Tips on creating a fictional character

If you’re starting a book but having difficulties coming up with a character, these tips will help you get started and come up with the greatest original character (OC). Just a reminder to breathe since this isn’t intended to be easy. If you make mistakes, it demonstrates that you are doing what you need to do. It takes a lot of devotion and effort, so you will inevitably mess up occasionally or get rid of certain stuff. It will be tough and time-consuming to create a new character when you are just starting out. Sometimes it’s because you have too many ideas or none at all. The goal of these suggestions is to get you started, and you don’t have to apply all of them if you only need a few. Alright, sip some water, take a deep breath, and start reading because soon you’ll be able to invent and bring your character to life. 

1. Use Pinterest boards

Pinterest boards are incredibly essential to create your character because this is where you put together what your character wears. This consists of their hair, nails, shoes, and clothes. Go to Pinterest where you either log in or create your account. Once you’re at your home page, start pinning clothes, shoes, etc., it may not seem important to make a Pinterest board, but it helps you as an author get a better visual of how your character looks. If you have a visual of how the OC dresses and how they are styled, it will make describing them easier.

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2. Make an aesthetic board 

Although making a section for your OC’s aesthetic is not mandatory, it gives you a better sense of what your OC’s personality is like and there is no better way to do that than pictures and music. There is no rule that states you need both, but having both just gives you more inspiration for your OC(s). If you do have more than one character, this can keep you organized.

The aesthetic board helps you, as an author, have a better understanding of your character through what the OC likes. It can have things like favorite bands, pets, foods, or even a place they go to often. A music aesthetic is a playlist that you make off the aesthetic board that is based on your character which can help develop what your OC is into or how they act.

3. Use Artbreeder to visually create your own character

The Artbreeder app/website has to be one of the best tools to help you create a setting for your character and how things will look. It’s so easy to create and so much fun to see your imagination come to life. Furthermore, the site allows you to make the OC come to life! You can shape the way their nose, eyes, hair, etc., looks with just a couple of clicks. Though I use the app daily to create my OC’s, I am not that good at explaining the process and how it works. In the beginning, it was difficult and hard to make it, until I came across Steven Scott he is the best person to explain it to you and actually show you step by step. 

4. Questions to Ask

Once you have your visuals and aesthetic for your character you go to your playlist and start to draft up how your OC acts and talks and incorporate it into your writing. There is a set of questions that you need to answer in order to fully make your character come to life. These questions help you write the OC’s dialogue and connect them to the readers.

Log on to google docs and open up a new document and number the questions that you have to answer. When answering the questions it’s beneficial to go into detail as best as you can so that you are able to look back at these notes and not forget anything about your OC. This is a crucial part of creating your OC because even experienced authors tend to forget even the simplest of details about their OC, so this will help guide you. 

5. Now You Try

Now that you have all of the steps you need to get started, try them out to see if they help you when you’re just getting started. Of course, this isn’t the only way to begin, but it’s a good place to start. Go ahead and give it a shot!