#i wanted to make more of these and several applied

[3hks]

Writing Character CHANGE

Character development is absolutely CRUCIAL to a story, but having spent more time thinking about this topic, I came to the realization that I misunderstood a lot of points other people have made when teaching how to write character development.

There are a lot of factors that play into character development, but in this post, I'll cover some overall, but the main thing concerns any change to your character! (Which is also a huge part in development, really.)

So with this post, I'll be teaching you MY personal tips regarding this subject!

*The Basics*

Before we really get into the developmental stage, there are some things you want to establish, in which I'll explain later!

A couple of flaws.

How your character views themselves at first.

Your character's morals/ideals and how they think.

These things may vary, but you want your readers to be able to at least roughly predict how your character will act during specific events!

*Change*

Character development is just about how your character changes throughout the story. I like to say that there are several different ways one may change, (we'll get into that later on) but your character should NOT stay the same as the same person during the exposition and during the resolution!

"During character development, your character should grow."

This is a common piece of advice; your character needs to grow. And while I've assumed for the longest time that I understood what it meant, it never truly clicked.

While they will use words such as grow, what they really mean is that your character should mature. By the end of your story, your character may not always end up as a better person. When I say mature, I mean that they have reflected back on their life and have understood the consequences that came with their actions (if any) or how they could've done things differently.

Your character will not always end up as a better, fixed person, but they should understand their world and themselves better.

*Negative/Passive Change*

Alright then, so how does a character develop if they don't necessarily change for the better? Well, I'll get into that!

No matter what, your character should have learned a lesson through their experience. Even if they haven't exactly improved as a person, there should be a moral they can learn from what they have gone through.

If not, then did they really grow?

Additionally, how did their qualities negatively impact themselves? If they are bad traits, then it needs to be clear. And the best way to achieve this is by demonstrating how it hurts your character! However, it is rather uncommon for a character to undergo little to no change after a story!

*Positive Change*

Let's circle back to the basics, real quick. Remember how I said that before any development takes place, your character should be anything but perfect? That same thing applies to after the change.

Do NOT create a flawless character by the end of your story. Instead, focus on one or two flaws that get fixed as the story continues. These don't have to be huge, life-changing imperfections, but they can be minor ones that still shape their life in one way or another.

"Fixing" too many shortcomings can make your character seem, well, out of character, producing a character development that's more forced. The same thing applies if you're attempting to FULLY alter a fault that's just too big. The change will be too noticeable.

What am I talking about? Here's an example!

Imagine a character who's incredibly closed off to other people, wanting to ensure that he never gets too close to others.

That's a pretty sizable flaw, no? By the end of your story, you do not want to completely change because you need to preserve character, but you can change it a bit. Does he have a few friends now? Does he understand that there are some people worth trusting?

He may still be closed off to majority of people, but at least it's not everyone, and that's a realistic change.

*Different Changes*

As I continue to read more stories and watch more shows, I have realized that character development is not always about fixing flaws or personality, but it can extend far past that line.

So listen up, because I feel like no one really talks about this.

Your character can change their IDEALS, MORALS, and how they VIEW THEMSELVES.

Hear that? If your character has strong morals, they will hardly stay the same as they reach the end. Remember the requirements I mentioned at the beginning?

See how it connects now? There is SO much more to character development than changing a few imperfections. Like I said in the start, your character needs to grow and mature. Things like new morals or ideals assist with that!

*SUMMARY*

In order to start character development, you need a couple of flaws, an idea of how your character looks at themselves, and their morals. This is because those are the main parts of you character that may change through time.

Growth = Maturing (gaining a better sense of who they are and the world they live in.)

NOT ALL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IS POSITIVE!

For negative or passive change, make sure to clarify how their imperfections affected or hurt them and have some sort of moral that follows.

YOUR CHARACTER SHOULD NOT BE PERFECT!

They should not be perfect in the beginning, and not perfect in the end! Do not 'fix' too many traits because you want to preserve character.

I think that's all! It's quite the post for something so simple, eh? But hey, character development is absolutely PIVOTAL to a story so I hope I at least explained the 'change' part of that well!

