Giving personality to a character is an essential part of character development in storytelling, whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, or creating a character for a role-playing game. Here are some steps and considerations to help you give personality to your character:
Understand Their Backstory:
Start by creating a detailed backstory for your character. Where were they born? What were their childhood experiences like? What significant events have shaped their life? Understanding their past can help you determine their motivations, fears, and desires.
2. Define Their Goals and Motivations:
Characters often become more interesting when they have clear goals and motivations. What does your character want? It could be something tangible like a job or a romantic relationship, or it could be an abstract desire like happiness or freedom.
3. Determine Their Strengths and Weaknesses:
No one is perfect, and characters should reflect this. Identify your character's strengths and weaknesses. This can include physical abilities, intellectual skills, and personality traits. Flaws can make characters relatable and three-dimensional.
4. Consider Their Personality Traits:
Think about your character's personality traits. Are they introverted or extroverted? Shy or outgoing? Kind or selfish? Create a list of traits that describe their character. You can use personality frameworks like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Big Five Personality Traits as a starting point.
5. Give Them Quirks and Habits:
Quirks and habits can make a character memorable. Do they have a specific way of speaking, a unique fashion style, or an unusual hobby? These details can help bring your character to life.
6. Explore Their Relationships:
Characters don't exist in isolation. Consider how your character interacts with others. What are their relationships like with family, friends, and enemies? These relationships can reveal a lot about their personality.
7. Show, Don't Tell:
Instead of explicitly telling the audience about your character's personality, show it through their actions, dialogue, and decisions. Let the reader or viewer infer their traits based on their behavior.
8. Create Internal Conflict:
Characters with internal conflicts are often more engaging. What inner struggles does your character face? These can be related to their goals, values, or past experiences.
9. Use Character Arcs:
Consider how your character will change or grow throughout the story. Character development is often about how a character evolves in response to the events and challenges they face.
10. Seek Inspiration:
Draw inspiration from real people, other fictional characters, or even historical figures. Study how people with similar traits and backgrounds behave to inform your character's actions and reactions.
11. Write Dialogue and Inner Monologues:
Writing dialogue and inner monologues from your character's perspective can help you get inside their head and understand their thought processes and emotions.
12. Consider the Setting:
The setting of your story can influence your character's personality. For example, a character who grows up in a war-torn environment may have a different personality than one raised in a peaceful, affluent society.
13. Revise and Refine:
Don't be afraid to revise and refine your character as you write and develop your story. Characters can evolve and change as the narrative unfolds.
Remember that well-developed characters are dynamic and multi-faceted. They should feel like real people with strengths, weaknesses, and complexities. As you write and develop your character, put yourself in their shoes and think about how they would react to various situations. This will help you create a compelling and believable personality for your character.
Part two of. They get kidnapped to the worst part of the forest of death by a little witch (ft. shrimp beastmen tribe interlude)
Part: 1 , 2 , 3
accept: to receive except: with the exclusion of
advice: recommendation (noun) advise: to recommend (verb)
adverse: unfavorable averse: opposed to
affect: to influence (verb); emotional response (noun) effect: result (noun); to cause (verb)
aisle: space between rows isle: island
allude: to make indirect reference to elude: to avoid
allusion: indirect reference illusion: false idea, misleading appearance
already: by this time all ready: fully prepared
altar: sacred platform or place alter: to change
altogether: thoroughly all together: everyone/everything in one place
a lot: a quantity; many of something allot: to divide or portion out
angel: supernatural being, good person angle: shape made by joining two straight lines
are: plural form of "to be" our: plural form of "my"
accent: pronunciation common to a region ascent: the act of rising or climbing assent: consent, agreement
assistance: help assistants: helpers
bare: nude, unadorned bear: to carry; an animal
beside: close to; next to besides: except for; in addition
boar: a wild male pig bore: to drill a hole through
board: piece of wood bored: uninterested
born: brought into life borne: past participle of "to bear" (carry)
breath: air taken in (noun) breathe: to take in air (verb)
brake: device for stopping break: destroy; make into pieces
buy: to purchase by: next to; through the agency of
canvas: heavy cloth canvass: to take a survey; a survey
