Questions tagged [character-development]
Anything pertaining to developing the details associated with characters in your writing.
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How do I get my writing to be more thrilling?
I started writing not too long ago, but I've been struggling to actually make the readers get into the reading. I've been told that my writings are too "straightforward" or "too direct&...
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Writing multiple main characters, who end up being the same person at the end. Need advice
So what started as an attempt to write a memoir, I found myself struggling to commit to just one underlying theme. I also found writing about myself in different time periods, it felt as though I was ...
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How can I make my character slowly fall in love with someone that already likes them?
I want to have one of my characters slowly fall in love with a boy who has liked her from the start, but I'm not sure how to
Show that he likes her but not make it too obvious
and
make her slowly ...
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I need some help polishing my protagonist's motivations
I'm writing a survival horror story that's a mixture between Bloodborne and The Last of Us. The story follows an emotionally distant woman and a physically disabled child as they trek through a world ...
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Who should be the antagonist when my novel is meant to be educational?
I am writing a science fantasy novel, but I think I should re-write it completely. Let me explain the situation.
Here's the concept of my novel: The story takes place in an alternate world where a ...
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How do you write a magician as a character?
How would you describe a magician and his tricks? What would his daily routine look like?
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Is it possible to write a character that remains mysterious until the very end without sacrificing character development?
Is it possible to write a character that remains mysterious until the very end without sacrificing character development?
I was thinking you can't do it to a main character, so I thought about an evil ...
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Is it possible to make characters who are neurotic, who have low agreableness, low conscientiousness, low extraversion likeable?
Is it possible to make characters who are neurotic, who have low agreeableness, low conscientiousness, low extraversion likeable?
I thought the only way to do this is to find something that the reader ...
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Why is it bad to use a side character merely as a plot device?
I was writing a mystery novel about a detective who is investigating a murder case. The detective has a partner, who is a side character in the story. The partner is not given much of a personality or ...
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Does it make sense to kill a character in the middle of a character arc, or in order to not finish the character arc?
Does it make sense to kill a character in the middle of a character arc, or in order to not finish the character arc? If you notice that a character arc is forcing yourself to write yourself into a ...
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Are indoctrinated characters villains or victims?
I have a half-animal, half-human hybrid character who gets indoctrinated into a Nazi-like group of other half-animal hybrids who hate humans and want for them to be extinct.
She's a child when this ...
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How to write from the perspective of a neurodivergent character?
I’m stalled in writing the second novel in my series because I’m stuck on how to present the antagonist. I have an outline of his character, and know what happens, but I don’t know how to write from ...
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Portraying recovery from trauma in the right way
How do I show a character going from being unhinged as he gets desperate to heal and isolate himself from his trauma (yes, this happens) to actually healing from it?
My story features people who are ...
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When should you reveal the motivations of a villain?
A common mistake in creative writing is to create a villain without a clear motivation for their actions. Every villain should have a reason for their behavior, even if it is not a justifiable one. ...
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I have inadvertently made my character depressed... what should I do about it?
I have inadvertently made my character depressed. She's a minor character in my science-fantasy novel, and exists to tie together some of the plot lines.
As I wrote her, this 18yo woman turned out to ...
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How to write someone who wants desperately to have emotional bonds but pushes others away because they feel they don't deserve it?
So, the viewpoint and main character in my novel is a character who had a very bad beginning. Born as a slave, she was torn from her parents and subjected to many horrors, few of which I elaborate on, ...
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How could I write a tragic, depressed character without making them completely unbearable/hateable?
In the middle of my epic, the deutertagonist's love interest gets brutally killed off and she is forced to watch. For the third quarter of the story, she is trying to deal with the pain and trauma.
...
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How to have subtext with a character who's blunt, direct and straightforward?
I know what makes dialogue interesting is what characters don't say as much as (or more than) what they do. How do I achieve this with a character who prides herself on 'saying it like it is', and not ...
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Is it ok to make characters fit unique and parodic archetypes?
Is it ok to make characters fit unique and parodic archetypes, especially when trying to write a dark, gritty and realistic story? I was watching a video on the famous film director Akira Kurosawa, ...
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Is it more challenging to write a good story where the gods are too powerful when they're not the main characters?
Is it more challenging to write a good story where the gods are too powerful when they're not the main characters?
I don't think I've ever heard of a good story where the gods are omnipotent and they'...
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Can I make an irredeemable character likeable?
In my fantasy epic, the protagonist is a destined chosen one who will defeat the dark lord (at least that is what the sorcerer propaganda says.) About 3/4 into the story, he eventually meets the ...
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Can your character gain crucial knowledge off-screen?
Can your character gain crucial knowledge off-screen? Let's say your character is a young adult and doesn't know anything about geopolitics, and then there's a 2 year time skip and he's a ruler with a ...
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How do I show character development in a subtle and natural way?
I'm writing a 4-6 book series, with a female in her late 20s as the protagonist. It's in first person, and I'm struggling to think of how to show her development without having to spell it out and it ...
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How do I balance a strong narrative and the option of multiple choices?
I am currently writing a story for an RPG I will make. For this RPG, it is supposed to be a sandbox and open-world game. It also gives the player multiple choices and pathways as they play, giving it ...
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How can I further develop this warrior fantasy story of mine?
