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[icedthea]

Just a collection of a few resources to develop your character! 

NAMES   (  x  &  x  )  -  the etymology  &  history of first names.

ZODIAC   (  x  &  x  )  -   there are 12 zodiac signs,  &  each sign has its own strengths  &  weaknesses,  its own specific traits,  desires  &  attitude towards life  &  people.  astrology can give us a glimpse of a person’s basic characteristics,  preferences,  flaws  &  fears.

ALIGNMENT   (  x  )  -   each alignment represents a broad range of personality types  or  personal philosophies,  so two characters of the same alignment can still be quite different from each other.  in addition,  few people are completely consistent. 

MBTI   (  x   &   x  )  -   the 16 personality types were created by Isabel Myers  &  Katharine Briggs as a way to categorize an individual according to their preferred way of thinking  &  behaving.  each personality type is designated with a four-letter code,  like INFP  or  ESTJ,  which is an acronym for the four key dimensions of personality.

TEMPERAMENTS   (  x  &  x  )  -   the four temperaments are represented by four distinct groups of “traits” or tendencies.  each cluster of traits produces a distinct manner of behavior that is different from the other groups. 

ENNEAGRAM    (  x   &  x  )   -   the Enneagram is a personality typing system that consists of nine different types.  everyone is considered to be one single type,  although one can have traits belonging to other ones. 

THE NINE TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE   (  x  )  -   one theory regarding the nature of intelligence comes from psychologist Gardner,  who suggested that you could categorize smarts into different kinds of intelligence.  his theory suggests that there is more to being intelligent than simply being proficient in languages  or  being good in math. 

ARCHETYPES   (  x  )  -   an archetype is a pattern of behaviors that,  once discovered,  helps you better understand yourself  &  others.

LABEL  (  x  )  &   (  x  )  &  (  x  )  -   labels for your characters,  along with a short,  somewhat detailed description.

TROPES   (  x  )  -  it refers to an often overused plot device.   it can also be described as another variation on the same theme. 

[icedthea]

http://exploradoresdodireito.blogspot.com/2013/06/proverbios-e-sentencas-em-latim.html 

[icedthea]

⟨    𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 !    ⟩

hey pals !!! below the cut you can find a list containing # 80 first names to use for your characters . some of these names i found on google and the rest are just random ones my head is compiled of . please like / reblog if you found these helpful ! ♡

Continuar lendo

[icedthea]

Legit Tip #192

or - “Developing Friendships in Fiction”

Regardless of the genre that you write in, and the type of main character that you have, it’s likely that your main character is going to have friends. Or allies of some kind, even if they’re not the type of have “friends.” 

Writing realistic friendships can be surprisingly tough, though. That’s especially true if you’re writing about a character who’s quite different from yourself. Not everybody has the same needs when it comes to friendships, so the type of friends and friendships your character has may be very different than the type you have in your life. 

Your character may be a social butterfly with a wide network of friends. They may be a political figure whose friends are also the people they work with and network with on a regular basis. They may be a loner who only has one or two close friends. You may be writing a cyberpunk story with a character whose only friend is their robot companion. 

What’s the First Thing to Think About?

First - what is available to that when it comes to friendships? Not every character is capable of easily making friends - perhaps due to mental illness, or isolation, or other circumstances. 

Or, if they can easily make friends or socialize with a lot of people, are they the type to forge deep friendships with these people? Or do they keep people at a distance? Do they “put on a mask” and not show their “true self” to the people they come in contact with? If so, they may know a lot of people but not feel that they have any true or close friends at all. 

What is their situation regarding friendships as your story begins?

As your story starts out, think about the people around your character and their social circle. If you are starting them out with a social circle and friends, then you’re going to have to establish their relationship with these friends right out of the gate - which can be a difficult task.

It’s really not enough to just say Character A and Character B are friends and to leave it at that, especially if the friend character is going to play a significant role in the story. This is where a lot of novels in the romance genres and chick lit genres fail. (This isn’t to say I dislike those genres at all. Just that I’ve read a fair few and found this to be an issue.)

We need to see how these characters became friends. More importantly, we need to see why these characters are friends. All too often, friendships come across as fairly unbelievable, especially when characters have conflicting personalities, which leads me to my next point - 

Friends Need to Have Reasons to Be Friends

Just as in romantic relationships, friends fulfill needs in each others lives. It’s all well and good to create a character that’s interesting and dynamic, but if that character doesn’t fulfill some role for the main character - provide something for them beyond simply being comic relief, or someone for them to talk to like a brick wall for dialogue, then that character can feel very flat for readers. 

