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how to write characters that feel like real people and not NPCs in your brain

You ever read a book and think “this character would survive maybe five minutes in a real conversation”? Yeah. Let’s avoid that. Here’s how to make your fictional friends feel real:

everyone wants something

Even if it’s small. Even if it’s stupid. Every character—from your MC to the one-line barista—should want something. A promotion. Revenge. A nap. World domination. That want shapes how they act.

give them contradictions

Humans are messy. Let your characters be brave and terrified, kind but petty, loyal but deeply in denial. That tension? That’s where the magic lives.

let them make bad choices

If your character is right all the time, they’re either boring or a liar. People mess up. Let your character mess up in ways that feel true to them, not just to move the plot.

interior life > cool dialogue

Quippy one-liners are fun, but what’s going on underneath? What are they afraid to say out loud? What thoughts would they take to the grave? That’s what makes a character feel alive.

how do they show emotion?

Not everyone cries when sad. Some get mean. Some go quiet. Some rearrange their bookshelves obsessively. Find their emotional language.

backstory = spice, not soup

You don’t need a 12-page trauma dump to make a character real. Drip in bits of their past when it matters. Let it shape them quietly.

voice matters

Everyone shouldn’t sound like you. Think about how your character talks. What words do they overuse? Do they ramble? Are they blunt? What don’t they say?

tl;dr: believable characters aren’t perfect—they’re specific. They’ve got fears, flaws, favorite snacks, weird opinions, and conflicting goals. Make them messy. Make them human.

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Ways to Write a Meaningful AO3 Comment…

…or frankly, a comment on any writing or artwork where your primary goal is to encourage and appreciate the creator.

It occurs to me that comments are a mini writing task, I have been a writing tutor, and if I’m going to ramble about how not to form communities and have meaningful interactions on the internet, I could maybe also help make it a little easier.

This post is written on the assumption that people want to interact, but struggle for whatever reason: nervous, tired, didn’t realize comments meant that much, can’t think of what to say. I myself spent years at a time on ao3 not commenting on literally anything—something about stones in glass houses. But in my experience, while getting comments on my own fics is kind of my favourite, leaving the kind of comment I know I would cherish—and sometimes getting replies from authors replying to my comments and actually chatting with them—is pretty damn magical too.

In that spirit, this post is henceforth a how-to, not an argument, and I’m not going to address anything to do with bad faith comments. I’m gonna try and provide some structures and simple formats to start comments from. I cannot emphasise enough, these are all intended to be used from a place of sincerity. Tools for finding and formatting the appreciation which is already in your brain, just hiding from you.

That said, we’re gonna take this in stages—

1. The Chapter Kudos

“Chapter kudos,” a little “<3,” an “I loved this,” or similar simple expressions of warmth and enthusiasm, slapped on a oneshot or each chapter of a long fic. These are a nice small gesture that lets the author know you’re here and you’re still loving the fic. Not every author is in love with the these type of very short comments, but unless they have a specific note about it, they’re almost certainly glad for the knowledge you’re still reading. This is minimal—great for days or weeks when you’re tired, low effort, can’t think of shit to say about a particular chapter, and so on. Comments, like all tasks, must be allowed to vary in intensity with available energy and time.

2. The 1-2 sentences

A one or two sentence comment. Here, a combination of a general compliment: “this was amazing,” and a specific compliment: “character A’s dialogue felt so realistic” works really well.

General compliments are typically easier to come up with:

What an awesome chapter!

Wow ok I did not see that coming—

I fucking. Love. Your writing.

This was so exciting!

I screamed when I saw this updated

Maybe a little over the top, but you get the idea—it’s hard to go wrong with these.

Specific compliments are often a little harder to come up with, but they generally fall into two categories which are both wonderful: content and writing.

Content includes things like:

I love [character] so much, seeing them in [particular situation] was so fun

Wow there’s so little content for [niche fandom/character/ship/trope] it’s great to see it here

Your idea about [authors headcanon] is so smart—that makes [weird element of canon] make so much sense

I didn’t used to be into [trope/ship] but holy fuck am I convinced now

The point being you’re noting a particular element content of the fic—what and who it’s about—that you loved. These are great because getting really damn excited about a character/trope/headcanon etcetera, really is the heart of fandom.

Writing takes a slightly different tack, and talks about the author’s writing skills—what they do well:

You write such good dialogue, it feels really realistic

Your action scenes are so exciting!

The tone of this chapter was so perfectly creepy—the way you describe [setting/character] gave me the shivers

The spacing you used really fit the piece—it’s a neat way to show the character’s mindset there they’re struggling to think clearly

The combination of a general and specific compliment can make it easier to start writing your comment, while giving you a second to think of your specific thought. It’s simple, but it means a lot to get any kind of specific comment, because it shows the author that you are paying attention to their writing and that you appreciate or relate to them, specifically. These comments are fairly quick to write, but can mean so much.

3. The paragraph

Several sentences long, with a bit more room to explain what you loved. Everything from the 1-2 sentence section applies here too. A general compliment is still a great starting point, and specific compliments are still where we want to end up. The main difference is you’ve got a little more room to talk, and you can take that in a few different directions.