My fantasy story is about an 18-year old knight who was trained from 5-years old to 18-years old as a knight. He is an expert when it comes to using a two-handed double-edged longsword as a weapon. He ...
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How do you write a complex, multi dimensional hedonistic character
Exactly as the title says. Getting really caught on how to write a detailed hedonsitic character who derives pleasure from ?kind of? immoral things; copious amounts of sex and drugs, killing etc. I ...
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How to write a character that has a speech disorder (stuttering)?
A friend and I are writing a manga, and there is this mc(main character) that is having the speech disorder - she stutters.
Writing the question directly to avoid confusion.
Afterwards providing some ...
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How do you write a perfect AI character with no human emotion while making it a dramatic character?
https://youtu.be/4BxfV1sBRJs?t=195
“In order for your character to evolve in a positive way, he has to
start out with something lacking in his life, some reason that makes
the change necessary. He is ...
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Can I write from the point of view of a mentally unstable main character?
The main character of my novel is suffering from depression which resulted in shock and she has attempted suicide twice already. All of this has made her unbalanced mentally. I was wondering if I can ...
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Is it necessary to describe a character's physical appearance in a novel
I am writing a novel and I realized that I did not describe any of my characters, like practically, no reader would be able to place or imagine the character which I feel is not right. That is why I ...
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Writing a short-term love interest
In the epic I am writing, the protagonist and deuteragonist are sent on a mission by a king to save his daughter kidnapped by mercenaries of the evil empire. They save her, but the deuteragonist ...
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Is it a bad thing if there's no character development whatsoever within the first half of a novel?
Is it a bad thing if there's no character development whatsoever within the first half of a novel? In my novel, there's this character who's just living alone and doesn't really interact with anyone ...
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Properly writing characters with Dissociative Identity Disorder
In my story for a game, one of the main antagonists has Dissocistive Identity Disorder. His alters are already written, but I am asking for some advice on how to properly portrayed a character with ...
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How do you resolve and address a conflict that escalated quickly and should you even address it?
How do you resolve and address a conflict that escalated quickly and should you even address it?
I wrote a scene and on re-reading it, it didn't make sense and just distracted the readers from the ...
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What are the things that need to change and what is the minimum amount of change necessary for character development to be satisfying?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSY43NNZdUI
What are the things that need to change and what is the minimum amount of change necessary for character development to be satisfying? The person ...
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How late can a deuteragonist be added into the story?
In the fantasy epic I am writing, there is a deuteragonist that eventually becomes best friends with the protagonist. Unfortunately, due to the length of the epic as a whole, she is introduced way ...
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Is there a name for someone who doesn't drink alcohol besides a teetotaler?
I'm creating a character who's father was an alchoholic and he is deathly afraid of becoming one as well. He abstains from alcohol completely and never will try it.
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How do you come up with conflict for a powerful character?
As I understand it, conflict means presenting a character with an obstacle that he can only overcome through change. The problem is that I can't think of such a thing. Nearly all conflict that comes ...
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Establishing a villain based directly on a medical condition or other misfortune
Let us suppose that one certain villain's motives and actions can be mostly explained by a particular medical condition or other misfortune. Consider a tyrant who commits atrocities due to mental ...
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Properly writing satire/parodies
For a while, there were many good satires/parodies, such as Naked Gun, Hot Shots, and the early Scary movie films. However, we see them beginning more in decline, and also the rise of so many terrible ...
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Making a character not too hateable
In my story, the protagonist is made as a destined chosen one to defeat the dark lord. He is not this "good" angel, but rather a murderous anti-hero. While he undergoes character development ...
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Handling extremely long narratives
For a video game I will make in the future, I am for now trying to write out the entire story for it. However, it ended up being an extremely long fantasy epic. For all the events, story arcs, and ...
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How to trick the reader of a character's sexuality
For my story, I am trying to write a mystery on the protagonist's sexuality. Throughout the story, there are subtle hints that he is either bisexual or gay, whether either past relationships or ...
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What questions do you ask yourself to get inspiration?
A lot of writers talk about how you can't wait for inspiration to hit, you have to just sit down and write. That's fine and all, but I can't just sit down and write without a method to attack my ...
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How do I give more positive traits to my overly flawed protagonist?
Not too long ago, I showed a character bio that gave a rundown of my web novel's protagonist on a writing Discord server that I frequent. One of my fellow writers had this to say about my bio:
You ...
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Is there a time and reason to make a character simplistic?
George Martin said he wants to rewrite Viserys since in the shows he's more complex and less simplistic than in the books.
That got me thinking whether it makes sense to make a character a lot more ...
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Is it OK to have a main character without a goal?
Is it OK to have a main character without a goal? I was told that a good protagonist needs to have a strong goal. It's considered to be a common mistake among aspiring writers. This seems to happen ...
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How do you make an emotionless and detached character likeable?
How do you make an emotionless and detached character likeable? I was told that the character Galadriel from The Rings Of Power is unlikeable, because she's too strong and too cold and smug. So I was ...
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How to write unique arcs for the same character over a series?
I apologize that this question is inherently vague; I am still in the very early stages of planning a series and don't have many details to offer as of yet.
One of the things that irks me most about ...
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How to write effective parallel juxtaposing character arcs?
TW; suicide, self harm
I have two characters, one being the Protagonist and the other being her Sidekick. They both have their own character arcs through my story that are somewhat similar — enough ...
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