《How to Write Stories People Will Love》33. Develop Your Characters
Advertisement
, a loyal follower, recently asked me: "How do we design and develop characters, and sort out their personalities? What's the best way to understand our characters?"
When we don't project a character's personality onto a page, they seem like flat, forgettable, two-dimensional people. This might happen if you don't have a solid grasp of who your characters are and what they're like. So how do you do that? Here are a few ideas...
When you create a character using the personality of a friend or relative, you already understand what this person is like. You can predict their reactions and you won't have to rely that much on imagination to write them. Just make sure to you use a different name, haha!
Movies are full of well-rounded characters that seem real to us. Maybe you could borrow one. Someone else has already done the work for you. All you need to do is be consistent, and stay true to that personality.
You could take certain personality traits from different people and mesh them into one character. For example, maybe the character is charming and fearless like Han Solo, but curses a lot like Detective Morgan from the show Dexter.
If you do a search for "Meyers Briggs personality types", you'll discover a test you can take to determine one of sixteen personality types. A lot of writers like to use this as a base for developing their characters.
Do a search for "character development sheet" and you'll see numerous results. These worksheets make you answer questions about your character that help you figure out this person's personality. Try one!
Step into your character's shoes and start a stream of consciousness. Just start writing random thoughts while pretending to be that character. This won't go into your story, but will help you get into the role. I'll make one up right now, as an example:
Advertisement
I can't believe she said that. I mean, sure, there's a hole in my shoes and maybe they're a little scuffed, but I like them that way. It means they're comfortable. Okay, maybe sometimes dirt rolls into the shoe through the hole, and my socks get dirty. Oh man, I hate dirty socks. Which reminds me, I need to ask Mom to get me more socks. Then again... she's gonna tell me to throw away these shoes. Dammit. Maybe I should get my own socks...
There's really no point to these ramblings other than to get your brain to focus on who this character is and how she thinks. Do as much or as little of it as you like without worrying if it's any good, because it's not going into the story.
Advertisement
Evolution (Rewrite)
In a single instant, we lost everything. All the technology and progress made by the humankind stopped working. However, that was just the beginning of a new age of evolution — an era marked by battles and fighting for survival to make humanity reach the next level. To me, the end of our civilization made me realize many things. It made me realize how I was short-sighted and weak. Many people died in just a few days. And that made me understand how humankind was soft. But in the end, all my struggles were for naught. In the end, everything made me understand what I truly was. I was just a... Warning: this image doesn't belong to me
8 698Data Hoarding System
Robert lived his life like many other people on Earth, he just had a specific fear instilled within him from his love of books. Like many others, it was hard to disregard the constant negative information being doled out in every form of media. This caused him to fear the loss of knowledge and books that had provided him solace in times of need in his life. He collected and stored thousands of books ranging from web novels to college textbooks on physics. This was an irrational fear of his until the world changed and that knowledge gave him a step above everyone else.
8 124Infested
In a world where Super human powers are almost guaranteed at birth, one boy was not gifted but rather plagued with the misfortune of the """"Zero Gene"""" case. Punished and tortured by those around him, just because of his mere existence, he uses rage and anguish as a fuel to claim his revenge on those who caused him such pain.*This is my first ever fanfic; if it turns out to be bad, I will delete and try to make a new story**Strong language**Fanfic inspired by venom from marvel*
8 89Traditional Position | JJK +18
Both you and Jungkook can't disagree to the arranged marriage, how will the two of you turn out?🔞 SMUT STORY.
8 293I'Minas
After an catastrophic event, Aloris Laroth Eruvian, spends in solitude in the isles of Urtan until a primitive race of frogs and toads arrive at the shores. He takes pity at them and begins to help them achieve greater heights, not knowing that this will lead to the creation of one of the greatest civilizations on the planet.
8 152Deku X reader
~Highest ranking~#1- Bokunoheroacademia- Tuesday 9th of June 2020 till Friday 17th of July 2020
8 74