Character Development: Character Roles, Relationships and Personality

Character creation and development happens to be my one favourite creative activity. It is something that overlaps the writing and art world, and I can spend hours on it. Which is why, not surprisingly I have many original characters. But I still love creating more, and the wonderful thing about characters is that with enough imagination there are endless possibilities of what you can create.

This Blog entry focuses on the questions you should ask yourself when deciding the role, personality and relationships of a character and how that relates to plot.

The main problem people seem to have is that they get stuck with the idea of Types and stereo types. There is this feeling that in order to write a story you need to have a Hero, a Side Kick, and a Villain, and that these characters have certain fundamental aspects to them that make them such. But it is the writers who do not feel constrained to these ideas that write the most memorable stories. Where the "hero" is not brave, and the moral line between hero and villain is blurred.

I actually find the relationship between the hero and the friend seems to be more of a rigid stereotype than the one between the hero and the villain. but more on that later.. possibly.

The main point of this, as that when creating a character, while it is a good idea to know what role you want them to have, I find it is better, rather than letting them be defined by their role, let their characteristics influence and define the role they play and the relationships they form.

When it comes to character I am a strong believer that the setting, plot and characters are not separate, but interlinked and have a strong effect on each other. when I write I let the characters guide me through the story, with their actions, keeping in mind past events and environments which may have affected them.

When Creating a Character I find it useful to ask myself these simple questions, all of which are rather obvious and therefore sometimes easy to forget.
What is the Character's background? 
This includes where did the character grow up and what was it like? how was the characters childhood. Do they have any difficulties? Are there any people who have been strong influences and why?
What is the Characters Personality and Nature?
do they have any fundamental characteristics like shyness, or impulsiveness?
How has their environment influenced their personality? e.g.. has a family situation made them an anxious person?
And how has their personality influenced their environment? e.g.. do people treat them a certain way because of a personality trait, like bossiness or confidence.
Think about the cycle of the personality and environment relationship.
What is their Inner Dialogue? What do they think of themselves and how do they view others?
What is Important to them (what is their drive/motivation)
people tend to do or not do things for reasons. depending on what their motivations are. sometimes its seeking something like love or change and sometimes it can be as simple as wanting to keep things the same out of comfort or even fear. think about your characters wants and values and what is driving these wants/values. 
Do Events in the plot cause a change in personality?
It is important to realise that personality and how a person acts changes over time. How they view themselves and others changes and they and their enviroment changes. another character or an event can influence their inner dialogue ask yourself: Does the event or other character cause character growth or an emotional change?  What is this change and why?
Does it cause a shift in their motivation and values?

What is the Relationship Dynamic between this character and other characters?
All characters that interact have some sort of relationship, it can be friendship, love, hate, rivalry, or even an apathetic business relationship. But how characters treat each other depends on this relationship.
Think about how they met, in what context is the relationship formed?
How are they connected? are they related? business partners? or are they thrown together by chance?
based on their values and personalities how would they view each other?
and depending on what kind of relationship they have, why do they have that relationship? if it is a friendship why are they friends? is it out of shared interests or did events just lead them to be. do their personalities compliment each other in such a way that they fulfil each others needs? maybe they don't and it causes a bit of friction.
If they are enemies, why are they enemies? difference in points of view? Are they competing over something? is it a clash of personality, or maybe are they just so similar they can't get a long.
Thinking of the relationship dynamics can give the story a much richer base on which to draw on and will help making decide how they characters will act easier. it can influence their motivation and bring up some new interesting aspects of the story.
Like personality Relationships tend to change, and a lot of the most enjoyable stories are centred around the changing dynamics of relationships.

Relationships are also very closely related to a characters role. what do they mean to different people and how does this make them act? Like personality it is a great drive for a character in a story.

I know I have glossed over a lot. but hopefully as I continue to write things will fill out more.