: Re: How to make a character's personality trully distinguishable/memorable? Before anything, please pardon any grammar (or other kinds of language) mistakes I might make, for English is not my mother

@Cugini967

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Short Answer: subvert a stereotype.

Long Answer

Let's start with what makes a character forgettable. In the most basic sense, a character is a puppet, an entity that does whatever you want. If the hero must slay a dragon, you need someone with the strength or skill to complete that task. How about a knight? Everybody knows knights are brave and strong, well armed and armored.

That covers your plot. Noble knight learns about nasty dragon, knight finds dragon, knight slays dragon, The End.

Now that the story's over, what do we know about the knight? What everybody knows about knights. A stereotype. Forgettable.

To make a story more interesting, you put obstacles in front of your protagonist. Some are exterior. The knight might need to cross a bridge and finds it washed away. Other obstacles are interior. The knight may have a phobia of lizards. That is a character trait.

A character trait is anything that makes the character unique and thus memorable. It may be a weakness that affects his ability to reach his goal. A weakness can also affect other areas of life, for instance, a speech impediment. Other characters may learn about the weakness and attempt to exploit it.

Some traits are exceptional qualities. The knight may be short, or bald, or missing a limb.

Some traits are humanizing. The knight may want to be a monk instead of a warrior. We all have dreams, even if we must give up on them at some point.

Some traits are situational. The knight is chronically short of funds, so he has to find or make a good lance.

Some traits are cognitive, that is, based on something the character believes (rightly or wrongly). The knight meets the dragon and is surprised to learn that they share an interest in poetry.

Each of these traits takes an element of the knight's stereotype and twists it into something else. Give each character a stereotype, so the reader knows what to expect, but change one or two elements. A variation is to give a character an outward stereotype and a different, inward stereotype that you gradually reveal.

An unforgettable character is one that seems like a real person but has one or two traits that stand out. Our brains don't have room to store everyday details, but we remember the unusual.

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