PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY... DEVELOPING CHARACTERS PART II..
This is one of the basic understandings you should have when you write your characters. You don't have to know everything there is, just a basic foundation. (I study deep into it because it's a genuine interest to me personally. If any of you would like to know more I might be able to suggest other resources for you to go to). I'm going to write about how it can help you write better characters. I will be relaying sources (links as well) on this so that if anyone wants to read it firsthand they can. If anyone would like to add anything to this then that would be great, and if anyone has any questions I would answer them to the best of my ability.
I talk about gender roles and the differences between male and female. I realize that some characters may be non-binary, transgender, or something else (I genuinely don't know if someone can identify as something else other than I just listed, if I'm wrong please correct me and I will fix it). However, I do not have a complete understanding of people who do identify as anything other than male and female, which is why I won't be talking about it. If someone would like to private message (pm) me or inform me within the comments, that would be great.
These are topics that I have learned about, I will not talk about things that I have very little, or no, knowledge on.
Here are the list of things that I will be talking about in this chapter: nature vs. nurture, id ego and superego, fight or flight, social comparison theory by Leon Festinger, social learning theory by Robert Bandura, and the four humors. (The topics will be discussed in that order). For each topic I will provide a link to the sources where I had gained the information. Sources are cited in MLA format so don't come at me. (The bolded out topics are the ones that are already done).
Nature V.S. Nurture
This, and the rest of the topics, are very lengthy so bare with me when I explain everything and how you can use this to build your characters. To start with, nature is what psychologists think as sort of like "pre-wiring", our minds influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally about the influences of external factors after conception (pretty much the influences around you after you're born). Having an understanding as to how our brains are wired and how it impacts the way we think, believe, and shape our personalities is very important.
We're going to start with nature. Like I said before, nature has to do with the wiring of our brains. Some brains are wired differently (i.e. autism, ADD/ADHD, Synesthesia, and more) and our brains are wired depending on our gender (You read the correctly, gender does play a factor). Female brains produce estrogen (and testosterone when on periods), and male brains produce testosterone. The estrogen is what makes female...boobs... grow, give us the higher pitched feminine voice, and not allow us to grow facial hair (I'm aware that there may be more but I'm not going that deep). For males, the testosterone allows them to grow taller, able to be more muscularly built, gives them lower voices, and let them grow facial hair (I am also aware that some men can't grow facial hair and that some women can... again I'm not going that deep, and major props to you if you're trying to go that deep).
Let's move away from gender a little bit and move on to brain development. Scientifically, human brains don't stop developing until we are around 25 years old. What that means is that until your brain stops developing, you're going to be using different parts of your brain to think, comprehend, and make decisions with. Adults use what's called the prefrontal cortex to make decisions because it's done developing. Teenagers, however, use what's called amygdala, and it's because our prefrontal cortex is not done developing. The amygdala is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behavior. It's the reason why teenagers do make all of these impulsive decisions and why they rebel. It's because we rely on the part of our brain that deals with all that. The prefrontal cortex is the rational part of the brain. This part of the brain can deal with situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. It's why there are things like buying guns, voting, drinking alcohol, and doing drugs are all restricted around the same time that our brains have finished developing. It's so that we have a much better time at making good decisions.
This next topic delves into both nature and nurture, which is why I'm discussing it right before I talk about nurture. ToM (Theory of Mind) is important when talking about nature vs. nurture due to the fact it gives us the ability to predict and interpret the behavior of others. ToM might delay some children due to genetics which can include: autism, deaf children with hearing parents, and chromosomal disorder (Turner's Syndrome - where only one x is present in females instead of two). Children with accelerated ToM (with having nothing considered wrong genetically) typically have larger families and cultural differences in which these are external factors. So if your character is an only child and doesn't go out with friends all that much, they may not be good at interpreting and predicting the behavior of other people. You also don't need to know the exact science behind this in order to create your character, but having a basic understanding of how genetics play a part as to how your characters' minds develop is good. Alright, now let's move on now that we are done talking about ToM.
While nature refers to biological structures, nurture refers to sociocultural influences. What I mean by that is that the way we act can be due to outer influences. The influence of society, a social construct, people, and beliefs. That all deals with nurture. Remember, nature vs. nurture refers to the first few years after being born (and when you're inside your mother), early childhood so to speak. Whether if you're male or female impacts how your thought process and your personality is shaped. The social requirements and standards do impact gender and we don't even realize it. The way a female is taught how to behave, think, and believe is vastly different from males and it's because of society. Gender roles basically. When you are writing your character you have to include these types of factors. Even if you have created some fantasy world, the way the two different genders that are perceived may be different or similar. Now, you don't have to make it obvious, but making it subtle and have it be a subconscious influence on your characters is how you'll make them seem more real. Remember, the smallest of interactions (and not just with people) can have the greatest impacts. The first few years of our lives are one of the most important. The way that our parents/guardians talk to us, the words they use around us, and even the cultures they take part plays a major part. It's part of the reason why some parents start teaching their kids multiple languages because they're like gigantic sponges, soaking up anything and everything. Let's not forget imitation. When children start speaking that's when parents have to watch their...French. They also have to watch how they react to different situations because babies and toddlers will definitely pick that up and it will determine how they react to those situations and how they respond to them as well. If parents/guardians don't react quickly to fix whatever mistake they made, it can have an impact later on in teenage years and maybe even adult years.
