So I have a sort of issue with character-making at the moment where I can't seem to come up with new characters? Obviously some pop up into my mind from time to time but they always end up being a little too similar to other characters of mine, so how do you ("you" being whoever is reading this) come up with new characters that are different from one another?
either i dont or i look through Pinterest searches like "villain character art female" or "hero character art male" or "god of death fantasy art" or "knight character art fantasy" if it's for a magic-esque or superpowered thing-
!!! okay!! so what I do is I look at my story and I say to myself "who am I missing?" do I need another character to move the plot along, do I need a figure in an MC's backstory, do I need a background character to sell them some soup in a town? Once I figure out who I'm missing, I then go into the development.
Kind of like what Force said, I'm usually going through Pinterest and I find a really cool looking model and I think "woagh, perfect face claim for the vague new character lurking in the back of my mind!" if that never happens, sometimes I go onto Picrew and find a fun maker and I toggle around there until I find a satisfactory appearance!
ALSO! Diversity is huge to me in my stories. I might look at my cast and think "I need another trans character" or "I need another religious character" or "I need another disabled character" or something along those lines! I then take that and I apply it to a new character that's been brewing in my mind. In one of my stories, I realized I needed at least one polyamerous character, a family member for a side character, and a figure in the antagonists' backstory and thus Molly Sheridan was born.
Giving characters different motivations, appearances, mannerisms, outfits, and personalities are also key to creating characters! Make somebody unlikable, make them a little anxious, make them have a nervous tapping tick, make them entirely expressive, make them addicted to lollipops, make them love platypuses!! Just small details certainly help differentiate all sorts of characters!
Hope this was some help?? I love creating characters and giving them roles, so if you have any sort of questions, I'd be happy to help out!
gaaah tytytyty this helps a ton!!