I've picked up many helpful tips and advice from the Writing World website. This article stresses the importance of making your characters not only believable, but making the character be someone the reader can relate to.
It seems so obvious, and it's a bit of a daunting task to create dimensional, living, breathing characters, but the most-loved and memorable characters are those we all can relate to in some way. I try to keep another tip in mind, from Stephen King's "On Writing": Show, don't tell. If the antagonist is a psychotic, delusional liar who thinks she's done nothing wrong, don't just say that; show the reader by having the antagonist kidnap and torture the protagonist, or maybe she could make up a despicable rumor about the main character because the little voice in her head told her to. By whatever actions or behavior of the mad woman, this will reveal her instability.
Here's an excerpt from the article on Writing World. It's specifically talking about horror characters, but I think it's useful advice for any genre.
If you want your characters to "breathe", give them real emotions, even if they're not exactly acceptable. Let them screw up or think an unkind thought about how fat Uncle Randolph is getting since he retired. The reader needs to empathize with the subjects.
Believe it or not, your main character should have the least description. Why? Because you want the reader to imagine themselves in the same situation, even if they are a different nationality, have different hair or eye colors, or even if they are the opposite sex. Constantly stressing the hero's blue eyes, blonde hair and bulging muscles reminds a raven-haired female that she doesn't fit into the story.
The best characters are those that linger in our memories like old friends long after we've turned the last page. By using some or all of these techniques, you can create a charming cast of characters with charisma, no matter if they are ghosts, vampires or shape shifters.
Link to full article by Shaunna Privratsky, Writing World website.
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