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. In addition, a fuller understanding of the character types and their uses can increase a writer’s effectiveness in weaving his own fictional tales.
Below is a list of common character types, followed by an explanation and short example. 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. In this example Ebenezer Scrooge is a dynamic character.
Copyright © Terry W. 10 Days of Character Building: A Day in the Life. This is Day 2 of 10 Days of Character Building The day in the life approach to developing a character is focused on describing a normal day in the character’s life before something important happens to change it. Most central characters begin a story in their normal world. At some point, an event happens that takes them out of their normal world and sends them on whatever journey the story has in store for them.
Until that journey begins, your characters probably have a normal routine to their day that says a great deal about who they are and how they conduct their life. The beauty of analyzing a character’s day is that there are always opportunities to delve as deeply into their actions as you want. As you assemble a person’s day you get a good idea of their traits and flaws. When approaching the daily routine, you can go a number of ways.
The Sixteen Personality Types - High-Level. ISTJ - The Duty Fulfiller Serious and quiet, interested in security and peaceful living. Extremely thorough, responsible, and dependable. Well-developed powers of concentration. Usually interested in supporting and promoting traditions and establishments. Well-organized and hard working, they work steadily towards identified goals. They can usually accomplish any task once they have set their mind to it. Click here for a detailed description of ISTJ. ISTP - The Mechanic Quiet and reserved, interested in how and why things work. Click here for a detailed description of ISTP. ISFJ - The Nurturer Quiet, kind, and conscientious. Click here for a detailed description of ISFJ.
ISFP - The Artist Quiet, serious, sensitive and kind. Click here for a detailed description of ISFP. INFJ - The Protector Quietly forceful, original, and sensitive. Click here for a detailed description of INFJ. INFP - The Idealist Quiet, reflective, and idealistic. Click here for a detailed description of INFP. 50 Questions to Ask Your Characters. It's time for another PEP rally by our guestblogger Sam. Just as a reminder, PEP stands for Productivity, Ego, and Procrastination, the three most important things to a writer after their computer or favorite pen. Even though the Rally was created to start a week off right, it can help combat the dreaded writers block any day of the week.
These tips and activities will get you moving towards that word count in no time. Well, maybe not the last one, but who said you have to be all work? Productivity One of my most difficult challenges when writing is trying to get into the mindset of my characters. Today’s productivity task is an interview to help you get a better grasp of your characterization. Name and age? Nickname? What is most noticeable about your character’s appearance/physical presence? Describe his or her voice, verbal ticks, pet phrases etc. Describe a gesture your character makes. Where does he or she now live? Has s/he lived elsewhere? What part of her home is her favourite? 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. You may find my experiences useful. For what they’re worth, here are my Do’s and Don’ts.
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? Top 10 Tricks to Make your Villain Stand Out. Welcome back to the column that breaks down gaming into what’s really important, ten things at a time! Any story arc needs a good villain. The best big bads are more than just another devil or vampire or dragon. These ten suggestions can help take your villain above and beyond the ordinary and give your players a more memorable game. 1.
Means to Power. Why do people follow this villain? 2. The villain should have a single overriding goal that drives all his or her actions. 3. Along with the goal, place concrete steps the villain needs to take to reach the goal. 4. The villain should be making progress if nobody is stopping him or her. 5. Give your villain a weakness the adventurers can figure out and exploit. 6. Avoid faceless or generic threats. 7. Make the villain’s presence known in every corner of the campaign. 8. One of the best ways to make the villain’s presence known is by reusing symbols and calling cards. 9. 10.
Powered By DT Author Box Written by loganbonner. Character Trait Chart. Character Trait Chart and Personality Components It can sometimes be helpful to make a Trait Chart for each character. This is especially helpful during the early stages of character development, before the character becomes as real to you as your mother. There are several charts of this sort available, some extremely detailed and some containing only facts and figures. I've tried to make one that includes the most important traits to help you visualize your character, both physically and emotionally. 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. Height - this doesn't need to be specific. Hair - keep in mind the character's ethnic background in assigning hair and eye color. Smell - everyone has a smell. 25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters - StumbleUpon. As storyteller, you are god. And to be frank, you’re not a particularly nice god — at least, not if you want your story to resonate with readers. A good storyteller is a crass and callous deity who treats the characters under his watchful eye like a series of troubled butt-puppets.
From this essential conflict — storyteller versus character — a story is born. (After all, that’s what a plot truly is: a character who strives to get above all the shit the storyteller dumps on his fool head.) Put differently, as a storyteller it’s your job to be a dick. It’s your job to fuck endlessly with the characters twisting beneath your thumb.
And here’s 25 ways for you to do just that. 1. Gods have avatars, mortal or semi-mortal beings that exist on earth to embody the deity’s agenda. 2. The audience and the character must know the stakes on the table — “If you don’t win this poker game, your grandmother will lose her beloved pet orangutan, Orange Julius.” 3. 4. 5. 6. This one? 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. How to Write a Character From Start to Finish. The best fiction is about a character who changes in some significant way. The selfish brute learns to put others first. The woman marrying for money decides to marry for love. The career ladder climber learns to cut back on his hours to enjoy his family. The bitter old crone learns to let others in. The independent pilot of the Millennium Falcon learns to care about a cause.
