She's Such a Character: 8 Tips for Creating Characters By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy I'm well into week two of a terrible cold, but just well enough to get something accomplished, so I'm dipping into the archives again. Here are some tips to consider when creating a character. Characters make the story. No matter how intriguing the idea or exciting the plot, if there isn't a character there we care about (even if it's just curiosity or fascination) the rest of it falls flat. There are all kinds of ways to develop characters. I'm not one of those writers. What I've found more useful, is to ask questions about my characters that pertain to their lives and how that works with the story. And if you can't answer everything, or only have vague ideas at first, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with starting a story with basic, underdeveloped characters if you need to write them to know them. Here are some things to consider when creating a character: 1. Chances are these needs will be connected to the core conflict of the story. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3.
Creating Compelling Characters 1. Make the character exceptional at something. Give your character a trait or skill that makes him or her admirable in some way. It doesn’t have to be anything over-the-top. As soon as that character is really good at something, the reader perks up. 2. This is so effective that screenwriters often use a “save the cat” scene (and the better the screenwriter, the subtler the scene) near the beginning of the screenplay to make the audience like and identify with the character. As soon as you show the character genuinely caring about the world, the reader starts to care. 3. Hands-down, one of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve ever received in my life. 4. I’m not talking about dialect or verbal tics or anything gimmicky. 5. Your characters might exist for the sake of the story…but you need to create the illusion that they don’t. But what the reader sees should be the tip of the iceberg that suggests the bulk below the water. 6. Passionate people are interesting. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Writing Killer Fight Scenes Fight scenes are dangerous territory for writers. On the surface, they seem as if they’re guaranteed to keep the reader glued to the action in the same way as they often do at the movies. In reality, though, readers tend to skip over fight scenes – skimming the long, tedious, blow-by-blow descriptions in favour of getting back to the dialogue and character-driven drama that truly engages them in the story. My novel, Traitor’s Blade, is a swashbuckling fantasy in which fight scenes are a crucial part of the storytelling. This means having to ensure that every piece of action is vital and engaging; it means that every duel must draw the reader in and not let them go until the end. GIVEAWAY: Sebastien is excited to give away a free copy of his novel to a random commenter. Column by Sebastien de Castell, who had just finished a degree in archaeology when he started work on his first job. 1. No matter what you might think, violence is actually boring. 2. 3. 4. 5. You might also like:
Character Trait Chart Character Trait Chart and Personality Components It can sometimes be helpful to make a Trait Chart for each character. 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. Address - this can be as detailed or as vague as you wish, but it should answer a few questions: does the character live in a large city, the suburbs, a small town or deep in the country? Height - this doesn't need to be specific. Weight/Body Build - again, we don't really need to know a character's exact weight, only if he or she is stocky, slender or "had a figure that . . ." Hair - keep in mind the character's ethnic background in assigning hair and eye color. Health - does your character have any health problems or weaknesses? Questions?
Seven Common Character Types Seven Common Character Types by Terry W. Ervin II Fiction writers employ a variety of characters while weaving their tales. Beyond the standard definitions of protagonist (the main character in a literary work) and antagonist (the main character or force that opposes the protagonist in a literary work), recognizing the types of characters and the parts they play while reading an interesting story can add to the experience. Confidante- someone in whom the central character confides, thus revealing the main character’s personality, thoughts, and intentions. Example: In a story, Melvin Sanders is a detective on the trail of a serial killer. In this example Chops is a confidante. Dynamic Character - a character which changes during the course of a story or novel. Example: Ebenezer Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol by Dickens, was very stingy with his money. In this example Ebenezer Scrooge is a dynamic character. In this example Louis Drud is a flat character. In this example Betty is a foil.
Creating A Great Antagonist | Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors The antagonist or antagonists of a story are often the central driving force to the story or what causes the central driving force to come into being. That being said, a lot of thought has to go into creating an antagonist, especially the central antagonist. In fact, for horror novelists such as myself, it’s often one of the first things we come up with in a story, and what we often use to describe our stories to others (ex. “an evil clown demon terrorizes a small town”, “a cult leader with horrifying dark powers and those who stand against him”, “two children fall through a doorway to a world where the demonic ruler has a terrifying interest in the young boy”) When designing antagonists (human or otherwise), there are a few things I try to keep in mind in order to make them as evil/terrifying/monstrous as possible. 1. 2. 3. And now that we’ve come up with the antagonist’s motives and who’s going to try to stop him. 4. This is basically how I design villains. Like this: Like Loading...
Character Development How to Write a Flat Character Arc, Pt. 1: The First Act Next to the positive change arc, the flat character arc is the most popular storyline. Also called the “testing arc,” the flat arc is about a character who does not change. He already has the Truth figured out in the beginning of the story, and he uses that Truth to help him overcome various external tests. The flat-arc protagonist will be confronted with tremendous opposition. …the protagonist changes his perspective, learns different skills, or gains a different role. So how exactly does this work? If you’ve hung with me for the last few months, you’re already familiar with the foundational principles of the positive change arc. The Truth the Character Believes The positive change arc is all about the Lie the Character Believes—which he will spend the entire story overcoming. This is why we often see change arcs in the first book in a series and flat arcs in the following books. The Normal World The Characteristic Moment The First Act 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
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. There aren’t any quick and easy recipes, and I don’t have one either, but I do have some things that have worked for me when creating my characters, and some things that haven’t. 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. Do start developing your character by giving him a problem, a dramatic need, a compulsion. What does the character want? Don’t rely on crutches. Do empathize with your character. This is sometimes easy.
Creating a character profile 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. The easiest way to flesh out a character is with a character profile, so get out a blank sheet of paper and follow the sample profile below. NAME: Put your characters full name - first, last, and any nicknames that he goes by. BIOGRAPHY: Write a description of your character's life; past and present. AGE: If you don't know the exact age of your character then you can put it's approximation, such as late thirties, mid-twenties etc. HEIGHT: How tall is your character? WEIGHT: You probably won't know your character's exact weight, but I'm sure you can guess its approximate one. BODY TYPE: Is he wiry and agile, or does he work out and his body is the proof? FACE TYPE: Is your character baby faced, or does he have a sharp, chiseled bone structure?
How Much of My World Do I Build? First, let me say that worldbuilding is an essential skill for every writer, regardless of genre. Not all writers need to concentrate on all areas of worldbuilding, but every writer must do some worldbuilding if he hopes to have a novel that is coherent, consistent, and real. Second, writers seem to come in three varieties — those who really have no idea what worldbuilding is or why they should bother with it; those who do know, but figure they’ll wing the details as they go; and those obsessive folks who secretly believe that they really can’t start the book until the whole planet is in place. I’ve spent time in all three camps — most of my time in the last one. The system works. It can work for you. Build only what you need; imply the rest. What do you need? A — Special physics It used to be that the only places where you might run into special physics were in SF and fantasy novels. If you require special physics, however, you must now answer the following questions. B — Organized terrain
The Worst Thing That Can Happen to Your Character This week’s video examines the advice to “think of the worst thing that can happen to your character, then make it worse.” Writers are always being told to think of the worst thing that could happen to their characters—and then to make it worse. Being something of a literalist, the first time I heard that, my original thought was something like, The worst thing? You mean like kill him? With maybe a few interpretative exceptions, death is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to any of us. So what did they have in mind? The point of this exercise is not only to up the stakes and create conflict, but more importantly to generate character growth and advance his personal arc in the story. For example, if your character is about to propose marriage to the woman he loves, his worst thing might be her discovery of a secret in his past. Tell me your opinion: What is the worst thing that could happen to your character at this point in your story?