Creating Complex Characters | Writing Tips

Knowing I'm not interesting enough to be a protagonist in a novel is such a mood.

When I write a character, I always like to start at their personal rock bottom. It’s not always in the story, but it’s helpful for me to understand where their lowest bar is

The thing I always do when creating a character is coming up with their childhood stories. I know it sounds like procrastination or silliness, but it's actually really helpful. If you think about your childhood stories right now, say, for example, an accident that you caused to yourself when you were a child, when you really think about it, it's just your personality at its highest point, because you still hadn't learnt self control or understood social rules. When you get to know your character's childhood story, you get to learn their personality before it was shaped into society rules and morals. That's the personality that shows up whenever you're in a desperate situation or when you're the most vulnerable. Maybe your character has a scar on their forehead that they got when they were a kid, and it happened when they were running and jumping down the stairs pretending to be an astronaut (idk), that shows they're imaginative, they're adventurous, but they're also reckless and have little power to analyze the danger of the situation they're getting into. Editing to add one more information about this, because I just remembered where I got that from. The first and quite possibly the only book I've seen done this is the greatest piece of Brazilian literature there is, this book it's easily the best ever written in this country. The original name is "Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas", written by Machado de Assis in the end of the nineteenth century. The story begins with the main character's death, and then the dead narrator tells his life story. This very specific chapter that is vastly studied by literature majors it's called "O menino è o pai do homem", which roughly translates to, "the child is the father of the man". This narrates his childhood, it narrates his actions and how he wasn't really corrected on them, which meant that he grew up the same way he was when a child, because no one ever had an effort to correct his behavior. This chapter it's incredibly important to understand the story, and it builds a bridge between who the main character was and how he still is the same person.

Love your work Shaelin.

timestamps ; 0:00 - intro 2:41 -complex psychology/goals, desires, and yearning 4:40- mask and countermask 6:11- contradictions 7:50- hobbies, interests, passions 9:02- revealing actions/detail 10:41- artful incongruity 12:52- internal world 14:21- specificity 16:30- belief system 18:06- self-awareness/perception 19:14 -the dark room 21:40- questions to ask yourself if you're lost 22:11 -flaws 23:25 - messy people & outro

Shaelin: "...This isn't really a checklist..." me: in the middle of starting a checklist sweatdrop

TL;DW 1. Complex Psychology - Make your character more complex. The following are ways to do that. 2. Goals, Desires, and Yearning - Not only the goals, but the reasons behind the goals 3. Mask and Counter-Mask - A mask is what the character shows of themselves most of the time, a counter mask is equally them, but they don't usually show that trait 4. Contradictions 5. Interests, Skills, Hobbies - What do they do in their spare time? Why are they passionate about that thing? 6. Revealing Passion and Detail - Actions the character does that reveals what they're passionate about 7. Artful Incongruity - A bit like contradictions: things a passions you wouldn't expect from a stereotype of your character, but representing them in a beautiful way 8. Internal World - The characters existence within their own mind. How the character views the world. Esp. powerful in 1st person 9. Specificity - Be as specific as you can!! If they're an engineer, what KIND of engineer? Habits, clothing, appearance. Be incongruous with it too. 10. Belief System 11. Self-Perception - How aware the character is of themselves, whether they are accurate or not 12. The Dark Room - The dark room is the one room in a house where you do not go. That room holds the core of the character. This core is often a dark truth. While the dark room is never explicitly shown, it can be inferred from the other rooms in the house. 13. Some Questions you can ask yourself if you're struggling with your character: What makes them different from any other person? What make their outlook on the world different from any other person? What questions do they ask themselves about the world or about their own lives? How do they see other people? How do they see themselves? 14. Flaw - Their flaw is rooted in every aspect of their psychology, and often in the dark room. Its not arbitrary like awkwardness, but more impactful and plot-affecting. 15. People Are Disasters - Don't be afraid of the human messiness! People are complex wrecks. Dive into that.

Sounds like "Dark Room" is basically the same as Jung's concept of The Shadow. The dark pit in our subconscious where we throw all of the dark things our ego doesn't allow us to identify with. E.g. bad driver, lazy, careless. We project these traits onto others, which is why what triggers us actually reveals the most about the sore points of our own personality.

Revealing actions: I watched a zombie movie last night where the protagonist spilled her tumbler of water to her plants instead of drinking her last source.

"Spend time with your characters. Have dinner with them."

I usually base my main characters off of my self, but I fear that they become too similar to each other for that reason.

Love the dark room idea. We all have one, so it's only natural our characters would too. Definitely want to try incorporating this in a character's moment of vulnerability

In 26 years of having ADHD , I have rarely find a video where I did not stop nor felt the need to rewinding every five seconds. You did an amazing work by pushing that much info on such a sort video. Serious genius.

So I’m writing my first “real” book and I love it so so so much. I love the story I love my main character almost too much, and what sucks is that I know the book is going to suck. First books always suck. But I don’t want it to suck soooo badly because I love the story so much. I keep going back and rewriting and editing and adding and removing so much and I’m just so afraid it’s gonna be bad but i want it to be good. Idk why the fuck I’m writing this no one cares 😂 just wanted to put my struggle out there I guess if anyone wants to relate with me

"It's my bread and butter- wait, I'm a vegan-uh, my bread and Earth Balance." As another vegan who writes, this made my day

A way I always use to create characters is to take a simple idea and expand upon it. For example, one of my characters loves learning. Why does he love learning? Well, he never had a proper education so there are lots of things that he doesn’t know and he loves discovering new things. Now you’ve got three pieces of information: he loves learning, he likes to discover new things, and he didn’t have a proper education. Now, why didn’t he have a proper education? He was an orphan who was living on the streets and he became a thief to keep himself alive. Now, you have five: He loves learning, he likes discovering things, he wasn’t properly educated, he grew up as an orphan, and he was a thief. Now why did he grow up as an orphan? Shortly after he was born, an internal war was waged in his country. Amidst the chaos, he was separated from his parents and although they looked for him, he was never found. This is just my simple way and I could say more about him since I’ve got his entire story and how his character developed over the years. That would be a lot of information though so I’ll avoid that unless someone’s curious. Anyways, I hope this helps. It’s always perfectly fine to start with a small piece of the puzzle. All books start with their first letter.

Yeeeeeeees, thank you! "When you're creating a character you're creating a person" I am so glad I'm not the only one who holds this viewpoint!

When I heard the explanation of the "dark room" it creeped me out in the best way.

something that ive found really works for me is starting with the quirks. i know, i know, quirks are usually meant to be the dressing on the salad that is your character, but my understanding of my characters, even if ive worked on them quite a while already, is usually very nebulous. i have a vague feeling for who they are, but thinking about their backstory or their goals and such doesnt really alleviate this feeling of vagueness. so once i give them something tangible, usually a quirk but it could also be a phobia or just some way of reacting or talking, they start to get real in my head. its just a matter of finding the right one. which might take a few days. but once ive found it, theyre suddenly a real character in my head and i can go ahead and come up with the more substantial part of their psyche pretty easily.

"at least as interesting as yourself" I really latched onto that piece of advice. I tried short writing exercise with myself as the main character under a different name (since using my own named felt uncanny) and in third person. Looking at myself as a book character let me understand what makes a character read human. I was able to understand your other advice through that sense too. Then I was able to apply that insight to other things.