There are two core factors that must be considered in the act of building the personality content, categorizing personality traits into one of two categories. The first is used most frequently but acknowledged the least, and can be called genetic predisposition - that is to say, a personality trait that is brought into existence from the birth of your character, usually tracing back to their origins. As always, you don’t want to waste your reader’s time with an excessive and in-depth look into the entire history of the character’s family, but acknowledging that your character acts a certain way because that’s simply “who they are” is important. These personality traits are often over-arching and longer lasting than those of the other type, which I’ll get to in a second, and they’re often used by writers as a crutch for poor character creation and development.
For example, say you have a character with a very dark past – upbringing, childhood, school years, etc. – but you claim that the character is surprisingly more cheery and uplifting, despite all the trauma and emotional scarring they would have received during this time when they are very vulnerable. Now, it’s very important to understand that from a cause-and-effect standpoint this does NOT make sense. If you met someone who could tell you for hours all the atrocities that they had witnessed as a child, but they still had a positive and uplifting attitude about it and everything else, you would either question their sanity or consider that their ability to act like this is caused by something rooted deeply within them. Like a genetic predisposition? That’s kind of a mouthful, so let’s just stick with calling it a base trait. However, one should be wary of the temptation to use this as an excuse for an easy way out in creating your character, usually to provide some sort of interesting or redeeming quality to a character when it would otherwise be subject to being a lonesome prick. People often give these terribly tragic back stories to characters but then portray them as noble souls who wish to bring happiness into the lives of others. In other words, “Despite all of this, he persevered, becoming stronger and better because of it.” Why? How? Because of the concept of base traits, this isn’t theoretically wrong or illogical, but the question is: how interesting is it? This works in the reverse too.
Now, I haven’t exactly shed a very positive light on these base traits, and that’s mostly because they’re abused frequently, but base traits can also add quite a bit of strength to your character as a whole too. The thing to consider, that so few people do, is that prominent base traits are, more often than not, negative things. Things that a person struggles to overcome, and it’s not necessarily their own fault for having them. Overly aggressive natures, addictive tendencies, obsessions, and so much more can all be spawned very easily because they were born with it. Consider also that these “internal demons” will likely be the subject of great frustration for your character, and you can make them much deeper and more interesting because of it. Now, my intent in going over this isn’t to suggest that every base trait a character has must be antagonizing them constantly, but before giving your character any base trait (especially positive ones) question your motives for doing it. Is it because you want the character to be more likeable? Is this base trait actually one of YOUR traits (or a desired one) that you are imposing on the character? Not touched by history but always present in their actions – sounds like tampering and self insertion to me. Or are you doing it because you think it will build the character to the place you want them, to make them more interesting and definable. It’s really hard stuff and should be approached very cautiously.
I hope this makes some level of sense, but it’s certainly a challenging and somewhat strange subject. It’s hard to write about and, consequently, it’s even more difficult to produce properly. I may have to do a section later just using and analyzing examples of strong and weak personalities. At any rate, we’re not quite done yet, because causal behaviors are next. While your character will likely have a few base traits that you touch on, I’m currently of the opinion that causal traits are more potent for your character as a whole.
Beyond what they’re born with, your character is going to develop a number of traits over the course of their lives that will shape who they are when you finally birth them into whatever world of roleplay is in question. Unlike base traits, these traits are acquired by events in a character’s life and should therefore be explained in their history. This idea can be considered the bread and butter of your character’s existence, shaped by the course of their lives; it’s also the core idea in character building, perhaps what can be considered the goal of most roleplay.
Once again, creating a causal trait is not particularly difficult, but keeping all of them aligned and working with one another into your final result can be very tricky indeed. With every concept you add to your character you’re also adding another level of complexity to them as well. It’s something that builds off itself, so by the time you’ve added six or seven life scarring events to your poor character, they’re going to have a very interesting view on life. As a writer, it’s your task to keep these concepts under control while you build your character into whoever you want them to be in the end.
