Proper Character Development for Idiots? Help Please!

interesting, very.

 

One thing that might help is looking at the basic bones of a human. We desire. And we fear. The different things we desire and fear throughout our lives determine our life goals, how outgoing we are, when we get nervous, when we get angry, why we decide not to speak our minds, our religeous beliefs, the friends we choose and so on. All this stuff is our traits.

So when you go to write a character, it should not be "I want my pirate to be angry all the time, but have a soft spot for kittens", it should be something like, "My pirate fears that his crew's stupidity will get everyone killed, and the only thing that reminds him of his lost daughter is Fefe her kitten."

 

I distrust the idea of coming up with character flaws _as_ character flaws. If a character is, say, insufferably noble and handsome and talented, you're not going to make them any less insufferable by saying, "Oh, but he's a gambling addict and his hair is always a mess." Insufferable and boring remains insufferable and boring; you can't make a boring character interesting by thumbtacking some flaws to him.

 

Give your characters traits/characteristics. Don't focus on their flaws. A flaw would be something that is simply wrong or broken such as a hatred for something good or jealousy. You could give them a bodily flaw like a limp, mental problems or an underdeveloped limb.
Generally I think your protagonist should be relate-able but likeable. So if you give him/her a flaw let if be a flaw you have but make him/her overcome it. Unless you want your protagonist to have a serious issue save the flaws for the antagonist.
Instead give your protagonist and supporting characters little quirks that make them human, like an uncertainty of where to look or a habit of drumming their fingers on their leg when talking to someone they don't know. Perhaps they bite their nail or pick their nose when they think no one is watching. Maybe they have strange speech characteristics like always starting a sentence with "Um, Yeah, You know...." If it is a character that you don't want anybody to like give him/ her a trait that you wouldn't be able to stand if you met the person. Think of someone particularly annoying and make him/her like that.
The best thing you can do though to make your characters human is to study humans. Try going to some public place like a coffee shop and, with paper and pen in hand jot down quick descriptions of the people around you, note their speech habits and their body language then take all this home and put a few into your characters. Don't stress them; just mention them once or twice. If your readers know that your protagonist has picked his/her nose at least once they can then assume he will probably do it again.

 

Great idea. I like it.

 

normally i start out, Name and job and from there work out age (though what i am working on now has quite an unusual pairing age/job wise) i try to factor an appearance too, but generally look at where i want the story to head before this (as sometimes i change a characters appearance sometimes mid story through something or other) and then likes/dislikes as in some cases this helps with a characters attitude toward certain events