How To Create A Yandere (+ free characters)

Step Two - Trigger

Step Two: Discern the trigger of obsession and desire.

Your yandere doesn't just fall for anyone- Well, maybe they do, but I'll discuss that a bit later in this step. What's the thing that triggered your character, awakening the fire or ice inside of them? Get specific with this trigger and understand its implications. Is it something hard to come by or kind of common? You should also scope out how your character feels about this trigger. Here you might feel inclined to delve into a backstory. Surely, you can do whatever you want and this is solely an outline but I still suggest not letting yourself get sidetracked and create predicaments that will dictate how you can further shape your character. For example, if at this point the trigger is a love interest that has a naturally caring personality and you begin going off about the character's neglectful parent, then further in the character creation process their behavior is limited due to trauma. Let this be an inductive process.

Read this paragraph if you need me to go more in-depth; As mentioned previously, the trigger could be a certain personality trait in the love interest that your character can't resist and needs more of. It doesn't always have to be a positive one, perhaps the trait is rudeness. Granted, the trigger would be in context to step one. What if your yandere is seen as the perfect student by all their classmates and the love interest is the only one who doesn't put them on a pedestal? Rudeness would then be a desirable trait even if it's negative. The trigger can also be an action or behavior. The love interest could have caught your character's prized possession before it shattered onto the ground and since then has been fixated on the love interest, believing it was destiny. When clarifying your trigger, you're ranging its significance in relation to your setting. Is the love interest the only person in their small town that feeds the stray cats, displaying the rarity of their pure kindness? Is the love interest a curly-haired brunette and your character finds themself chasing yet another soulmate, which is, in reality, the third one of the month? Clarification will help you tie in how your character feels about the trigger. Kindness would be something they long for, not having seen it before in their environment. Curly, brown hair would be something they impulsively dash after, having able to encounter it so often in their environment. By all means, there are plenty of juxtapositions you can create regarding your trigger, love interest, and character. This is your character so do as you wish. Just make sure you hit all the points.