my own character development. :/ Mind maps just confuse me and brainstorming really isn't my strong suit unless someone asks me questions about my character.

For the record, I'm also a self-educated writer too. I learn by research and stuff like that. However, it's not always easy because I might not understand something. I could struggle with something minor that most writers would pick up on if they learned it from someone else. I don't really have a mentor when it comes to writing. D:

I don't really have a set formula for anything, I just constantly think about my characters and what they would do in certain situations. When I'm at work, it's pretty much all I think about, so I do get pretty developed characters after a while. I've done a few personality tests and filled out some sheets under the personality of my characters, and that helps too. I guess I just go with it and flesh them out in my head. Although, after a while, I stop thinking of them as characters and think of them as actual people. Heck, I've even had one of my coworkers have a conversation with one of my characters, and it worked out pretty well.

Nolafus said:

Heck, I've even had one of my coworkers have a conversation with one of my characters, and it worked out pretty well.

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Oh, right. When I finished my first long story, I joined in on a project that involved writing down a conversation with one of your characters. It didn't matter whether they actually knew they were talking to each other, just that they did. Interestingly, many people had their character confront them about why they had to suffer so much, myself included.
It felt a bit like splitting myself in two and arguing with myself, since I got so in character. But it was a very interesting (and heartbreaking) experience.

I don't really develop my characters either until I'm writing about them. While other people might find those character questionnaires useful, they just seem to ask the questions that don't answer what I need to know about the characters.

The best way that I use to develop my characters is to have them all talk together, or I talk to them. I get surprised by what they answer, by what they talk about.

Or I just think about things. While working or whatever, my mind just wanders to my characters, and sometimes I find out some more about them.

My characters can fairly readily be reduced to a demeanor and a set of defining moments. Basically, how do they generally act, and what events in their life shaped them, are shaping them, or will shape them? I tend to insert a bit of my personality, history, opinions, and flaws into every character I create, even in ones that are otherwise completely unlike me. That helps me understand and write about them. This seems to be a natural process that occurs as I go along. The only problem with this approach is that sometimes my characters' personalities are a bit vague or muddled. I'm working hard on fixing this issue though. Really, really deep character development is something I consider a staple of my writing style, so I delve into the minds of my characters frequently.

I use the pretty average "interactions with others" way of developing characters; I'm unable to get a true understanding of them, like that have a conversation with them or think of them as real people, so I rely on in-story development instead. They talk to others, others talk to them, and I build personalities for them based on that, along with backstories, although sometimes in a Pokemon story I'll use their Pokemon to describe them too, 'cause it think that a person's partner in life says something about them, too.

I've trained to develop characters for years now. I like to think about how they would react in regular situations, such as with friends and family. What their interests and motivations are etc.

You can use this thread if you want others to help you flesh your character out! http://www.pokecommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

As a couple others said, the development mostly comes as I'm writing. Sometimes I might think how they'll react in certain situations, their backstories, and their interests a bit. I tried some questionaires before, but I usually only used those under certain situations.

Tora said:

Okay, no, one other idea. You could just try to write a detailed description instead. Kind of like a wikipedia entry or something like that. You could divide it into categories like "appearance", "personality", "past", etc. and write a detailed paragraph about each.

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I tend to do that and it helps for getting the basic stuff I want. Long ago I made a website for one of my fanfics where I put up some of those stuff. However that website was gone and the notes I did I lost when my computer crashed. That was before Google Docs I think, haha.

I LOVE developing characters, I make OCs all the time. If you want to make a character, what you need to do is make a personality for them, what their nature is how they react to certain stuff, how they act around their friends, how they fight, their interests etc., then work on the character dynamics between them and everyone else, and their appearance. If you ever need to review a character then you can PM me, I love helping people with stories and characters.