How To Develop Characters 

How I pick names: Ooh that sounds cool and it fits the character.

"someone's greatest weakness can also be the biggest strength." So insightful! So true!

I like to develop my character through roleplaying I have a lot of strong characters through this method

Characters are my favorite part of writing a story. I like to fully establish my characters' personalities the moment they appear in the book. I want to establish who they are and give the reader a feel for them as a person, by writing mannerisms, voice, dialect, and those aforementioned quirks in the video. I was re-reading my main project I worked on in 2014 and 2015. I was expecting it to be uninteresting because the story is a character piece overall, but I found myself entranced by how distinct my main character was. The way he talks, the way he moves, his quirks, his mannerisms, his unpredictability--- it was all very noticeable. He's a character I haven't been interested in writing since summer of 2016, but reading parts of that manuscript, awkward though the writing may be, I found myself dragged in by his character and I remembered why I loved writing him so much. And like all my characters, I did a ton of character development before I ever put pen to paper and wrote his introductory scene. Character development is just fun. I love doing it.

I love to write characters that are vastly different than me, and imagine how things must look from their POV.

If you can't tell, I'm binge watching your videos hahaha But I've been character building my taking the personality test (16 personalities) for each of my main/important side characters. For the other smaller characters, I just give them their personality rather than taking the test for them. This tells me a lot about their strengths and weaknesses, the way they interact with others etc. I then create a character profile for all the characters (family, friends, school subjects, career aspirations, love interests, what they admire in a person, fears etc.) However, after watching your video I have noticed that I need to create more quirks or habits for each of them. Thanks again for the amazing content!

As for me in naming characters: sometimes it's something I just came up with at the time, other times I like to pick names with meaning. I also favor unique names as well! (I've even used names I found in the Bible) I've also created characters via daydreaming and playing pretend. Daydreaming and playing pretend is also my favorite way to create and write stories! (Sounds ridiculous, but it works and I get immersed in the story I'm writing) I'm no expert at writing or characters, but I'd love to hone my skill and maybe even write a book one day.

Character creation is my favorite part of the writing process. As for how I develop them, that gets to be fun. I think of the base concept of the story I want to write and then create characters who fit the needed roles. I then do comprehensive backgrounds, family histories, etc. And once I begin writing, about 90 percent of it all changes, generally for the better. Sometimes the changes are small, sometimes they require a complete rewrite of any scene that character is in.

Developing characters is my favorite part of writing a story

Lol I base my characters on my classmates that inspire me.

This might sound weird, but I love acting and writing, so whenever I make up a new character, I like to dress up as that character and try to think like they would and kind of play out possible scenes. When I write I like to connect to the character itself, like its me. I highly recommend this way if you like to feel more connected to the character.

"Thinking of a name is easier said than Donne." I see what you did there :) Thank you for the tips, as usual! I'm working on short fiction but I think the 'tip of the iceberg' advice is just as relevant as it is for novels. The more there is going on behind the scenes, the more genuine the character will feel.

Alexa, I'd just like to let you know that you've provided inspiration for me as I've written over the past few weeks. I'm just around 60,000 words into my first draft, and I have your videos on in the background almost all the time while I write. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and keeping it going for so long! You deserve far more subscribers than you have. All the best!

Thank you so much! I'm 13 and I want to get into writing scripts, I know my grammar is far from perfect but I wanna make a series. This was beyond helpful!

I base my characters by focusing on the people I meet or live around my place and by noticing their quality of living ,behaviour,and talent...

I love character-driven stories as well. Despite most of the development being with the NPCs I love Legend of Zelda, for it's characters. I'm enjoying this tedious grinding rpg, because I'm enjoying the characters stories.

I base my characters on myself. As I have a multiple personalities disorder, it's quite easy for me to do it.

I love how ive went from making characters since I was 12 and seeing where I brought them today. out of about 100 I made over almost 17 years 2 of them I am without a doubt comfortable with. I'm fully confident they are flawed, they are convincing, and I am in tune with them enough to never wonder how they will react. I used to use a Mary sue litmus test when I was a teen, it really has beaten the saturation of talents and interests out of me. I always figure that If I decide to play with a certain character, who I am fond of their many many talents, I can just use it in an alternate story im messing with. It doesn't really have to go away in your head, you just need to be aware of it if you're sticking to a particular story with that character. Its hard, and im sure some people have a easier time, but it was something I had to be self aware of. When I go back to a older character to 'update them', I find my Mary sue ways are much more obvious. I always feel like because I see that, that i have grown as a character creator and story teller. Im an animation major and can say that in film a lot of these things apply. Dont add a character unless needed is one ive had to learn the hard way. Just a neat little thing that seems to apply in all forms of story telling.

Sometimes my character names are mashups from people I know (knew). For example a have a character who’s first name came from a coworker from a job I had in high school along with a last name from a friend in elementary school.

