how to make interesting characters

[Toby Frost]

I suspect that when you write characters, the lack of space to examine them in great depth leads to an "ironing out" of the wrinkles, so that the quirks that aren't important to the plot get forgotten and they tend to have one or two main "things" that distinguish them.

I agree with Peat's iceberg comment. Also, I think people often mistake a finished character for one whose every detail is known to the reader - hence the pointless obsession with origin stories for characters whose entire identity is based on them being mysterious (Boba Fett springs to mind).

Following the point about consistency, I'd see it as a sort of filter that covers the "lens" whenever we're in that character's point of view. The events of the story will always be interpreted through the same filter, unless the character has some major change of heart or viewpoint. Often the physical situation informs the nature of the filter - a starving man who sees everything through the filter of not going hungry, say - but the act of filtering is the characterisation (if that makes much sense at all).

 

[MikeAnderson]

I suspect that when you write characters, the lack of space to examine them in great depth leads to an "ironing out" of the wrinkles, so that the quirks that aren't important to the plot get forgotten and they tend to have one or two main "things" that distinguish them.

I agree with Peat's iceberg comment. Also, I think people often mistake a finished character for one whose every detail is known to the reader - hence the pointless obsession with origin stories for characters whose entire identity is based on them being mysterious (Boba Fett springs to mind).

Following the point about consistency, I'd see it as a sort of filter that covers the "lens" whenever we're in that character's point of view. The events of the story will always be interpreted through the same filter, unless the character has some major change of heart or viewpoint. Often the physical situation informs the nature of the filter - a starving man who sees everything through the filter of not going hungry, say - but the act of filtering is the characterization (if that makes much sense at all).

Makes a lot of sense. One of my favorite characters in literature is still Conan. Very simplistic character; he likes drink, he likes women, he likes slaughter. But, when you examine why he does what he does, you get a sense that this guy lives the way he does because, from his point of view, "civilization" is a silly, over-encumbered mess. Many readers might confuse him for being just an overpowering thug who loots and murders, but, to him, living unhindered by societal norms is the only way to exist.

That's why in most of his stories, those around him, including some readers, may misconstrue him and his motivations at first, but once the tale fleshes out, people realize he might be a personification of true personal freedom.

Sometimes, the simplest concepts for characters often result in the richest, most endearing ones.

 

[Karn's Return]

Ultimately, characters are their own characters. They're aspects of your own mind that creep up, and I would be hazarding a guess that the process of creation actually creates new neural pathways throughout your brain so it's an entirely new part of you. And secondly, pardon the language, but the human brain is an absolute ass. It takes what it wants in any given moment, your own conscious input be damned, and that can reflect through writing out and fleshing out a character, so any attempt at resistance or your own actual personal input be damned, so it is ultimately the natural flow of each particular character that provides the realism and relatability that readers look for.