Questions tagged [characters]
Questions that involve people in a work of fiction, including character development, motivations, design, points of view, and representation.
1,007
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Good character personality types to balance a group dynamic?
I’m working on a story involving a central quartet of characters. Though I have a concept for the fourth of these, they don’t have a set personality and I would like to have them balance out the ...
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2answers
113 views
What are some tricks you can use to write a good story if you don't know how people talk and behave?
What are some tricks you can use to write a good story if you don't know how people talk and behave? Are there some tips and tricks on how to be able to still write a good story if you try to avoid ...
2
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1answer
79 views
How can the relationship between two characters develop or heal if one is obstinate in refusing to talk?
How can the relationship between two characters develop or heal if one is obstinate in refusing to talk? Trying to find a reason why a girl who refuses to talk to anyone or socialize, might go back to ...
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3answers
105 views
How do you write a character with goes from A to Z and back to A realistically?
How do you write a character with goes from A to Z and back to A realistically? Let's say the characters is extremely in love, then wants to murder the person she was in love with and then go back to ...
2
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1answer
70 views
Name for characters not physically in a story
Is there a technical name for a character that is mentioned by name but is never present in a story?
For example, a parent who is discussed by their children and still alive but has no screen time ...
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3answers
96 views
How to write a character as vulnerable yet capable?
So I have a character who is often very vulnerable. She's easily scared, put down, and often fails at what she's trying to do. But there are a lot of times when she gets serious (particularly in ...
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0answers
39 views
How do you make a character feel real?
how do you make a character feel like an actual person and not just a character that you're reading on a page? I'm aware that they should have likes/dislikes, flaws, a dialect, etc. But what else ...
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24 views
Is adding too many people/characters to a story bad? [duplicate]
im building a world for a screenplay and i would like to have some main characters I have already made some character profiles for some of them but i was wondering whether or not if adding too many ...
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4answers
81 views
Is adding too many people/characters to a story bad?
im building a world for a screenplay and i would like to have some main characters I have already made some character profiles for some of them but i was wondering whether or not if adding too many ...
1
vote
2answers
89 views
How to make human characters turned into monsters devolve and abandon their humanity?
TL;DR: How can I psychologically justify why relatively normal (i.e., non-sociopathic) human beings that have turned into monsters (like vampires or werewolves) devolve into feral beasts or vicious ...
4
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1answer
141 views
Skin Tone Spectrum Glossary
I have a number of folks who aren't beige in my current novel and I'm trying to come up with more precise yet poetic names for the skin tones.
Is there a glossary of the skin tone spectrum ranging ...
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2answers
85 views
How do I accurately write a prologue, which also works as a character introduction chapter?
I'm in the process of writing my prologue for my book, but it's going to also introduce the main characters. Long story short, the main Character, Devoss, goes into a magical forest to prove himself, ...
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1answer
64 views
Can I have three main characters, each with their own love interest, in the same book?
I am plotting a book which has three main characters. And I want each one of these characters to have a love interest so the focus won't be on just one of them. So can I do that or is it too much and ...
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2answers
119 views
What makes a character’s death meaningful?
With my book reaching a climax, there’s always a evil idea circulating through my head: Time to butcher up one of the characters.
But something is preventing me getting the right words and feeling in ...
7
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4answers
167 views
How do I describe an accent from our world in a non-Earth fictional world?
In my writing, I feel it can give a character distinction if they have an accent; our main character(s) have an American accent, but the newly-introduced one of them has an Irish accent.
My problem, ...
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1answer
98 views
How do I describe a transformation? [closed]
In my story, my main character, a young man named Irian in an industrial human society, is captured, and transformed by merfolk into one of their kind (very standard merfolk, his legs are replaced ...
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3answers
1k views
How do I give characters logical reasons to be with each other?
It's an annoying problem with writing - I've got a bunch of characters that I've written, how do I keep them together for the adventure I want them to go on?
In some stories, this can be quite ...
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1answer
63 views
How can I write an authentic depressed character? [duplicate]
I'm currently rewriting a novel in which the main character is depressed. They have their friends pass on, most of their life is miserable, and they don’t have anyone to turn to.
My question is, how ...
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2answers
90 views
How do you give an extroverted protagonist a dynamic character arc and make it interesting?
When looking through various stories I have often noticed that stories with dynamic protagonists are often introverted and shy in some way. More specifically, I've noted that writing an introverted ...
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3answers
53 views
How can I show characters dealing with rejection?
From my own experience reaction to rejection is very internal. I'm having troubles with coming up with actions that rejected people do, that would be perfect description for what they feel. It would ...
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4answers
145 views
How do you write a character that has a different worldview than your own?
I'm trying to figure out how to write a character that has a radically different worldview from my own while still keeping it logically consistent. I know there are a lot of questions about how to ...
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2answers
113 views
How to make the main character fall in love with the love interest? [closed]
So I'm new to writing stories and I have thought about the plot too, it's about a girl who gets a chance to work in another country (She's a physiotherapist).She visits their and her patient is an old ...
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1answer
88 views
What are ways to develop a leadership character arc or a character becoming an unexpected leader? [closed]
Good morning! I have a character in my novel who I would like to start out as unsure of her place in the group but develops into one of the leaders if not the leader.
The setting is post-apocalyptic ...
1
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1answer
93 views
Dissociative Identity Disorder or Schizophrenia?
I have a ten-year-old character, called Theodore, who suffers from mental disorders. He one night unconsciously kills his twin brother, Matthews, by smothering him with a pillow. Unaware of his deeds, ...
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3answers
158 views
How to avoid using "she" repetitively in action?
I really like to write but I have a problem. I am starting to write about and I want to make it mostly in 3rd person, but I don't know if I can do that and not repeat the prounon she or he a lot.