I looked up an advanced character sheet once I had an idea for a character. I answered as much as I could to flush out my idea. I also picked very specific names for my current WIP. I chose within a culture but based on the meaning of the name.

I loved this. There was plenty of me to make notes on! I didn't put enough time in with regards to character development and plot, so I'm making amends now and going back to basics before I try and build everything back up again. You have been so helpful since I stumbled across your channel. Thank you so much Alexa!

I love your videos, I use them now as a source for when I get stuck in a part in my story of don't know if its good enough. I can say its not the most original thing ever, and its my first story so I know it will suck, but its a learning curve and I'm embracing trying to make a good story out of it. Also I wanted to mention, here when you got to talking about names representing what other characters might think of that person, a light bulb went off in my head about a character in my story, and their whole background just unfolded before me. Thank you! :P

I pick names by describing the character's personality and then find synonyms for their defining character traits and shorten up the word to sound like a name.

Great video! Very true that specificity is key - it makes all the difference to being able to clearly visualise a character.

If I don’t already have an idea for the character (personality or appearance) I start with choosing the name. I have always been able to look at a name and see a personality that would go with it.

I just came across your videos, and I'm really impressed at the consistency and quality of your videos. As a person who also has a day job, and a side hustle/second job, I really admire what you've been able to accomplish over the last year. You're doing insanely well! 👍

Just thought of an interesting way to incorporate that egg smell quirk in a story. Let me set the scene. A character hates the smell of eggs, and eggs in general. This character, along with some friends, goes to another person's house. The householder happens to be making an egg dish (maybe that's their specialty, once again, another character detail). The egg hater, not wanting to smell said eggs, goes into another room to avoid the smell. This character being away can lead to things that create conflict. The character misses a significant event. Boom, conflict. The character misses something that is said about them or another character. Boom, conflict. Not only can you give a character quirks that the reader can relate to, but you can also get really creative with it and find a way to use it and create more conflict.

Your videos are probably some of the most helpful ones on the Toob. Keep up the good work.

I'm planning for a story and what you said about family dynamics really unlocked some things about my characters why they are who they are. So thank you for that.

Thanks I didn’t realize you made a video about this already, I loved your advice. Something that helps me is imagining someone I’m close with in real life and making a character after their personality. It helps

The thing with picking a culture/ethnicity and going to the year the character was born to find popular names then really helped with characters for my new story! Found a name I absolutely adore

I developed most of my characters with different techniques, so there's no one overarching way I use, but my favorite character that I have _ever_ written and the main-ish character of my current project, Erchem, started out as exactly two personality attributes. Arrogant and Intelligent. I wanted a character with these two traits to foil the other main character of the story he was in at the time, who was excessively compassionate but a bit simple. He was always meant to be a protagonist, if a generally unpleasant one, and I always kept that in mind during his development. It's been six years since I chose those two traits. In that time he has been a feature in four different stories, and in each one the relationships he has had with others and the development of the world around him - always in the same world for consistency's sake - has transformed him into the prince of an empire who cannot feel emotion and who has few skills but the ability to manipulate other people into doing what he wants. His arrogance comes from his ability to get other people to cooperate, either by using their emotion against them or by flaunting his money and resources, and his intelligence is put to use in making sure that works. And every other part of his character - his calm demeanor, his strong logical reasoning that is still prone to flaws if someone can convince him of a lie, his lack of loyalty but his need to pretend it so he can keep the people he depends on for survival close - is derived from that lack of emotion. He has been my favorite character, and easily my best, because I have watched him grow from a shallow pair of traits to a deep, real person with complex reasoning for every single thing that he does. That is how most of my favorites have ended up being developed. I start with an ability or a couple of traits, and I let them grow on their own while I'm plotting the story. My characters usually decide their own personalities beyond the few traits I start them with. And I find that is the best way to make them truly feel real.

I knew a guy that was named Chris, turned out he was a violent psychopath. Now, writing a similar character, the name Chris just stuck. (no offense to any other Chris out there)

I feel like the first thing I do when developing characters is finding the one thing that makes them stand out from the rest of the cast. That way it defines their purpose and personality so they become more memorable.

I just wanted to say I really appreciate your videos, they're straight to the point but fleshed out enough to tell me why to listen. Thank you.

I usually use astrology to help develop my characters. I don't really have a favorite way and I kinda go about it differently each time but in the end I almost always end up making a natal chart for them. Sometimes I'll get a basic idea of what I want the characters personality to be and choose the sign I think fits best as their sun and my second choice sign as their moon. Sometimes I will randomly choose a sign for there sun and develop their personality around that, choosing other parts of their chart to fit into the design I come up with. Sometimes I will just draw from a hat for every part of their chart and go from there (I'll usually change a sign or two along the way). Sometimes I'll start by randomly generating a birth date and time and entering it into a natal chart calculator and using the personality it describes as my character. usually it just depends on how developed the character is when I start the process. I tend to do a lot of recycling characters from old stories I gave up on so they are already at least somewhat developed and the randomized methods don't work as well.

