Creating Characters

    I have a very visual imagination. Often times when I'm walking I'll be thinking up cool characters. You want them to be interesting and larger than life, especially for fantasy. Character design should say a lot about their personality just from looking at them. Here's my main character, Sayth, as an example:

He's a guardian dragon and someone who can freely transform into a dragon. As such, he often uses his tail blade to fight. In human form he wears a scale armor trench coat engineered from his dragon scales.

    After coming up with a cool concept and design, I'll create scenes involving the character to see how they react. Often these will go into my story outline to later be ordered and added upon. Characters are living organisms that grow and evolve with your writing. You need to get to know them. Sometimes when reading or watching another work of fiction I'll insert my own character(s) in to see how they'll react to the given situation.

    Just like rough drafts, it's important to lay the bone work first and flesh it out later. Many things are subject to change. Some characters will become integral to the plot and others will be cut. It's all a work in progress. The important thing is to keep your characters fresh and interesting.