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tips on displaying personality



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Fri Mar 20, 2015 6:16 am
horrendous says...



one problem that i've struggled with in my career as a hobbyist writer is communicating character personalities. when i write a character for the first time, i have a hard time delving deep into their psyche's and usually just give them a generic personality that fits their purpose in the story.

i've heard that writing character sheets is a good way to solve this issue, but that's not what i'm looking for. i would rather spend time learning a character's personality as i write them, instead of brainstorming for hours on end, which makes me lose interest in writing pretty fast.

so basically my question is a two-parter: what is an effective way (besides character sheets) to develop a character's personality, and what are some effective ways to convey a character's personality in writing?
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Fri Mar 20, 2015 6:31 am
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Snoink says...



One of the ways that helps me is to put the character into a tricky situation at the get-go. They'll have to somehow make their way out of the situation, which will force them to be strong -- or not be strong. Either way, it shows you who they are.
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Fri Mar 20, 2015 11:59 am
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Apricity says...



I am incredibly tired right now, but I can't resist this.

Portraying character personalities can be considered as a fine art in novel writing. Different writers have different ways to develop their characters and let their personalities show, no one can tell you which one will work. That you will have to discover for yourself. I personally dislike character profile sheets, they are good for background information which may lead onto personality. However, the qualities you write down on so called templates are superficial qualities that the majority of the population share. You want to share qualities that makes that individual them and no one else.


I think you will find this link to be most helpful. I did. It answers your question in great detail, provides wonderful tips and gives you further resources to research upon. Keep one thing in mind though, in order for your character to have a personality that shines, the character itself have to be realistic. The article above already gives you many tips on how to do exactly that, however extra resources can never hurt.

Warning though, I take no account of any danger if you decided to explore beyond the link.


Dialogue is also one of the best ways to convey a character's personality when used well. I have no doubt that you've judged someone based on the way they speak, things such as their tone, their articulation and their facial expression all contribute to it. However, use with care. Dialogue when used badly or in the wrong context and end up disastrous.

This article gives you the 'do's and 'don't's, focusing more on the technical aspects of dialogue. You'll be surprised at how a simple tag can affect the entire dialogue.

This article here gives you a delightful breakdown on how to portray the character's emotions well.


I hope I've helped in some way, one more note, if you haven't already. You should definitely pay the writing tutorials section a visit. You will find many great tutorials and articles on all aspects of writing, and another great site for writing advice is Writer's Digest.

Best of luck in your writing journey.
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Sat Mar 21, 2015 4:14 am
Prokaryote says...



To put in principle what Snoink said: Conflict reveals character. Without conflict, there is no character.

Conflict = want + obstacle + (emotionally-driven) action.
  





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Sat Mar 21, 2015 6:30 am
Kale says...



Writing short, character-driven standalone stories is another way to develop characters. These stories can have absolutely no relation to the main story, and basically, they're a great way to apply and explore the traits you've attributed to your characters with the help of a whole bunch of different conflicts. And since these stories don't necessarily have anything to do with the main story, you can have a lot of fun with the conflicts.

Something I like to do is introduce something that's impossible in the character's viewpoint or setting and see what happens. Sometimes the characters are aware that the something is impossible; sometimes they aren't. Sometimes they care a whole lot about it being impossible, to the point of fixating on it; sometimes, they don't care at all about the impossibility, and are more focused on dealing with the problems the something has caused them.

Impossible situations and how characters react to them are interesting to write and can really showcase a character's unique perspectives, and you sometimes get a scene you can incorporate into the main story as an added bonus.
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Wed May 13, 2015 3:08 pm
Octaclepassing says...



Character personality matter in stories. Most people have to associate with someone.
When I write a character I have as an archetype or symbolizes their state in the story. Maybe you could incorporate it like that in one way. You must have their emotions and the way they handle things as well as having their own flawed matters stuck in a situation. I always start with how the image of the character is than the story. It answers on the question: who are they? Usually I experiment since most people want good characters and good story but I always focus on their inner struggles and psyche. They're lost. They have to figure themselves out. It's distorting to them. You could use stream of consciousness to demonstrate their thoughts and as a writer you could flesh them out to the reader so they could connect what they are first before even going into the story. It's an artistic move. Classic films do this, as the director focuses on the person's inner persona rather than any major plot from the outside.

You create a soul, create the world of their own in their outside and inside. Dream worlds of which they dream of, and their handling of the reality. They have dual realities. Fill in the mind of theirs or better yet make them aware of these problems they have present. I not saying it should be a psychological story but have them in their inner emotions of types or how reality is pushing them off. Experimentally create. If you like writing that much, then I'd suggest to NEVER repeat what others did. Always find a way that makes it original. Keep that in mind, because cliche characters are something you would never want. So when making a character personality, make them stand apart from others, iconic in a way. It's a way to be diverse if one must make a unique creation.
  








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