I ...
3
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3answers
172 views
Writing confusion in a character who transports to a new world without sounding annoying
I'm writing a fantasy story in which a character accidentally travels into an unfamiliar fantasy coded world. However, I'm finding it difficult to find the voice for this character during this ...
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2answers
123 views
How to write believable characters of professions I'm not familiar with?
I'm quite familiar with certain groups of people. In my career I often dealt with scientists, actors and artists. Therefore I'm quite confident describing such people in my stories. I am familiar with ...
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1answer
61 views
Novel character description [closed]
I am trying to describe a male main character that grew up in a less friendly family. Can I say he is a cold and quiet introvert or less engaged?
3
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2answers
138 views
When writing an American Indian character, how to ensure an accurate and sensitive portrayal as a cultural outsider?
(Similar question can be found here, but I think mine is broader in scope, as that question only asks about names.)
Background
I've been tinkering away at a few of my short story ideas with a friend ...
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1answer
94 views
Writing a speech about a fictional character [closed]
I don't have a story or plot or anything, but I want to write a speech about an important fictional character. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do this. I don't really know how to come up with the ...
1
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1answer
49 views
Writing ideas for regrets someone would have after death and how to overcome them [closed]
Not completely sure if this is the right place for this question, but I had an idea for a story involving teens that have died with regrets/undealt with trauma being sent to an "afterlife" ...
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2answers
103 views
Writing scenes where everything goes absurdly wrong?
I'm writing a short story where a mysterious rich man has just died and his friends are gathering to find out his will. The dead man was quite eccentric and wanted to send them all on a wild goose ...
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2answers
105 views
When a new character speaks, do you describe them in the same paragraph, or in a new paragraph?
I'm making my own book, but I'm not sure what to do in the following situation:
If you were to write a line of dialogue when introducing a new character, then describe the same character, do you ...
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4answers
83 views
How to avoid making the romance in your novel predictable? [duplicate]
I'm currently writing a YA novel, and one of my sublots is a romance between the protagonist (A) and another supporting character (B). I introduce the two to each other early on, and they start out as ...
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0answers
62 views
How to make the main character and a vital person to story meet?
So for my story the main character has to meet a friend who will help them survive. However my problem is the main character is distrusting and the friend is very cautious and a bit selfish. Sort of ...
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2answers
110 views
How can I balance a male character saving his love interest without making the female seem incompetent (and vice versa)?
Stories for many, many years made frequent use of the damsel in distress trope, where female characters are depicted as needing men to save them in big, dramatic displays. People eventually realized ...
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5answers
140 views
How to write characters with identities and experiences different from your own?
I am currently writing about six teenagers during their senior year at an American high school. I am struggling to write authentic experiences for characters whom I do not share the same identity.
One ...
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1answer
89 views
How would you describe a character that is ‘dogmatic’ without referring to religion or politics?
I am trying to develop a character who has a very rigid world view but I want to use more than just a single adjective to bring out this character’s “quality”. I also do not want to inject any ...
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4answers
285 views
Should you avoid introducing characters that talk one time and never talk again?
Should you avoid introducing characters that talk one time and never talk again? I wrote a scene in a chapter where the main characters talks to a technician, and then the technician is never seen ...
2
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3answers
175 views
How best to write an anxious character?
A character is shy, anxious, anti-social, nervous, etc. So, when speaking, she often pauses or makes noises like “uhm”, err”, “uhh”, etc. I’m asking a couple questions:
What would be the best way to ...
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3answers
112 views
Should I jump right into the story without MC introduction?
I'm writing a crime story. Basically it begins with a friend of the main character asking him for a meeting and then introducing the case to him.
What I would like to do is to show something about the ...
2
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2answers
179 views
How do I create OC's that I don't hate?
Before I start with writing my story, I would of course like to have some OC's (original characters --ones not taken from an existing work). I am struggling to make OC's that I don't hate. I somehow ...
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3answers
1k views
How to decide how far my antagonist is willing to go?
in my short story the antagonist is someone confident and street-smart who is hiding their gambling addiction from a friend staying with them, as they are looking to take advantage of their friend (...
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0answers
83 views
Should I give a character POV scenes just to establish that they are cheating on a main character?
I have a character that is a love interest that cheats on one of the main characters (3rd-person POV). Should I write his POV for the cheating scenes to show the reader what is happening? It is the ...
2
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4answers
140 views
How can I keep a spy character portrayed as competent and yet have interactions between protagonist and antagonist?
I have a character that is a spy, and part of their job is sneaking around and getting into places without being noticed. However, in order to have conflict in the plot, have characters interacting to ...
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95 views
Deciding potential scenes and keeping the tension in my short story
To give some background, my short story is written from the perspective of person K. His school friend A (they are both in their mid-twenties now) invites him to stay in Vegas for a short time, and K ...
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2answers
134 views
Could my character avoid going crazy?
I wasn’t sure where to put this question so forgive me if it isn’t in the right place. Anyway, I have a character who might go crazy, the thing is, I don’t want her to. She is arrested for treason and ...
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3answers
145 views
How do you write character development in later entries of a series after relationships become established?
When starting a series there is initially a lot of fertile ground for storytelling because the characters don't know each other very well and are still establishing an equilibrium. As a result, there ...
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2answers
120 views
How would authorities handle a disappearance caused by paranormal means?
A story of mine starts with a character disappearing in his radio studio while on air.
Nobody else was in the building with him.
A pair of sunglasses that he always kept in his shirt pocket was the ...
1
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1answer
139 views
In a canon divergent fanfiction should tertiary characters be OC or canon?
I am thinking of writing an X-Men fanfiction, but I believe my query could apply to fanfiction set in any long running work with a large number of characters.
My fanfiction will concentrate on the New ...
