Tag: character development

midenianscholar:

10 Writing Resources: Characters

From the basics to the very in-depth, these are some of the resources I go to when I’m developing new characters. Have a look at my favorites, and add your own!

1. 25 Things About Creating Characters

As a writer, creating characters is probably the most important thing you do. Get it wrong, and the story will be wrong no matter how well plotted.

2. Lessons From James Scott Bell: Characters That Jump Off The Page  

Readers are engaged by characters who do not always act in a predictable way. Think of how to have your character make decisions or respond in ways the reader won’t see coming.

3. Crafting Memorable Characters  

Successful main characters are the agents of their own destiny, they are someone we root for, and they grow or change during the course of the novel.

4. 6 Must-Know Tricks for Getting to Know Your Characters    

Most of us don’t start writing until we’ve come up with a character we just adore. But how can we make sure this character will also be adored by our readers?

5. Creating Your Hero’s Fatal Flaw

The most intriguing conflicts are the ones that come from within people’s own personalities.

6. Five Unrealistic Character Traits    

These characters have traits that are so unrealistic, the audience starts thinking about the author’s intention rather than the story at hand.

7. 100 Character Development Questions for Writers  

Answer these in character, but only in a situation where your character would be 100% honest with themselves and with the person asking the question.

8. Writing Crutches: Gestures  

What are gesture crutches, and why should we avoid them?

9. The Path to Deepening Your Protagonist

 Protagonists don’t write themselves. No character does. So why leave trait-choice up to the character?

10. Nine Kick-Ass Excercises to Find Your Character’s Voice  

Creating unique voices for each viewpoint character is essential in creating fiction readers want to read over and over.

What about you? What are your favorite blog posts about creating characters?

(cross posted over here)

realmfighter:

venndigo:

k8thescout:

can someone explain the alignment chart for me but in like, the simplest wording possible lmao

lawful good: i want to do the right thing, and following society’s rules is the best way to do that

neutral good: i want to do what’s right, and i’m willing to bend or break the rules as long as no one gets hurt

chaotic good: i’m willing to do whatever it takes as long as it’s to do the right thing

lawful neutral: following the rules of society is the most important thing, and that matters more to me than doing what’s right

true neutral: i just want myself and the people i care about to be happy

chaotic neutral: i want my freedom, and i don’t care what i have to do to keep it

lawful evil: to impede the protagonists (in whatever evil way) is my primary goal, but i follow my own code of morals even when it’s inconvenient

neutral evil: to impede the protagonists (in whatever evil way) is the my primary goal, and while i’ll do what it takes to achieve it, i also won’t go out of my way to do unnecessary damage

chaotic evil: i relish in destruction and want to do as much damage as possible while i try to achieve my primary goal

brucewayneright:

thewritingbeast:

sinksanksockie:

patientno7:

the suffering never ends

This is the real process

Resources for you!

Character Ideas:

Character Design Ideas:

Naming Help:

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Bonus art masterlist!

BLESS EVERYONE IN THIS POST.

Source: patientno7

kaylapocalypse:

Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive
2. Fear: Major and Secondary
3. Physical Desires
4. Style of self expression
5. How they express affection
6. What controls them (what they are weak for)
7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it.

2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4.

3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially? 

5.

How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.