How to Create a Fantasy Character

There are myriad blog posts, book chapters and articles devoted to the idea of creating characters so why should I write one? The answer is simple; almost none of them take in to account that some of us write fantasy and there are some important/relevant things for someone who creates fantasy to consider that you won't find in mainstream places. So here you are; How to Create Fantasy characters. This is of course by no means all-inclusive but it has some tips that I have picked up in my years creating fantasy characters, because although I have only finished one novel, I have planned and created characters for dozens.

Personality:

Race:
If you have created a world and are filling it with characters then you undoubtedly know what race they all come from. This is less applicable if your world has only one race, but not entirely unnecessary. Your races will have significant social/political/physical differences between them and for every character you should make the decision whether to conform to or differ from their race's stereotype. A book filled with races where every character fits the mold defined by their heritage will likely be rather dull and similarly if every character is not informed by their race then what is the point in having different ones. Your character not fitting into his/her society is a very potent form of conflict which you can have from the very first paragraph, even before the true conflict of your story reveals itself. Think of Hiccup in 'How to Train Your Dragon' or Rowan in 'Rowan of Rin'. These are small, meek and intellectual characters in a world of brutish heroes, and already you are seeing an interesting conflict arise in your story, but this is only because all of the other characters conform to their societal expectations. If you don't know those two stories (they are young adult/children's stories) think Bilbo going on an adventure when Hobbits don't, or think Harry Potter not knowing the wizarding world when all of the other characters do.

Social Hierarchy:
You character has a place within the world and within his/her social hierarchy that you have created. That means that your character won't simply fall into, say, the British middle class or Zulu warrior, because while your created society might be influenced by existing ones, there is still a hierarchy that you must formulate and understand. Once you have done this you must understand where your characters fit within it, which will give you a highly informed understanding of their interaction with each other. Whether it is a pecking order within a troupe of nomads or a highly complex class structure in a gargantuan, futuristic city, your characters have a place within it and their choices and actions will be defined by it.

Base the character off someone you know:
This is obviously not limited to fantasy, but if there is a personality that intrigues you it can be extremely rewarding and effective to see how it reacts to the (often) highly alien world you have created. Sure literary or crime writers have characters informed by people the know, but they are still done so within the same world those people inhabit. Imagine knowing a headstrong woman with a flaring temper but a maternal instinct and placing her as the second in command in an elven outpost  besieged by an unknown enemy. It would be interesting and unlikely that her personality would ever be tested in a similar way

Physical:

Race:
Similar to the first point in Personality, consider how your character is similar to or differs from the appearance you have figured out for your race.

Draw them:
I understand that many of you don't draw, but this is a technique that I have used a lot and has greatly informed my writing, but there are similar techniques which I will mention. If you write high fantasy and don't have a sketchpad and pencils with which you scribble down ideas (even if you aren't a drawer) I highly recommend getting some. It allows you to visualise and define more concretely ideas you have about anything. I have always been a drawer though it wasn't until recently that I could make anything turn out even near how I wanted, but that didn't stop me. I drew a picture of Mila Kunis, which ended up looking nothing like her, but that became the look of my princess and has remained so. Without that drawing I would have not had such a strong sense of her character as I do. A similar thing happened with my character of Izerial. I had just thought of him and had a vague idea in my head so I found an image and drew it. It wasn't perfect but something about the eyes really grabbed me and suddenly I knew his character. Sure it sounds a bit suss, but the characters eventuate with two grades of distance from the image they began as - one as drawn by me and one as written, based on that drawing.
Now I understand many of you can't (or wont) draw, so there is a similar technique in taking the appearance of a person or celebrity and fitting it to your character. Obviously directly copying should be avoided but, as with anything, your own individual mark can be left on the character and no-one needs know. Of course you could ignore this point like me, but if you are someone who likes to visualise things, this could be exceedingly important.

Make them on a video game:
Hear me out. Many of you may not play video games and I understand the desire to avoid doing so, but increasingly games have been developing their character creation engines to the point where you can make highly detailed and specific models of your characters. There are the obvious role playing games like Skyrim, where you create your character and run around the world with them, but RPGs are not the only ones. I'm going to let you in on a secret; I love football (soccer) and the football game I play has an incredibly detailed player creation engine where you can create, not just a single character, but a team of your characters. This sounds really dumb, and perhaps it is, but through it I have been able to see great models of how my characters look and feel and even a small insight into how they work together (though unfortunately they still don't have women). This is obviously not the same as writing a character, but I often was able to get a good feel of at least the appearance of a character well before they appeared in my world.

So there you go. This was a few hints and techniques I use for fleshing out my fantasy characters and I hope you find some of it useful. I'm still new to this blogging business so bear with me for a short time if you like the content. Have good writing and make wondrous and beautiful things to make people happy.