For anyone that's having trouble giving depth to characters, I may have a solution. It's fairly easy and similar to other methods. I get more writer's block when I don't know my characters very well, simply because I don't know what they would do in certain situations. I try to keep things as realistic as possible. I think people fault in stories when character reactions are too easy, for example if the hero deals with everything like an expert etc and have a stiff up a lip more than most. It's harder to make this mistake if they have depth, if they have background, if they have their own personality.
So basically what I've started doing is making a mindmap of sorts. I pick the character I want to work on, list all the aspects of that person, and then write anything I can think of to do with the category.
For example:
Remus;
-Son
-Doctor
-Vampire
-Cat owner
-Paranoid
-Intellect
-Addict without a fix
-Addict with a fix
etc etc etc
and then an example of one of the explored categories:
Doctor:
Loyal and generous
Can smell when something is wrong with people
Learned how to be stronger for people, to connect with people
Constantly learning new things, considering new ideals, and techniques
Constantly conflicted because medicine is all he's ever been good at, but as a vampire it's so hard to be around blood and not give in to the bite, gets stressed out and aggravated quite a lot because of it.
I hope this helps anyone that's having trouble, I also find making a pinterest aesthetic board for the character gives me a better understanding too.
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