You can talk about one specific compliment for a bit:

I love the way you write dialogue—character A saying “[quote]” was exactly what they would say in that situation. And their banter with character B was incredible, i laughed out loud. The way they both use cursing, but in slightly different ways is fascinating. The way character B does it is…

Or you can go through several different ones quickly:

I love the way you write dialogue—character A saying “[quote]” was exactly what they would say in that situation. The fast dialogue kept the pace up and the whole chapter was so exciting—I loved that you brought up character B and character C’s relationship too, it gets so little attention but I love it…

There’s also room for wider observations and questions (these can also totally go in 1-2 sentence comments, it’s just easier to have a little more substance around them):

Your writing always makes me feel so [feelings]

Wait I’m a little confused did [event] happen the way I think it did, or am I being silly?

Your ideas about [character] are awesome, I love everything you’ve written about them.

I’m so curious, what’s your specific lore on [character/event]?

4. Multiparagraph

Several paragraphs, or a very long paragraph. Hot damn, the author is in love with you now. Either you’ve got a whole lot to say about one specific topic of writing or content, or you’ve got a couple of different topics you want to pay some attention to—as you start writing your comment, you’ll probably discover a few more. Let yourself ramble, make bullet points, just get your thoughts out, if you have this many. All the principles from before apply: general compliments, specific compliments, wider observations, questions—all of these can easily feature in a long comment.

5. Fuck Formating

Write comments in whatever format works for you. Bullet points, google translated into the necessary language, rambling, well organized, short, long, emojis, copy-pasting your favorite quote from the fic with an exclamation point, pre-formatted general compliments, whatever will get your thoughts and enthusiasm down.

If you are communicating, the format doesn’t matter all that much. The same information from a multi paragraph comment can be done in bullet points or by quoting. Whatever communication you do will be meaningful to the author.

It’s hard to go wrong—

Like most writing, making meaningful comments and picking out those specific compliments gets easier with practice. There’s no need to write multiparagraph comments all the time. Those 1-2 sentence ones can be full of so much love, and chapter kudos are sometimes all there’s energy for.

The most important writing advice ever in my opinion is this: you have interesting things to say. About yourself, about the world, about writing, about that damn fanfic.

Go forth and use the structures above, or come up with comments I couldn’t even dream of. Whatever you do, you will find fic authors are probably the most willing and grateful audience in the whole world.

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writing badly and cringily is actually an essential part of the writing process, both in terms of individual projects and in gaining voice and confidence as a writer in the long term. there is no way around the cringe. there's no way around the work.

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Becoming a writer is great because now you have a hobby that haunts you whenever you don’t have time to do it

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“omg you’re so creative. how do you get your ideas” i hallucinate a single scene in the taco bell drive thru and then spend 13 months trying to write it

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It's such an amazing feeling when someone picks up on something in your writing that you 100% intended but didn't think people would notice. Like, YES!! My writing properly conveyed the thing it was supposed to!!! You are so awesome for noticing that!!! I am so awesome for writing that!!! I feel so good about my story now!!!!

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Glinda: I would kill for you, Elphie! Glinda: Please ask me to kill for you! Elphaba: Please don't.

nearly forgot about these sketches!

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Thinking about how Glinda never really hated that hat. She actually really loved it. It was dear to her. Her granny made it for her and probably played pretend with her, making Glinda’s dreams of becoming a sorceress come true. Glinda was just embarrassed when Pfannee and Shen Shen found it, so she pretended to hate it.

Maybe when she said she didn’t hate anyone that much to give it away, she really meant she didn’t love anyone that much— she didn’t trust anyone to understand how she could love a hat so hideous.

Maybe she knew Elphaba would understand. Maybe she knew Elphaba would take care of it.

And maybe Elphaba proved her right. And now, Glinda gets to admire as the most fearless person she has ever met cherishes her hat as dearly as she did.

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good things will happen 🧿

things that are meant to be will fall into place 🧿

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#Elphaba's dad using her full name to blame her vs Glinda using it to show her how she is

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au where, instead of Fiyero, Glinda finds Elphaba at the trap door and they elope together

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Bewitched

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Loathing, unadulterated loathing! for your face, your voice, your clothing!

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she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever

listen to feeling yourself disintegrate by the flaming lips

and also love, you shouldve come over by jeff buckley

more info abt the drawings under the cut;

- first drawing is of glinda NOT mourning the wicked

- second drawing is bc someone said my glinda's looked v rabbit so i decided to. draw her as bunny.

- and then elphaba with shark teeth like in the book c:

- and VAMPIRE GLINDA AU... vampalinda... ouuhhhhh

- galinda reacting to elphaba shark teeth

- and gelphie as redraw of i depend on you by sometimes317 on twt

(yellow is prettier than brown + yellow brick road reference + additive colour theory)

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gotta hand it to wicked because if a random salesman from fuckass Kansas in the early 1900s got isekaid into a world where everyone was convinced he was a wizard he WOULD immediately invent fascism

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just another wicked Wednesday

another chapter has been born into the archive today! some concussion effects, some very important conversations, some Horrors in a small border town, some dents being put into one man made of metal

we've got it all in A Second Chance (to Get it All Wrong)!

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there’s absolutely nothing better than reading a 100k word fanfic, that is until you remember you have a body that is starving, thirsty and incredibly sleep deprived and hasn’t used the bathroom since the sun set 8 hours ago