How to create a character

Well I wouldn't call myself a professional writer, but if I had to write a story and had to create characters for it, I would say it depends on what you want the character to do in the story. If it's a bad character, already some ideas spring to mind. Are they evil or are they just foolish or are they people who try to be good but always attract disaster like a magnet?

I only write casually, and for my own fun, but for me when I try to create a character it is often based on someone I know. I like to have a face to the character. I always make up names. Usually I use names I like, and I try NOT to use names of people I know because I wouldn't want them to think the story is about them. Usually the story has nothing to do with "real life" people I know, but since I used them as a basis, it might sound like it's about them at parts. Then once the story gets going, the characters often create themselves! I don't plan the entire character before I write. I write, and then as things happen in the story, I decide what type of character this will be. In the end, the character no longer really resembles the person I based it on in the first place.

Sometimes i create character who never meet. sometimes i get inspired by people i met or heard. sometimes i show a side of me, a hidden way of being that is also mine. depends of many things including of mind

I don't really create characters. They generally just appear. A snippet will come in a dream, or a character pops into my head and be very insistent. I've been writing stories since I could hold a crayon. If you have to force a story, force characters, it just doesn't work.

When I am thinking of a story for a book, I will always think about the character first before I even think about the book. Then I will write the book around the character that I have created, because I find it a lot easier to work like this. I will make sure that every person that I write about has a life story, and that I don't leave anything out, because this means that the whole thing will be a lot more enjoyable for the reader, which is something that I do always like to achieve if there is any way that I am able to do so.

When you have a solid idea, or have made up a plot, setting up the characters would become easy. Say, the plot is murder because of greed. The characters usually revolve just within the family. So picture a greedy brother who is just after the wealth of their father, and so on. I learned a lot from reading novels especially the bestsellers of Sidney Sheldon and John Grisham.

Im not a pro writer, I write based on my true story and my experience with friends. So I dont have problem when I write about the characters in my story. I think it is easier to write based on real life and real person, I never ran out of ideas but sometime Im using my imagination to write sci-fi or mystery. I usually name my character not far different from the real person that I used as my character, like have the same meaning or same rhyme.

At the risk of sounding a little crazy (although I think most writers are a little crazy). Most of the time, the character will appear in my mind with personality and story complete, sometimes they just leave out important details of their stories, that are up to me to figure out when I'm writing out the story. Other times I've met them or seen them in my dreams.

What I do is grab a white sheet of paper and a pencil. I'll scribble randomly until I can see part of an image. I'll erase unnecessary details and repeat. After many minutes of scribbling and erasing, you finally got a character! Mines come out pretty good xP The naming part is difficult. xD Usually, I'll look it up. Sometimes, I'll mix and match. o: