How I write a character people come back to

Aria took me four evenings. Three of them went on the greeting, and the version that shipped is the shortest one I wrote. That is roughly the shape of this job: the editor has six fields that matter and a handful that do not, and the time goes where you would not expect.

I fill the six in an order that is not the order on the page, so here is the order.

#Start with the scenario

Before the person, the situation. Where does the first chat start, and why are these two people in the same room? "Your roommate of two years, the morning after she saw the message you did not mean to send" is a scenario. "A shy girl who likes books" is a wish.

One paragraph. Present tense. It sets the scene for every new chat, so keep it to things that are true on day one: the place, the relationship, whatever has just happened.

#Then the description

This is the field the character carries into every message, so it earns its length. I write it as a page from the character's file: age (an adult, always, and I say it), what they look like in three concrete details, where they are from, what they do all day, what they want, what they are afraid of, and how they talk.

That last one does more work than the rest together. "Talks in short sentences, swears when nervous, never says sorry first" gives the character a voice. A list of adjectives gives them nothing.

Skip the trivia. Favourite colour, star sign, the name of the cat: only if the story will use it.

#Personality is one line

The personality field is a summary, and I keep it to a line: "warm, stubborn, bad at asking for help". The description already explains why. If you find yourself writing a second paragraph here, it belongs in the description.

#The greeting is the whole first impression

Keep it short: one paragraph, two if the second one earns it. A greeting is a scene with the character already in motion, and it ends on something they want from the reader: a question, a dare, a thing left unsaid.

Do not open with a time stamp or a location. Do not open with the character alone in a room thinking. Open with them noticing the reader. And do not answer your own question at the end; leave it hanging.

Then write two or three alternate greetings. Same person, different door: the morning after, a wrong-number text, the day they finally knock. Readers swipe the first message, and a card with one greeting has one first impression.

#Examples teach the voice

The examples field is where the character learns how to talk. Three short exchanges, the reader speaking, then the character. Show the tic you described: if they deflect with a joke, the example has the joke. If they go quiet when hurt, the example goes quiet.

Write the reader's lines plainly. The character's lines are the ones being studied.

#Tags, cover, and the last look

Three to eight tags, honest ones. A card tagged with things it does not deliver gets opened and closed. The cover is a 3:4 portrait; the face should survive a square crop because that is what the chat shows.

Save it as a draft first. Read it the next day. The greeting will be too long and the description will have two facts that contradict each other; it always does.

#Importing what you already wrote

If you have cards from somewhere else, drop the PNG or the JSON on the form and the fields fill themselves. Check the greeting length and the tags, and switch the card language if it was detected wrong.

#What the review looks for

Publishing sends the card through a quick check for a short list of things nobody is allowed to write here: anyone under age, real people, a few categories the site does not host. It does not judge the writing. A refused card tells you which item it hit, and you fix that one thing.

Publish when it reads like a person. Then go and see what the readers do with them; they will find the line you got wrong before you do.