capital: major city capitol: government building
choose: to pick chose: past tense of "to choose"
clothes: garments close: to shut; near cloths: pieces of fabric
coarse: rough course: path; series of lectures
complement: something that completes compliment: praise, flattery
conscience: sense of morality conscious: awake, aware
corps: regulated group corpse: dead body
council: governing body counsel: advice; to give advice
dairy: place where milk products are processed diary: personal journal
descent: downward movement dissent: disagreement
dessert: final, sweet course in a meal desert: to abandon; dry, sandy area
device: a plan; a tool or utensil devise: to create
discreet: modest, prudent behavior discrete: a separate thing, distinct
do: a verb indicating performance or execution of a task dew: water droplets condensed from air due: as a result of
dominant: commanding, controlling dominate: to control
die: to lose life; one of a pair of dice dye: to change or add color
dyeing: changing or adding color dying: losing life
elicit: to draw out illicit: illegal, forbidden
eminent: prominent imminent: about to happen
envelop: to surround (verb) envelope: container for a letter (noun)
everyday: routine, commonplace, ordinary (adj.) every day: each day, succession (adj. + noun)
fair: just, honest; a carnival; light skinned fare: money for transportation; food
farther: at a greater (measurable) distance further: in greater (non-measurable) depth
formally: conventionally, with ceremony formerly: previously
forth: forward fourth: number four in a list
gorilla: animal in ape family guerrilla: soldier specializing in surprise attacks
hear: to sense sound by ear here: in this place
heard: past tense of "to hear" herd: group of animals
hoard: a hidden fund or supply, a cache horde: a large group or crowd, swarm
hole: opening whole: complete; an entire thing
human: relating to the species homo sapiens humane: compassionate
its: possessive form of "it" it's: contraction for "it is"
knew: past tense of "know" new: fresh, not yet old
know: to comprehend no: negative
later: after a time latter: second one of two things
lead: heavy metal substance; to guide led: past tense of "to lead"
lessen: to decrease lesson: something learned and/or taught
lightning: storm-related electricity lightening: making lighter
loose: unbound, not tightly fastened lose: to misplace
maybe: perhaps (adv.) may be: might be (verb)
meat: animal flesh meet: to encounter mete: to measure; to distribute
medal: a flat disk stamped with a design meddle: to interfere, intrude metal: a hard organic substance mettle: courage, spirit, energy
miner: a worker in a mine minor: underage person (noun); less important (adj.)
moral: distinguishing right from wrong; lesson of a fable or story morale: attitude or outlook usually of a group
passed: past tense of "to pass" past: at a previous time
patience: putting up with annoyances patients: people under medical care
peace: absence of war piece: part of a whole; musical arrangement
peak: point, pinnacle, maximum peek: to peer through or look furtively pique: fit of resentment, feeling of wounded vanity
pedal: the foot lever of a bicycle or car petal: a flower segment peddle: to sell
personal: intimate; owned by a person personnel: employees
plain: simple, unadorned plane: to shave wood; aircraft (noun)
precede: to come before proceed: to continue
presence: attendance; being at hand presents: gifts
principal: foremost (adj.); administrator of a school (noun) principle: moral conviction, basic truth
quiet: silent, calm quite: very
rain: water drops falling; to fall like rain reign: to rule rein: strap to control an animal (noun); to guide or control (verb)
raise: to lift up raze: to tear down
rational: having reason or understanding rationale: principles of opinion, beliefs
respectfully: with respect respectively: in that order
reverend: title given to clergy; deserving respect reverent: worshipful
right: correct; opposite of left rite: ritual or ceremony write: to put words on paper
road: path rode: past tense of "to ride"
scene: place of an action; segment of a play seen: viewed; past participle of "to see"
sense: perception, understanding since: measurement of past time; because
sight: scene, view, picture site: place, location cite: to document or quote (verb)
stationary: standing still stationery: writing paper
straight: unbending strait: narrow or confining; a waterway
taught: past tense of "to teach" taut: tight
than: used to introduce second element; compared to then: at that time; next
their: possessive form of "they" there: in that place they’re: contraction for "they are"
through: finished; into and out of threw: past tense of "to throw" thorough: complete
to: toward too: also; very (used to show emphasis) two: number following one
track: course, road tract: pamphlet; plot of ground
waist: midsection of the body waste: discarded material; to squander
waive: forgo, renounce wave: flutter, move back and forth
weak: not strong week: seven days
weather: climatic condition whether: if wether: a neutered male sheep
where: in which place were: past tense of "to be"
which: one of a group witch: female sorcerer
whose: possessive for "of who" who’s: contraction for "who is"
your: possessive for "of you" you’re: contraction for "you are" yore: time long past
commonly confused words part 2
It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?
