Let's build a character!
Let's build characters!
Because there is no storytelling without characters.
Let's start with the side characters. They need to be less complex, and they can be changed more easily if I realize I am on the wrong track.
I will choose the main character's best friend for the first experiment.
She is 35 years old, slim, and of average height. She has a pretty face but not a striking beauty. She takes good care of her appearance and always dresses well, but she buys most of her clothes in second-hand shops.
She is a single mother of two children, so she is always a little tired and distracted. Her husband left her after the birth of their second child and moved abroad. She barely has a support system. She only has her mother, who can look after the children when they are sick. They are five and seven years old.
Her father was also absent. He drifted in and out of their lives, which is why she ended up choosing an emotionally unavailable husband. She doesn't trust men at all anymore and has decided to stay single forever.
She has two degrees and is successful in her field, accounting and economics, but she doesn't really enjoy it. Still, she is satisfied because she earns a decent living, can provide for her children, and also supports her retired mother, who wouldn't be able to live on her own.
Her mother was always loving but very busy trying to provide for her five children, so she, too, was emotionally unavailable in some ways.
She is supportive of the main character, but not fully committed. Because she grew up watching her mother work constantly, and because she herself had to start working at a very young age to help support her siblings, she doesn't really know what it feels like to have dreams. The only things she truly longs for are a secure home and financial stability, which she has managed to achieve through working two jobs.
She is non-religious, and despite being a professional in economics, she doesn't really care about politics either.
Whenever she has the time, she enjoys going to parties and hanging out with friends. She is always the first one to arrive at the café.
She unconsciously believes that dreams are a luxury that only people who are born into money can afford. She also doesn't believe in love, even though she deeply desires it. She would always choose security over happiness. She has always been like this, but since she has two children to provide for, she is even more convinced of it.
I think this is enough as a foundation for the character. If anything else comes to mind, I still have plenty of time to change it.
But this is the bare minimum of depth we should know about a character.
To create someone who feels and looks real, we have to know who she is. What she believes, and why. Why she does what she does. Not only consciously, but unconsciously as well.