Do you ever find yourself lacking the inspiration to come up with original characters? Has anyone ever mentioned that your characters are just another Mary-Sue?
I get frustrated sometimes when I look at my characters, because I feel like they're so young in a way that their personalities haven't seemed to mature at all. They don't seem alive, like they couldn't be real people that you or I could see or relate to. Sometimes I try to make my characters whole by adding imperfections and quirks, but is that all people are? A string of likes and dislikes marred by random scars and tragic histories? And why is it that everything seems so "cliche' " when adding imperfections to characters in an attempt to make them seem normal? They're not normal. They're not like the average person sometimes. Are they?
How do you come up with 'real' characters that actually seem filled out and full of emotion and conflict?
How do you create sets of characters that aren't all the same replicas of the last, who argue and love and cheat and want?
Sometimes I base my characters on people I know. That seems to help me create something original when I add my own ideas to it. Other times I'll pull inspiration from my imagination, but they always seem to fall short.
Because I think characters are most important to a story (more important than the plot and setting if you ask me. They're the things that can make or break any story.) I'd like to hear from others.
What do you do to come up with 'real' original characters?
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