What makes your cast interesting?

For a long fic, or a recent short, just anything you're working on. What do you think makes them interesting? What makes them fun to follow and read about?

If I wanna make an interesting cast, I try to make them as unpredictable as possible.

Like for instance most people would expect a hero in a story to be flawless and a do-gooder generally, and has the right objectives and targets. But what if you make the hero a flawed one with twisted ideals? That makes the reader think why the hero is the protagonist, and this somehow can lead to more attention to the said character.

Sometimes taking advantage of 'mainstream' expectations can also be helpful. A good example would be those Pokemon fics where you have villains naturally comprising of typical baddies (Darkrai, Zoroark, Dark types, you know the drill). But what if the antagonist is something like, say, a Ditto? That would really surprise people and also intrigue them to find out its motives and desires, and also what strengths and quirks it possess compared to other characters.

Yes, I do rely on surprise factors often, but that's probably how I see it in my view xd

Hmmm. An interesting cast to me would be one that actively changes and reacts to the world around them. I like seeing different personalities bounce off each other.

I agree with Bun_Bun when it comes to surprising your audience - playing around with expectations can be very powerful if done correctly. The more conventionally cute, attractive, heroic or even average looking something is, the bigger an impact it has when it turns out they're... not what they seem. (ex. you mean to tell me that adorable little Pikachu that's been helping us out the entire time was actually doing it for their own selfish reasons? Oh no!)

That said, I'm more fond of grounding my characters with a little bit of realism so that when crazy stuff starts happening, their actions have more weight to them. It really depends on the kind of mood you want your story to have in general, but giving your characters their own internal logic is always fascinating to me.

It honestly depends for me. Different castings of characters have different goals to attain in making it a strong cast and some that would work in one story, don't work in another.

Some of the casts I tend to like are the ones that tend to interact/play off each other well. This can range from teasing to actual deep conversations. I like a cast that shows their "cast" mentality while still retaining their individual characters.

Course a split cast is something else I do enjoy. Going into different directions or goals and seeing how each of them impact the other tends to be interesting in amount of possibilities and stuff you go on.

Course, I honestly enjoy the "sibling" cast where some of if not all the cast cut up and do things in what you'd call "casual" like you'd do with siblings. I gives that sense of relaxation in watching bickering or team work the way you'd expect siblings to.

Like Vragon said, it honestly depends. Most of my casting is based on real life actors, like face claim wise. I usually try to pick an actor/actress who fits the scene and go along with it. Lately, I've been favoring the Panebaker sisters. I probably spelled that wrong. Anyway, I usually like to use one of my fangirl crushes as the love interest. Then, I try to base the older sister on my best friend because she's actually like an older sister to me. :3

I think with any cast it really comes down to two things, if I'm going to generalise.

1. How well do they play off each other? Whether this is for comedy, drama or something else it's important that the group dynamic of a cast is entertaining and that each member of the cast can interact with another member in a way that's engaging.

2. How well do they function alone vs in the group? By this I don't mean "does the character suck at being alone?" I mean is the character still enjoyable to read outside of a group context or do they still feel interesting within a group context?

AdorbzFangirl said:

Like Vragon said, it honestly depends. Most of my casting is based on real life actors, like face claim wise. I usually try to pick an actor/actress who fits the scene and go along with it. Lately, I've been favoring the Panebaker sisters. I probably spelled that wrong. Anyway, I usually like to use one of my fangirl crushes as the love interest. Then, I try to base the older sister on my best friend because she's actually like an older sister to me. :3

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Oh, wow. I thought I was alone in the whole actor template thing. I only do it because visualising original characters is a terrible uphill struggle, and often the only thing I can see is a blur with a hairstyle on it. Actors give a lot of definition, huh? They've made me at least fifty times more productive.

Only thing is that they can be very hard to find. Girls especially. I've been scouring and they all lack that fundamental quality which makes for a great face. Its all in the eyes.

Back to the point, I'm a character piece writer, really. All of the focus is on the characters. I'm terrible at plots and content, so that's how it's going to remain for a while yet. Specialising wholly in characters makes for a lot of jumps in progress, and I am usually interested by the people I create. A full cast always makes for a better story in my opinion.

What makes them interesting are the relationship dynamics, I suppose? An editor reviewed some of my work and said that the relationships were entertaining. Personally, I am fascinated with how people just... click! A light goes on. A bond is made. All of a sudden, you care for them and would give a damn if they died. It's not always a good thing just to make two characters click right away - if only so you can skip the angst and distrust - so I push it along until its right. Gradual. Steady. Familiarity breeds contempt, sure, but it can also foster a lot of wonderful sentiments. Personally, I click a lot.

This all sounds very cliche, but yeah, it's all in the delivery.

I love vulnerabilities, also. They make for a lot fascination. No self-esteem! Gynophobia! Over the top optimism! A sore back! Little things, big things - it all adds up. And character flaws! I fucking adore them. Can't get enough. Characters with a lot wrong with them are always more interesting than the straight A student with glossy hair and an overabundance of compassion. Not over the top in terms of the old flaw-thing, though. That's never a good thing.

I wrote about the 'bad back' thing out of experience. You feel so prone and despairing. Someone touches your out-of-commission back and you're suddenly in wolverine mode. Hissing and spitting. All that. Accentuate the feelings involved and its actually a decent little thing for a character to have. Well, potentially. Do it wrong and they're just an injured emo drama queen.

I think I may have made a few detours and I can barely remember what the question was.

Homeskulled Kid said:

Oh, wow. I thought I was alone in the whole actor template thing. I only do it because visualising original characters is a terrible uphill struggle, and often the only thing I can see is a blur with a hairstyle on it. Actors give a lot of definition, huh? They've made me at least fifty times more productive.

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That's usually my problem... visualizing and explaining what they look like. D:

So updating this now and sort of actually answering the question, heh.

I think what makes my cast work is how their affinity dynamics flow in with their individual interactions and clashing personalities. However, I think the 3 dimensions of the dynamics have been explored a bit. For example,

Jaron and Vragon are clearly best friends and Jaron is an instigator that tends to annoy Vragon. However, they also have deep close moments to talk about things, though this can be altered depending on the individual's reasoning for changing.

Another example could be Swift and Seliph, with Seliph being rather distrustful of the world around him, while Swift is just adding to that while trying to have a "good intentioned" questioning.

I think also the scenarios to showcase aspects of my character not normally shown are also reasons for my cast interesting.
Some examples:
Seliph and the vial
Chapter 32 in general
Jaron and Vragon fighting over food
Ciecro teasing Jaron about his face
Jasmine and Ciecro's slight friction

I think that's enough since while I'm trying to do this with my antagonists, I do not know if you mean for them to be included when you say "Cast" and I've already talked about my work enough.

But yeah, I think showing the different aspects of each character alone and interacting with each member of the cast is a good way to show an interesting cast, since it helps make them real and wide in emotional responses and interactions, much like real people.