Happy writing~

3hks <3

[revelingrexan]

a silly screenshot edit i made of one of my favorite moments :)

...because i organized my bank accounts and wanted to give one of my cards a special cover!!

a brief note about applying the sticker to the card: the directions said to line up the sticker to the opening for the chip, but it went better for me when i lined the sticker up to one of the long sides of the card. (but of course make sure the sticker would be in the right part for the chip)

bonus behind the scenes on my making the pic under the cut :)

i tend to make several lineart layers when doing REALLY CLEAN lineart so i can more easily erase overlapping lines. (the first screenshot has lines that "overshoot" because that gives nice sharp corners and line width variety, but i need to erase the extra parts of the lines)

(i like these screenshots because Lucifer looks extra clowny with this colorfulness)

i realized on this project, since the final lineart is just going to be black anyway, that i can use different colors for each layer and then LATER make the lineart black. (realized it after already making some lineart, so you see some black here)

SO, RIGHT. VERY EASY TO THEN GET BLACK OUTLINES: JUST SET BRIGHTNESS TO ZERO. i usually use a program called FireAlpaca, and the way you do that there is: Filter > Hue… > drag the Brightness cursor all the way to the left

in this screenshot, you can see some of the effects i added to Lucifer to give him the nice shadowed look that Hazbin Hotel has, as well as where i covered Charlie at the tip of Lucifer's hat lol

i included my layers on the right of the screenshot to show how i set up the outline layers in the final version: as you saw above, i named my outline layers with the color used for them, then, once i was done with the outline, i placed the "outline before color change" folder above the base black "outline" folder. that way, if i later notice a mistake, i can simply turn on the colored outline folder and i'll see what color that part of the outline is and jump to the necessary layer, rather than going on a quest turning off and on a bunch of layers each time

since i duplicated my outline folder before changing the outlines in one of them to black, the base outline folder already has the color names included in the layer names

NOT ALL DIGITAL ARTISTS USE AS MANY LAYERS AS I DO LOL. I GO WILD WITH THEM SOMETIMES. MANY OF MY PROJECTS HAVE WAY MORE THAN 80 OR EVEN 500 LAYERS. people just tend to figure out what works for them. i wouldn't be surprised if i end up using fewer layers in the future. or a lot more. or go either way depending on the project

so, yeah, this is a screenshot edit, so i traced the main part of Lucifer's body. for the background, i used two screenshots. had to cut together and cover some stuff. here's the two screenshots unedited followed by a scribbled version to make things work lol and then the scribbled version that includes some extra touch ups/covers

and some screenshots i took while working on this, when i unexpectedly got some cool-looking versions :3 first one reminded me of Day of the Dead looks (he DOES need to be more colorful to be more accurate) and the second is just rad

ANYWAY probably the most helpful thing to most people would be the colored outline thing talked about at the start lol, the stuff i bolded. that was IMMENSELY useful and i love black outlines more than ever XD

[lilislegacy]

It’s me again. Hi.

So my favorite artist BoyWithUke (yes, he’s the guy who sang Toxic and went viral in 2022 on Tik Tok) has some songs that are very Percabeth coded, and I wanted your opinion on them. I’m only going to do five, but he has a lot more, and a lot more that apply to different characters.

The first one is Falling for You. There isn’t anything specific about it, it just reminds me of them.

The second one is called Bad Things, and it’s kind of what I hc things were like Post-Tartarus. He also said in an insta post he wrote it about his girlfriend when he was going through a time of severe anxiety/panic attacks, and it just felt very Percy. (I’m actually writing a fic about it)

The third one is called Camouflage, and it reminds me a lot of Annabeth in the first five books. Some of the lyrics are just so fitting.

The fourth one is Hazel Eyes, which applies a lot more to the show version, but also just had those same vibes as them.

The fifth one is Prairies. It goes back and forth between him and another singer (so boy and girl) and it’s so Percabeth it’s crazy.

