do you have tips on writing characters? im already afraid to write canon characters because im super scared that i'll mischaracterize them and then the fandom will come at me with pitchforks and shit
wait hold on I didn't see this???? I'm so sorry anon omfg 😭😭
in general there are different ways to write a character properly but I use two different ways.
My go-to and the one I don't recommend to others because of how unreliable it is, is listening to the character's voicelines over and over to get a feel for their character. You're out of luck if there's no voicelines though, but reading the dialogue over and over again also works.
The more reliable method and my go-to when I'm writing serious works is breaking the characters down and building them back up one by one, You want to start by taking their core traits and working up from there. You do need to be caught up with the story for this but I digress.
Let's use my favourite victim, Hong Lu, as an example!
Starting on a very surface level, if you strip Hong Lu of all his traits then his core will be that he's rich, so he'll talk and act like a rich person while being clueless about what poor people do (<- hence him being described as naive/sheltered)
Now let's give him back one of his traits, preferably something we saw from his backstory. Hong Lu always wanted to help the people around him, so he's kind as well!
Now let's give him back his trauma! Hong Lu was shown time and time again that he can't go to others for help, but others will want to help him if he shows his emotions, so he has learned to hide them.
With all that done, let's put him together with all 3 traits in mind. I'm going to use one of the headcanons in my generic headcanon list for this (namely giving f/o flowers). I'll also colour code it because that looks fun.
Now, giving flowers to a Hong Lu who's been stripped down to just being rich would respond like this:
"My private garden has hundreds of these flowers~"
Giving flowers to a Hong Lu who's been stripped down to just being rich but had the kindness added to him would respond like this:
"Wow, I didn't know you liked me so much~ My private garden has hundreds of these flowers but thank you for getting me these~"
Admittedly that one's not the best dialogue but it does the job so whatever.
Giving flowers to a rich and kind Hong Lu who had his trauma added back would respond like this:
"Wow~ My private garden has hundreds of these flowers~"
Notice how he pretty much went back to talking pretty much the same way he did when he was stripped down to just being rich? This is because his trauma makes him repress his kindness to avoid being hurt and hurting others. (Note that this is the case for pre canto 8 only)
Though alternatively, depending on the context (such as getting him flowers when he's sad as an attempt to cheer him up) could change how he responds. In the scenario I mentioned in the parentheses, he could respond with "Haha... thank you~", it really comes down to what you've written so far and what the context is.
On that note, I only used 3 traits for him for this example, but Hong Lu is a very complex character so there's way more than 3 traits, like him being playful and cunning.
"Wow, I didn't know you liked me so much~ My private garden has hundreds of these flowers but thank you for getting me these~"
Anyway I hope this made sense??? If this was complex then you can do the voiceline method but if that sounds difficult as well then I don't really know how to help skdjgnskdgs
