Original Character Problems

If they say “I had a bad day,” what does that usually mean happened?

Who’s the first person they would turn to for help?

Who’s the last person they would turn to for help?

Is there anyone they would kill? Could they actually do it?

Would they rather split a big task into pieces, or do it all at once?

Do they delegate tasks well?

Are they a leader or a follower?

Do they mediate or stir up shit?

Be honest: how much do they like drama?

Have they ever been in love? 

Have they ever been awake so long they hallucinated?

What’s the worst insult they’ve ever gotten, and who said it?

What’s the worst insult they’ve ever given, and who did they say it to?

Would they rather talk to or about someone they hate?

What do they lead with when they’re asked “tell me about yourself?”

Are they single now? Any plans on changing that?

What’s the one trait they’ve worked the hardest to change about themselves? Has it worked?

Do they believe in anything based on faith alone (God or gods, magic, spirits, souls)? Do they respect people who do not believe?

Do they reject beliefs based on faith alone (God or gods, magic, spirits, souls)? Do they respect people who do believe?

Do they have any pets? Did they grow up with pets? Do they want future pets?

What’s the worst thing a history book 100 years from now could write about them?

Would they rather blend in or stand out?

At a party, do they stand at the sides of the room or go to the center?

Are they always or never late?

Do they think before they speak?

Would they be more likely to trust a gut feeling or a map?

What’s the worst they’ve ever been injured?

What’s the sickest they’ve ever been?

Would they rather plan extensively or go with the flow?

They need to make a big speech. Do they write it down or speak from the heart?

What would they say in their wedding vows to anyone they could see themselves partnering with?

Do they need to socialize to recharge after loneliness or be alone to recharge after socializing?

Would a lot of roommates, all close friends, in a small space be a dream or a nightmare for them?

Do they believe that everyone has broken the law once or twice? 

Do they believe that most people would screw over a friend if offered a large enough reward?

Would they screw over a friend for a large enough reward?

What’s their idea of a great party?

Would they try anything once?

What’s their definition of a “tranquil” afternoon?

If they’ve got to go somewhere potentially dangerous, do they take someone with them or do they go alone?

Would their friends describe them as impulsive? Would they describe themselves as impulsive?

Do they have too-high self esteem, too-low self esteem, or are they pretty in the middle?

Do they dream of retirement, or do they think it sounds boring?

Do they have physical disabilities? In what ways do those affect them? 

Do they have mental health issues? In what ways do those affect them?

If a friend is sad, what’s their go-to instinct to make them feel better?

What’s the worst thing they could lose?

Are they often lost in thought? Do they get irritated with others for getting lost in thought?

When learning a new skill, do they ask a lot of questions to ensure getting it right the first time, or would they rather try it out and fix anything that went wrong?

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

Character Design Ideas:

How clothing affects a character’s personality

Character Design Inspiration blog

Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by

Character design references and inspiration

Sources for POC character design ideas and models

Create your own character model using HeroForge

For horned characters

Body and hair types guide

Random outfit generator

Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

General advice on avoiding naming appropriation

Hispanic Surnames

Gothic Victorian names

Huge master list for character things in general

Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

How to pick a character name guide

Yet another names masterlist

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Sheet/Development Sheet

Another character development list

In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet

320 talents and passions for characters

On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous

Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary

Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes

Random backstory generator

Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Comparing character height/height references

Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science

Describing what different voices sound like

Describing skin tones

Writing friendship interactions that are platonic

Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea

Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing

Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)

How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero

On platonic OC and canon character relationships

How to avoid Godmodding in RPs

When it’s cheap to kill off a character

Writing dialogue

Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters

Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs

Slang resources

Dialogue tips

Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships

Notebook.ai has different categories for different things:

And then once you make something each category has different questions for you to answer about your world:

Someone: Hey! Tell me about your OC! :)

why cant you just say “yeah i enjoy developing my ocs’ backstories” or “its fun coming up with their lore” instead of being freaks who talk about how fuuun it is to abuse your ocs n how you just loooove making em into bloody messes

If you go back a couple years on tumblr, you’d actually find posts discussing why so many people wanted to create sad, dark, or painful stories for their characters, and why they were always put through such horrible things (and why everyone seemed to ready to do it.)

Some people said they did it to explore their own experiences. Some people did it because it was a way to explore those themes they were unfamiliar with in a completely fictional world. I think overwhelmingly, people agreed it gave characters a lot more depth, ability to be empathized with, and attachment. It fosters protective feelings in people to see characters go through bad experiences.

In any case, there was a shift in how OC treatment (and character treatment in fandom as well,) was viewed and talked about. People went from “I’m about to make my fav go through something bad bc I love him and it’ll make him into the character I love” (or something similar, you get my drift,) to funny posts like the ones above, because among creators there was and is an understanding of how we all tend to do that to them, and its making a joke from it because you don’t get noticed by being the nth person to make the same ~relatable post~ again, you do it by taking something relatable and making it new and funny (welcome to tumblr.)