The owner of Rick’s Café Américain decides he will stick his neck out for somebody after all. We love to see characters transformed. —by Jeff Gerke Most of the time, main characters in fiction are changing for the better. But there’s also room for characters who change for the worse. Perhaps most intriguing of all is a “bad” character who flirts for a while with the idea of being good, but then decides that his true self is on the dark side of the street. Of course, not every story has to be about a character who changes. The Inner Journey The heart of this system is your main character’s inner journey. The Nexus. How to Create Good Personalities for Your Characters. Edit Article Sample Character DescriptionsCreating Personalities for Your Own Characters Edited by Secretive, Julia Maureen, Flickety, Ben Rubenstein and 19 others You're on a plane to a distant country to visit some weird old relatives you are somehow related to.
In your hands, you hold a book that your friend recommended. But wait...as you begin to read you realize that the characters are really boring! This is a typical scenario, probably familiar to a lot of readers out there. You, a writer, can help those readers by creating a story with likeable, realistic characters! Ad Steps Sample Character Descriptions Creating Personalities for Your Own Characters 1Start with a simple profile including these categories: Name, Age, Gender, and Occupation. 6Continue developing characters until your story is finished. Tips Keep the characters true to themselves. Warnings Don't copy off other characters in different, already well known books, such as Harry Potter. 3 Types of Character Arcs: Choose the Best for Your Novel. How Does Your Character Change? You know your character must change somehow over the course of your novel. But how? And more than that, how do you sync the changes with the external plot? The middle of a novel can suffer from the dreaded “sagging middle” and it’s mainly because you don’t have a firm handle on the character’s inner arc and how it meshes with external events.
I’ve found three approaches to the inner arc, each trying to laying out how the character changes. Hero’s Journey: Quest for Inner Change In the Hero’s Journey, laid out so well in Christopher Vogler’s book, The Writer’s Journey, a character receives a Call to Adventure that takes him/her out of the normal and ordinary world into a world where they must quest for something. Melanie as an Example So, we’ve got Melanie who wants more than anything else to get her mother’s approval, but can’t because her mom’s a chef and Melanie can’t cook worth a flip. Iron Sharpens Iron – Friendships Back to Melanie: Flawed Way of Coping. How to Write a Character Sketch: Learning More About Your Characters’ Motivations and Personalities.
Regardless of the type of writing you are doing, knowing who your characters are and knowing them well will add greatly to your work. Understanding your characters’ personalities through a character sketch helps you to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them. This, in turn, helps you understand what drives all of the action in your work, and the clearer this is, the easier your audiences will be able to connect with your writing. But how do you go about writing a character sketch? There are numerous ways to go about it. What follows is a look at a few different methods for exploring your characters. Interview Your Characters Perhaps the most straightforward way of getting to know who your characters are and what drives them is by asking them outright in an interview. It may seem like a very obvious or banal exercise, but even minor details will help you understand who your character is. Write a Character Monologue Write a Day-in-the-Life Character Sketch.
The Character Interview as a Writing Tool. Checklist of 17 Character Qualities. Creating Characters. Character Creation Made Easy, Pick a Personality-Method 6-MBTI Profiles | Learn to Write Fiction. CALLIHOO Writing Helps--Feelings Table. Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad. " Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings. Character Questionnaires - Get to Know Your Characters. Receive more writing tips and advice (along with special offers and other Gotham news). One of the best ways to get to know your characters is to ask questions about them.
Many writers do this as a kind of homework before they actually start writing a story. The more you know your characters, the fuller they will be. This might also make your story easier to write. The following questionnaires may be downloaded so you can work with the actual documents. Character Questionnaire 1 This questionnaire is found in Gotham Writers Workshops Writing Fiction. You might start with questions that address the basics about a character: What is your characters name? What is your characters hair color? What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have? Does your character have a birthmark? Who are your characters friends and family? Where was your character born? Where does your character go when hes angry? What is her biggest fear? Does she have a secret? Look at your characters feet. Character Creation Made Easy, Pick a Personality-Method 6-MBTI Profiles | Learn to Write Fiction. How to Create Great Characters! Character Tips How to Create Great Characters!
By Melanie Anne Phillips Creator StoryWeaver, Co-creator Dramatica Strangely enough, what makes a character “Great” has little to do with what makes a character dramatically sound. Dramatic function is part of a story’s logistic structure. No matter which kind of writer you are, you will eventually need to develop your characters’ personalities. I call this method, “Mix and Match.” More than likely, you remember a childhood toy that was a book with pictures of faces, each cut into three pieces: top, middle, and bottom.
We can apply a similar concept to character attributes and physical traits to create dynamic personalities. As an example, lets start with two ordinary, forgettable characters with only three traits each (Gender, Age, and Role) and mix and match to create more memorable characters Character #1: Male, 38, Mercenary Character #2: Female, 9, Shoplifter Pretty forgettable, right? Character #1: Female, 38, Mercenary Let’s try another swap: Let the Characters Tell the Story. 10 Ways to Make Everyone Root for Your Amoral Protagonist. Creating an Original Character.