Creating Unique Characters

Creating UNIQUE characters has been my biggest concern while writing the Twin Legends series.  There are so many characters from the many books that I love, characters that have kept me up all night so that I didn't miss out on their adventures, that I fear that, even unconsciously, I may end up replicating them within a new name in my own story.  I cannot stress enough how hard I have worked to keep this from happening; no author wants to find out he's done nothing more than steal an idea that was not his own...no good, true author at least.
There are a few different ways of keeping characters unique and different, and certainly more methods than I know and will mention in this post.  The one that I implement the most is to base my main and more recurring characters off of actual people that I know (Depending on how alike you make them, you may want to seek permission!).  This will help in a few ways:

• Each character will have unique characteristics already
• You will avoid having the same tone for each character*
• Creating unique personalities can be difficult, especially when you have dozens of characters throughout your story that all need their own uniqueness.
• You may find it easier creating antagonists and protagonists for the story, depending on who you use

Certainly there are more answers than these, for perhaps good and bad, but these are the reasons that I focus on.

*Having the same 'tone'
A tone is the voice of the author in his writing.  To relate it to speaking, it would be an accent someone has based on where they are from.  One of the inherent pitfalls of creating everything yourself is that you think the same way, you write the same way, you have your favorite word choices, etc.  Attentive readers can see an author's tone and, when that happens, they start to see the characters as 'the same but different'.  They notice that different characters from different backgrounds use the same words, speak in the same way, or have the same reaction whether good or bad.  They seem generic, different but with evidence of the same creator.  To relate it to something more tangible would be different pieces of artwork created by the same artist.  Perhaps the paintings are different, with different colors, yet the way the artist painted them was the same.  He only used up/down strokes on each piece and his balance of primary and secondary colors remains the same. These subtle hints are like the signature at the bottom, proving they were made by the same person.

Another method I am soon to try is make a list of different characteristics, separated into categories like physical characteristics, alignment, personality, etc,  and drawn at random to complete a single person.  READ and expand your vocabulary to make each character that much different; utilize the synonym edit option on Word to find different words to say what you want to say.

The very best example that I have ever read of this would be The Legend of Drizzt: Homeland.  The characters in this book have a very clear and definite difference about them, despite being similar on so many levels.  Its a story where you are drawn to the characters and it is obvious how different and unique they are.  If you pay attention to character uniqueness as you read this book, you will not be disappointed.