There are many ways to create interesting characters for a story, one way used by some of the Japanese mangaka is what I call The Three Traits Method. It works better with the Character Driven Approach and some stories will benefit a lot if written with these traits in mind.
This post is inspired by team SMAC videos: Here's a link
I wrote this post from memory and changed a lot of things from what I remember, but in these videos: [1] [2] [3] team SMAC are talking about this way to create a character in more depth than my article.
(Source: Pixabay)
Exaggeration
Having the character being the best or worst at something... or as team SMAC say "The World's Most [...]".... This is one of the best ideas to create a main character for manga. and it's one of the good ideas to create them for novels...
The World's Most Average Guy
The World's Most Shy Person
This alone can make a character interesting.... and it's easy to think of a story to a character like that.
But this is only a trait for the character, and they shouldn't be the Actual world best or worst at that thing, you just as a writter have to exaggerate that trait of the character and the phrase "The World's Most" is just there to help you imagine what type of character would be if they are that good or bad at something.
Actually in long stories, sometimes it's better to make the character isn't the best at what they do...
And finally the exaggerated thing is better being a personality thing... like softness, shyness, nervousness, anger... because this is easy to imagine
Surprise
After the exaggerated trait... adding something unexpected for someone like that... or adding something that seem contradictory to it. Having a character that have interesting trait and something unexpected to go with it will make them a lot more interesting...
The World's Most Average Guy... But Very Optimistic
The World's Most Shy Girl... But Dreams to be an Actress
Just from this the reader will want to know more about the character... I'm sure you are thinking "how" when reading the examples above...
But you see... a character like that won't seem human at all... s/he is too perfect. that's why we add another trait--
Sympathy
Though I prefer "Relatability" is to add something to the character to make them more human... if they were too strong add a weakpoint to their character. if they're took weak make them stronger.
The World's Most Average Guy But Very Optimistic... Unlucky With Random Events
The World's Most Shy Girl But Dreams to be an Actress.. Is Bad At Singing
(I feel my examples are very bad here... HELP!!)
The sympathy or the weak point... makes the character that seem unrealistic because of the two traits before it.. seem more real!! this is the most important step and done badly it can make everything collapse. Remember to make the weak point an Actual weak point not something that can be seen positively... not something enviable... Most of the Mary sue characters are like that because their weak point isn't something that drags them down.
Confronting Challenge
The best use of characters made by this method is to make them face challenges....
Because these characters can easily be defined, you can easily find challenges for them to face: you only need to know that the famous detective don't leave home to put him in a case that he can't solve unless he goes outside. You only need to know that the shy girl who wants to be actress is bad at singing to put here in a role that needs singing....
It's easy to create stories for these characters because they are obviously defined from the start.
Character Development
In longer stories it's better to have character development... the character changes through the story.... depending on the combination of the traits this can be too easy or too hard....
But one thing you should put in mind... is to not make the character too perfect... if their weak point is converted to strong point through the character development, then another weak point should take it's place... Though changing the character definition than how it was in the start is too risky.... so most writers (at least for manga) will try to keep these traits the same for their character.... and develop other things for their personalities letting these traits stay the same.
Conclusion
So as you see, you have a character with a big trait coupled with unexpected or contradicting to it... plus a relatable trait that removes him from "the perfect" to "human" category.
The Three Traits Method won't work if the character doesn't have the three traits... and the character is better written using other methods (or no method at all). If one of those traits are done badly it will make the character seem "off" or something... but it's still one of the easiest methods to make characters people want to know more about!!
And finally this is method used in writing manga, and it's not a really good way to write realistic stories. If you want that you better watch people in real life more... Oh, wait.... if you wanna write anything you better watch people in real life more!!
Analysis of Stories by [ Sides of Conflict ]
And look forward to my other posts about writing.