How to Build Awesome Characters

In this week's lesson, presented by Chrysanne, we discussed how to pack your characters full of awesome.

• Is there something you're interested in, that you know a lot about? Chances are, other people will find it interesting too. Make your character interested in that same thing, and use their knowledge and interest in your story.
• Give your character an interesting, unusual, and best of all, painful backstory.
• Personality quirks are always fun.
• Readers love a character with awesome skills.
• Interesting supernatural powers can also lend awesomeness to a character.
• Characters need weaknesses and fears too. Use a little imagination and come up with something interesting. Is your character afraid of peacocks? Maybe they always fall asleep during movies.
• Possessing an awesome object or weapon also adds awesome to your character.
• Interesting characters deserve interesting names. We'll have a lesson on naming characters alter in the year.
• What's your character's favorite animal? Food? Sport? Activity? Choose something unusual, interesting, and awesome. Sure, you could go with dog, pizza, soccer, and playing video games, but how about sea scorpions, tom kha gai, ski jumping, and kite surfing? Which character would you rather spend a whole story with?
• Give your character a unique response to situations. What does your character do under stress? When angry? When sad? Don't be afraid to make it something totally unique.
• When building a character, keep in mind that most people have a gap between the way they perceive themselves and the way that others see them. This discrepancy between internal self and external behavior can be the source of all sorts of awesome.

Now that you've built an awesome character, make their awesomeness important to your plot! Use their traits, skills, knowledge, and interests to move the story.

Next week's lesson: Irony