Three Methods for Character Development by Amberleaf

Amberleaf shares three methods for developing characters for a story.

Hi! This one is for all the Fanfiction writers out there. When you’re creating your characters, it’s sometimes hard to give them a feasible personality. I’m Amberleaf, and here’s three of my favourite methods to creating a good personality for your characters!

Yes, but no
I think this method is a good way to create balance with your characters and avoid Mary-Sues. It’s essentially taking a character’s personality trait, usually a good one, but balancing it out by giving it a similar negative trait. For example, character X is really funny, but they’ll try too hard to get a laugh and often be rude, and character Y is very clever but holds themselves to high standards.
The traits should be similar to each other. It doesn’t make sense for character X to be funny but stern and serious. These traits contrast a lot and it would also be difficult to write. If you want to incorporate both they could be funny when they’re supposed to be serious, or they act serious but everyone thinks they’re just being funny.

The “why” loop
If anyone’s ever seen a toddler, they’ll be familiar with the “why” loop where they ask a question and just keep on replying with “why” no matter what they say!
So use this to flesh out your characters and their backstories. Be the toddler asking “why.” There’s no such thing as ‘just because.’ There’s reasons for most things, so find them!
For an example let’s take Streamfrost from Floraclaw’s Fury:
Streamfrost is a flirt and makes up romantic nicknames for Floraclaw. Why? He knows it annoys her and enjoys seeing her frustrated. Why? He doesn’t get a chance to laugh much and takes whatever opportunity he gets. Why? His father is very strict and demanding of him. Why?He wants to use Streamfrost as a tool to get what he wants, which is power and ‘justice.’
In seconds we’ve got a character, a backstory and a villain!
For background characters this can still be a thing, you just don’t need to go so deep!
Frozenflake is very strict. Why? She was born a rogue and wants to prove herself loyal to the Warrior Code.
That’s as far as it goes, but now there’s some life to the background characters!

The greatest Warrior ever!
All apprentices say this when they first meet their mentor. It’s kinda cute, kinda cliché. But what does that mean to them? To become the greatest Warrior, how are they going to do it? Take my four main protagonists:
FIREPAW: I’m going to be the greatest Warrior in all the Clans! I’m going to be so feared that no-one will dare cross me!
RIPPLEPAW: I hope I’ll be the greatest warrior. I’m going to serve my Clan well and care for all the cats in it.
BREEZEPAW: I just want to become a warrior…
LEAFPAW: I probably won’t become the greatest warrior ever. For one thing, I’m a medicine cat, and another thing is I don’t like being in the Clan with everyone, and I’m planning to run away, and what were we saying?
The same statement means so many different things, so what does it mean to your OCs? And who do they think the greatest warrior ever is? Their mentor? Their mother or father? Maybe their Dark Forest mentor, or an elder! Maybe themselves?

Creating characters is hard. But I hope I’ve made it easier for you- and more fun!
Amberleaf, out.