: Re: Tips for adding more personality to characters? Often I read a new book only to find that the characters are flat, boring, and lacking in personality. Sometimes I even find that in my own

@Frith254

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The two main reasons for boring characters:

Missing eccentric behaviour
Missing conflicts

Eccentric behaviour:

The character is too good/too bad. He has never stolen something from a friend, never smoked, never drunk too much, never lied to his mother and caused much of trouble. Is he a decorated police officer and best father ever? Then he should have drown puppies when he was twelve.

The character has no quirks. Does he scratch his crotch in public? No? Why not? Does he have problems when encountering women? Encountering the world? Does he stand still for a minute with his mind wandering away? Does he get easily angry, shout at people, when someone mentions politics?

Characters need some imperfection to make them more like the reader. No-one is perfect. To identify with a character, he must be also imperfect.

Conflicts:

Maybe you have concentrated too much on the main conflict of the story. But the character needs to solve minor problems as well, like stress with the partner, or his kid has to repeat a school year. With these extra conflicts you get a more authentic character.

Also look at these related topics:
What does Character development actually mean?
Signs of Bad Character Development

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