Fleshing Out A Characters Personality?

Something that works for me sometimes is to think about their likes/dislikes, and then extrapolate what that means about them as a person. Throw something unexpected in there, like maybe this jock has strong opinions about Wendy's vs. Burger King, or hates hot tubs, or has a parakeet as a pet. Not entirely outside of the norm for a sporty guy, but not what you'd predict either.

Another question you can ask is: what is this person like in 10 years? 20 years? How do they get from A to B, and what parts of the person they will become are already present in who they are now? E.g., I have one character who is a cocky mercenary, I decided 10 years from now he would be a pacifist activist, and when I thought it through I was able to connect the dots (both stem from a desire to Make A Mark on the world) in a way that clarified his inner motivations and desires.

There's a bunch of other little exercises you can do, these are just a few suggestions!

 

I'm approaching your questions regarding doll characters specifically, not fictional characters in general. There's a specific way I do character development for doll characters that's not like my RPG characters or novel/fiction writing characters.

I wrote a very in-depth explanation in this post, so instead of repeating myself, please read it if you like! The TL;DR is: I'm entirely in the sculpt-first camp. I don't shell pre-existing OCs, the doll has to inspire their own character, and both are completely intertwined. I do have a shared-world for my dolls and my crew is a single cast of characters. Within this context, character development is a dance between me and the doll, and it happens in realtime.

It's like discovery-writing your plot/character dev, except in my case, my "discovery" is by playing with the doll: do dressup and try on appearances, take photos of them, pose them with my other dolls and see how they interact... I do all that and see where it leads me, what inspiration it sparks for the character, what kind of world-building develops (all my dolls live in their shared world, and I develop this world alongside them). For me, the sculpt is the source of inspiration, and I have to interact with the doll to explore more of their character and the story. This is an integral part of how I develop doll characters and enjoy the hobby.

The doll is the source of inspiration for the character. If the doll isn't sparking as a character and coming to life in my imagination, it's not meant to be, and I have no reason to own a pretty but empty object.

I had this happen with one doll. I tried for an entire year to develop her character, did everything I usually do, but no matter what, her character would not spark: the doll had little chemistry with the other dolls, and the character didn't form relationships with any of my other doll characters nor feature in the storyline. I finally concluded that we weren't meant to be. So I let the character disappear from my imagination, and sold the doll. I miss neither of them.

I've never recreated a previous doll character, nor rebought a doll I sold. I can't "repurpose" the doll for a different character, or shell the character into a new doll. Both are completely intertwined for me -- if one goes, so must the other.

 

Character creation is hard! Don’t be too rough on yourself because it IS tough to make basically an entire personality for someone!

A lot of the time it’s fun to dive into back stories to fully round out a character! Like why does the character feel a certain way or say certain things? He just reacts to people around him? Has he had experiences when he’s done something out of place and people berated him for it? Does he ever WANT to do anything other than react but DOESNT? Does he have any beliefs that are caused from something (even small, happy OR sad) in the past? Take your character’s actions and create an event in their childhood which COULD have lead to them behaving the way they behave!

Sometimes even just writing the character being alone can be really helpful! What does your character do when they’re alone? What are they thinking? Do they procrastinate a lot? Play on their phone? Why do they do that? Maybe he comes off like a shallow, normal jock but when he goes home he practices football until it’s dark because he loves the game more than anything?

Basically get REALLY specific at first. What WOULD he do and what would he NOT do and why? What has he experienced that caused him to think how he does?

Anyway, I hope this made sense and helped!

 

My dolls are shells of my roleplay characters, so I tend to grow the character through playing with others. But I still need a starting place before just tossing *random new doll* into RP. I have a character sheet that I fill out for all of my characters. It had basic stuff, like name, birthdate, height, weight, birthplace, favorites, etc, but goes deeper to things like family, backstory, likes and dislikes, pet peeves, annoying traits, deepest darkest secret, biggest wish/goal in life, and has a place for notes of anything not covered in the actual list. I like to really dig deeper into why they are the way they are too.

