Need help fleshing out my main character.

Here, my character. the actual question is at the bottom. Just thought that I should give you an intro to my main protagonist.

Name: Maxwell L. Soma

Look: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/258x354q90/856/8p73.jpg

(Don't mind any of the stuff on the side, I kinda got bored while drawing the character) 

Role: Main Hero

Weapon: Single-edged Swords

Age: 17

personality: Heroic and light hearted

Story:

He’s an world explore, He travelers from place to place looking for things to do, people to help or for a legitimate meal. He’s a happy go lucky guy that tries to stay out of fights but, could hold his own in one with his fist or sword. He Started traveling at the age of 15 and has been traveling for 2 years now. The reason he’s traveling is yet to be know but, I was thinking for saving that for another story. When He first started, he barely know any of the hardship of traveling like camping, getting supplies and things of that nature. After a few months, he was able to get the hang of it from explore places and finding hidden treasure within and using that as currency for his supplies. I goes without saying that after a few of these explorations, He was much wealthier than the average person. Usually over paying merchants not knowing the real price of the gems he haves. Most people would had settled downed when they had some of the gems he had but, that wouldn't sit well with him. He would find it monstrously boring if he had ever done such a thing, he would rather keep walking seeing where the roads of life would take him. Having this said, he still have his fair share of hardships even with some of the rare things he found by exploring like: eating (you can't eat gems), finding a place to sleep and keeping his weapons/utilities in  the peak perfection so that they won't break doing one of explorations leaving him stranded. Thought all of this though, He loves his life and wouldn't change a thing.  

Now, I'm just worried from reading some bad fan made sonic characters. That my character might be tossed in the same bin and i really think Maxwell (Along the other character I want to add) could need some fleshing out

Help please!

Okay, as an aspiring writer, let me try to help you out here.  You'll have to take my advice with a grain of salt because I'm neither a professional nor accomplished.

The key to writing characters and fleshing them out is to make them as believable as possible.  Most people who write fanfiction are people who have watched a lot of anime.  Don't get me wrong, anime is fantastic (you wouldn't believe the amount of anime I've seen and even enjoyed), however it really isn't good to model characters on.  The reason for that being that most anime don't actually have enough time or leeway to flesh out their characters.  So, a lot of characters become fairly two dimensional beings with two or three qualities a piece.  In short, they become caricatures of real people.  They are easy to cheer for, sure, but they'd be mighty boring to get to know in real life.  A lot of longer running anime actually end up with plenty of time to make their characters more three dimensional.  Anyway, the reason a lot of fanfiction turns out fairly bad is because these people are trying to turn anime characters into written characters.  This is a bad thing.

So, what is my advice?  Make him as realistic as possible.  So, what event in his life made him want to be a world explorer?  What experiences did he personally go through to even teach him how to go into dungeons and come out with all the best loot?  How about his learning of basic survival skills at 15?  Did he have any background in that before he left or did he encounter someone along the journey who taught him some things?  Did he learn those things naturally?  If he learned them naturally, what mistakes did he make that helped teach him?  Human beings, by their very nature, are not very "good people".  Most human beings aren't our idealized fantasy of what we think humanity should be.  In fact, most human beings are not that great to even get to know (it's why most people end up with small circles of friends instead of huge lists of people they're on good terms with).  So, what are his flaws?  Is he vain?  Is he not very socially adept?  Is he a sore loser?  Is he a "shove it in your face" winner?  Is he a womanizer?  Does he like to drink too much?  Is he careless?  He needs to have some flaws to make him realistic and relatable.  What about his current personality?  What events lead him to adopt these behaviors for himself (all human beings learn their behaviors, mannerisms, and even outlooks on life from personal experience.  It isn't something we're born with)?

