Top Questions for Fictional Characters -- Questions to Help in Creating Characters 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. The questions below provide structure to this all-important thought process. While the reader will not need to know all the details, it's important that you do. The better you know your characters, the more realistic your story or novel will end up being. 1. Michael Adams ("Anniversaries in the Blood"), the novelist and writing professor, believes that setting is the most important element of any story. 2. In a similar vein, where did your character's life begin? 3. Though this might seem like an obvious question, it's important to make a clear decision about this before you begin writing -- otherwise, it's impossible to get the details right. 4. Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? 5. 6. As with real people, many things about your character's personality will be determined by his background. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Creating an Original Character By Maisha Foster-O'Neal You've heard the old maxim before... 'a character can make or break your story.' Okay, okay, so you want to write an interesting character. Ah yes, such is the desire of all writers. Enough already! Before we dive into Creating Original Characters, I'd like to offer a disclaimer. Disclaimer: I don't claim to know everything about writing. Note: There is already an excellent tutorial about writing the Villain, so I won't make specific references to writing an antagonist. The Basics of Characters The first thing about characters - They are just one facet of a good story. Character Creation: Little Exercises Open up a phonebook and pick out a name, and write a description of that person based only on their name. Types of personality flaws These are just a few of my favourites to give you an idea of what you can add to a character. Sarcastic or cynical. A note on Romance A note on Character Death '...and they lived happily ever after.' Clichés: What NOT to do Patricia C.
16 Personality Factors The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (or 16PF),[1] is a multiple-choice personality questionnaire which was developed over several decades of research by Raymond B. Cattell, Maurice Tatsuoka and Herbert Eber. Beginning in the 1940s, Cattell used the new techniques of factor analysis (based on the correlation coefficient) in an attempt to try to discover and measure the source traits of human personality (Cattell, 1946)(Nevid, 2009).[2][3] The questionnaire measures the 16 primary traits, and the Big Five secondary traits,[4][5] which have become popularized by other authors in recent years. From early in his research, Cattell found that the structure of personality was multi-level and hierarchical, with a structure of interdependent primary and secondary level traits (Cattell, 1946, 1957).[2][6] The sixteen primary factors were a result of factor-analyzing hundreds of measures of everyday behaviors to find the fundamental traits behind them. Outline of Test[edit]
How to Create a Character | How To's by Holly Lisle All Rights Reserved No matter what sort of fiction you’re writing, you’re going to have to populate your story with characters, and a lot of them, if not all of them, you’re going to have to create from scratch. Unfortunately — or maybe fortunately — there is no Betty Crocker Instant Character-In-A-Can that you can mix with water and pop into the oven for twenty minutes. Don’t start your character off with a name or a physical description. I know this doesn’t seem logical at first glance — after all, you name a baby before you get to know him very well. There are a couple of reasons. In the same way, maybe your heart has been broken twice by redheads, or the gorgeous surfer you dated briefly who stole your credit card, did drugs in the back seat of your car and got your twin sister pregnant before dumping you and vanishing from your life forever. Do start developing your character by giving him a problem, a dramatic need, a compulsion. What does the character want?
Amy Redwood 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). Introduction to Fiction Writing and Reading Short Stories Advanced Essay Workshop MIT OpenCourseWare: free undergraduate writing courses online. Start writing Fiction This unit will give you an insight into how writers create characters and settings. Poetry (podcast) to introductions of elements of poetry through reading, analysis and discussion. Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy: Free online course from an author for aspiring writers. I Should Be Writing — The podcast covers writing’s daily challenges, from brainstorming to outlining, self-publishing, or writing queries. Creative Writing Podcast — The Podcast at AmericanWriters.com is designed to help writers of all levels create better fiction. Grammar Girl — Quick and dirty tips for better writing. Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense What is Conflict How to Write Conflict Conflict Lit Soup
Character Chart If you're a fiction writer -- whether you're working on a novel, short story, screenplay, television series, play, web series, webserial, or blog-based fiction -- your characters should come alive for your reader or audience. The highly detailed chart below will help writers develop fictional characters who are believable, captivating, and unique. Print this page to complete the form for each main character you create. IMPORTANT: Note that all fields are optional and should be used simply as a guide; character charts should inspire you to think about your character in new ways, rather than constrain your writing. Fill in only as much info as you choose. Have fun getting to know your character! If this character chart is helpful, please let us know! Looking for more character questionnaires / charts?
Plotting Your Novel by Lee Masterson "By failing to plan, you are planning to fail." A good story is made up of a logical beginning, a bumpy middle and a satisfying end. But a good plot is made up of more than just these three basics. Plotting an entire novel is a complex task, best summed up by saying it is the author's way of showing the reader the events as they are unfolding. A successful plot depends largely on how the author chooses to display those events as they unfold. A carefully crafted plot-line, interwoven with clever characterizations, tightly written dialogue and enough action to hold a reader's attention are only some of the factors which determine whether a book is a memorable journey, or merely a story moving through the motions from start to finish. Let's look at some of the ingredients you will need to include into a successful plot-line. The Hook You must lure the reader into wanting to continue deeper into your fictional world by introducing some form of action at the outset. Characters
Character Chart FAVORITES Color: Music: Food: Literature: Expressions: Book: Quote: Expletive(s) (swears): Mode of transportation: HABITS Smokes: What? How often? Drinks: What? How often? Worst bad habit? SELF-PERCEPTION One word character would use to describe self: One paragraph description of how character would describe self: What does character consider best physical characteristic? Immediate goal(s): Long range goal(s): How does character plan to accomplish goal(s)? How character react in a crisis (calm/panic/etc.)? Jewelry? Owns a computer? © (c ) copyright 1990-2011 Rebecca Sinclair ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Authors Note: I worked hard on this.
