Creating Unique Personalities for Your Characters: Origins, Environment, and Predispositions

These are your character’s beginnings; their backstories which predate the story itself. One’s history has a huge impact on their present beliefs and worldview, and even prejudices, making it important to consider during character development.

For example, someone who grew up in a hyper-religious and privileged, household is obviously going to have a different outlook on life than a lower-class individual who had to parent their younger siblings and work hard just to get food on their table.
The former might believe that life is a breeze — full of luxury and indulgence — and cannot understand why others “complain” so much about making ends meet; always begging for more money and lower prices. They may lack empathy for the lower class and the homeless, blaming them for their poverty (“Pure laziness! If they would only work harder, they, too, could be financially secure and rich like me!”), and perhaps even pick up on some of their parent’s prejudices toward certain minorities and classes.

An example of such a privileged character is Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, whose family’s excessive wealth causes him to become arrogant and judgmental. He flaunts his wealth, buying Nimbus 2001’s for the entire Slytherin Quidditch team, bribing his way to play the seeker position. This shows that he believes money can — and should — buy anything, even things that others have to work hard for. His parents also hold strong prejudices against muggles and muggle-born wizards, and after hearing his father boast about their family’s blood purity all his life, one of the worst insults Draco can muster against someone is “mudblood.”

Of course, not everyone raised this way will turn out to be pompous. Although being spoiled is known for having a negative effect on a child, not everyone who is born into privilege will abuse it or lack empathy.

A counter-example of someone who was raised in privilege, yet does not carry a superior air to them, is Cinna from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, who gives up all of his Capitol glory and money for the sake of a cause he believes in. Effie Trinket is a more dynamic example of this, as she begins as a Capitol patriot and slowly begins to realize how cruel the system actually is once it starts to hurt the people she grows to care for.

If a character has a privileged childhood, yet grows up to be kind, compassionate, and moral — especially if their parents were not — consider why this is. Some reasons may be:

• They have a cause they believe in, perhaps aligning with their religious beliefs or of someone they admire, whether fictional or historical.
• They have a friend or a lover who is on “the other side,” thereby giving them insight on what it’s really like to be less fortunate.
• They deeply dislike the way their parents treat others, especially if their parents also treated them poorly and/or burdened them with overbearing expectations (This might make them rebel against what their parents stand for).

On the flip side, there are characters with less fortunate origins. The latter may feel “burnt out” by life, and feel a certain level of resentment toward those who have always had it easy. No matter how hard they work, the system feels rigged against them for being born into poverty and thus lacking equal opportunity and a higher education.

Some characters who experience this are Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne from The Hunger Games, who are both exhausted and enraged by the torment the Capitol enforces on the poorer districts. This leads them to want justice for the oppressed and to take down the source of the oppression.

There may also be characters who are relatively comfortable being lower-class, valuing non-material things like family, friendship, and love. They would much rather do something they enjoy for less than something they despise for more, especially if it goes against their values.
When people are content with having less, they usually have at least enough to get by and have a certain level of choice and self-agency.

An example of such a family would be the Weasleys from Harry Potter. Their love for family outshines all else, and they are even considered “blood-traitors” for not believing that they are superior for being purebloods (Arthur Weasley even goes so far as being a Muggle fanatic!). That being said, Ron does struggle with some shame for his family’s financial status, receiving hand-me-down clothes (and dress robes), a wand, and even a pet.

You can consider why your character is content being lower-class, why they chose to be lower-class, or why they have yet to give up on their dreams:

• Is their passion so large that it consumes their entire life, making quitting a non-option?
• Do they see the upper-class in such a negative light that they are glad to not be one of the oppressors?
• Do they value non-tangible and simpler things more, such as family or a love for their work?
• Did they give up their status or an opportunity for wealth for the sake of something more honorable and important?

Characters with different class backgrounds will likely also have different outlooks on life — or different ways of reaching the same conclusions — not see eye to eye on many topics, and can hold prejudices toward each other:

• The former may spend money freely as if it were an endless resource, and the latter may save everything down to the last penny.
• The former may look down on the poor, while the latter may have more compassion toward those who are struggling financially.
• The former may look to the wealthy with respect, and the latter may seethe at the mere thought of them for the oppression they inflict.
• The former may take themselves very seriously, whereas the latter may see that status and titles veil one’s humanity (All shit stinks the same).

Some other things to consider when creating a character’s origins are:

• The size of their family and their position in it (An only child will have a different, more lonely experience than a child in a large family, and the oldest child will have a different experience than the youngest.)
• Their relationship to their parents and siblings; how they were treated and the role they played in the family
• Past traumas that might have resulted in fears and triggers, changing them forever
• Past positive experiences that they look back on with happiness or yearning
• Who inspired them / who they looked up to and how this person influenced their outlook and dreams
• What their likes and dislikes were in relation to what they are now (and what made them change)

*Remember not to info-dump backstories onto readers and to only share what is relevant. 