While we're at it, how does he interact with others?  Does he have any personal relationships?  Family?  Friends?  A woman he wants to date?  A man he wants to date?  A weird flying squirrel he wants to date?  Is he shy in large groups?  Is he boisterous in taverns?  Does he buy everyone a round of drinks when he comes back from adventuring?  How does he treat merchants?  Is he always gullible with them, or will he know if they're trying to overcharge him if they're doing a fairly obvious job of it?  Is he calm, cool, and collected in public or when meeting strangers?  How does he handle people trying to rob him or harm in some way?  What kinds of people does he generally not like to deal with?  Does he dislike whiners?  Do beggars on the street make him angry?  Does he make fun of anyone?  How does he take being made fun of?  Does he enjoy a good joke?  What if that joke is at his expense?  Does he engage in "fair fights" even when he knows the other side is cheating?  What does he do to "wind down" from a day?  Does he like to eat alone or with company?

To flesh out a character, you just need to keep asking "why?".  Over and over again, ask why.  Why do they do this?  Why do they do that?  Why are they like they are?  All of these things I've mentioned don't need to be explicitly said by any narrator or even the character.  All you need to do is just sprinkle them about through dialogue and interactions.  Some of these can even be shown instead of told.

That's my two cents.  I hope it helps!

So from what I understand, Maxwell is 17, started his adventure at 15, and finds all sorts of ludicrously valuable gems to sell to merchants and gets mad wealthy. But he's not really all into that settling down biz, so he keeps on traveling.

Two questions to keep in mind when writing/making characters: Why and How?

Why does he find so many gems? Why is he the only one who finds these valuable gems?

How does he carry all that money around? Does he give it to a charity, or does he have some massive wagon that he keeps all his loot in?

Tai_MT asked a few more, concerning relationships with other characters, but I'm going to take a more logistical approach to the questions. If he learned basic survival skills at 15, and has had every opportunity to use them, why is getting food still a problem? If he really doesn't care about money or gems, then why does he drag himself down with so many and doesn't pack food? Why doesn't he just buy new weapons instead of keeping his in tip-top shape? He can obviously afford them. Why does he travel alone? DOES he travel alone? Why do all of the merchants hop aboard the hype train and give him way more than what the gems are actually worth? Typically merchants try to weasel every last cent out of someone, so why is he the exception? Why is he the "Main" hero? Is he the only hero?

And now for his past. Why did he begin traveling in the first place? How did he learn survival skills at 15? When do most people learn survival skills? Is he from a noble family or a peasant one? Is there some romantic interest with another character? Does he have a tragic or happy past?

Your character didn't just appear in the world you created. He was born, he did things. Things the reader may not care about, sure, but you need to provide reasons for actions. And speaking of, how about the world? We know it has gems and merchants, and that's about it. I'm assuming medieval fantasy, but is that the case? When I was working on the world for my game, I went through this rabbit hole of "whys" until I had what was more or less a probable fictional world that made sense. It wouldn't hurt to do the same for your character, probably.

tl;dr don't assume the reader knows everything going on inside your head. Provide reasons for actions and details to spice up your story.

Anyway, I probably unintentionally repeated some of what Tai_MT said. You should listen to him, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

-Wallace

Bear with me if there are some misspelled words in here, This took me 4 hours to come up with and type :p

Personality: Neutral, energetic, Strong moraled and would take to other with a calm smile and a “how’s it going”

Likes: Exploring, seeing new things, a challenge, Swords, Tamed Dogs, Water, Food, Nice people, durable shoes, helping out.

Dislikes: Rainy days, messing up, something out of his league, jerks, sandals, Fire, being lost, being used  

Circle of friends:  has a close circle of friends that he talks to time to time.

Relationships: Intends on staying single because he would find it distracting  

Maxwell past –

Max lived in a medium-sized Town called: Brethnorth  

Parents: Wes and Ana

Max was a light hearted kid having growled up in a nice environment, He was like most of many of the kids in his town not attending school there and was rather taught at home the basics of any society like language, math and things of that nature taught to him by his mother. He would also go on expeditions regally with his father.

