Rebloogwriting - Blog Posts

Reblog because I must

Could you please give me something like a list of things that need to be determined about a character, more than just age, height, gender and things like that, please i need like a list of as many as possible 💕💕💕 your blog is a miracle

I will try my best. This is a list I usually try to conform to (but I have it stored in my head, rather than as a physical list, so apologies if it doesn’t make much sense…!):

Character motivation. What are they doing? Why are they doing it?

Backstory. What happened before their debut in the story?

Greatest fear. Speaks for itself; what do they fear most?

Relationships with other characters. Who do they like? Who do they not like? Who opposes them? Who helps them? Who are they related to (by blood, or circumstance)?

Main personality traits. Positive ones, and negative ones.

Moral limits. What will they absolutely not do? What would they consider doing to meet their goal?

Attitudes/Opinions. What are the main issues in your story’s world, and what is this character’s opinion on it? How do they behave towards other characters, based on their opinions of them? Who or what do they consider to be below them? What behaviours do they choose to do or not do, which gives them a sense of importance/self-esteem (i.e. being tee-total, going to church every Sunday w/o fail, always adopting pets, rather than buying them, etc)?

Abilities. Either magical, or non-magical depending on your setting. What are they best at? What are they not so good at?

Speaking skills/conventions. How do they sound when they speak? What is their vocabulary like? How do they manage/behave in everyday conversations?

Education. According to your world’s standards, how educated is the character?

Family. How were they brought up? What was their family situation like?

Friendships. Which friendships do they value the most? How many friends do they have? How easily can they make friends?

Sexual/romantic relationships. How many relationships has the character committed to? Can they commit to relationships? How do they behave when in a relationship? How do they feel about other people’s relationships?

Work. What do they think about work? What kind of work would they like to do? What kind of work are they doing? If the character is a student, then consider their work ethic, their favourite subjects, etc.

Sense of self. What is your character’s self-image like? How do they feel about themselves? What do they think about themselves in relation to other people (i.e. how do they compare themselves to somebody else?).

Health. Speaks for itself; what is this character’s health like? In the past, in the present, and in the future?

Housekeeping. How do they live, in an everyday setting? Are they tidy, or messy? What things do they consider to be necessary to a daily routine, and what things do they consistently forget about/deem to be unimportant?

Politics. How they view society, and what should be done in a ‘civil’ society. What they think of their world’s politics. How they might ‘class’ themselves.

Religion. Their views on life, death, and creation. Their understanding of their ‘purpose’, or their beliefs in how everything came to be.

Tastes. In fashion, food, and anything else you might think of.

I hope this helps, Anon! Maybe some of our followers might reblog this and add extra things, or you might think of extra things you can add yourself. Feel free to do so, if this is the case!

- enlee

Reblog for future reference

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.

Reblog because it must!

the suffering never ends