: Re: Needing Help Fleshing Out Male Character So He's Not Just a Stock Character I have been working on a fantasy novel for the past twelve years, during which time there have been drastic changes.

@Tiffany377

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When you are trying to flesh out the personality of a character, then a good technique is to write a "character interview". A character interview means that you are asking your character a couple of personal question and then write down how your character would answer them. This interview is not meant to be published. It is just an exercise for yourself which forces you to look at your fictional world through their eyes and fill in the gaps about them you weren't even aware of.

Some questions you could ask your character are:

His past:

What was his relation to the other members of his family while he grew up and how did these relationships affect his personality?
How was he educated? What are his areas of expertise and which are the topics he knows very little about? How does his education affect the way he views the world?
Which were the most important events in his past which formed his personality and his world view?
You say he was "a womanizer" in his past. How did these relationships go? What did he want to get out of these relationships (companionship? sex? recognition? self-esteem?) and what did he actually get from them? How did the experiences he made through these relationships affect his views on love and women in general?

His views and opinions:

What is his opinion about the way his family became wealthy? How does he feel about using unethical methods? Does he feel bad about it or does he have a moral justification for their actions?
What does he feel when people mention his families bad reputation? Shame? Anger? Indifference? Maybe even pride?
What are his opinions about all the other characters in your story? Why does he hold these opinions? How would his opinions change if you would tell him those things about the other characters he doesn't know?
What is his opinion about all the other "big questions" your story is asking?
What would need to happen to make him change any of these views?

The motivations for his actions:

What does he want? What are his goals in life? (besides the female protagonist, of course. When getting together with the protagonist is his only motivation in life, then you are either writing a very shallow romantic interest or an obsessive stalker)
What drives his actions? Extrinsic pressure (what others expect him to do or what the situation he is in forces him to do) or intrinsic pressure (what he wants to do)? How does he react when extrinsic and intrinsic pressures are in conflict which each other?
What kind of activities does he enjoy or loathe?
What are his greatest fears?

The primary purpose of this exercise is to force yourself to think of your character as a person and how they became that person. Not everything you make up during the character interview must necessarily be mentioned in your novel. It is mostly supposed to help you find the hidden depths of a character. Nevertheless, if it results in a couple of interesting ideas for sub-plots, then that can be a neat by-product.

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