Creating the more complex round characters takes time -- time spent thinking about how your characters look, where they're from, and what motivates them, for instance.
Regardless of the type of writing you are doing, knowing who your characters are and knowing them well will add greatly to your work.
When you get an idea for a short story or a novel you probably get the basic idea of the characters with it. But in order to build believable characters you need more than just a basic idea of them. You need to really them.
Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car.
Over time, I came across quite a few websites for aspiring writers. Some of them I bookmarked, so I thought I’d share my collection (all external links).