SWOT: Characters, Archs And Conflicts

SWOT: characters, archs and conflicts

If you’re in business, you’ve probably heard of SWOTs: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It’s meant to analyze other players in your field (i.e. your competitors) and to define future steps to improve your own business.

I have slightly modified this idea to build characters, to give them archs and to make up conflicts with other characters.

1. Strength

Let’s say you decide your character is enthousiastic, always gives 100% in any situation. That’s a strength, right? It means your character is overall a dependable person, and agreeable to be around.

Now write a scene in which you introduce this character without explicitly telling the reader about their personality. How would you notice such a character trait in real-life people? How does it show in your character?

2. Opportunities

Opportunities can arise for people who are happy to take on the work, when they prove themselves to be a good friend (“Can you pick up my mom from the airport?”) or when their boss sees how much they get done in a day.

Write a second scene, in which your characters reaps the rewards for their character trait.

3. Conflicts

I will rephrase “Threaths” as “Conflicts”. For your character, who is the most annoying or dangerous kind of person? Someone who is the opposite of them. This doesn’t have to be big, it can show in small details.

For your hands-on character, this could mean a colleague who does the bare minimum and gets away with it. Or a family member who never gives a helping hand. A class mate who is too chill about group assignments.

Can you see how this will get under your character’s skin? Write a scene in which your character’s personality contrasts with that of another character. Will they confront the other person or will they let it stew? The way they deal with this conclict shows the reader a lot about your character.

4. Weakness

How can this character trait turn into a weakness? When is this character trait not the best strategy? A quick trick is to imagine how other characters react to it.

Maybe your character’s hands-on mentality means they sometimes forget to take other people into account, even when they mean to help that other person. (“Thanks for painting my new fence, but I didn’t want it white, I wanted to keep it natural.”) Maybe their enthousiasm means they are too blunt, and they unwillingly hurt other people’s feelings. Maybe they even lose friends over it. Maybe always giving 100% makes your character wear thin. Maybe people take advantage of them.

See how the fortress is crumbling? Write a scene in which your character shows a bad side of themselves or gets into trouble because of their character trait.

5. Your story

The early part of your story is a good time to show the strenghts of your character, and next they move into the opportunities. Everything is going so well, people value them for their worth, oh happy day! Wouldn’t it be a shame if they encounter a conflict… And another, and another.

Maybe circumstances in your story push your character to reveal their character trait in a more extreme way than they would have done if they had the time to think before reacting. Maybe your character is the only one with this character trait in a majority of conflicting personalities.

After a number of conflicts, your character’s weakness grows, internally and externally. How will this evolve? Will they learn from their conflicts? Will they make amends? Find people who do value them as they are? Accept their true self? Learn how to prioritize?

And there’s your story.

You’ve got this! Now go write!

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.

Tag list below the cut. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.

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PROOF IN CASE YOU NEED IT

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ajkiranwrites

2 years ago

Vocabulary • Word List

Hand-to-Hand Combat

❈

⟼ assault

⟼ attack

⟼ backfist

⟼ batter

⟼ bash

⟼ beat

⟼ bite

⟼ box

⟼ break

⟼ bruise

⟼ charge

⟼ choke

⟼ clobber

⟼ clock

⟼ clout

⟼ crush

⟼ dodge

⟼ ear clap

⟼ elbow strike

⟼ eye strike

⟼ flick

⟼ grapple

⟼ hook

⟼ impact

⟼ injure

⟼ jab

⟼ jump

⟼ kick

⟼ knock

⟼ leap

⟼ lunge

⟼ maul

⟼ mug

⟼ overhand

⟼ pinch

⟼ pound

⟼ pummel

⟼ punch

⟼ push

⟼ scratch

⟼ shove

⟼ slam

⟼ slap

⟼ slug

⟼ smack

⟼ smash

⟼ spar

⟼ strike

⟼ stun

⟼ sucker punch

⟼ swat

⟼ swing

⟼ trap

⟼ trounce

⟼ uppercut

⟼ wallop

⟼ whack

⟼ whale

⟼ whop

⟼ wrestle

Tags

writeblr writing writing tips story ideas fighting novel writing story writing writing fight scenes writing fiction writing description

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ajkiranwrites

1 year ago

anyone else write in the dark like a gremlin?? lol

Tags

welcome to my lair can i offer you some WIPs and incoherent screeching

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ajkiranwrites

2 years ago

Me in the shower: *plans the paragraphs, dialogues and words i'll write for my WIP as soon as i'm done bathing*

Me as soon as i get out:

Tags

writing writing memes writer struggles

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ajkiranwrites

1 year ago

What's really in that witch's cauldron?