I like your videos a lot, they are very informative and you present your ideas in an interesting way. I highly recommend watching your videos at 1.5x speed.

A good way to make reading a more interesting hobby is to make it a manifestation of some internal struggle the protagonist is experiencing. Maybe they read because it provides some form of escape from the problems in their life, or because they want to travel but are unable to do so. Maybe they're more in love with the idea of travelling to other places, via reading, than with actually going there.

I am having a hard time trying to come up with what my character needs to overcome in themselves to accomplish their goal. It's hard.

Not gonna lie, this is not only great advice.. but kinda insightful

I feel like characters are just the best part of a story. I always start with characters that I think are cool and then I build a story based around them

This video is precisely what I needed. Thank you!

Thanks. I'll use this tips when I start working on my character charts for Nanowrimo 😊

I am binge-watching your videos and I must say it's helping me a great deal! Thank you, thank you, thank you! ❤❤

If you give your character to many hobbies, they won't have time to do what you have planed for them in the novel. Lol I never thought about it, but it's true. Is there a specific thing you do to polish your character's arc?

So helpful, thank you! Absolutely love your channel * immediately subscribing and binge-watching all videos *

i normally pick character names by just what name i like lol XD also I love just letting the characters grow on their own. So like just seeing what happens to them throughout the rough draft to see how they grow naturally.

This video has been very beneficial to me, thank you! 😌

One of the things that I found most impressive and J.K. Rowling and George R.R. Martin are masters at this is creating sympathetic villains.

Thank you for your absolutely amazing channel. I'm benefiting so much from it!!💛😊

I finished my first draft and my characters are underdeveloped and don't seem full enough. I'm working on making them better and this video has great information. Great video!

The way I usually pick names I give main characters one syllable first names and two syllable surnames. I do this because I noticed that it's common among superhero names such as Steve Rogers and Clint Barton. They stick in your head because they're short and easy to say.

I create my characters based on people I know in real life whether they are my friends or they are just someone who fits into what would be happening, or I simply make them up from scratch. One of my newest books I’m creating is extremely important on characters cause each of them have to be very different and delinking on the choices they make determine their survival

Hey glad I found this video. My way is to put their name age and build the family tree so to speak and what I need to add for their personality interest qualities they have likes and dislikes and so on. Do this on each and use what I want out of what I have already writing. Add friend circle as well. A lot of work so just have the basic ones until I need to add and what impact will the new character have for me to build them. Thanks for this will subscribe find you video helpful. New writer here more a hobby for me at the moment for me but I like to learn as I go

I agree about the family heritage importance. In trying to adapt my fan fiction to an original work I realized I didn't have an original plot, so as I developed their characters in the back of my head I was looking for a plot opening. I found one in the main characters family history. Family curses cause some pretty fun drama.

Going over all your videos now because I’m in class writing stories.It’s not a writing course but there is a writing unit so you videos are a huge help

How do you go about writing backstories to further develop characters? How would you format it?

I did that parents thing in my fanfic. I did the "if Hermione was a pureblood" topic and she has a very.... difficult relationship when it comes to her parents. I enjoyed writing about her childhood before she became Hermione Granger, and how it made her into the person that she wanted to be. You get the difference between her mother and father(her birth parents) and her mum and dad(the Grangers).

Thank you Ms alexa for your amazing content ♥️♥️I love you and keep going! *^*

Thank you very much for this content! 😊

for me, when im developing my characters, i already have a general idea what they're like before i take a seat and start a character sheet. I creat a scene in the story ive had briefly or almost fully created for them to be part of, and put them inside to give me a mental picture to how they interact with others and the world around them, then start asking questions and writing down their characteristics.

Very thought provoking. Thank you for sharing.

Not being able to come up with the perfect name to start with would straight stop me from being able to write, so I came up with this method of naming them with their most "superficial title" so if my main character is an artsy type girl and she's into a skater boy, then their names are Artsy and Skater. When I do this I'm able to write the whole story without worrying about the perfect names, which I hopefully will figure out before finishing the draft. And with the tips you shared here I feel like it's going to be a lot easier from now on ❤❤❤

People watching helps develop my characters just because everyone reacts to different situations also their conversations help me improve my dialogue.

Three videos in. Subscribed. Quite helpful stuff.

10:40 i understand that too many characters gets confusing and can be difficult to write well as there are too many characters to flesh out, but what about "jobbers" or characters that exist solely to move the plot from one KEY point to another? A character not intended to be fleshed out per say.

Thank you! I am starting to write a story and I felt as if something was wrong. Now I know that my characters need more background 😅

what a wonderful video, thank you!