Max’s father (Wes) an expensed Spelunker and Explore that taught Max at a very young age (The age of 7 to be exact) everything about surviving outside on his own. His want on his first abounded mine shaft exploration with his father on his 13th birthday, that was also the day where he fought his first foes (The nick name of monster in that world) aside his father, The weapon he had to defend himself at the time was a broadsword, a gift from his father on the same day that would end up being his weapon of chooses.

What I would imagine the sword to look like: http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130519112816/finalfantasy/images/5/5e/Broadsword_FFIX_Art.jpg

During the exploration Wes taught Max all the key hints left in mine that show where there “treasure” was and to always keep your eye peeled for pit fall and anything that just didn’t look safe. Wes was able to show Max one of the pitfalls near the exit that if stepped on would have you plummeting to your doom. With a few well placed steps later. They were in the cart room and Max got his first look a gem after hours of looking. I was an extremely rare find, Was told max that these where worth quite a lot and As long as you have a lot of them, you can afford anything. These words stuck with Max and the idea that if he had enough he could do anything he wanted was formed. It was at those moments that know what he wanted to do. He wanted to explore the world and find more of these gem and treasures hidden though out the world!

At age 15 he was exploring places alongside his Father as equals and at times saving his father skin from pitfalls even he missed. He was a fully realized explore and had a few treasure to show himself.

He decided though that he can’t wait around his town forever, He’s checked every mine cart, carve and mountain side near his town and he wanted to see different sights and new place places to explore. He wants to set out and see the world and explore more ruins and dudgeons.

His mother was at first objective to the idea of a mar 15 year old leaving his town to live in the wild but, with some explaining that he won’t be he’ll be traveling from town to village to city to ect, that he wouldn’t he wouldn’t just be living outside he would be fine. His mother lighten up on the idea and his father had no objection and somewhat happy because they might meet up in towns when he’s out. It was settled, Max was leaving in the spring and when he did he knew that this would be the beginning of his new life he always wanted.

The world isn’t really as caring and friendly as his childhood expectations lead his to believe but, still he travel seeing/does new and challenging thing every day.

Trivial

 In large groups, He’s most comfortable playing player 2 but, would be the leader if there wasn’t one

In places like taverns, He wouldn’t be drinking alcohol talking to people without reason but, instead be the one there with a drink taking sips here and there wondering where to go/what to do next.

Not having many gems of valuable things throw around, he usually over pays when it came to merchants: 1 of the gems could buy him double of the things he needs and/or carry and going to a bank to break it down to currency seems like too much hassle. Max isn’t a Stanger to people who want his wants the few items he has and would do anything to have it. Not many where able to get away with taking some of his items without him noticing and going home that night with cuts and bruise.

Max doesn’t gullible unless these some type of rare sword that he knows is real on the line.

Max’s rule to buying things is that if everything he needs cost more than a gem it’s not worth it.   

He’s cool, calm and collected in pubic and around people but, he does get gun ho about things that involve saving something or hearing about a new challenge that no one was able to do.

He’s more inclined to fight in a “Fight or flight” problem

He doesn't like talking to/dealing with people that won’t change for the better or are just plan jerk.

He wouldn't really pay any mind to any beggar on the street because he wouldn’t know if they were real beggar or not.

He’s not one to make fun of people but, rather be the one telling the other to stop.

He believes in fair fights and if the opponent is cheating he would do that same so it would be equal.

He would wind down by checking into an inn and plopping down on the bed and sleeping.

He’s not lucky enough to find gems or probable anything that could be called valuable in most of the places he explore and rather just do it because he finds it fun. If he does find something, there mostly pocket sized and worth quite a pretty penny.

Even though he’s an explorer he’s more than likely to be seen taking the occasional odd job here and there to afford basic necessities

Now that I come to think about it, I just might drop gems value all together and a adopt a Zelda style of gem worth. 

Plus, I don't think the rpg version of the story I tell with max should be that realistic. I mean, I don't want to make a super hydlide. More like a dragon quest, or a final fantasy :)

What do you think?