Xianle Quartet being besties on the adult bluesky acct.
This is maybe the prettiest Xie Lian I've done. And it's...in this ridiculous porn thing lmao ; ; I like them all getting along :)
(You have to adjust your filters in your bluesky acct on desktop in order to see adult stuff, btw).
My not-adult acct is here, btw.
Drawing bases & pose references pt 74 🫶
3 extra drawings for patrons!
ok ok so the idea of a camp au has been floating around in my head forever and at this point i just need to put pen to paper! now i’ve never been to camp so keep that in mind. and god only knows if this will become an actual fleshed out fic or a WIP that will collect dust in my drive forever-
anyways, it's called Camp Spruce Trails (get it, Spruce Trails, ST?) and I'm imagining this au is still set in the mid 80s, but none of the upside down stuff happens ya know? or maybe upside down stuff happens while they're at camp? but i'm kind of leaning towards letting these guys have a normal childhood-
the camp itself is your classic 6 week sleepaway camp, there’s canoeing, arts and crafts, knot tying, competitions, campfires, etc. going to camp is a borderline religious tradition for The Party and they will do everything in their power to make sure they attend. one of their favorite parts of camp, is the staff:
Argyle Franco: 17, Kitchen, he isn’t huge with the kids but Jonathan convinced him to apply for the job, fridays are always pizza nights, he keeps to himself usually but cheers on his favorite campers during their games
Robin Buckley: 18, Blue Cabin Counselor, frazzled 24/7 but trying her best, wears the handmade jewelry from her campers like it’s made of gold, knows all the camp songs by heart, cries when camp ends, no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of ‘84
Nancy Wheeler: 18, Yellow Cabin Counselor, by the books and her campers know that, but they still have fun, always excels in the art competitions (much to Billy’s dismay), she's the most strict counselor however she takes great pride in her ability to get all the campers in bed by lights out
Jonathan Byers: 18, Groundskeeper(?), no one really knows his exact job title, he just sort of shows up every summer and nobody says anything, he fixes leaky pipes, kitchen appliances, pulls weeds, whatever needs done, he helps out a lot in the art cabin though
Steve Harrington: 19, Green Cabin Counselor, mostly stable but the coffee rings stained into his clipboard are telling, tries to be the "cool counselor", and if you stay on his good side you’ll be fine, however he will not hesitate to drag your ass to the office and call your parents if you step out of line
Billy Hargrove: 19, Red Cabin Counselor, parents hate him, but his campers are loyal, they demolish every single athletic competition, stole Eddie’s whistle (now annoys everyone with it), also no longer allowed in the kitchen after the incident of '84
Eddie Munson: 20, Lifeguard, but he sort of pokes his head in wherever he pleases, was deemed unfit to be a camp counselor so they stuck him as lifeguard, plays guitar around the campfire at night, multiple writes up for smoking on the job
if i were to flesh this out more into a full au fic (or more realistically, a series of ficlets??) you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a giant love hexagon thing that will be going on as a subplot to the camp activities. i'm not even a huge multi-shipper or anything but picture it: Nancy asks Robin to watch her campers for a minute so she can go flirt with Jonathan? yeah sure why not. Nancy gets back and finds Robin sulking cause she's jealous? i'm sure Nancy would be happy to cheer Robin up with a kiss! Eddie and Argyle bump into each other smoking behind the shed? oh whoops my finger slipped and now they're shot gunning a joint. Steve find's Billy and Eddie chilling at Skull Rock? well shit now all three of 'em are making out a la Challengers.