Folk names for herbs

Ass' Ear- Comfrey

Bat's Wing- Holly Leaves

Beard Of Monk- Chicory

Bear's Foot- Lady's Mantle

Bird's Eye- Germander or Speedwell

Blind Eyes- Poppy

Blood From a Head- Lupine

Blood Of Ares- Purslane

Blood Of Hestia- Chamomile

Bloody Fingers- Foxglove

Calf's Snout- Snapdragon

Cat's Foot- Ground Ivy

Crow's Foot- Wood Anemone

Devil's Ear- Jack In The Pulpit

Devil's Plaything- Yarrow

Dew Of the Sea- Rosemary

Dog's Mouth- Snapdragon

Dragon's Teeth- Vervain

Elf Leaf- Lavender

Englishman's Foot- Common Plantain

Fairy Eggs- Nutmeg

Flower Of Death- Vinca

Goose Tongue- Lemon Balm

Graveyard Dust- Mullein

Hawk's Heart- Wormwood

Juno's Tears- Vervain

Jupiter's Beard- Sempervivums

Lion's Foot- Lady's Mantle

Little Faces- Viola

Man's Bile- Turnip Sap

Mortification Root- Rose of Sharyn

Nose Of Turtle- Turtlehead, Chelone

Nosebleed- Yarrow

Our Lady's Tears- Lily Of The Valley

Old Man's Flannel- Mullein

Ram's Head- Valerian

Scale Of Dragon- Tarragon

Semen Of Ares- White Clover

Semen Of Hermes- Dill

Serpent's Tongue- Dog's Tooth Violet

Sparrow's Tongue- Knotweed

Tree Of Doom- Elder

Unicorn Root- Boneset

Weasel Snout- Yellow Archangel

Wool Of Bat- Moss

Body Parts as Plants:

Eye- Blossom or Seed

Heart- Bud or Seed

Beak, Bill or Nose- Seed, Bud or Bloom

Tongue or Teeth- Petal or Leaf

Head- Blossom

Tail- Stem

Hair- Dried Herbs or Stringy Parts Of Herbs

Privates, Genitals Or Semen- Seeds Or Sap

Blood- Sap

Guts- Roots or Stalk

Paw, Foot, Leg, Wing or Toe- Leaves

Animals as Plants:

Toad- Sage

Cat- Catmint

Dog- Grasses, Specifically Couchgrass

Frog- Cinquefoil

Eagle- Wild Garlic

Blue Jay- Laurel

Hawk- Hawkweed

Lamb-Wild Lettuce

Nightengale- Hops

Rat- Valerian

Weasel- Rue

Woodpecker- Peony

I borrowed this from:

davesgarden.com

Please Pass Me The Eye Of Newt; What's Really In That Witch's Cauldron - Dave's Garden

Bird's Eye. Calf's Snout, Eye Of Newt and Hair Of Baboon sound more like byproducts of a bizarre slaughterhouse, than contents of a spice ra

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ajkiranwrites

4 months ago

A lot of fiction these days reads as if—as I saw Peter Raleigh put it the other day, and as I’ve discussed it before—the author is trying to describe a video playing in their mind. Often there is little or no interiority. Scenes play out in “real time” without summary. First-person POV stories describe things the character can’t see, but a distant camera could. There’s an overemphasis on characters’ outfits and facial expressions, including my personal pet peeve: the “reaction shot round-up” in which we get a description of every character’s reaction to something as if a camera was cutting between sitcom actors.

When I talk with other creative writing professors, we all seem to agree that interiority is disappearing. Even in first-person POV stories, younger writers often skip describing their character’s hopes, dreams, fears, thoughts, memories, or reactions. This trend is hardly limited to young writers though. I was speaking to an editor yesterday who agreed interiority has largely vanished from commercial fiction, and I think you increasingly notice its absence even in works shelved as “literary fiction.” When interiority does appear on the page, it is often brief and redundant with the dialogue and action. All of this is a great shame. Interiority is perhaps the prime example of an advantage prose as a medium holds over other artforms.

fascinated by this article, "Turning Off the TV in Your Mind," about the influences of visual narratives on writing prose narratives. i def notice the two things i excerpted above in fanfic, which i guess makes even more sense as most of the fic i read is for tv and film. i will also be thinking about its discussion of time in prose - i think that's something i often struggle with and i will try to be more conscious of the differences between screen and page next time i'm writing.

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ajkiranwrites

1 month ago

i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point

348K notes View Post

ajkiranwrites

2 years ago