C. Foley

1. Have a goal

While it may sound like I’m stating the obvious here, your character needs to have something they want to accomplish. Maybe they want to be the best at something, see a place, fall in love, conquer the world, or something else. Whatever it is, they need to have something that they desire beyond all other things. Ideally, give them more than one goal. Make them have to sacrifice one to achieve the other, to add extra drama

2. Have a reputation

Maybe they’re the best artist in their class or they’re great at juggling. Perhaps they slipped on the stairs in front of their whole village. Either way, give something for the locals to remember about them. That way it can give you a starting point for the interactions with other characters

3. Have a friend

Whether a friend, a coworker, a sibling, an army buddy, or someone they saved, have someone close to your character whom they’re close to and wish well. Yeah, angsty “I have no friends” characters can be fun, but in small doses; eventually the reader gets fed up with them. At the very least the character needs someone to talk to or bounce ideas off of

4. Have a home

It may be a neighborhood they grew up in, their parents’ house, or a room they’ve been renting in a tavern. Hell, it could even be a person if you so choose. Everyone needs to feel secure at one time or another

5. Have a signature item

Now, recognize that this may not work for EVERY character, but it’s up to you to decide what will fit and what won’t. In many cases, it can work. A signature item is something that is recognizably YOUR CHARACTER’S, be it a weapon, a scarf, a toy, or a piece of jewelry. It’s something that makes them feel like themself

6. Have a problem

This should be something other than the problem addressed in the main plot line. Maybe a member of their family is sick, they are broke, or they’re failing their classes. This helps make your character seem more realistic because NO ONE has one problem at a time

7. Have a secret

This can affect the plot or not; either way, it helps make your character more well rounded. Maybe your character can’t read, left their crewmates to die when a kracken attacked their ship, or made their long lost sister run away. If you choose to have it affect the plot in any way, this secret should embarrass your character, make it so that other characters don’t trust your character, or somehow endanger them and the people they’re close to if found out

8. Have a reason to be brave and to fight

Maybe it’s because your character wants to be like their hero, maybe it’s so they can repay a debt (like if someone saved their life previously), maybe it’s for their child, but your character needs to have a reason to occasionally face their fears

I work in a decent sized, local, indie bookstore. It’s a great job 99% of the time and a lot of our customers are pretty neat people. Any who, middle of the day this little old lady comes up. She’s lovably kooky. She effuses how much she loves the store and how she wishes she could spend more time in it but her husband is waiting in the car (OH! I BETTER BUY HIM SOME CHOCOLATE!), she piles a bunch of art supplies on the counter and then stops and tells me how my bangs are beautiful and remind her of the ocean (“Wooooosh” she says, making a wave gesture with her hand)

Ok. I think to myself. Awesomely happy, weird little old ladies are my favorite kind of customer. They’re thrilled about everything and they’re comfortably bananas. I can have a good time with this one. So we chat and it’s nice.

Then this kid, who’s been up my counter a few times to gather his school textbooks, comes up in line behind her (we’re connected to a major university in the city so we have a lot of harried students pass through). She turns around to him and, out of nowhere, demands that he put his textbooks on the counter. He’s confused but she explains that she’s going to buy his textbooks.

He goes sheetrock white. He refuses and adamantly insists that she can’t do that. It’s like, $400 worth of textbooks. She, this tiny old woman, bodily takes them out of her hands, throws them on the counter and turns to me with a intense stare and tells me to put them on her bill. The kid at this point is practically in tears. He’s confused and shocked and grateful. Then she turns to him and says “you need chocolate.” She starts grabbing handfuls of chocolates and putting them in her pile.

He keeps asking her “why are you doing this?” She responds “Do you like Harry Potter?“ and throws a copy of the new Cursed Child on the pile too.

Finally she’s done and I ring her up for a crazy amount of money. She pays and asks me to please give the kid a few bags for his stuff. While I’m bagging up her merchandise the kid hugs her. We’re both telling her how amazing she is and what an awesome thing she’s done. She turns to both of us and says probably one of the most profound, unscripted things I’ve ever had someone say:

“It’s important to be kind. You can’t know all the times that you’ve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. It’s easy to be cruel without meaning to be. There’s nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.”

The kid thanks her again and leaves. I tell her again how awesome she is. She’s staring out the door after him and says to me: “My son is a homeless meth addict. I don’t know what I did. I see that boy and I see the man my son could have been if someone had chosen to be kind to him at just the right time.”

I’ve bagged up all her stuff and at this point am super awkward and feel like I should say something but I don’t know what. Then she turns to me and says: I wish I could have bangs like that but my darn hair is just too curly.“ And leaves.

I think that this is a very powerful art piece. 

Together: I’m not half as good at anything as when I’m doing it next to you. - Steve Rogers, Avengers Prime Vol. 15

Tony: Everything I’ve done, everything I’ll do today, everything I’ll ever do, I do to protect this world. When I put on this armor, I took on more power than any human was ever intended to have, and many more responsibility than my heart can truly bear. But today, I will do my job. I will protect you. No matter what it takes. - Tony Stark, 616

Tis that very lit time of year…..

