How to Develop Characters for a Fantasy Novel

Creating characters for a fantasy novel is not so different from creating characters for any other type of book. They need to be real personalities, with real problems. The biggest difference is that characters in a fantasy novel must fight their inner demons and some external ones as well.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Study people around you. See how they interact with each other, how they treat each other. What can you assume about their motives from watching their actions?

2. Read a few biographies or in depth historical accounts of famous people. Read about all types of people, not just ones you find interesting.

3. Decide what kind of person your protagonist is. You probably have an idea about where he/she came from, what kind of background they have. How have they dealt with what life has thrown at them? Are they bitter and cynical, or blithely happy?

4. Create your antagonist. Make your antagonist a real person; he/she should have hopes and fears, character flaws and redeeming qualities. An interesting antagonist will be someone who could actually exist outside your imagination.

5. Make your supporting characters as real as they need to be. Cardboard cut-outs make for poor supporting characters, so give them some quirks, something to make them unique. They don't have to stand out for long, but unless they have only one line through the entire book, make them as close to real people as you can.

Tips & Warnings

• It is vital to your story that your characters have many dimensions. Make them as real as you possibly can, giving each character a quirk, something which will make them unique.

Resources

• Forum dealing with all aspects of fantasy writing

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[Delaplane]

on 3/16/2009 Great ideas, especially step 4.