First it was a few classes because of a lost dare, but then those few turned into a usual thing for him.
In fact, he got so into it that even his rogues, when they realized it was almost time for his Ballet lessons, would pause the fight and make sure he went. The young half-ghost was, in their opinion, far too tense and stressed, and if they wanted to make sure he was in top form for fighting then he needed a hobby.
Regular Ballet lessons turned into competitions.
Competitions turned into him being scouted.
And while he never, ever expected this path for himself, at the age of twenty-four he became one of the best Danseurs in the country.
He's also a registered meta, but only because when he dances he gets so into it that some of his ghostly features leak over to his appearance.
Floating white hair, eyes shifting from blue to green in the lights, slightly pointed ears; costume designers adore him.
So it's no surprise that he has his fair share of stalkers.
This is where John Constantine comes in, because someone just tried to send a very nasty curse to Danny, and they need to find out who.
Song that inspired this idea here
Bleeding:
Blood is warm. if blood is cold, you’re really fucking feverish or the person is dead. it’s only sticky after it coagulates.
It smells! like iron, obv, but very metallic. heavy blood loss has a really potent smell, someone will notice.
Unless in a state of shock or fight-flight mode, a character will know they’re bleeding. stop with the ‘i didn’t even feel it’ yeah you did. drowsiness, confusion, pale complexion, nausea, clumsiness, and memory loss are symptoms to include.
blood flow ebbs. sometimes it’s really gushin’, other times it’s a trickle. could be the same wound at different points.
it’s slow. use this to your advantage! more sad writer times hehehe.
Stab wounds:
I have been mildly impaled with rebar on an occasion, so let me explain from experience. being stabbed is bizarre af. your body is soft. you can squish it, feel it jiggle when you move. whatever just stabbed you? not jiggly. it feels stiff and numb after the pain fades. often, stab wounds lead to nerve damage. hands, arms, feet, neck, all have more motor nerve clusters than the torso. fingers may go numb or useless if a tendon is nicked.
also, bleeding takes FOREVER to stop, as mentioned above.
if the wound has an exit wound, like a bullet clean through or a spear through the whole limb, DONT REMOVE THE OBJECT. character will die. leave it, bandage around it. could be a good opportunity for some touchy touchy :)
whump writers - good opportunity for caretaker angst and fluff w/ trying to manhandle whumpee into a good position to access both sites
Concussion:
despite the amnesia and confusion, people ain’t that articulate. even if they’re mumbling about how much they love (person) - if that’s ur trope - or a secret, it’s gonna make no sense. garbled nonsense, no full sentences, just a coupla words here and there.
if the concussion is mild, they’re gonna feel fine. until….bam! out like a light. kinda funny to witness, but also a good time for some caretaking fluff.
Fever:
you die at 110F. no 'oh no his fever is 120F!! ahhh!“ no his fever is 0F because he’s fucking dead. you lose consciousness around 103, sometimes less if it’s a child. brain damage occurs at over 104.
ACTUAL SYMPTOMS:
sluggishness
seizures (severe)
inability to speak clearly
feeling chilly/shivering
nausea
pain
delirium
symptoms increase as fever rises. slow build that secret sickness! feverish people can be irritable, maybe a bit of sass followed by some hurt/comfort. never hurt anybody.
ALSO about fevers - they absolutely can cause hallucinations. Sometimes these alter memory and future memory processing. they're scary shit guys.
fevers are a big deal! bad shit can happen! milk that till its dry (chill out) and get some good hurt/comfort whumpee shit.
keep writing u sadistic nerds xox love you
ALSO I FORGOT LEMME ADD ON:
YOU DIE AT 85F
sorry I forgot. at that point for a sustained period of time you're too cold to survive.
pt 2
also please stop traumadumping in the notes/tags, that's not the point of this post. it's really upsetting to see on my feed, so i'm muting the notifs for this post. if you have a question about this post, dm me, but i don't want a constant influx of traumatic stories. xox
Thinking about that prompt i found on TikTok about faking your death and then coming back and knocking on your best friend's door like nothing happened.