Imagine if you will two characters as friends for Character A. Character A is going on a quest to save the kingdom from an evil wizard. She has two companions. 

Her first companion is a drunken dwarf. Her second companion is a beautiful elf. The drunken dwarf is revealed over time to have lost his wife to the evil wizard during a raid on his tribe, something which he reveals to her over several conversations with Character A. This helps her to realize the full extent of the evil wizard’s power and motivates her to continue on with her task. Their friendship is also cemented by the fact that she lost her parents to the evil wizard. 

The beautiful elf has several conversations with her about good and evil. We learn a lot about his life with his clan, and he’s a well developed character by all accounts. And yet, even though he travels with her through the entire story and they have several conversations, they never really “feel” like friends or companions. He doesn’t fulfill any role for Character A as he doesn’t tell her anything she wouldn’t already know.

Remember - Friends Fight Sometimes

One of the great things about Harry Potter is that J. K. Rowling remembered that friends fight sometimes. It may be a little annoying to read about, but that’s only because it’s a little too real for people who’ve been there. Letting your characters disagree, fight, and get pissed off at each other adds to the realism of their friendship (and also helps them become stronger friends in the long run). 

Don’t Be Afraid to End Friendships

I rarely see it happen in fiction, which is surprising. But in real life, sometimes friendships end and people realize they have to part ways. Maybe that’s because you suddenly figure out that being together has become unhealthy or toxic for the two of you, or because other things get in the way and you reach a point where you know you just can’t continue on the way things were.

But it happens. And it could make for some interesting, poignant moments for your characters to deal with, especially if those friendships have made a big impact on their lives up to this point. Just a little something to think about. 

[icedthea]

How would I vary with dialogue tags? I am aware of how you punctuate dialogue and how you use it, but lately, my writing has gotten redundant with doing: “Hello,” he said, sipping his coffee slowly OR “My name is Jane,” she mumbled, averting her eyes. There is the same pattern of the dialogue and the dialogue tag with the same sentence structure, and I’d like to vary that.

Avoiding Repetition with Dialogue Tags

If your dialogue tags are starting to sound redundant, that’s because you’re overusing them or using them in the exact same way. But there are lots of ways you can vary tags, and often you don’t need them at all. Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing dialogue:

1. Vary tag placement.

Dialogue tags don’t have to be just “she said” or “he mumbled” at the end of a line of dialogue. You can also place tags at the beginning and in the middle:

“What time do you want to leave?” Kimberly asked.

Frank looked at his watch and said, “Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly asked, frowning. “We need time to park.”

2. Use action tags instead.

Action tags focus the reader on who is about to speak, or indicate who just spoke, without using speaking words like “said” “asked” “mumbled,” etc.

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume. “What time do you want to leave?”

Frank looked at his watch. “Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly’s fake lashes fluttered in concern.

3. Don’t use a tag at all. ««««

– Use context to indicate who spoke.

Sometimes you can use one speaker to set-up the next speaker:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume, stopping before Frank with an expectant look. “Well? When did you want to leave?”

“Maybe around seven?”

“Isn’t that too late?” Kimberly asked, fake lashes fluttering in concern.

Since Kimberly is staring at Frank expectantly before she asks her question, we can assume the question is meant for Frank and that he is indeed the person responding.

Another example:

“This is ridiculous! We’ll never make it to the concert before it’s over,” Caroline whined, throwing her arms up in exasperation.

Jason folded his arms and drew in a breath through his nose. “Not unless someone can drive us…” 

All eyes in the room landed on Ted.

“What? You want me to drive? I just got my license yesterday!”

Since all eyes in the room landed on Ted, we can assume Ted is the one who speaks next, and the context of his answer makes sense as a reply.

– Use the natural “back and forth” pattern to your advantage.

If a character’s dialogue extends beyond a paragraph, we indicate that by withholding the end quotation mark but still using one at the start of the next paragraph. This is how you know the same person is still talking. Otherwise, when the end quotation mark is present, a new line should equal a new speaker. Because of this, when there are only two people conversing, or two people dominating a conversation, you can rely on the natural “back and forth” pattern to let the reader know who’s speaking:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and expensive perfume. “What time do you want to leave, darling?”

