I agree with this to an extent. I do believe you have to start with some general ideas, philosophical points, or message and then work the plot and characters around it.
However characters are different in that they have to be personable and have depth that make them believably true to the reader. This is much more difficult to create with a character than say a plot twist, or the facade of a building you saw. It takes more time and focus
Mostly based on a combination of habits and looks and voices I hear from people around me and my own inner thoughts and motivations.
What do you want the reader to get out of it? Just entertainment or some idea that is important to you?
For example Brothers Karamazov is about the power of religion so you have main characters that represent ideas such as faith, pragmatic atheism, and materialism.
I really have no idea what I'm trying to say, it's about racism, specifically systematic racism and police brutality. There's so much to say.
There's also not too much to say. The best you could go for with that theme is very obvoius distopian fiction.
okay kid
You know that's true. That's why you have no plot faggot
Just by taking interesting habits of behaviour from people IRL, intensifying them and then adding more from disparate sources. For instance, I have a character that I've taken from my girlfriend's uncle. He's a forty year old man who loves to troll forums about surfing. He calls people on the forum faggot and stuff like that. Basically just like everyone on Veeky Forums. But I took the overall tone of speaking pattern of this character from an accountant I know who is particularly meek. And I just keep piling it up, either from real life, other characters, or my own thoughts or personality.
>Then I'll usually just come up with a small premise, and then I'll let the characters just interact with one another from there.
I'll just imagine how those personalities would realistically interact with one another. So my premise might be: Character A is trying to find a boyfriend. Character B walks into her house. And depending on the character traits, who they are, this might develop into a plot which sees character B offering to help character A find a boyfriend, and they go on a humorous and wacky adventure. Or. instead, character B might want character A himself, so he becomes standoffish and shy, and she can sense there's something wrong, so they have to deal with a rift in their relationship and the story becomes a more introspective sort of thing. I just imagine how they'd behave in my head.
coursera.org
There's a whole bunch, plot, style, I can't remember the 4th.