Ryan’s Writings

Just another writerblr They/them/theirs NSFW/ 18+

[atlasryan]

Working on characterization for my next project, thought I’d share the profile I’m using for one of my main characters. It’s a profile of the most frequent type of client I work with in psychotherapy.

Didn’t realize this in the beginning, but being around people all day that explain their thought processes and points of view really opens up a whole new level of possible characterization. It’s an honor to have someone share their process, so I’m exposed to so many perspectives.

Yeah, my handwriting is fairly hard to read, but my brain longs for analog. I’m from the 1900s, I think better in front of a notebook while clicking a pen.

[atlasryan]

Writer’s Notebook(s)

Lots of people have ideas on what works for them when it comes to keeping track of their work(s) in progress. My style comes from my bullet journaling interests. Instead of dividing notebooks up, I just take the time and number the pages and use them to organize. It works for me, but your mileage may vary.

As an example in terms of organizing information and content, my two working notebooks. Each is set up with a contents, so I can find what I’m looking for. The dot grid is my WIP, the lined is a mixture of a writing commonplace book and practical exercises. I have notes from reading, videos, conversations mixed in with ideas I used to practice what I learned, do some light thinking and whatever else.

I was gifted the lined moleskine notebook (expanded so like 400 pages), but it doesn’t need to be fancy. The dot grid composition book is from Walmart, for $2.40. I like the sewn in pages so it’s harder to lose or damage, but that’s personal preference. If you’re in to aesthetic display of work, you might want to pick a type of notebook and stick with it so it’s all matchy-matchy on a shelf or something. Mine will live in a drawer when they’re full and only come out when I need to reference.

If you’re a perfectionist, start out with a cheap notebook you’re okay messing up. If you go for a nice notebook and make spelling mistakes or something, you’re likely to hate the process. All this is if you use pen that can’t be erased, of course. But I encourage you to find a process that lets you get things out on a page and not worry about perfection.

[atlasryan]

Recommendation: get a co-author less invested in helping.

[atlasryan]

Instead of a character profile sheet describing how you mentally see your character, try answering these prompts to get to know your character, their personality, decision-making process and what backstory details remain vital.