Want to start to write a fantasy? Let’s start with very simple steps that is easy to follow to create characters. Whether you want to write your own one-shot campaign for tabletop-roleplaying game, or even longer novel, let’s take your pen and paper, and just start.

What’s a fantasy?

Some most common tag under the fantasy writing genres, and I believe you heard, are: magic, mythology, monster, elves, and so on. Even you may heard the science, steampunk, and more tech fantasy as well. Those and everything you have ever imagined (or not even), most probably belong under the same great genre, fantasy. Here are some fantasies I love the most with very different ambience and coming from different mediums:

  1. Naruto
  2. Avatar (Nickelodeon)
  3. One Piece
  4. Diablo
  5. Batman
  6. The Lord of The Rings

Even in the ancient scriptures of Buddhist texts, Bible, Torah, Quran, Baghavad-Gita there are also majestic fantasy stories told. Additionally, it also includes the war, history, and politics just like the content from Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

Any way, the one of the key aspect in writing a fantasy, even though it’s fantasy, is creating a believable character in some sense.

Characterization

  1. Emotionally connected: Readers connect with characters who have clear emotions, act in a way that makes sense within their world (reasonable), and have reasons for their actions (motive).
  2. Tell the reader like you tell the character: (authenticity) focus on making characters feel authentic and multidimensional, almost as if they are real people you are interacting with. Imagine talking with your character like it’s really alive next to you.
  3. Naming characters: ABC naming is one of the easiest techniques for naming characters (using common names from A to Z just in case you don’t have a good start with names pool). Any names that will pop-up in your mind, just write it down on the notes and then later you can go back and edit it. So, don’t worry to much. Moreover, WWW (who, what, why), is also a good technique to expand your characters’ descriptions.
  4. Bring to life basics: This reinforces the idea of making characters vivid and memorable, focusing on their core traits and making them feel real to the reader. I mean you can really start with daily things, as simple as “Yon like to skins the fish with the old dagger his dad gave him”.

After you have list of characters, go to the next step to make it alive.

The 8 steps to bring your characters to life

  1. Timelines
  2. Back-stories
  3. Dreams
  4. Closets & clothes
  5. Living
  6. What if
  7. Profile
  8. Semantic mapping

1. Timelines

For easiness, you can start to construct the timelines for your characters with the following key elements.

  • Date: write down the time (at least the year; the more complete the better) to help you construct the sequence of events.
  • Events & Overlaping events (start to end): associated with the dates, write down the independent events and some overlapping events (also with the other characters). I suggest to write the ratio of overlapping events still smaller than the independent events if you want simpler event network. Although, the more complex narrative create more interesting plotlines that happen concurrently.
  • Conditions & roles: This also means that you need to manage the causality of an event to the later events. The influence of a character towards the others and their events within the timeline is crucial for the story. Because it can be used to either develop the backstories, or presenting the possible futures.

Example 1:

Age Event
0 Young Guy was born.
5 Young Guy began to read.
10 Young Guy had his first crush.
15 Young Guy graduated from the tribe school.

Example 2:

Year Event
2960 Young Guy was born but his mother could not survive. The wise witch raised him until his teenage year.
5 Young Guy began to read and has more intelligence compare to his peers, but is very introvert and silent.
10 When he started studying more herbs, he met a unique girl named “Prag”. He talks more to her since then.
15 After graduation, Young Guy must move to different tribe “Windwood” because of an incident.

This timeline note will help you to remember the main event of the characters as the story’s backbone. You can try to make 2-3 character timelines with half of the events are overalapping (you will need more overlapping events for more complex story). Don’t forget to mention the condition and the roles of the character in those event (acting, being acted, or spectacting?).

2. Backstories

Now, it’s should be easier for you to create the backstories of a character, right? Just use the timeline to expand the stories.

Basically, what you need to do is just try to expand the story from some of events in the timeline. Show to your friends or anyone you think will give a constructive feedback. Ask them their opinions and listen carefully. Really, listen. You may give your opinion as well, but we are here to get feedback not to debate your under-developed story. So, don’t be stubborn. Do this especially for important characters.

You may realize that an event on the timeline does not necessarily to be positive, it could be an event that affect the character negatively.

Now, after you know the back stories of the character, you can then setup the conflict between more characters (even with himself).

Example:

Young Guy was born in a very unfortunate family and being orphan since the day 1 in the BroomWood. Nobody seems really care except the old witch which villagers don't really consider as their good neighbor. In growing there, an urban legend was told in the woods; any one who go to the ruins in the woods will end in the tragic ending and will be marked as cursed.

3. Dreams

There is an approach on how to enrich your character’s story, one of them is by giving them a dream. This should not always be a dream, it could be a some dreamly-sights as well.

  • Intimate: Dreams are considered highly personal and deeply connected to a character’s subconscious mind (their “psyche”). By exploring a character’s dreams, a writer can reveal their hidden fears, desires, anxieties, unresolved conflicts, past traumas, or even prophetic insights that the character might not be consciously aware of. It’s a direct route to their inner world, making them feel more complex and real to the reader.

  • Talk to your character: Just like Walt Disney who often talk to his Mickey Mouse, when you’re crafting your character’s dreams (or even just understanding their inner life), you should approach it with the same depth of inquiry and empathy as a therapist trying to understand a patient, or a trusted friend listening to a loved one’s deepest secrets. What are their fundamental motivations, fears, and hopes? What weighs on their mind when they’re not actively thinking about it? By “consulting” with your character in this way, you can create dreams that genuinely reflect their unique psychological state and story arc. Yes, you could be two people talking to each other but alone with yourself.

  • Progression or changes: Just as characters in a story evolve and grow (or sometimes regress) due to the events they experience, their dreams should also reflect this progression. A character’s dreams at the beginning of a story, filled with fear or unresolved issues, might transform into dreams of hope, acceptance, or even new challenges as they overcome obstacles or gain new perspectives. This shows dynamic character development and ensures that the internal life (represented by dreams) aligns with the external journey of the plot. It adds another layer of realism and depth to the character’s arc.

Example:

I dreamt that I was in a thick fog holding me on to something dark and big in both hands and all of sudden I was being pulled away from it. They start to whisper "Come here, now!" and then they started yelling "I will find you". Then I woke up in middle of nowhere in the woods. I don't know where am I, but, I can see the ruins.

That is for now, I will share more on the next post. Disclaimer: I use ChatGPT to evaluate some of my grammars.