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills - Smashing Magazine Advertisement Today, too many websites are still inaccessible. In our new book Inclusive Design Patterns, we explore how to craft flexible front-end design patterns and make future-proof and accessible interfaces without extra effort. Hardcover, 312 pages. Effective writing skills are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Of course, effective writing requires a good command of the language in which you write or want to write. Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link We collected over 50 useful and practical tools and resources that will help you to improve your writing skills. 1. Use English Punctuation Correctly6 A quick and useful crash course in English punctuation. HyperGrammar7 An extensive electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa’s Writing Centre. Grammar Girl8 Mignon Fogarty’s quick and dirty tips for better writing. English Style Guide – Economist16 This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists at The Economist. 2. Dr. 3. 4. Practical tips Link 5.
Character Trait Chart Character Trait Chart and Personality Components It can sometimes be helpful to make a Trait Chart for each character. This is especially helpful during the early stages of character development, before the character becomes as real to you as your mother. There are several charts of this sort available, some extremely detailed and some containing only facts and figures. I've tried to make one that includes the most important traits to help you visualize your character, both physically and emotionally. To use this chart, print it out and make a copy for each of your characters. Full name - a character's name is very important. Besides the character's official name, we also need to know what he is called (and, perhaps, what he prefers to be called). Date of Birth/Age - we should carefully consider assigning our character a birthday. Height - this doesn't need to be specific. Hair - keep in mind the character's ethnic background in assigning hair and eye color. Smell - everyone has a smell.
Creating Archetypal Characters by Glen C. Strathy* The process of creating archetypal characters who perform specific dramatic functions in your novel is the least understood aspect of characterization. It is important that each of your major characters plays fulfills an important dramatic function -- a function that is common and vital to most stories. Many writers don't understand the importance of dramatic functions, or the usefulness of archetypal characters. Of course, the downside is that you can grow very attached to your characters before your plot has gelled. Other writers start with a topic or issue they want to explore. If you use either of these methods, you may not choose a main character or Story Goal until fairly late in the development process. We think you can save yourself a lot of time by working out character functions early on. Here's how this approach works ... Archetypal Characters and the Dramatic Functions They Perform An orphaned boy. A powerless uncle. An old but powerful wizard/warrior.
Dialogue Dos and Don’ts By Erin In the post Show, Don’t Tell, I mentioned dialogue as one of the ways you can “show” your reader what’s happening in a scene. Effective dialogue is an essential part of both fiction and creative nonfiction writing. Good dialogue can be tricky. It needs to move the story forward and reveal important character information without seeming artificial. It needs to seem realistic without actually being realistic. Confused? It should follow some simple grammatical rules. And here are a few dialogue don’ts: Don’t get too crazy with dialogue tags. To give you an example of what dialogue should look like here’s the opening of a short story I wrote, titled Me: “What do we do now?” The words exchanged between Kristy and Heather let us know something about their respective moods and character traits. So how can you improve your dialogue? Read. You’ll be writing dialogue like a pro before you know it! Subscribe to Receive our Articles and Exercises via Email 14 Responses to “Dialogue Dos and Don’ts”
How to Use Archetypes in Literature When Creating Characters As writers we are often concerned with creating characters: characters that seem realistic, characters that are likeable or that readers can at least relate to and understand their motivations. But creating characters isn’t easy. There’s a lot to consider: how they talk, how they look, how they act. A tool that can help you as you think about all of these aspects is the character archetype. What are character archetypes? Character archetypes are basically character profiles that outline the motivations and behaviors of different types of characters. Different kinds of archetypes Archetypal characters can be based on different things from personality profiles to archetypes in literature that exemplify different types of heroic journeys or character arcs. There are some great resources available to help you use archetypes to create characters for story. You might also like: No Related Posts
Character Archetypes and Narrative Writing Background We’re going through a unit on writing for gifted students. This series is based around the generalization “Structure increases creativity” and includes depth and complexity as well as content imperatives. The type of structure we’re incorporating into today’s lesson is character archetypes. An archetype, according to Wikipedia, is “an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated.” Character archetypes, like plot structure and themes, are a sophisticated tool that I use to push my students beyond setting, plot, and the main characters. Objective Students will identify character types based on the pattern of archetypes using a variety of stories from films, novels, and video games. Instruction To promote creativity and constructive learning, I’m going to utilize an inductive thinking model (as developed by Hilda Taba). Introduce Uncategorized Examples Encourage Categorization Initialize Categories Continue Grouping Hero