Base Character on Real People

• Authors and creators as varied as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Hayao Miyazaki have based characters on real people who for some reason fascinated them in real life. Provided your fictional character is no longer easily recognizable as her nonfictional inspiration, this is fine. To alter your character and make her suitable for fiction, pick out the specific traits that make her fascinating; for example, Sherlock Holmes' inspiration Dr. Joseph Bell was noted for his attention to detail in puzzle-solving, and is widely viewed as one of the pioneers of forensics. Apply those traits to your character, give her a different backstory, and change her as much as you can. If you were writing Sherlock Holmes today, you might change Dr. Bell's sex, age, race and ethnicity while keeping the forensic genius.
  
  

Start With a Problem

• Instead of starting with a character, start with the problem that will move your story and develop a character who is as conflicted with that problem as possible. If your story is about being lost in the isolated backwoods of central Alaska, you might make your central character a pampered Beverly Hills princess who has never had to do anything for herself. This is called a fish-out-of-water story, and creates instant conflict and drama.
  
  

Start With a Heroic or Villainous Trait

• Superman was not just immensely strong; he was motivated to do as much good for humanity as possible despite his alien origins. Lex Luthor was not just wealthy; he was motivated to amass as much power as possible regardless of the cost. Heroes and villains both can be created around a core heroic or villainous trait like greed, love, pride, love of power or idealism. The key is to make that trait so important to your character that he will give up anything to fulfill it. In addition, a hero might have either a heroic or villainous trait, just as a villain might; the difference is that the hero will overcome his villainous traits over the course of the story, while a heroic trait will prove to be the villain's downfall.
  
  

Use an Archetype

• Researchers like Joseph Campbell and Lord Raglan distilled ancient and legendary stories into types of stories, including outlining heroic and villainous archetypes. You can read Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" or Christopher Vogler's "The Writer's Journey" for information on dozens of character archetypes like the classic hero, the reluctant hero, the sidekick, the love interest, the wise one, the trickster and the god with clay feet. Any archetype can be used as the core of a good character, provided he is playing a role in the story appropriate for the archetype.
  
  

Character Development Charts

• Dozens of character development charts exist on the web, from simple one-page questionnaires that help you create character details like names and careers to lengthy psychological studies that can take as long to complete as a novella. Download one or several that are appropriate to your needs. You can find a fairly simple three-page charts at inspirationforwriters.com, or a very different one at Sherry Wilson's The-Writers-Craft.com. There is no right or best character development chart, only the one that works for you.
  
  

Blend All Idea Development Techniques Above

• You might find that the best characters come not from a single idea but from an amalgam of different techniques: using a mythic hero with a villainous trait as the core, creating character development charts to trace the hero's history, patterning his physical behavior after someone you know in real life and then dropping him in a problem he is unsuited to solve to begin your story. Several or all these techniques will help you develop character ideas that are fleshed out, not flat, and that will become real to your readers.