💡Crafting Flawed and Relatable Characters 💔

One of my favorite parts of writing is creating characters. It’s my favorite part of online gaming, too. I often max out all my character slots, each one a different species or class. If I pay for anything, it’s for more character slots. I want to try out every possible combination of species, fighting styles, hobbies, and special characteristics.

I’m not necessarily interested in the “best” character. My goal isn’t “winning” the game. Therefore, I don’t max out their capabilities by pairing their fighting class with their species. I want flawed characters who have to work for their wins. I also want to experience the full game, including crafting, hobbies, or whatever else the game offers.

Dungeons & Dragons character creation

Writing Catching Qat was the next logical step after transforming my gaming characters into Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) characters for a school project in 2018. Those characters came alive, and Oram, the Solitary Comrades (aka: the Drakkaen Nakkla), and the Airdaeya universe were born.

For those of you unfamiliar with D&D, when creating a character, you roll the dice and assign the dice rolls to six different Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Based on the value of the dice roll, each of those abilities is assigned a modifier. Those six abilities (and modifiers) then contribute to your character’s many skills, such as Acrobatics, Insight, or Slight of Hand, each of which gets its own modifiers. To make it easy to understand and calculate, I use DnDBeyond, a website now managed by Wizards of the Coast, the parent company for Dungeons & Dragons.

While playing the tabletop game, players roll the dice to determine how their character succeeds in accomplishing a task, such as climbing a tree or getting a discount from a vendor. Dice rolls are adjusted using the modifiers previously calculated for those skills and abilities that apply. What does all that mean? The higher your modifier, the more likely you are to succeed.

How did that contribute to my characters when writing? Well, think about a person who is highly intelligent but has little to no wisdom. They might be impulsive (Qat). They know the risk they’re taking, but often make bad decisions anyway. What about a character who is strong but lacks dexterity (Kasaandra)? They’re more likely to bash a door down than try to pick the lock. This was how I initially created the characters in Catching Qat.

And you better believe I rolled the dice when I got stuck during the writing. Did Qat notice Qrodin’s discomfort or successfully land on aer feet after jumping through the hole in the roof? I rolled the dice, or die in this case. Did Llani understand what Qrodin whispered to Qat? I rolled the die. Who knew if Qat was lying when ae was asked where the stone is? Yup! I rolled the dice for everyone in the room.

But that wasn’t enough. I wanted layered characters. I needed to know more about them.

That’s when I discovered numerology

Now, it doesn’t matter if you believe in numerology (although it is scarily accurate). What matters is that it allows you (or me) to give characters far more depth and interesting contradictions. Numerology is based on the single-digit sum of varying combinations of your name and birthdate (for more information on how to use numerology, visit the Decoz website, founded by Hans Decoz). Each number embodies different qualities, and those are the basis for Decoz’s reports.

To get a quality report, I give each character a full name and birthday (usually, I roll the dice for the latter). In numerology, your name informs details about you: your heart’s desire, your goals in life, and your outward personality, along with so much more. Changing just one letter can give you a very different reading. The birthday foretells the path or journey you’re on.

Most of the time, the name (including middle names, if any) that I gave my characters matched the personality I already had in mind for them. If it didn’t, I experimented with name spelling variations or different middle names until I had a match.

So, why use numerology if the name matched the personality I already had in mind? Because it gave me so much more! For instance, Llani is a seven Heart’s Desire (so am I). We value privacy and learning, may reject others’ opinions, and don’t want to be pressured by others. We also like our peace and quiet. Llani is a four Personality, which means she comes across as solid, trustworthy, and somewhat rigid. Her two Expression says she’s intuitive and emotional. I had already figured out the learning and rigidity, but I hadn’t anticipated her intuitive and emotional side.

When I added that, her need for privacy and secrecy, along with her projection of solidity, held her back from revealing her emotions to others. She was born purple. There were no purple elves on Oram. She grew up with magic she couldn’t control. Most of the time, the people around her viewed her with suspicion, scorn, distrust, or fear–and she knew it. Therefore, I felt she should come across as cold and withdrawn or lacking empathy, when in fact, she’s very in tune with how others feel. She just doesn’t know how to show or verbalize it because she was always protecting herself from scorn.

Bringing it all together

Often, the numerology readings gave me insight into a facet of characters’ personalities that made them more relatable, but also more flawed. The D&D abilities and skills informed their physical prowess and their success rates when attempting a task (yes, I often rolled the dice to see if they noticed something, and always for battle). Using this information, the characters seemed to reveal themselves. I knew immediately that industrious Kasaandra wouldn’t care for studious Llani… until such time that Llani became family. And then, Kassandra would sacrifice herself for Llani, if necessary.

There are many other ways to create well-developed characters, such as using 16 Personalities, a website where you can get a free reading by answering a series of questions. In that case, you imagine answering as if you’re the character, and get a full personality reading when you finish.

So, what do you think? Who’s your favorite Catching Qat character? If you haven’t read it yet, you can get it on Amazon (free on Kindle Unlimited through January), B&N, and (starting in February) nearly everywhere eBooks are sold.

If you’re still not sure, here’s what one reader wrote:

K.T. Pike has created a world full of magic, mystery, and family. She has created characters that are relatable and imperfect that find each other and learn how to work together throughout their adventures. Battle scenes are vivid and unique and one can easily place oneself in the carefully crafted fray.

Lastly, if you’re an author, how do you create compelling and realistic characters? Let me know in the comments.

Until tomorrow… or tomorrow!

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