In terms of strategy, I’ve found that building from the floor up, like I mentioned before, is the easiest way to do this without creating something of significantly less quality. You have an archetype, then you build your history and appearance, and finally you combine all three factors into the creation of the personality. Private education as a child? That will add an effect. Drafted into the military at the age of sixteen? Also an added effect, but now you have to tweak that effect with the nod to your previous one. How does your character feel about dealing with all these barbarous men that he had otherwise avoided in his more secluded, educated life? How does this affect his views of his country? Maybe he had to leave his family to answer the call of war, though. Did private education make him a homebody or did it make him as eager as can be to escape his own household? If it’s the former, does he worry about the safety and prosperity of his family back at home now that he’s gone? If it’s the latter, perhaps now he’s missing the comforts of home? If not, perhaps he’s embracing it to his fullest and basically turning into a raucous, brutish man like the rest of them. What about when his best friend dies standing next to him? Does it cause him to start hating humanity, or does he push it under the rug like the rest of his long-lost morality he learned as a child. But don’t forget that education of his. If he’s developing disgust for people, it’s certainly not going to aid him as he’s likely carrying a better education that the people he meets. Men who cannot even read and write are responsible for the death of his closest friend and comrade. Will that affect him long-term when he finally escapes the war?
The concept of a soldier is so impossibly complex that, while it’s commonly used, proves to be one of the more difficult things to tackle. Every question I asked had several possible answers to it, each provoking new questions and so on, and the depth of your character is completely up to you deciding when you’re going to stop. What happens, though, both in roleplay and in real-life, is that there is a summation that takes place. When a character becomes so fed up with all this junk that’s filled their mind, they sum it all up (consciously or not) into an overarching personality trait. Your character sheet isn’t supposed to have the answer to every one of those questions in it, because that would be much too long, but it will essentially compile into a number of final traits. Perhaps our soldier friend basically became calloused and bitter because of everything that happened to him by the time he made it home. While that sounds pretty straight forward, consider all the nudges and slights in one direction or another that led up to that final summation trait. Perhaps his country won the war – why isn’t he marching home with pride? Or why isn’t he just flat out depressed, instead of stoically mute. You have these final possibilities, but what’s important for you as a writer is everything that led up to it, because those things are what truly make him operate.
I think of the process I described above in terms of a flow-chart diagram. Start with an event, and then have multiple branches that could extend from it. Each one of those branches will branch out further and further, and you’ll proceed through the tree to the very fiber of his being. Now, once you’ve created this incalculable level of detail for how your character got where he is, draw a big rectangle around it, attach a head, arms, and legs. Congratulations, you have a person with all his innards exposed. Now put a shirt over it all, and he’s presentable to the world. People who interact with him will only see “bitter” or “stoic.” They have no idea what’s underneath that shirt – what makes him work. They may begin to understand, because the character’s actions will draw from what’s inside them, but only you truly know everything.
In summation!
Step 1: Trace the steps of your character’s personality
Step 2: Frame your masterpiece and therefore establish its beginning and end
Step 3: Blanket it, as a person would
Step 4: Oh, that’s right. That was just ONE concept. Now consider all those other concepts you wanted to combine from all through his life.
Step 5: Look familiar? For everything you add to your character, there will only be more and more depth to them
In closing, I will say some final things. Ideally, what we’re trying to do is impossible. However, we can get close. We have both language and time on our side to make up for our lack of perfect understanding of this. Words can be relative and mean different things, and they can also encompass a large number of ideas very quickly with a certain turn of phrase or wording. Your ability to use the English language here will be tested to its maximum alongside everything else, but it’s still possible to come out alive. Furthermore, you also have time on your side. In turn-based roleplay (I post, you post, etc.) you will have a certain amount of time that’s considered standard to respond. Good posts do take some thought, even when you know your character through and through. However, keep in mind that the more you add to your character, the more you must consider. Even the “simplest” of characters can turn out to be these incredibly complicated beasts when really looked at, so don’t get ahead of yourself.
Good luck!
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