ENVIRONMENT

Along with a character’s family and class origins, their more distant environment should also be considered. This includes things like their peers, religious beliefs, culture, and social norms.

Peers: Those who your character engages with — especially closely — will have an influence on their personality. Having a lack of connection will also impact them.

• If a character has friends who act recklessly, they might feel peer pressured into doing the same. Over time, they may become more comfortable engaging in such acts.
• If a character has a friend who is driven and optimistic, they might find themselves encouraged and motivated to chase after their dreams, too.
• If a character is lonely and cannot seem to connect with anyone, they might feel depressed or rely on their imagination and create a deep inner world.

The timid Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter comes to mind when thinking of characters influenced by their peers. Without having clever and confident friends to motivate him, he might have never achieved such amazing magical feats.

Religion: The belief system(s) that are established will influence and shape the worldviews of the individuals within that society, whether they accept or reject it. The dominant belief system(s) can also determine what society values most and shape their culture and social norms.

• If a character grows up in a cult, they may be extremely hive-minded and lack original thought.. or they may turn out to be extremely rebellious and driven by truth-seeking, seeing the flaws in the beliefs being forced onto them and of the ones enforcing it.
• Certain values might be held in high esteem depending on what the religion upholds as valuable, such as duty, compassion, forgiveness, worship, charity, or sacrifice. These can influence the people’s decisions, making them more willing to give up their goals for the good of society, or more willing to donate their hard-earned money to religious institutions.
• The religion may cause people to hide certain practices and aspects of themselves depending on how authoritarian and legalistic it is. They may also feel shame and guilt for certain things they would not feel shameful of outside of the religion.
• Certain beliefs may have a positive impact on people and society, teaching things like harmony with nature, the equality of all living beings, and providing comfort when faced with loss, whether that comfort is objectively true or not.

Culture: This includes things such as language, traditions, pastimes, clothing, food, architecture, and various forms of art. These impact the way a character speaks, thinks, and what their likes and dislikes are, since they will only be exposed to a handful of things.

Social norms: The expectations and standards society demands of each individual, either applying to everyone or certain classes, roles, and genders. This includes everything from how two people greet each other to how courtship occurs.

• Gender norms are likely to affect a character if the world they live in is not entirely equal. They may have to force themselves into a box they do not otherwise fit in to be socially acceptable and experience being viewed in a way they do not desire. They may be underestimated, sexualized, or disregarded as a result of these stereotypes.
• Those who deviate from certain social norms may be ridiculed by those who follow the social norms, especially when those followers did not want to abide themselves but felt pressured to.

In many societies, falling outside of the norms is often frowned upon and seen as taboo. They could even go so far as to take their life away to sustain the status quo.

An example of someone who rebelled against their society’s norms is Tris Prior from the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. She was Divergent — not fitting into only one of the five divisions — and therefore was viewed as a threat to society as everyone knew it.

PREDISPOSITIONS

This is the “nature” of “nature vs. nurture” in shaping your character. These two things work hand in hand in creating one’s personality, as two people with different predispositions may react in different ways to the same situation.

Every human has a pre-existing temperament, which alters the way they interact with and experience their environment. There is a large array of temperaments someone can have, such as being innately hot-headed, sensitive, impulsive, extroverted, introverted, motivated, positive, hopeful, realistic, negative, or eccentric.

• Soft people are more likely to be hurt by others, to cry, and to take things personally.
• Rugged people might be more cynical and accepting that the world is cruel and that everyone is just projecting their own shit onto everyone else.
• Characters who are naturally introverted are likely struggle socially and prefer solitude.
• Extroverted characters might struggle when they are alone and lacking human interaction and feel most alive when in big social gatherings.

According to Galen’s four temperament theory, there are four main categories of temperaments, and each person has both a primary and secondary temperament comprised of two of the following:

• Sanguine: extroverted, optimistic, motivating, lively, friendly, reckless, unfiltered, chaotic, scatterbrained, fierce
• Phlegmatic: introverted, relaxed, composed, people-pleasing, unambitious, methodical/resistant to change, loyal
• Melancholy: introverted, isolating, wary, perfectionistic, truth-seeking, lawful, anxious/worrisome, rational, orderly
• Choleric: extroverted, ambitious, unwavering, confident, assertive, daring, dominating, resourceful, irritable

A character’s origin, environment, and predisposition should be considered when shaping them, as they all work in conjunction to define their unique personality.

See part 2 where we discuss creating a character’s interests, traits, flaws, and motives.