Frank folded his newspaper and looked up at his wife. “I was thinking about seven?”

“Isn’t that too late? We need time to park.”

“Very well, then. We’ll leave at a quarter ‘til. Unless you think that’s too early?”

“No, darling. Quarter ‘till will be fine.”

Even though the speakers are only indicated in the first two lines of dialogue, it’s very clear who says what. When Frank answers Kimberly’s question, who else would be replying but Kimberly when there’s no one else in the room? And when she expresses concern that seven is too late, who else would be there to acquiesce? We know that it’s Frank.

– Use character voice to indicate who’s speaking.

Some characters have particular ways of speaking that make them easy to identify in dialogue. Maybe they’re the stereotypical “mopey teenager” and everything is “ugh” and “whatever.” Maybe, like Kimberly above, they use a lot of nicknames or terms of endearment. Maybe there’s a particular type of slang or vernacular that they use, like someone from the south saying “darlin’” and “y’all.” Even if there had been a third person in the example in #4, we could have guessed the final response was uttered by Kimberly since she called Frank darling at the beginning, too.

So, let’s look at a final example putting all of these ideas into practice:

Kimberly glided into the room, all satin and perfume, stopping before Frank with an expectant look. “Well? What time did you want to leave, darling?”

“I was thinking about seven,” Frank said as he folded his newspaper and looked up at his adoring wife.

“Seven? Don’t you think that’s too late? We need time to park, after all.”

Frank shook his head. “Very well, then. We’ll leave at a quarter ‘til. Unless you think that would be too early?”

“No, darling. I think quarter ‘til would be fine.”

“Splendid. I’ll go get ready, then.”

Out of six lines of dialogue, I only used a tag (Frank said) one time. :)

[icedthea]

I’m a very lazy person. I know my characters well, but every time I try to fill out a proper character sheet, I either get distracted or simply never finish them.

SO!

I made this! A silly, simple character sheet in which you only have to check boxes to get to know your dear puppet character. Use to your heart’s content, and if you’re going to repost, please credit! Enjoy~

PDF/Printable version on Google Drive

[icedthea]

Source.

[icedthea]

Hello! I absolutely love all your characters and how real they feel. What advice do you have for developing realistic characters, especially when some feel underdeveloped compared to others?

Dear zee-the-nerd,

I think it’s about salient noise.

I got this ask a few days ago, and I’ve been thinking about it on and off ever since, because even though I’ve talked a lot about my writing process and how I build characters from real-life people, I’ve never really talked about how my writing, art, and music are all the same in my head. There is an overlying filter/ principle/ law that directs the way I write characters and the way I compose songs and the way I decide what to put in the background of an art piece, and I knew that if I could explain that, I could explain why building a character doesn’t feel like a different skillset than building a world for a new novel or deciding what color blue to use in a portrait of a horse or whether to put hand-claps in the background of a piece of music. The issue is that I’ve never really figured out how to practically describe it. And I’ve never been sure it would be useful to anyone else even if I did.

But today I was sitting down to work and I looked out of my office to where the morning light was illuminating a piece of furniture in the entry, and a way to lay out my thought process hit me. The jury’s out on whether or not it’ll be useful to anyone else. But I’m going to give it a go.

I’m sorry, this is gonna be abstract.

Here’s a picture of what I just saw:

Let this image serve as an extended visual metaphor. I very much like the view from my office. I think it’s interesting and attractive. If you don’t, this might not make sense.

Ok, let’s make a metaphor.

All of my creative pursuits begin with a real-life thing that piques my interest. The crudest form of my art will involve me directly copying this object. I’m not an artist at this stage. I’m a forger. I’m merely trying to objectively copy a simple, truthful likeness.

This part is difficult: fraught with technical skill. I spent years teaching myself how to draw things exactly as I saw them:

Years teaching myself to write a person exactly as I thought they were. To copy the precise style another musician achieved with their harp or bagpipes or whatever I was playing at the time. Because of subjectivity, it’s a tricky thing, this artless forgery. Everything I saw, heard, and experienced came through the corrupting lens of my mind. I’d forge a new verse of a traditional song for our band, but the style would be affected by my modern understanding of scale. I’d draw glass, but I’d get it wrong because my brain kept shouting that it was supposed to be invisible even though my eyes knew better. I’d steal siblings for my characters and get them wrong because I’d misunderstand and simplify motivations. 

