How to write a book

Inventing characters

Because you have come up with ideas to write a story or book about in the last few chapters, you are now ready to begin inventing your characters. You should at least invent one character with the steps below, but for most stories it would be better to invent several.

IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
It's important to know who your characters are. Not just the name, age and outside, but the inside as well. The inside brings your character to life. A lot of amateur writers forget this step and create characters that are flat. They are one way in the first chapter and completely the opposite in the next. Not very realistic. You're going to make a first draft of your character during this chapter, but definitely feel free to add things later on, during your writing process.

These are all examples of questions you could ask yourself about all your important characters (the main characters and the sidekicks). If a question is irrelevant for your story or book, just ignore it. (But maybe it is wise to answer all that you can, even if the information won't be in your book. It is important to know the very core of your characters to make them seem real.) If you can think of more questions, just add them to the list:

1. What is my character's gender?
2. How old my character?
3. Does my character behave age appropriately?
4. Where was my character born?
5. Where does my character live now?
6. Why did my character move?
7. What is my character's financial situation?
8. How intelligent is my character?
9. Can my character push himself/herself to achieve his/her goals?
10. Is my character able to admit his/her mistakes?
11. What is my character's religion?
12. What is my character's previous job or study?
13. What is my character's current job or study?
14. Why is my character no longer at its previous job or study?
15. Who is my character's previous love interest?
16. Who is my character's current love interest?
17. Why is my character no longer with its previous love interest?
18. What are my character's hobbies?
19. Why doesn't my character make a profession out of these hobbies?
20. Who is my character's enemy?
21. How did my character make this enemy?
22. Does my character have pets (description and name)?
23. What would my character avoid at any cost?
24. Why would my character avoid this at any cost?
25. What would my character do anything for?
26. Why would my character do anything for this?
27. Who are my character's best friends, family etc. (names and short description)?
28. How tall is my character?
29. What are the colours of my character's hair and eyes?
30. What is my character's clothing style like?
31. What is my character's name?
32. What does my character have to do with the conflict(s)?
33. What are my character's deepest hopes and dreams?
34. What is my character good at?
35. What is my character bad at?
36. What word (or short sentence) would describe my character best?
37. What else can I come up with about my character?

Addition from MewLovers:
38. Who does my character look up to, and why?
39. Who does my character look down on, and why?
40. Is my character optimistic or pessimistic about life?
41. What kind of roles does my character take on around friend, family, strangers, etc?

Being able to create realistic life like characters is the difference between a good book and a not so good book. If you want to write in a funny way, a cute way, a romantic way etc, this is what most people do wrong:
They tie everything that's funny (or cute or romantic) to one single character, which makes the story unrealistic and uninteresting. No real person (this is true for fantasy characters as well) is all cute, or all funny, or all romantic.
The trick is to balance your characters properly. Every real person has his faults and virtues, so that's what your fictional character should have as well, to make them appear real and draw your reader to them.

Before you write your story, think about who your characters are. When you do start writing your story, think with everything you're about to write:
"What would my character do?"

Don't write what you would do, but imagine that the character you've invented is real. If he or she is real in your head, you can figure out what he or she would do.
It will make your story funny, cute or romantic, when you have good characters in mind. Look at your own life, and see that I'm right. Some people are funny (not all the time, but sometimes), some are cute, some are romantic, but they have many sides to them. Just like your characters should have.

LESS IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
For the characters that only have small parts in your plot it is acceptable to be flat. Because they are only mentioned briefly, they don't have to be deep. You probably don't know your hairdresser that well, and only get to see one side of them. It is the same in your novel. Just write down what's important about them to your novel.