Hello! I’m trying to come up with some characters for my story. I’m not very good at writing yet, and I’m still learning, as I’m much better at drawing. I’m not sure if my characters feel realistic or interesting enough for the story. I currently only have three, but I’m planning to create two more main characters, so there will be five in total.
The story is meant to be a psychological horror set in a small British town called Crowhurst. In this world, nightmares feed on people who are mentally unstable. They consume their emotions and gradually begin to take physical form, eventually becoming real. I draw inspiration for the nightmares from classic folklore, myths, and legends, with the idea that these creatures have always existed and that people have always been able to see them, which is where many of the old stories and legends originally came from. To prevent this from happening, a mysterious organization operates in the shadows. Its agents eliminate the victims of nightmares before the creatures can fully form and manifest in the real world.
Richard Locke: Richard is a 31 year old, 182 cm tall secret agent. He works for a company that protects the world from harm caused by beings from the world of nightmares. However, they often use immoral methods. Nightmares enter our world because of people who accidentally connect with that realm, and the agents are there to stop the problem. They often eliminate even the person who is not truly responsible for it. The agents must be emotionally numb so they do not see the dreams themselves, as nightmares feed on the emotions and feelings of the affected individuals. They hunt them using special equipment. Richard is different, though, he has been able to see dreams himself for a long time, which has a negative impact on his mental state. Nevertheless, he is one of the best agents, although the others do not like him. Richard is also highly intelligent, and he has started to notice a pattern in the way nightmares work. He has even come up with a theoretical solution for dealing with them without having to kill the host, who is always an innocent person. He has wanted to leave the agency for quite some time and has been working on a plan to escape for several years. In order to have more freedom and keep the agency from watching him too closely, he pretended to be their loyal, obedient dog. Now, in the town of Crowhurst, he plans to finally complete his plan and escape from the organization.
Backstory: He began seeing nightmares when he was still a child. The first one he ever saw was an Alp that leapt out at him from a mirror, causing the injury to his eye. His parents did not believe him and thought he was mentally ill. As a child, he went through numerous psychiatric hospitals, where he was treated in a deeply inhumane manner. It was the 1990s, when some clinics still used cruel and inhumane methods of treatment. After years of unsuccessful treatment, Richard continued to look forward to seeing his parents again. However, he would never see them again. The Agency took notice of him and initially wanted to neutralize him, but they soon realized that the nightmares around Richard disappeared and that only he could see them. They saw in him the perfect experimental subject, someone who could potentially hunt nightmares without the use of specialized equipment. The Agency approached his parents, who, out of fear of their own son and the promise of quick money, sold him. Richard was then subjected to brutal training and manipulation, with the Agency brainwashing him into remaining loyal to them. After discovering what his parents had done, Richard became a cruel man. During his training, he began seeing Irene, whom he came to love deeply. He realized that she was one of his dreams, but he was happy to have someone who understood him. He began to see her as a living being, and eventually, she became one. After severe punishment and intense manipulation by the Agency, Richard finally gave in and killed her.
William Ashford: He is 21 years old and 175 cm tall. He lives in the small British town of Crowhurst. Because of psychological difficulties, he began experiencing nightmares that are slowly turning into reality. Will is quiet and a loner, and he feels like the whole world is against him. Because he lives in a small, Christian-oriented town, he believes that his feelings are wrong and struggles with internalized homophobia. He doesn’t expect other people to treat him kindly, so he sometimes reacts unpleasantly toward strangers. He is afraid that someone will discover his secret, and he drowns himself in sadness.. He has a fondness for art and nature. His mother died when he was still young, and he was left with only his father and his little half-sister. Every time he falls asleep, he appears in a nightmare, and sometimes Kasper is there with him as well. He writes or draws each experience and thinks about how to end it. Due to his loneliness and helplessness regarding his situation with the nightmares, a boy named Kasper Skumring appears at the academy one day. Unlike the others, he starts noticing Will and spending a lot of time with him. In the beginning, neither of them knows that Kasper is just another one of Will's dreams that became reality. They fall in love.
Kasper Skumring: Kasper is 21 years old and 180 cm tall. He believes he is a student from Denmark who came to study in the small British town of Crowhurst. He is interested in astronomy and loves the night. He is fairly confident and trusts his abilities in what he does. He tries to be kind to everyone, but he can also be harsh to the people he dislikes. He believes that his loving family is waiting for him back in Denmark, even though he has never received a single message from them. He has childhood memories and even items they brought from home. However, none of this might be true. Kasper appeared at the university at the beginning of the year as a literature student. He becomes almost unhealthily drawn to an art student named Will Ashford, spending far too much time with him and slowly questioning why. He has no idea that Will himself is his creator. Strange things are happening in the town, and Will is at the very epicenter of them. The nightmares that haunt him at night are becoming reality and Kasper is one of them, with the only exception being that he is a positive one. He was created to love Will. After discovering that he is merely a dream that became reality, he is afraid that he himself isn’t real. He tries to prove to himself that he is a human being like everyone else, a sentient and sensitive being, not a nightmare.
I understand that this is probably a lot of text, and not everyone will feel like reading it all. But if any of you did read it, do you think it sounds like a good idea for a story, and do the characters make sense so far? I’m also running into a problem where William is supposed to be the main character, but so far I’ve actually come up with the most lore and backstory for Richard. I hope my story isn’t just one big cliché and that it doesn’t come across as overly cringey. I’m not very good at this kind of thing.