My friend and I are writing a story, and one of the characters in it is a girl named Rosebud. She is a sort of spirit inside the mains characters body. But, we to not really know how to develop her character!! She died as a young woman, and regrets her death, because she never really died. But we don't know if she should be nice or not. Any ideas on her character?
It's your character. You can develop her however you want. Start a conflict involving her and develop her character from there.
Sit down and talk with the character as if she's really there and find out for yourself what she's like. Sounds weird, but it might work. I get to know my characters by putting myself in their heads. Never fails.
'Ello, hope this advice is good, hope is the key word. Draw your character, just draw her on paper with different expressions. Have her run and walk. Drawing usually helps me find out a characters personality and traits. And even if you aren't necessarily a drawer a nice sketch or stick figures never seem to fail either. Hope this was helpful. Here and Now ~Rem Nightfall
I like to let a character develop from their interactions with other characters. Start writing and see what traits develop between Rosebud and her host.
for general idea wite out different possibilities and then day dream about each one. I.E. 1. nice, kind, tries to ignore being dead. 2. sad, depressed, about being dead; but still kind and friendly 3. over all sad, and depressed 4. mad at the living for having what she doesnt. 5. etc, etc, ... then day dream how each one would play out in the plot, and relate to the other characters.
Speaking to her is a nice idea, these are some questions you may ask (once I did something like this, too): What do you think of your host? How do you communicate with him (voice, thoughts, images, sensations, etc), and what do you think of that (you feel far from him, mixed with him, you are an invader, you are a partner)? Do you feel at ease in that mind? Do you think it is your own? What do you see from there (the host's thoughts, the host's objective vision...)? What are your senses? The answers won't really tell you what she is like, but how she is built. What kind of experiences she will go through, so that you know how she faces the world, how she reacts, and... boom! you have a living character!
I can't see this thread without thinking Citizen Kane, every single time. As for your question, she is just another character, but incorporeal. She cannot directly interact with matter of any form (I assume), which will pose some interesting challenges in having her develop. Other than that, you can probably treat her like any other character. For research, you could read Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love.