Honorable mention goes to Tired of Wanting You. It’s kinda Percy in the og books, but if he was a little more aware that he liked her lol.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you these songs and see what your opinion on them was!! If you’re curious in some of the other ones I have for certain characters/relationships (platonic or romantic) let me know:)

thanks for the ask @justanothernamelessauthor!

aww, these were all great!!

the 2nd one was SO good! the lyrics are amazing. the internal conflict is so percy

same thing with the 3rd one. it definitely gives annabeth vibes, and how she carried the burden of knowing the prophecy and meanwhile was faling for percy. the lyrics “you’re making it worse, but i want to see you again” is so similar to percy saying “I was glad to be with her, but it also kind of hurt, and it hurt when I wasn't with her, too.”

i really like the 5th one with the back and forth! this was probably my 2nd favorite!

honestly my favorite was the honorable mention lol, tired of wanting you. it actually gave me the most percabeth vibes. because in BotL and TLO they are both just so angry and frustrated all the dam time because they have such big feelings for each other but aren’t acting on them.

i love these all. thank you!

[squadrah]

☆ La Squadra as Cards of the Major Arcana, Part II (Part I) ☆

[veggiecorner]

every few weeks i'll say a lil take thats essentially me bitching about behaviors

todays take is that i really hate when people make everything about shipping - especially when it comes to character analysis

[arolesbianism]

So. Sit with me everyone. We agree that we need to stop worshipping a person or media on the sole grounds of being gay right. Can we finally agree that it's not homophobic to criticize gay ppl with large platforms. Can we finally actually learn to think critically abt how these ppl talk abt ppl outside of their immediate identities and to recognize that just because they say they aren't bigoted doesn't mean they aren't. Please.

[capybaraonabicycle]

I like the casting as the Doctor as the God of Hope for several reasons but nr one is that they are kept in a box

[latinokaeya-moving]

kaeya was a little traumatised kid who probably came from a community that dealt w their collective trauma in a predictably grim way as well which is why i think when he was taken in by crepus he absolutely had the energy of strange quirky little girl for who it’ll become painfully obvious later was nd/traumatised and didn’t understand social conventions and what is developmentally normal/appropriate for them to know but for the moment is Definitely brushed off as “haha don’t worry abt him, he’s just a little quiet and odd for now bc hes in a new n strange environment!”

[quatregats]

Girl help I’m becoming attached to this grad school and now I’m stressed about applying

[icryyoumercy]

... i feel like the easiest solution to the whole ~but migrants keep coming here with nothing and then expecting us to feed and clothe them~ thing and whining about the cost to the coast guard of trying to find the boats they arrive on would be

offer free shipping? station a number of reasonably big ships near or at where migrant ships usually leave from, kind of a schoolbus version of a passenger ship, nothing luxurious or pretty, but staffed and equipped to transport as many people as possible in safety and dignity while being as cheap and low-maintenance as can be. and then get barracks set up as close by as possible, where people can stay until the ship sets sail, with the same low-cost, low-effort setup

and then anyone who wants to cross the mediteranean, instead of having to pay exorbitant amounts of money to some shady entity for a space on an overloaded ship, can just. report to the official coast guard ship, which will make the trip the same time every week, and if they missed it, they can get a bunk in the nearby barracks and wait for the next one

and then! everyone who shows up can get basic medical treatment and at least temporary papers if they haven't any, and there can be co-ordination with the european ports, so everyone knows when and where the next ship will arrive, how many people are on board, what immediate assistance they will need, and any other relevant information

hell, if there's something stressful or expensive or otherwise troublesome at one port, they can contact the coast guard and go 'yeah, we said we'd accept the next ship, but there's been [thing] and we're overwhelmed as-is, but the next port over is set up for your arrival', and then no one needs to deal with the unexpected arrival of several hundred injured, ill, or starving people that need immediate help in a million ways

just. we know migrants will cross the mediteranean. it's a thing they've been doing for decades at this point. we also know it's a source of stress and trouble for everyone involved. might as well accept it and make it as safe and controlled as possible, reduce the amount of emergency something-or-other to react to and ensure that the people who arrive are fed and clothed and ideally can actually migrate with their families instead of having to figure out who they can afford to pay the fare for and make their situation even worse

[oldtestleper]

Barry hbo literally makes me. bite snarl bark etcetera. insane fucking insane. this tv show is an essay this tv show is 10 essays. yes I’m very stoned right now and yes i truly believe this is a stupid good tv show

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

.

