Can the forums give me tips on how to create a good character and what to avoid?

So I realised that some of my characters aren’t exactly the best written, either they’re completely centered around their gimmick rather than their gimmick being 1 part about them but not completely dictating who they are, or they’re really not that unique from other pre-existing characters or have some other poor writing reason that probably wouldn’t make them very interesting, or would make them a very flawed character (not in a good way, as in, shitty design wise character)

So I wanna know for the other people who have made characters that seem to have a generally positive reception, what are some good things that a character should have? and what things should I avoid when creating them?

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Is this in general or specific for writing fanfic or world of magic/arcane odyssey related stuff

in general

#1 work on personality first before anything else, or if you’re all about abilities work on a ability first then create the character around the ability they have, if a man has an ability that gives him incredible luck he’d be incredibly cocky wouldn’t he since he feels untouchable

that’s the first thing that always comes to my mind for making characters

I’ve got a roster of characters for a story I plan to write myself, but they’re kinda half baked so i’m in no position to give super helpful advice…

The best I can give is make sure that they have realistic flaws, goals, a personality, and a defined role in the story.

Also don’t worry if your characters aren’t super unique from pre-existing ones. Everything’s been done before to an extent, just spun differently

If I shared some ideas here with y’all you think you could give commentary?

NOT NECCESSARILY ALWAYS TRUE OR CONSTANTLY SHOULD BE APPLIED
so long as the character is enjoyable to read then you can do whatever you please

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Yeah sure why not

well I have for starters I have a cyborg (all organic stuff is internal so it kinda looks like a robot) with gender dysphoria

and?

Think of something you want to explore. Theme. Gimmick. Motive. Whatever. Something, use that as your base and build from there.

For nailing a personality I usually like to envision myself talking to them. What are their mannerisms? Pattern of speech? How approachable are they? Are they reserved? Outgoing? Confident? Shy? General things like that. What kinda vibe do I get from them and is it the thing I’m going for?

I like to ask questions too. Why they do things. Sometimes I might just make spontaneous decisions and build up on it later. Not every aspect of their life needs to be detailed right from the start. If this is a character you plan on using, like for roleplay or writing, then it doesn’t hurt to leave some gaps for something that may come up.

Some little insight on my puny brain on how I make characters. Not guaranteed success but it’s some of my methods.

If this is the ENTIRE concept then that’s a terrible concept basis you have
That sounds like the start of a concept and then you build ONTO it, please tell me that’s not all and there’s more to this concept.

Also true, to each their own.

There are no hard and fast rules to writing, that’s just what works for me.

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yeah theres more idk that’s a shit synopsis

they’re some freak accident that was made by a shady multimillion dollar corporation and I guess escaped somehow?

Now they just kinda… exist, and the gender dysphoria thing is more of a flaw than the entire concept

I haven’t thought of many strengths yet but maybe having something to do with being able to be hooked up to various machines could be cool

reading this provides very little information to continue with
Is the gender dysphoria the right term you mean? and not like body dysphoria cause now they’re a cyborg and their body isn’t their own body they want, alongside that was this a condition that started before or after the robot accident

Or did they try and cure the Gender Dysphoria by going through with a cybernetic enhancement provided by the company as a means of testing out the product and the freak accident ended up labelling them as a defect and thus the company is trying to keep this underwraps until they can recapture the cyborg and dispose of it as they see fit.

what’s the cyborg’s powerset now that they’re a robot, is it just they’re physically more capable or are they now able to link up with like a neural link to any tech they happen to be within a certain radius of.

if you want to provide a concept provide it in detail don’t summarize it.

(well another idea was that they were put in the machine as a baby, making the corporation even shadier and making it that when the character starts discovering what genders are, they realise they don’t have one and that’s not good)

I wasn’t thinking they’d get that advanced but maybe they have a really versatile body capable of being hooked to various machinery capable of doing different things, or maybe just generic electricity manipulation of some kind.

maybe something to do with digital memories?

meh pretty much every character I’ve made feels more like an unfinished concept than a fully fleshed out comprehensible thing

Don’t make Mary Sues. Characters who can kill anything and can never be killed. Have no weaknesses or something.

Make characters that have flaws and defects and don’t give them world shattering powers.

i think describing a mary sue that way does not quite get the message across

make the character experience the consequences for any decision they make
otherwise it just comes off as the plot bending itself backwards to protect them
the plot should affect the character, not the other way around

or just make a villain mary sue