Creating Awesome Characters

I don't know about you, but no matter how good a book is, I cannot complete it if I do not care about the character(s), or the characters are unbelievable. Your characters are a way for the reader to connect to the story. We hate the antagonist and want him, her, or it out of the picture, and we root for the protagonist because there is something redeemable about them that is like us. So, building your main characters is particularly important if you want happy readers to tell more people to buy your book. Everyone has an opinion on how to make good characters. I say that it depends on the length of the story and how many characters you have. If you have a book as complicated as say Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones, it will only help you to map out your characters in detail so you won't forget any of it later. However, a short romance may not need anymore than basic information. I don't usually buy into those time consuming charts where you answer all these personal questions from the point of view of the character; if I spent that much time, I would never get any writing done. However, there are a few key questions that could be helpful to make sure you have a 3D, relatable character. The info-graphic below is an excerpt from a character planning book that you can easily use to help you out in creating an awesome character.