Thanks a lot❤😊

i go for what the name means. and does it fit with their personality? if it does, then i use that as a name.

OMG thank you!

Thank you! Im trying to create a cartoon and this helped alot!

Thanks for your video, it was really helpful! I really liked your advice that if your characters have too many quirks, it comes off as unbelievable or annoying. I know some real life people who would qualify as Mary Sues if they were characters as they’re incredibly good at nearly everything. They’re awesome people but it’s be boring to read about them excelling at everything with no problems. 🙂

I recently saw an episode of a program where this guy with poor habits wanted to be an actor and other actors told him that in order to know how a character acts and behaves you need to meet a lot of people and observe and I think that rings so true on character design too. The more you understand how others feel, behave and what makes them tick the better you will be able to portray them. You don't necessarily need to be in crowds but at least pay attention to people on TV or something. How is an extrovert different from an introvert through a conversation, what strikes your mind when you look at a person or hear their voice for the first time (watching things in a language you don't understand will truly show you this easier, especially if you watch without subtitles). When you see someone that strikes you as feminine or masculine - why do they seem that way to you? What is it about each person that makes them enticing or boring to you. The more you pay attention the more you have to play with that might feel quite deep and clever to the reader. :) Be curious!

I love researching character names. My YT channel is named after the villain in my second novel.

You should write quirks for your characters. Something weird about them. Maybe they have six fingers or freckles in a particular shape somewhere. Those are physical. If you want to write a character’s hobbies then what you should do is derive it from their personality. If their creative then maybe they read fantasy or listen to a lot of music. If they’re more grounded in the real world they might prefer math or non fiction.

I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but I come up with a plotline first usually and the universe around the character and then I'll come up with the looks of who I would picture playing those roles. Almost like a movie, and then I build my character around what I picture they look like. :)

How do you develop characters when you pace?

Thanks for the good information.

I have the opposite problem of character soup 😅 I’m only ever able to pull up 3 or 4 characters and that leads to a lot of bland or repetitive scenes. A main character, a villain, a sidekick or mentor and then ?? Who and how? No idea.

How to write a character description?

I like to make up the Core settings of my character and go from there. This might work in fanfiction, but in professional writing I probably need to plan more than that.

In a nutshell..... your video is great! Very informative.....thanks!!!

Alexa, You absolutely save my stories etc.

Thank you.

I blame her for the fact that I didn't start writing yet.........THE VIDEOS ARE SO INTERESTING!

I develop the character then make the world then pick the names. It’s worked AMAZING for me at least.

How do yu describe characters. They way they look, how tall they are, etc? (and make it intersting)

Could you talk more about when you might have too many characters and how to let go of the ones that may not be serving a purpose to the plot? Thank you 🙏

I like to go with the flow in that my character is natural but interesting at the same time . My question is, must they achieve what they desire, even if they're not the hero?

I started playing d&d ad base characters off of inspiring people and stories i heard and researched. I keep it modern age related to now to avoid history work and inaccuracies of things i just can't find info of and have to guess...

Hello my name is Tosin I've started drafting on my first book I'm dyslexic I was just wondering if you have a spare time to have a look at draft at my first chapter I've been watching some of the videos and I think that I might have a problem with white White Room syndrome and data dumping I was wondering if you have any advice on how I can move forward I I tried to write an an hour to 2 hour day but I'm worried that my dyslexia is holding me back I'm really passionate about this so I was wondering if you can really give me some advice thank you I mean I've got the plot line all sorted out the characters it's just that I don't know how to implement my ideas into the book to make interesting thank you

Wow... I've been doing what you've mentioned here on the fly. Thanks for the confirmation. Now if I could just spice up that lagging story line ..sigh...

I have had my main character name for forever. It is a name that I just cant get away from and I am struuggling to find the right story for her.

i had my main character names before i even started thinking about writing.

I have the goes and quest because of keeping siblings safe

Develop characters by knowing personality systems as the MBTI and Enneagram.

I make the murder victim someone who wronged me in the past. They won't recognize themselves, but I know who they are. I never thought about how the romantic couple should sound cute together, but damn, they do. :) One of my two main protagonists has two names, his birth name and the one he chose as an actor. I have a lot of background people, but try to only mention those who are pertinent to the story. I keep biographies of the main characters, as well as physical descriptions. It wouldn't do to change someone's eye colour mid-series. Although coloured contact lenses...? Hmmm, must write that down. ~ Jon, BC, Canada.

What do you think of "evil" protagonists? Do you believe it's something that can be done in an interesting way? Do you have any tips?

Hey Alexa! I'm sure you probably won't see this but I'll ask anyway on the off-chance you do. I've noticed you're remaking a lot of your older videos. Now that you've published a few books, I'm wondering if your opinions on this topic has changed or if you have any new advice for character development?