@RabbidBunnies Since you mention "closet gay boy football jock", I'll give you an example from my crew. Bren started out as "skater/athlete prankster and dare devil who does whatever he wants". From there, I figured out his family and friends, his relationships with women (not good--he mostly went for looks and rarely got deeper, and would dump them when things weren't going exactly his way.) As time went on, I figured out he intentionally ruins relationships because his heart has always been with his best guy friend...he picked girls with his hair color, his slender build, flat chest, liked similar music...trying to force himself into finding a girl who was just like Cooper. And it had to be a girl because, digging deeper, he's from a traditional Catholic family who wouldn't accept him if he came out, and he wanted that trust fund from his grandpa...which on the surface looks like greed, but going deeper, he wanted to build a home big enough for him and his closest friends so his friends would never have to worry about a place to live ever again. He and his close friend Adam at first just seemed like they were friends because of the antics they got up to, but in figuring out how they met and got to know each other, I discovered some super deep roots that built out Adam's entire backstory and showed that Bren really has a heart of gold and Adam has undying loyalty. That's all just tip of the iceberg, but in the past 3 years, Bren has gone from shallow side character meant to drive a plot point to one of my favorites with the strongest, deepest character of them all. So I guess my point here is that you just have to keep digging. He does this, but why? He says this, but why? What is his real intention/goal/feeling on things that might seem super basic, but actually connect to so much more? Just be like a little kid and never settle for "just because I said so".

 

Actually, since I wrote that linked char-dev post, my doll buying has shifted a bit (or maybe I've finally acknowledged the reality, lol). I have bought dolls on a whim/impulse too, without a strong character idea beforehand. Now, I've yet to receive these two impulse-buy dolls, so I don't know how well this buy-doll-without-character-yet method works. But while waiting, the older buy has been developing for a while in my head and become quite fleshed-out already, and the more recent buy already has a place in the cast and a vague shape. Even though neither had a character to begin with, I was able to develop one after the fact. So I'm hopeful both the dolls and the characters will integrate well - we'll see!

Your character Shay might not be a strong concept, but it looks like you have some "handles" to grab hold of - his two friends, and the fact he doesn't like the main cast. I think they're good material to work with, because your character already has a context for being, as random as it may seem right now. For me, if my character has seeming-random details like that, I just take it at face value and work with it, play with my dolls and take their pics while having these details at the back of my mind. But I don't rush it: I chew the cud, pick them up and put them down, leave them fallow, let the roast on the spit, <insert marinading metaphors> ... and at the right time, they become significant, then I can grab them and anchor them in the plot/setting/character in meaningful way.

For example, one of my doll chars has an amnesiac period in his past. I wrote this into his character sheet years ago as a random throwaway description, without any context or importance whatsoever. For months I picked it up and put it down, but didn't have a way to grab onto it and integrate it with his personality, setting or the other characters. So I left it there. But just last week I looked at it again -- and suddenly was able to make it a significant point of character growth in him, and a source of conflict with several other characters. Now that throwaway backstory detail has become a new source for character dev ... and potentially interesting doll photos too. But I had to develop the rest of the cast, storyline and world first before I could anchor it meaningfully.

I think you'll be able to make Shay well-rounded character - imagination is powerful like that! Keep revisiting him, and give him a little time

 

Introduce him to someone he might want to try to be deep for. You got any super hot complicated nerd boys lying around that you could dangle on front of him? Even if he can't do it in the end, it might be fun to watch him try.

 

Basically, I don't flesh out the details until they become apparent.

If all I have is the basics, that's how they stay until they let me know more. Sometimes the details don't get fleshed out until another doll joins the mix and the new one's interactions with the existing one spark more details

Nesta, for example, was Cressida's best friend, and a bit of a snarky-older-sister-type (despite not actually being the eldest), and a bit of a fashion maven. It wasn't until Hannah, a dedicated tomboy, joined the family that Nesta came into her own, always disparaging Hannah's lack of interest in fashion (clothes in general), messy ways, and rough-and-tumble personality.

By the same token, Cressida (who had nothing more than "Nesta's best friend" to her name) blossomed and became the little peacekeeper between Nesta and Hannah.

Nettle, the entitled princess of the group was just that, until she encountered Arin, and sparked his wicked sense of humour. Nesta was revealed as very gullible, and basically sweet, if a little spoiled and self-centred. Arin, the quiet little bookworm, was marked as one to watch for his tendency toward jokes that take advantage of Nesta's gullibility.

