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.
World Building 101 World Building 101 by Lee Masterson You are the ultimate creator of your fictional world. No matter where or when your story is set, regardless of what events unfold, and despite the characters you introduce to your readers, they are all products of your unique imagination. "But I write romance set in the present time," I hear you cry. It doesn't matter whether your story is set in 16th century Middle Europe, or the 28th century Altarian star-system, your story still belongs in a world created entirely by you. The good news is you still get your chance to put on your megalomaniac's hat and play God! Regardless of where (or when) your story is set, YOU have decided your characters' destinies for them. But there's a whole lot more to world-building than simply creating a nice backdrop for your characters to parade against. In short, the fictional world your characters live in must seem plausible to your readers. Ask yourself these things about your characters and your story: -
Thousands of FANTASY NAMES - fairy, gnomes, elves, goblins, mystical, magic demons, vampires, witches, dragons, beasts, pirates, creatures, giants, monsters, heroes, hippies, gypsies, clowns, Sailormoon, Jungle Book, Disney, James Bond ... endless! NAMES OF CHARACTERS IN THE OZ BOOKS Our wonderful list of exciting names - some you've probably forgotten! NAMES OF CHARACTERS IN PEANUTS Our list of characters from the Charles M. Schulz comic strip Peanuts MAGIC NAMES This is a huge list of mystic cat names, but easily adapt to use for other pets. MAGIC FAIRY NAMESSimply type in your first and last names and this wonderful site will generate a fairy name for you! FAERY NAMES Our own wonderful list of beautiful names, descriptive and alphabetical. MAGICAL CELTIC/GAELIC NAMES Great list of Celtic/Gaelic names, male & female, with their magical meaning FAIRY & OTHER SPIRITS Long list of names and definitions FOLKLORE MYTHOLOGY Creatures, spirits, demons, characters, etc. from all parts of the world. FAERY NAMESAn extensive list with wonderful description and detail. FAIRY NAMES Not many here, but very pretty! FAIRY NAMES AND MEANINGS Long list of names including the origin & spirit & elements J.R.R. RAVEN NAMES A list of strong names
Magical World Builder's Guide By, Stephanie Cottrell Bryant The Magical World Builder's Guide is a tool for creating a fantasy universe. Although there are several good guidebooks to creating a science fiction world, few deal with the quintessential elements of a fantasy realm. This guide ambitiously attempts to help fantasy authors discover their realms long before they sit down to the keyboard and fill in the details. In addition, I've written a much-beloved 30 Days of World Building tutorial designed to help you hit the ground running with your world building in just a few minutes a day. By popular demand, you can now download the Magical WorldBuilder Guide in three easy-to-carry (non-DRM) formats:PDF for printing out at home or reading on a computerePub for use with many fine ereader devicesMOBI for use with Kindles and MobiPocket software. Fantasy, like all fiction, is a function of the imagination. In another classic fantasy example, Ursula K. Basic World-Building For basic world-building, start with a map.
The Art of Description The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life by Anne Marble Return to Setting & Description · Print/Mobile-Friendly Version Description is something that gets in the way of many authors. Why? Well, because it's so darn hard to write. And no wonder. If you're not very accomplished at writing description, then sometimes you might want to avoid writing it. At the same time, some writers err in the other direction, including too much description. How bad is bad description? Avoid Huge Lumps of Description In the past, authors could get away with including long, detailed descriptions in their stories. Unless they're seeking out writers known for lyrical descriptive passages, today's readers wouldn't put up with that sort of thing. Of course there are authors who, even in today's marketplace, can get away with pages and pages of description. Make Description an Active Part of the Story How did I come up with that line? Describe What Your Characters Would Notice
Internet Sacred Text Archive Home Readability Test Contents Readability Tests Gunning Fog, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid are reading level algorithms that can be helpful in determining how readable your content is. Reading level algorithms only provide a rough guide, as they tend to reward short sentences made up of short words. [Back to the contents] Test the Readability of a Website Interpreting the Results This service analyses the readability of all rendered content. Philip Chalmers of Benefit from IT provided the following typical Fog Index scores, to help ascertain the readability of documents. Gunning-Fog Index The following is the algorithm to determine the Gunning-Fog index. Calculate the average number of words you use per sentence.Calculate the percentage of difficult words in the sample (words with three or more syllables).Add the totals together, and multiply the sum by 0.4.Algorithm: (average_words_sentence + number_words_three_syllables_plus) * 0.4 Flesch Reading Ease Flesch-Kincaid grade level Reading Level Algorithms
Creating the Perfect Setting - Part I It was a dark and stormy night... This is one of the most ridiculed openings, not because once upon a time it didn't work, but because too many people have written their own version of it. And yet setting, the weather, landscape, the opening scene, can often lay out the feel and tone of a book brilliantly, and create an instant context, often a time-stamp, a fixed point which helps the reader find the correct emotional stance to absorb the work. The first I heard of the beach was in Bangkok, on the Khao San Road. Khao San Road was backpacker land. Note here that we don't just get setting but also information, some explicit, but a lot implicit. As David Lodge pointed out in The Art of Fiction, a distinctive sense of place was not always a feature of prose fiction. Unfortunately, the first thing some writers did was to overwhelm the reader with masses of descriptive detail, often using description only as a warm-up to the rest of the book. Fog everywhere. Writers have to think of setting.
Short Story Ideas - Home scriptygoddess