Teaching myself objectivity — basic forgery, the elimination of bias, the non-negotiable skill of using pigments and words — that involved learning the technical tools of each trade.

Back to the bench outside my office.

Once I became a forger of all sorts, I had the skills to recreate the bench in whatever media I was working in. Thievery. Technically impressive. Technically correct. Technically objective. 

This is not art: this is fact.  

Now, we all remember that we’re in MetaphorLand, right? Do I need to explain that the bench does not really mean “a bench”? It is the subject of whatever I’m creating. 

This is where salient noise comes in. 

From that objective seed, that tiny bit of forged reality, I start to complicate. Every time I add something to my creation that is not exactly like real life, I’m making an intentional subjective decision: that’s the art of it. Every time I choose a color that the original subject didn’t feature (a blue horse), or a hobby the person didn’t have (hunting for Welsh kings), an instrument that wasn’t available at the time of a traditional tune’s original composition, I’m building a new and subjective thing.

Artful forgery means not merely copying but creating something that seems like it could be real, even though it’s not. That means adding in as much detail as you need to convince your viewer that the thing they’re looking at could exist somewhere else. Adding in salient noise. The right amount of backstory and surface detail to suggest reality. 

Here’s that photo again.

A technical copy of that bench would be a skillful wonder. But that’s not what makes the view out of my office appealing to me. The bench is clearly the center stage, but the noise around it is what makes the photo interesting. The light across the bench is a complicating factor — an aspect of reality that suggests a sunny world outside the room. The violin case beneath the bench holds the promise of a backstory. The painting above it sets the mood and tells you what sort of person might sit on that bench. In the corner of the photo we see a hint of a complicated life: is that a music room? Maybe so — look, there’s a piano, a guitar rack. A set of bagpipes in a case behind the piano, but out of focus, not the point of the photograph. Photos on the wall, telling us that there is more to this life than we can easily see in one glimpse. All of those things are interesting on their own, but they are put off to the edge, put out of focus, so that they don’t overwhelm the bench’s role. So we don’t forget who the story is about.

Here’s that painting I did this weekend:

The people are the focus. But there’s all kinds of noise in this picture. Hanging flowers, a crock by a fireplace, two people sitting in the background, stairs, Rustic Architecture™. Even the light across the table is noise, an artful forgery.

This isn’t really as immersive:

I need the noise to make it feel real. I don’t want someone’s first gut impression to be wow, that looks like it must have been hard. I want their first impression to be an emotion. Noise. 

That’s how I make characters. I start with a very tiny seed of a real person, carefully and artlessly forged, and then I begin to complicate it until I’ve made someone as noisy as a real person. But unlike a real person, I select every element to manipulate how the reader feels about the character. A slash of light across the bench to immediately ground it in our real world and show that it follows our physical rules. A violin beneath to provoke interest. A complicated and cohesive backstory that is barely visible at first glance. 

Salient noise. Forgery plus. Rustic Architecture™.

Does this make sense? In my head it does. But things are sort of cluttered up there. Heck of a lot of benches.

urs,

Stiefvater

[icedthea]