Teddy

 

When all else fails me on writing a doll character, I find a random prompt or idea, and just write in their perspective on the matter. I recently wrote something like 1200 words on Azrael’s feelings on sunglasses when I was trying to relearn who she was. I had her as a previous character, as a renegade guardian Angel, but the world I’m writing her in has changed considerably, so I just picked up her PoV and a prompt. She independently told me her future was so bright she needed a pair of damned sunglasses, rambled for a few pages about her career, and then told me all about the time she stole her cousin’s sunglasses, and how no one talks about her cousin anymore, and something had to be up with that. She gave me a lot of answers in this bizarre ramble-exercise, enough that I now know who she was assigned to, and what she did, and how her sunglasses-future goes downhill. I still have to bash out a couple aspects of her life, which I’m going to do by another ramble-exercise, in which my prompt is the other character she’s involved with.

another strategy I use if rambling isn’t getting me anywhere is just creating dialogue between that doll and literally any other doll I have. Doesn’t matter if they’re from the same verse, Shrike can talk to Nira, who can in turn talk to Sinclair, all of whom are from wildly different settings. What they talk about can vary, but it gives me a feel for their voice and their personality. If Shrike were to talk to Azrael they could commiserate about having dangerous jobs, and being disillusioned with the higher powers managing them. If Nira was to talk to Sinclair, it would be about getting fired. If Valentine were to talk to Amor, it would be about living under hostage-like confines. There’s always a common thread, even between dolls from totally different stories. I like to imagine they’re both waiting for something and something compels them to talk. This way, you have a helper, a character you know that’s there to get the new character to open up and have some more depth.

If I absolutely cannot seem to write them, but for some reason I’m bent on having this character—which happens on some rare occasions—I step back and make them a playlist, and then see what themes appear in the songs, and what the songs bring out in the character—can I learn anything about them from the music I choose for them? Do any of the songs I’ve assigned jog me to write anything?

 

Hopefully so.

Teddy

 

Hehe glad I was able to share some humour! Ironically, that character goes through it, fairly unexpectedly, because of another character she gets attached to. Her future isn’t as straightforward as she expects it to be!

I’m glad dialogue helped! Sometimes it can be really interesting seeing what comes out around characters your character doesn’t get along with!

good luck picking a favourite song! I hope it brings something new and exciting out!

 

Well; since my Wife♥ Konomi is canonically-talented Curry Chef...

 

My dolls are generally characters I'm already fond of and know fairly well, but I do write and play dnd and sometimes run into similar issues. I find it helpful to look at character questionnaires and things like that (granted, I'm on tumblr a lot so they're easy to find there). Even silly things like what shape ice cube would they like or would they break animals out of zoo why/ why not can help give an idea of a character's personality. One fun one we just did in my dnd group was if your character was playing truth or dare, which would they choose? And what kind of truth/ dare would they refuse to do?

My current dnd character I've kind of been letting build as we play. I had no idea how she learned to use her sword for like a year xD When something major happens in the game, I like to sit down and write out how I think she's feeling about it, and often end up having other ideas about her character when I do. Sometimes a character just wants to reveal who they are and how they tick to you as you write them.

One thing I found helpful was doing some kind of character challenge, like this one from Ginny Di. I know it says Dnd character, but honestly it can work well for getting a better idea of any character. I was actually really surprised by how helpful I found it, especially since we'd been playing for a while and I thought i had a good idea of my character already, and have continued writing occasional journal entries for my character. Since I already had a character playlist for my girl, I made a hypothetical romance one as well as a hypothetical villain one, which was really fun to make and got me thinking about the kinds of things it would take for her to turn to the darkside so to speak.

 

Best way to build characters is through conflict. Say how does the character react if another character steals something from her? Does she try to seize it back, does she get mad or cry? Does she make an appeal to another character to help her?
But also simpler conflict like how she'd deal with accidentally breaking a vase or having nothing ready to eat in the fridge. Does she try to cook something with what's in the cupboard, does she go out in the rain to buy groceries, or does she order a pizza?
Any kind of pressure or test is good to see what a character is made of. It also shows you when you're making a mary sue (if your character never makes mistakes or doesn't show any flawed behavior, well, that's boring).

 

Sometimes you just have to exist with a doll. Since I make their clothes one of the things I'll do is take a new doll to a fabric store. Maybe take them somewhere for a photo shoot? He likes football, go to a sporting goods store, see if they have a football his size, or maybe a pet store will have a ball for him?

Just go about your general existence and if something suddenly makes you think of that character take note of it.

A big closeted football player to me sounds like someone who might be interested in bears and their sub culture.