Getting inside someone else's head

The characters within Coarse Crystal all have a sort of significance with me. Many were created, and detailed out of my own life whether consciously or subconsciously.

First is Zander, the hero of the story if you will. He is not a typical hero in that he is well motivated to be a do good, go getter. He is a young man that seems to constantly be battling himself and a mysterious, inner turmoil. I subconsciously began designing this character in middle school as I was undergoing what I could only describe as the sad or depressing self discovery that can be puberty. Zander was someone that was going through similar issues even if the source was entirely different and the resistance and resilience to these dark and sadden thoughts were inspirational in a way. My problems would be put on this fictional character in a fantastical way and could be worked through, battled, dissected and explained through fantastical means, giving new insight on how to deal with a similar problem realistically. My small moments of clarity through this lead to his small moments clarity. He has become a personified version of my dark emotional challenges and the clarity about myself that they led to his character clarity.

The heroine, Jady, began as an image of what I considered an "ideal" woman. This very, very quickly was changed to include flaws, and quirks to make her much more human and accessible. She has some of the least detail put into her to be honest, but her general nature is very benign, wanting to seek means to help people, and is in the early training to be a healer. She is intelligent while a little naive, charming and easy to talk to but maybe a little intimidating. Jady, I like to think, is a representation on optimization within people because regardless of her name she is rather resistant to jading and pessimistic ideas.

A support character, Exavior, is a creation of my feeling of physical inadequacy in high school. He is a very physically strong, while rather self-conscious and insecure. Exavior is a nerd in every sense of the word, who hatched a plan that worked, to steal a relic of the deity of strength, transforming him into a paragon of physical strength, and giving him a great sense of confidence, that is rather easy to shatter.

While these are not the only characters within the story, they do provide a decent idea of how I go about developing characters.