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Pastel's Technique On Character Personality



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Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:51 am
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PastelSlushie says...



Okay, let's admit - writing a a character with a personality that is balanced with an even amount of flaws and good traits isn't very easy. But never fear, Pastel is here with a not so good strategy on writing character personalities, but I think it's passable because it's mine.

What I like to do is get the looks set down before anything. To me, character looks sort of let out some of their personality. I pay attention to small details in their looks - their stance, their slouch, and the wrinkles in their clothes. Maybe even how often they roll their eyes or cross their arms. It lets out bits and pieces with what kind of a person they are without fully knowing the character yet.

When I get the looks down, I also like to take one good trait and one bad trait of MY personality, and I add it the the character, and go on from there. It makes said character a lot easier to write for me, and the question: "What would my character do in this situation?" can be answered somewhat easier.

Also, a question to anyone reading this - is this a good technique?
  





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Tue Aug 15, 2017 9:55 pm
Kale says...



It's hard to say. What type of works do you use this method for? Because I can see this working wonderfully well for more visual media like comics, games, and animations.
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Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:44 pm
PastelSlushie says...



I'm actually using this method for the novel I'm currently writing, but I introduced it to my friend who writes comics for a hobby and she says it works great.
  





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Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:13 pm
Rosendorn says...



How much focus do you put on the "why" they look the way they do and how they behave, and how to you organize it?
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Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:51 am
PastelSlushie says...



The amount of focus I put on each character matters on their significance. If they're a main character or antagonist, I focus on their personalities and looks the most, because they're going to stick around the whole book. But if a character I'm working on has little to none importance to the story, I don't focus much on it, I may even rush a little, because they're only going to be featured in one or two chapters.

Organizing kind of depends on you, but what I like to do is take a piece of paper, usually from a sketch book, and I draw said character. After finishing line work and coloring, I take a smaller piece of paper, maybe half of a piece of notebook paper, and write down all their information. The smaller piece of appear gets stapled to the drawing of the character, and then I usually put it in a folder or set it somewhere for later.
  





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Wed Aug 16, 2017 5:20 am
Rosendorn says...



I think you might be doing something you haven't quite written down, which is pretty significant and really clever. You're basically tying their appearance to their "defaults", so to speak.

It's a useful technique to generate a person's norms so long as you approach their behaviour and dressing styles as indications of elements of their personality. Just simply generating a visual of the person won't necessarily get you anywhere, but having somebody prefer a certain type of dress because they have certain traits (like somebody who feels self conscious always wearing long sleeves) does help create a strong sense of who they are.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:17 am
Virgil says...



How a person dresses can tell a lot about them! There are multiple reasons that a person may wear a Dreamcatcher T-shirt or even multiple reasons that somebody may wear a T-shirt over long sleeves. Is the character comfortable showing skin? Is the character not comfortable for whatever reason showing skin? This can also show if the character is casual or dresses a bit more business-ready or if they're one to care about the shoe brand they're wearing.

What's important is that you're actually pondering on these questions--maybe make a sheet of them that you're able to print out or answer before drawing? Just a suggestion but yes, I can see this being effective (for the reasons that Rosendorn explained and especially for the medias that Kyll talked about but also writing).

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