Hello to all writers! What's your type and how do you create characters? I'm curious to the variations and how your type might correspond to that. Also feel free to gush about your characters if you want
I think I'm INTP or INFP. Usually my characters pop into my head partially formed. To improve them/make them full people, my job is to analyse them, ask them questions, and research anything relevant to them. If they have a trait that doesn't make sense to it's my job to think more, not discard the trait.
EG: Lumin is both cruel and kind -- I shouldn't try to erase the seeming contradictions but figure out why these traits coexist. In Lumin's case, she values justice, which explains the seeming discrepancy. The sweetness and the violence/cruelty come from the same ideal: that people should get what they deserve. Here's the values that this leads to for her: If they are worthy they deserve adoration and due respect. If they are unworthy they should be punished and their thoughts discarded. Incompetent people should be protected even though they are annoying.
Once I understand why they act/why they believe what they do I can write them properly, but before then it's just a process of discovery and throwing possible motivations at them until I find what fits. A lot of my first drafts are shallow because I don't understand the mechanics/feelings behind who the characters are -- I'm just writing what they're doing without any sort of deeper comprehension, and I have to come back to fix things once I understand.
More random details that might be interesting to you:
Their appearance isn't important to me unless it's important to my character -- usually physical appearance is the last thing I figure out. I only figured out that Dotto was a drag queen when I imaged what he was wearing months after I first made/found him. (It included part of a literal fishnet XD) (he's an alien mermaid so I found that pretty amusing)
My characters have sometimes told me that I'm wrong even when I think I'm right. I thought Lumin didn't have much anxiety because she is so arrogant and sure of herself, but she corrected me and told me that she experiences quite a bit of anxiety in social situations since she's jostling for status and her temper could easily ruin the reputation she wants to gain. I thought Asran was grumpy at first but when I wrote him he turned out to be absolute sweetheart, just dour and unenthusiastic at times.
I hope you enjoyed the explanation! Have a nudibranch.
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