[fonulyn]

since I've seen it talked about in several places recently:

if you are going to do a whump- or kink- or ANY-tober or other similar challenges please please please don't post them as one fic with 31 chapters unless it actually is one coherent fic. if they're 31 completely separate fics or ficlets then please just make a collection for them or just post them as separate fics. it doesn't matter if they're only 100 words or if you think they're too small or insignificant to post alone, they're not.

and why this?

because if you post all 31 of them in one fic the tagging is absolutely useless. if I look for things to read on ao3 I'm gonna look at the tags, and if the tags include something that's a dealbreaker for me, i won't even click on the fic. I might not even SEE the fic because I've filtered out the nope-tag! so I'm gonna lose out on reading 30 perfectly nice fics because of one fic that my nope-tag applied to.

ao3 is about archiving. it's about clear tagging and being informative. there is nothing informative about it if the tags in the fic apply to random chapters while others have nothing to do with it. it makes so much more sense to have each work as an individual fic with its own individual tags and warnings, so readers can make informed choices.

of course, you do you. I can't police what other people decide to do. but personally, I find it incredibly frustrating to weed through 31 chapters to find the ones I actually want to read. so I don't. I automatically scroll past all works posted like that. and I know some others do, too.

there is absolutely no shame in posting short things on ao3. there is no minimum word count. no one is going to look at you funny if you post a small ficlet on its own, I promise. it's just going to make some readers very happy when they can actually find the things they want to read.

so, please. at least consider the upsides of posting each work as their own fic.

signed, one very frustrated fandom grandma.

[gaogaigoatgrrl]

i hope that in the wake of predstrogen/predesterone's back-to-back deletion we don't forget about the ongoing building wave of seemingly organic transmisogyny from the userbase leading up to it, some of which may or may not have been the result of terf psyops but all of which certainly wouldn't have been possible without the eager participation of a significant proportion of users, including but probably not limited to:

the entire concept of transandrophobia (if this offends you, think long and hard about why you want so badly for it to be real)

the ongoing backlash against the terms tme and tma (if they offend you, think long and hard about why they might have practical value to trans women and people with similar social positionality)

the ongoing trend of trans women's blogs getting flagged on the flimsiest of pretenses and generally receiving far more scrutiny for "adult content" than anyone else's

the seeming unironic revival of "baeddel" as a slur for outspoken trans women, on the basis of a long-dead clique that, ironically enough, self-applied the long-dead (and tbf, etymologically questionable) slur from the middle ages to reclaim it

the entire "trans women should be fucking trans men instead of complaining about transmisogyny" genre of post

the backlash when tgirls finally started calling out the aforementioned bullshit

the copypasted anons sent to several trans women (many of whom were lesbians) sexually harassing them and threatening corrective rape for calling out the aforementioned bullshit

the backlash when tgirls called the aforementioned bullshit sexual harassment

the expansion of flexible queer label use (which to be clear, i am generally all for) to include "afab trans women", muddying the waters and making transmisogyny harder to articulate

the backlash when tgirls started calling out the aforementioned bullshit

the aita incident in which a trans woman described a cis woman claiming to be a trans woman in a group chat and giving other trans women terrible medical advice based on no actual qualifications or experience, and got a huge backlash for warning them about the aforementioned bullshit despite the stakes of, you know, following terrible medical advice

everything from the sixth point onward happened within the past... week? two weeks? my sense of time is a bit fuzzy. who knows what the rest of this week has in store?

people on this website are so incredibly hostile to trans women even being able to name our own oppression, let alone resist it in any concrete way. and i know it's not just this website. don't you get tired of the crab bucket bullshit? holy fucking shit.

like, i've been lucky, i've overwhelmingly managed to dodge it (probably on account of frankly being a pretty boring and inconsistent poster). this time last year, i was actually bored that i didn't have anons in my inbox to argue with. but i've seen it happen to so many other women now, it's absurd. even if it never hits you personally, you can never shake the awareness that it's happening to so many of the cool girls on here, people you like and whose posts you laugh at and who you look up to. they just kinda seem to drop like flies over time. don't you get tired?