a list of quirks for characters to make them a little more interesting

doesn’t like to wear shoes

always has a piece of sugarfree gum in their mouth

has a collection of cartoon dvds

walks everywhere they go

only wears pastel colors

won’t go anywhere without three hairbands on their wrist

refuses to wear any shoes except red converse

has a crippling fear of something mundane like mushrooms

has a dream notebook filled with every dream they can remember

has a really loud sneeze and goes into sneeze fits

only wears vintage clothing

has damaged hair from messing with it too much

super good at advanced math but can’t do addition for shit

believes in the supernatural, like ghosts

likes to go on midnight shopping trips and run through stores

gets too emotionally attached

loves dogs and has three of them

has hallucinations, but not scary ones

works at a fast food establishment in their free time

always carries a musical instrument with them

always carries a sketchbook with them

likes to name inanimate objects

strictly against drug use

excessively polite

excessively indecisive

can recite the first 200 digits of pi

can only play clocks by coldplay on the piano and plays it 24/7

gets itchy skin when anxious

has to move things around in a certain pattern before going to sleep

worries that if they do one thing wrong they’ll die

obsessed with puzzles

obsessed with rpg videogames

texts with one thumb

always has red painted nails

an amazing runner with super toned legs

has a beautiful voice

has restless legs, especially at night

has terrible performance anxiety

doesn’t like to turn assignments in because they’re afraid they’ll fail

loves science but is really bad at it

can/can’t make friends easily

likes to lie in fields and stare at the stars

believes that wishes can come true

falls deeply in love

bruises super easily

beautiful/horrible handwriting

ambidextrous

only likes nintendo games

only drinks sparkling water

doesn’t watch tv/listen to music

goes to concerts every week

likes slam poetry

likes to study in coffee shops/libraries

doesn’t understand politics but tries nonetheless

wears the same sweatshirt every day

collects sweatshirts

works three part time jobs

crazy intelligent but super shy

likes to memorize phone numbers instead of writing them down

loves to calculate probability

gets homesick very easily

wants to leave home very badly

trips a lot

can’t dance but tries anyway

brushes their teeth seven times a day

incredibly honest to a sometimes brash extent

only draws with mechanical pencils

only writes with pens

collects pens from hotels

wants to believe in heaven but can’t

watches a ton of anime

makes people cute nicknames

makes people origami

uses origami as a coping mechanism

owns a ton of t-shirts from hot topic, but has never been inside

makes all their own food

vegetarian/vegan/pescatarian

eats rice krispies every morning

does everything “for the aesthetic”

watches kids shows

goes to a private school

short term memory loss

loves disney movies

makes lists of random things in their free time

only eats foods with a spoon

only likes to wear skirts

never has their hair down

dyes their hair every two weeks

likes to collect pokemon cards

gets obsessed with games really easily

gives up too easily

gets their heart broken too often

has a mysterious disease

has a big social media following

tries too hard to be popular

likes to draw everything and everyone

can eat a whole lemon

listens to “edgy” music all the time

[icedthea]

Describing Characters Through 'Showing'

Describing characters can be a little bit of a ‘telling’ minefield. While you are almost certainly going to end up with some ‘told’ description of a character, try to keep it to a minimum, ‘showing’ things about their appearance through action and dialogue instead.

Examples:

Instead of ‘She was short’, use ‘She clambered onto the chair, her legs dangling several inches above the floor’

Instead of ‘He was tall’, use ‘He ducked under the doorway’

Instead of ‘He was a smoker’, use ‘He shook my hand, his yellowed fingers leaving the scent of cigarettes on mine’

Instead of ‘She had bad teeth’, use ‘She laughed, instinctively covering her open mouth with her hand’

So you see how a lot of information can be shown to your readers rather than simply told to them.

And remember that your readers have imaginations, imaginations that they enjoy using. Let them fill in the gaps - don’t give them a detailed head to toe description laying out mole and strand of hair.

[icedthea]

the types of people the world gives you - 

light:

glows when they talk, dewy eyes, radiates with a blessing from the sun, calm in the air and goodness in their hearts

ocean: 

bodies full of stories, a will that ebbs and flows, lazy smiles, no real devotion to anything but existence itself, wordless lullabies

earth: 

minds like caverns, hands like stone, to hold or to hurt, heavy irises, earthquake tempers, stubborn desire for constant reconstruction

poison: 

an inexplicable sense of sharpness, hot tears, decaying cores, irreversible tornadoes and infectious whispers

[icedthea]

the way you light up the room. making all these cliches new again. your hands blooming into sunflowers. your name turning the sky into various shades of sunset. the anxious crack of thunder no longer feeling scary. moths hanging from my rib cage, taking flight every time you’re near. teething through the lining of my stomach to swallow that light. your seaglass eyes. hiding out in magnolia trees. anxious heart beats louder than the thunder. falling.              falling. f a l l i n g. never worrying about the impact.

a good thing, Angelea Lowes (via angelealowes)

[icedthea]

“I’m a photography student and the light was just shining off your hair so perfectly I just HAD to take a picture and now you’ve found it online, I’m in trouble now” AU

[icedthea]

How to Plot a Complex Novel in One Day

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin?

What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots.

Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow.

Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear.

What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story.  Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story.

What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.

Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours.

Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension.

Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work.

Disclaimer for this post.

[icedthea]

Hate Plotting? How to Let Your Character Decide What Happens

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Kasper Commute Seoul, 2010

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