LESSON 3 To whom is your story happening?

By now you should be nicely inspired. It's time to start real writing. To do that, you need to create some interesting characters to whom the story is happening. Boring characters make a boring story while interesting characters can give some color to an otherwise dull story. 

I'll explain my usual character creation process. 

First I ask myself what role my character plays in the story and what traits they need to fulfill that role. Are they the main character or love interest or villain or mentor? Or perhaps a friend or family to the main character? Or just a one-time filler character? Note that the more important role they play, the more rounded they should be while one-time characters might even sometimes be better two-dimensional.

 Tiina is the main character. In my mind the main character should be brave and have some agency (readiness to control their own destiny), so I made her fearless in physical danger and independent. Those are also her weak points. Her bravery borders on being foolhardy and she is very headstrong and distrustful. Every character trait is like a coin with two sides, both an asset and a hindrance.

Reiko is the love interest. I made him a caring person and a romantic musician. 

Marina is the love rival. I made her as feminine as I managed to make the threat more realistic. But she is also Tiina's best friend that's why she is helpful and good at understanding others.

This is only the first step but the characters are already taking form.

 The next question is the characters' occupation. And again: what traits are needed for that occupation? 

 Tiina is a vet. She must have nimble fingers and compassion for animals.

Marina is a shoe designer. Some sense of style is needed here. And she must know how to use a computer since most design is digital today. Also, she used to be a pack leader in Tartu. That means that she must have some leadership skills.

Reiko... His main occupation is, well, being a fox. He has some foxy qualities like curiosity, good-naturedness, and talkativeness. He is also a musician. It's hard to imagine a musician who isn't even a little bit romantic.

Then it's time to go deeper into psychology.  What's your character's personality type? There are many ways to type somebody. I personally prefer Myers-Briggs, but Enneagram and Jungian archetypes are also interesting. Why not all of them? I don't even know how many personality theories there are. Most of them have some kind of free personality test available.

Don't forget the upbringing! Our past influences greatly how we act in the present.

Tiina's past is full of brokenness. She comes from a broken family and has had some broken relationships herself. That made it hard for her to believe in love.

 Reiko has born in a forest as an ordinary fox. He has had only a few interactions with humans and therefore can make mistakes in relationships with them.

Marina... There was a lot of past hurt between her and Tiina.

An important thing is the character's motivation. Why do they bother to do anything? What drives them? If they do something not in their nature just because the plot demands it, there's something wrong.

In the first two books, Tiina has two motivations: to get her curse into control so that she wouldn't hurt anybody and Reiko.

Reiko's motivation was at least at first to fulfill his promise to Tiina.

Marina's motivation was to help her friend.

Finally, the looks. Pinterest is a great source of inspiration here. Let the looks say something about the character's personality or background! One detail that reveals something new about the character is more valuable than a long list of description. 

And one last detail. Don't forget that you are describing the characters through the lens of the point of view character. No two people see the same person exactly the same. Describe how your POV character sees this person, not how you see them.

You don't have to do all of it with one-time-only side characters. They might even be better when a little flat. Depends.

So, this is it. Now go and create a character. Share your character descriptions in the comments.