The odd thing was that Arthur only sometimes labeled himself as the prince. More often than not he insisted on being the greatest knight in all the land. He would only agree to being both a knight and a prince at Uther’s insistence only every once in a while, depending on how churlish his mood was at having the rules of his game being changed.

Regardless, Uther was glad his son had such a vivid imagination to keep the loneliness of being an only child at bay. His relief grew a bit choked when he noticed a female figure start to appear in Arthur’s drawings.

“Is that your princess?”

“No, daddy, she’s yours. She’s my sister. She’s mad at you in this picture, so you have to be extra nice to her to make her happy again, okay?”

The child psychologist he rang the next day reassured him this was a normal phase for many young children and that he should try and look on the bright side; at least Arthur wasn’t asking for a baby sister for Christmas.

Uther failed to share her laugh. At least he could explain why that couldn’t happen without a mother in the picture.

Luckily, the elusive sister was more of an afterthought for Arthur, seeing as how he was far more interested in riding his stick horse into battles while waving his toy sword around at his stuffed dragon, Killger.

Figuring he would one day grow out of such fanciful games, Uther had no qualms about taking his son to the renaissance festival when he learned it would be in town.

During the festival, Uther was quite certain this was the most ingenious idea he had ever come up with, even beating out some of his more clever strategies that have helped to skyrocket the profit margins of  his company. Arthur was beside himself in excitement, running up and talking to anyone in armor or other period clothing, charming all the right people and even getting them invited to visit the queen.

Arthur was on his best behavior, bowing low and politely introducing his father as “King Dad of the business company Albion Incorporated.” The Queen was absolutely tickled by this and invited them to sit with her during the jousting tournament, a concept that was completely new to young Arthur.

“OHMYGOSH DAD HIS STICK JUST BROKE ON HIS SHOULDER!!”

Uther was a bit worried Arthur’s eyes were going to either fall out our completely dry up if the boy didn’t blink anytime soon. And the danger of him swallowing bugs was quite high as well with how wide his mouth remained open.

"It’s called a lance, Arthur.”

“His lance…” Arthur repeated absentmindedly. “Hey, who’s that guy helping him? How come he doesn’t have armor?”

“That’s probably his paige.”

“His wot?”

Uther cringed at the slang but didn’t bother to reprimand Arthur. “His servant,” he clarified instead. “Someone who helps out the knights as a friend and in return, they get to learn how to be knights themselves.”

"Oh…”

In hindsight, perhaps it hadn’t been very wise to allow Arthur to delve deeper into the medieval world at such an impressionable age.

“I want a paige!”

“Arthur, for the hundredth time, I can’t buy you a personal servant, it’s—”

“NO!”

Uther sighed as his son’s wailing screams grew distant along with his stomping feet. He was starting to wonder if maybe it was time to try and direct Arthur’s interests towards other, more modern areas.

“I’m pretty sure he’s just lonely, sire.”

Uther looked over to where his weekly housekeeper, Hunith, was busily scrubbing the windows of his study.

He chuckled humorlessly. “You don’t think it’s a case of him being far too spoiled?”

“Not at all. I think the idea of having someone there to share all of his adventures with appeals to him.” Hunith finished her task and turned to face her employer. “You might want to start socializing him.”

“Daycare?” The horror must have shown on Uther’s face, because Hunith quickly shook her head.

“Maybe start him off in smaller doses, like the park?”

Uther blinked at the idea before pulling his planner forward, ready to find the next available time slot he might have open to take his son to the park.

After watching him flip through several pages with his frown growing more pronounced, Hunith finally piped up.

“You know, sire, my lad is just about Arthur’s age. If you’d like, I could come pick him up tomorrow? Take them both to the park and see how they get on?”

“You have a son?”

Hunith nodded. “Yes. Merlin. About to turn four in a few weeks.”

For a moment, Uther had the horrifying image of Arthur bullying the poor child with his sword and forcing him to dress Arthur like a true servant. But then he thought of Morganna, the nonexistent sister that still occasionally appeared in Arthur’s drawings that they had to be nice to so that she wouldn’t leave them.

“Alright,” he agreed, leaning back in his chair. “We can give it a shot. Just…if he insists on taking any of his toys, make sure they’re the softer ones?”

Hunith’s smile was bright as she picked up her cleaning supplies to move to the next room.

“Will do, sire.”

Uther took a moment to enjoy the silence of the room, praying Arthur wouldn’t try to organize a jousting tournament or anything of the sort with the rest of the playground. The thought jolted Uther into standing, figuring he should probably talk to Arthur first before he unleashed him onto the rest of the world.

THE END.

“If you want this Bohg'dar demon infestation solved in a timely matter, I’d suggest those hands move a little less Southways.”