User blog:Origamarose/Making a good character and keeping them interesting

Making a character is the first step in any new server and making a good character is essential to your roleplay experience. Too many a time I have seen someone make a weak character, only to have them shelved at the earliest convenience.

Don't make the character you
My first bit of advice is don't make the character yourself. Making yourself in character form is ok for your first character while you are getting to know the ropes of roleplay but for an experienced roleplayer, this is simply not the best way of making a character. People who make the characters similar to themselves can become quite upset when people insult their characters, as they feel it an insult to themselves. Simply put, one of the fundamental rules of roleplay is: keep what happens in the roleplay world stay in the roleplay world. Your character is not you and their character is not them. Also, characters can die and if this happens with someone that is similar to you this could cause great upset. Push yourself more, making a character that's exactly you is boring.

Make sure your character can start interactions by themselves
A fault I have seen with many, many characters is that their character requires others to start an interaction with them. This isn't to say that you must make your characters overly outgoing, but you can't rely on other characters to come up to yours to chat, their character might also not be the type to approach someone. I favor a more outgoing character for rp, it makes for easier interactions with others and people will be more willing to rp with your character. If you are going to choose a less outgoing character, make sure you have ideas for starting an rp or character traits such as being clumsy, so you can fall over a lot and drop things to start an rp. (Article on how to start an rp with an introvert character coming soon)

Don't rush making a character.
Character creation is one of many things that you will get out exactly what you put in. If you put little effort in you will get a low effort character out. Start off with easy things like name and appearance then take a break to think about everything else. Choose the fatal flaw first then use it to build the personality and backstory.

Give the character an interesting backstory
An interesting backstory is the key to making acquaintances friends irp as well as to good character development. A good arc comes from a good backstory, a tragic or dark past they must move on from, a secret they hide from everyone.

CHARACTER FECKIN DEVELOPMENT
Yes I'm writing this again because it's so damn important. Without character development, you will lose interest in your character quickly. Discuss troubles with other characters, form a relationship, MAKE DRAMA.