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Writing character
Do you want to write a better book? Do you want characters that stay with your reader until they can't put the book down? Then build your characters until you know them as well as you know your closest friend, spouse, or child.
The best way to do this is, to write your character out on paper using ten to fifteen character traits or more. The more you know about him or her the better you will be at knowing what he or she will do in any given situation.
For example: what would your character do if he walked into the bank and it was being held up?
maybe this character's sheet looks like this :
age
gender
physical appearance
personality
job
childhood notes
parents names
education
prison record
nationality
and after you fill it out you realize this character is a young Asian man who has been known to have a hair-trigger temper and has even served time. Maybe he came from the mean streets in China or other place, and his parents were strict disciplinarians who beat him.
Now what about that bank robbery? Now what will he do?
This makes a huge difference, right?
Play with your own list and write characters out on paper. Learn who they are and you will always know what they will do.
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| An organized approach, I have never done anything like this. My writing is more of a go with a flow type thing. I think I don't like to know my characters, when I am writing they tell me what they're doing, and I learn more about them the more I write. I know that doesn't make sense, but it does to me. |
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An interesting organised approach. Most of what I write is semi-autobiographical to some extent so I already know them well, even if I ascribe real time diffrences to them in terms of status, job, relationsheps etc.
One good way of getting to grips with personality and aimimg for consistency and understanding why different ppl do diffrent things in the same circumstances is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, which you can take free online. It is based on the Myers Briggs Type Test. This gives clues in terms of four major dimensions of personality.
Once you have personality sorted you can look at needs ...S.T.E.P.
Superior e.g. social, spiritual, political, philosophical. e.g. values
Thinking, cognitive, how ppl go figure and make sense of the world.
Emotional, how ppl connect, needs for attachment etc.
Physical, sex, hunger, basic needs.
When you understand the interaction between needs and personality you have a degree of consistency in appreciating MOTIVATION, why your characters do the things they do.
All the rest is opportunity e.g. plot, what happens. |
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