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Hab… how… how skirt pleat?? I always try that trick that always gets passed to artist when drawing ruffles and skirts but they always just look like an up angle and my brain simply cannot fathom how to get it at any other angle =w=

pretty sure I just use the exact same method most people do but I tried drawing some different angles lol

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How to Flesh Out a Character

In my post about the role of each draft, I mentioned how draft 1-2 is about figuring out who your characters are. For me, writing actual scenes are the best way to figure out how a character ticks outside of what I’ve written about their objectives and goals. It breathes life into them. So how do you do that?

1. Explore the different areas in their life

Even if you think you probably won’t keep a scene, you can still write it in your early drafts. In fact, my first and second draft tends to be the longest out of all of them. That’s because I add in scenes where my characters visit family, or explore their hometown, or talk to other characters and form friendships that don’t make the final cut.

This is all to explore who they are with different people and in different situations. While their job may not be relevant to the plot, write a scene with them in the workplace. Who are they there? Do they enjoy it? That will all be uncovered when you start writing.

Remember their personal life (what they do for hobbies, joys, to relax, etc.)

Social life (friends and family, who do they hang out with, what do they do with these people?)

Work life (where do they work, do they like it, what are they working towards?)

2. Test out their voice

My first draft characters have voices that are constantly changing, and usually the final voice they land on comes from snippets from this draft. As you write dialogue scenes, try out different options for how they say things and what they say until you can start hearing them clearly in your head and it becomes more apparent.

3. Force them to make weird decisions

Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but for the first draft, that’s okay. Put your characters in odd situations—what’s the weirdest direction the next scene could take? Take it there. Characters reveal themselves through conflict and the decisions they’re forced to make, so force them to make difficult decisions.

A good game to have your characters play together is “would you rather”, where you present them with a series of unimaginable scenarios and force them to choose one or the other.

4. Write scenes several times

Try out different ways it could go—all the ways your character may react. Keep trying until you find one that feels the most right, that’s a great indication of who your character is meant to be.

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I made a Room Building tutorial! Lemme know if it helps! 🧡

Tip me here| Commission info here!

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Revising some of my horse drawing tips pages, starting with necks!

Corrected some muscle names and added more explanation/ method.

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Character is Plot

Character is plot. I mean that as, your main character’s arc is (literally) the main plot. Every story revolves around a character (or several)--the point is their journey, how the conflicts they overcome will change them and their world, and their growth as a person.

This also means if your characters aren’t working, the whole thing is going to fall apart. So here's how we learned to create solid characters in screenwriting that also give you an arc (and thus, a plot):

There’s five critical things that go into character building: Goal, Objective, Unconscious Need, Disrupting Characteristic, and a Formative Event.

Objective:

What your character is physically doing throughout the story. Frodo taking the ring to Mordor is his Objective, Rapunzel going to see the lanterns in Tangled. Mulan protecting her dad by taking his place. Essentially, objective is what we’ve thought of as plot.

Goal:

The intention behind the objective. Why is your character doing this? This is usually the emotional core of the story, where we tuck away arc and characterization.

Rapunzel wants to see the lanterns to finally get out and start her life. Mulan wants to prove she’s worthy. Your character wants to make someone proud, or hurt someone who’s hurt them, or feel loved. This is the emotion behind their objective and cannot on its own be turned into an arc. One cannot ‘prove themselves worthy’ out of a void, that’s the goal, you also need an objective, ‘prove themselves worthy through taking their father’s place in the war’.

Unconscious need:

Unconscious meaning your character doesn’t realize it, couldn’t put it into words, and Definitely doesn’t say it out loud. Need, is the start of how to answer this blank space. Your character needs to realize something they haven’t been aware of to achieve their goal. Or they need to realize a flaw in their goal.

For example, a woman wants to run for president (objective) to make her mother proud (goal), but she needs to realize all her mother wants is to spend more time with her, and by using all her time to campaign for president, she’s actually splitting them further apart. Mulan needs to internalize that she doesn't have to be bigger than life to make her parents proud of her and bring them honor.

Your need is character specific, which means no one else should need the same thing. If your need can apply to multiple people, you probably didn’t get specific enough. Everyone needs to be loved, everyone needs to feel cared for. However, not everyone closed themselves off from relationships and needs to open up to people if they want to foster a connection. See the difference?

Disrupting Characteristic

This step is adding a flaw to your character, specifically, it’s the flaw that’s holding them back from meeting their need. If there was nothing holding them back, wouldn’t they be satisfied already?

If they need to see their father as he truly is, maybe their disrupting characteristic is that they’re optimistic to a fault. This characteristic could be a thing the character does (idolizes their father, acts fiercely independent, etc.) or a belief they have about themselves or the world (self conscious, believes humans are inherently cruel, etc.)

The disrupting characteristic is the internal arc your character goes through, they are working and being challenged throughout the story to overcome this characteristic.

Formative Event

This is essentially your beginnings of backstory. The formative event Is the (usually) singular event in a character’s past that made them to be who they are today—importantly, that developed their need and disrupting characteristic.

So, their arc is to overcome their disrupting characteristic in order to realize their need through the conflict they face from their objective. This challenges their overall goal, which was created by their formative event.

Make sense?

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90s Faye Wong. Like if you agree.

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Faye Wong｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

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Ruin Explorers 1995

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FIRST LOVE: HATSUKOI 初恋 (2022) dir. Yuri Kanchiku

𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘫𝘪𝘨𝘴𝘢𝘸 𝘱𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘭𝘦. 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺.. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘈 𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳. 𝘈 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 "𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳." 𝘈 𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘈 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦. 𝘈 𝘱𝘰𝘱 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦. 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥. 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧��� 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸... 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶?

—Yae Noguchi

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BugBug No. 21 (April 1995)

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Magical Angel Sweet Mint (1990)

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Retro Nihon Falcom characters from promotional art