That but make Steve fake his own death accidentally, so he is clueless why Robin is freaking out when he goes to visit her.
(with a side of Steve going feral a la Jonh Wick and Die Hard over his car, i'm so normal about this, so normal, it's not like i use this like an oportunity to make a b99 reference, pff, Gertie who??? )
Like, i know nothing about witness protection and how faking your death would work, but, but- let's use our imagination.
Steve's father being a lawyer and messing with someone he shouldn't have. He ends up dead and because of this, the cops think they could go after Steve too.
Which, true, Steve has an accident that destroys his car (RIP BMW, I love you, but this is for plot reasons, you would be missed), so now he has to be under witness protection.
Steve, like the ball of repressed trauma and anger issues that he is, decides that the best thing to do is go after the people who destroyed his car, a la John Wick; because:
Going after them to avenge his father: no, thank you.
Going after them to avenge his car: yes, let me go for my bat.
That without forgetting to leave a cryptic message to Eddie's and Robin's voicemail.
While Steve is having his own action movie with handling the 'mob' and cops that kinda want to help, kinda don't care; the rest of the Party is freaking out because "WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO ONE INVITED HIM TO SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH SOMEONE AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN HIS CAR WAS FOUND IN THE QUARRY???".
Dustin asks Robin if something happened with Steve during christmas, like kissing under the mistletoe or something, only for Robin to say she didn't invite him because Eddie did, but Eddie hears that and goes, "Uh, no? I chicken out; I thought you would invite him after I didn't."
They asking around if someone invited Steve because it's kind of public knowledge that his parents suck, but no one did, and he hasn't come to the Party's Christmas party yet, so he's probably mad at them.
But Eddie and Robin are having a Bad Feeling™ because of the voicemails, and Hopper is being called to identify a car that it was found in the quarry that morning.
And Hopper knows that car, he has seen that car since Steve was a dumb teenager that got his parties busted by the chief. He hasn't seen Steve for a while. He wasn't at the christmas party. Where was he again?
The Party still isn't in the know, but Hopper is already looking for Steve but he can't find him and-
Remember that i told you Steve was in witness protection? Well, i think sometimes they fake their deaths, i'm not sure, but this is the perfect oportunity and cover to pretend that Steve died.
So the government uses it, and The Party doesn't know because different branch of the government and all that.
When Hopper founds out he doesn't know how to tell the other that Steve had an accident and they are still looking for him in the quarry; but they already know, they used Dustin's cerebro to find out what was going on.
Everyone is devastaded, and then, Eddie and Robin hear their voicemail again only to bring out that maybe it wasn't an accident, that maybe Steve did it on porpose.
And grief, pain, mourning, sadness, anger. Just a lot of feelings.
Meanwhile, Steve is kicking ass and using the Bad Guys™ headquarters like his own personal rage room.
Blablabla something something something.
Steve let out his anger, has a few personal realisations, lets himself think about the trauma he's endured all those years and comes back like a new person, ready to confess his feelings for Eddie Munson and let people care about him.
The first thing is go talk with Robin, she's probably worried about him and she probably knows better than him to help him confess to Eddie.
So he goes, only to be utterly confuse by the amount of tears, snot, yells and hugs that Robin welcomes him. It's not like he died.
Then Robin is flabbergasted by his Audacity.
Both of them fall into a bickering that makes Robin cry harder because she thought she wouldn't have this again and Steve starts to cry because Robin is crying and now they're both crying.
Needless to say, they catch up about all the things that happened in both ends.
It's not the end of tears, hugs and yelling, though.
Just give Steve all the confort that he refused to accept because he didn't think he deserved and that people didn't know how to give.
Fluff, Fluffy, Fluff. A bit of Steddie here.
Yeah, that's all.
Welcome to my page! This is were I keep the cats, books, and dimension-traveling characters!
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