Thread: How do you develop and create a memorable and believable character in a work of writing?

I am having a bit of trouble with developing my characters and making them people that others would want to read about. I do not want my character coming across as a stereotype, cliche, or just unbelievable and unrealistic. How can I develop and create a memorable and believable character for my story?

Thanks! Much appreciated!

When creating a character from scratch it is best to make a profile. Describe them physically, their goals, their hobbies and try to make them as interesting as possible. Characters have to be well rounded and even non-human characters need attributes that make them human.

Read stories from the masters. Try to work out for yourself how Sherlock Holmes is such an endearing character and compare him to more contemporary characters.

Well, I think people think of characters with certain familiar qualities in mind, but you can manipulate these qualities and make them into strangers that are important to your story whether they help the plot along or used with or as literary devices. Observe people without reconzing that those certain qualities are familiar. Write about a misunderstanding between two people with those qualities in mind and manipulate that for the function of your writing or just write observations down, and don't try to make them ino something they can't be. Your characters will be people that you and your readers will love and hate and are heroes and just plain human. And that has a lot of power too. Hope that somewhat made sense. Good luck!

What I like to do (and this may not work for others, but it works very well for me) is to come up with a "theme" and base my character's traits around that theme. For example, if a theme for my character is "Martyrdom," that character might be loyal, kind, and self-sacrificing, but critical of themselves. I find when I base characters around a specific theme, the characters come out fairly believable and they don't have "scattered" or conflicting personality traits.
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