How to format characters that are given by user input with user input

[i1928]

I am writing a program (in Python 3.7.2) that is supposed to print out a flag with the width of the flag being user input and the characters used in the flag also being user input. I am having difficulty in formatting the characters according to user input. This is what I have so far:

Greeting = “Hi, I’m flaggy the flagmaker. Let’s make a flag!”
print (Greeting)
width = (int (input (“What’s the width of your flag?”)))
if width > 0:
     print (width)
elif width < 1:
     print (input( “What’s the width of your flag?\n>”))
characters = input (“What characters would you like to use?\n>”)
if characters == :
     print (input (“What characters would you like to use\n>?”))
print (format (characters3))
str = [’>width’]
print [str. format [“characters”]]
print [str. format [“characters”]]
print (format (characters3))

*my issues are in the third to last and second to last lines where I know the format is incorrect but I’m not sure how to correct it.