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bomberqueen17:
A friend is getting into writing, apparently, and was asking for advice on character development. As it happens, not only do I have a degree in creative writing, but character development is my specialty. So, What Builds Character?
The number one thing that drives my writing is that, at all times, I know whose point of view a scene is from. Even crack fic vignettes. (If you read the girl scout bullshit, even those, where it is pretty much immaterial but I can’t not do it.) If your point of view is omniscient, that counts. You need to be aware of that, and either show or hide things accordingly.
Certain characters will notice certain things and not others. A female character, for example, in a story set in this culture, will notice on some level what another woman is wearing, especially if it has functional pockets, while a man is more likely only to notice whether she is dressed attractively or not.
So the most concise way, I think, to develop a character is to consider what that character will notice. What makes up their world? How tall are they? Are they stronger or weaker, generally, than those around them? Are they in chronic pain or do they have any unique experiences, either traumatic or positive, that make them notice particular things?
As the author, you have to notice literally everything, but resist the temptation to put it in if it is not something any of your characters would notice. You have to know and keep track of it without showing off that knowledge. This is why I know so much weird shit about random things. Your character isn’t going to give a speech about the nuances of porcelain figure collecting, for example, but if you’re going to have porcelain collectibles in the story you’d better know all there is to know, and decide how much of that your character knows, so that any minor details you include don’t contradict anything. (You would be ASTONISHED about what sorts of things your audience will wind up caring about. But, apart from that, the details this allows you to put in wind up making the world a lot richer, and the richer the world is the easier it is for the characters to show more depth by interacting with it.)
Apart from that you can fill out personality quizzes and memes while in-character all you like, those certainly help— boxers or briefs, big spoon or little spoon, eat the last piece of pie or save it, step on cracks or skip them, sleep sprawled or in a ball, which one stays up late working and which carries the other to bed, that sort of thing. But what it really boils down to is what makes up their world, what they notice and what influences them, and whether they admit it to themselves or not, what affects how they interact with the world.
(Your picture was not posted)
bomberqueen17:
A friend is getting into writing, apparently, and was asking for advice on character development. As it happens, not only do I have a degree in creative writing, but character development is my specialty. So, What Builds Character?
The number one thing that drives my writing is that, at all times, I know whose point of view a scene is from. Even crack fic vignettes. (If you read the girl scout bullshit, even those, where it is pretty much immaterial but I can’t not do it.) If your point of view is omniscient, that counts. You need to be aware of that, and either show or hide things accordingly.
Certain characters will notice certain things and not others. A female character, for example, in a story set in this culture, will notice on some level what another woman is wearing, especially if it has functional pockets, while a man is more likely only to notice whether she is dressed attractively or not.
So the most concise way, I think, to develop a character is to consider what that character will notice. What makes up their world? How tall are they? Are they stronger or weaker, generally, than those around them? Are they in chronic pain or do they have any unique experiences, either traumatic or positive, that make them notice particular things?
As the author, you have to notice literally everything, but resist the temptation to put it in if it is not something any of your characters would notice. You have to know and keep track of it without showing off that knowledge. This is why I know so much weird shit about random things. Your character isn’t going to give a speech about the nuances of porcelain figure collecting, for example, but if you’re going to have porcelain collectibles in the story you’d better know all there is to know, and decide how much of that your character knows, so that any minor details you include don’t contradict anything. (You would be ASTONISHED about what sorts of things your audience will wind up caring about. But, apart from that, the details this allows you to put in wind up making the world a lot richer, and the richer the world is the easier it is for the characters to show more depth by interacting with it.)
Apart from that you can fill out personality quizzes and memes while in-character all you like, those certainly help— boxers or briefs, big spoon or little spoon, eat the last piece of pie or save it, step on cracks or skip them, sleep sprawled or in a ball, which one stays up late working and which carries the other to bed, that sort of thing. But what it really boils down to is what makes up their world, what they notice and what influences them, and whether they admit it to themselves or not, what affects how they interact with the world.
(Your picture was not posted)