Sources and Cites (It took me 10 consecutive hours for each to fully understand and annotate each one... links are pdf's)
Hughes, Claire, et al. "Origins of individual differences in theory of mind: From nature to nurture?." Child development 76.2 (2005): 356-370.
Link - http://www.eriskstudy.com/media/1095/hughes_2005_cd.pdf
Eagly, Alice H., and Wendy Wood. "The nature–nurture debates: 25 years of challenges in understanding the psychology of gender." Perspectives on Psychological Science 8.3 (2013): 340-357.
Link - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wendy-Wood-7/publication/258179755_The_Nature-Nurture_Debates/links/5821550508ae12715afc143d/The-Nature-Nurture-Debates.pdf
I WILL UPDATE THE CHAPTER AFTER I FINISH WRITING ABOUT EACH TOPIC. THAT WAY I WON'T HAVE TO WAIT WEEKS TO POST THIS CHAPTER AND THAT WAY PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO THE INFORMATION SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.
I have put a lot into this, and not just time and energy. I want to make sure that everyone is getting the correct type of information to help them create their characters. I work very hard and long hours to make sure that the message I send out to people who are getting this are able to understand and able to draw something from all of this. I love helping people and I love learning about things like this. It has helped me tremendously when I write and I am hoping that this will help other people too. Share it with people that you think might help them. Just give credit back to me.
“Kindness is not weakness. It’s strength. Those who are kind have been beaten, scorned, cast out, and fallen. They are people that have broke under the cruelty of the world. They then pieced themselves together with gold, showing off that the scars that they were given are not ugly, but beautiful.
I am kind and strong and covered in gold. Never forget that.”
“Why I don’t trust the government? Power is a burden. And with all that pressure you either break or turn into diamonds. We all know that diamonds are rare.”
Writer's block is an all too familiar term for writers. It's where you sometimes sit at your computer or notebook, staring for hours on end not knowing what to write. Well guess what, I'm here to tell you that it is so much easier to overcome than you realize. (I know I said that I wasn't going to do a step by step but fuck it).
Step A: Write about ANYTHING. When I mean anything I quite literally mean anything. It doesn't have to be about what you're working on now, and it certainly doesn't have to be grammatically written correctly much less make sense. Seriously, this has helped. Not only does it help overcome the doom that you feel about writing, it helps better your writing. The chapters for this book here, I write this thing when I have writer's block. After, it helps me get back on track and actually get a little bit done.
Step B: Just FUCKING TYPE. I know that I'm being a bit aggressive with this next step but honestly guys, the hardest thing that I have been facing isn't because I don't know what to type. It's because the thought of physically doing it seems like it's too much work. If I ever start to feel that way I go over to NitroType (A racing typing game that's free and fun). After being there for a while I'm in a bit of a better mood. I get in the mood to type my next chapters. And if ya'll don't want to do what I do, just jam a bunch of keys down on your keyboard like this: isufjb,nmadkliud hjf isd. Easy, messy, you're actually pushing down on your keyboard, gets out a bit of pent up frustration, and will possibly even start to type up whatever you're going to type.
Step C: NEVER WAIT FOR INSPIRATION. I'm being deadly serious when I say that you are never going to get anything down if you are waiting for inspiration to hit you. You've already created these characters, a world, and a problem using inspiration and your imagination. You don't need to use inspiration for everything that you want to write. If you want to add something that you might think go somewhere (even if it's something completely insane and just a sliver of an idea that you've thrown in the dumpster in the back of your head), fucking write it down. Once you get started it will be the easiest thing in the world.
Step D: Just FUCK IT. I know that some of you (if not all) are terrified that what you put down won't be perfect. That you can't do it. Well, I'm here to tell you to not tell yourself, or let others tell you, that you can do it. The message just means that you should be capable and should be able to actually do it. It also isn't helpful when there's that other voice in the back of your head saying that you can't. It is the exact reason why I say "FUCK IT". It just means that whatever you put down may not be perfect but you got it done. And frankly, that's all that matters. By saying "Fuck it" you don't have to worry about not being able to do it. All you have to worry about is just letting it happen, and fuck whatever comes down on your computer/paper. This also helps you to go back and make any revisions. Rewrite anything that you may have put down the first time around. Rewriting it, and editing, is so much easier to do when you have something down. (Trust me when I say that it's hard to edit a blank page).
THE LENGTH OF YOUR CHAPTERS DO NOT MATTER... HONEST..
This is going to be a really short one because it's so straight forward. There isn't a deeper meaning and it honestly doesn't require any skill. So, let's get this done.
Alright! The point of creating multiple chapters is to break your story into different sections. This allows a nice flow and also a stopping point for your reader. Kind of like an episode of a T.V. show.
In high school, my world history teacher taught us how to properly write an essay. The lesson is practically ingrained in my mind, especially what he asked us. He asked everyone how long a paragraph should be and everyone gave the answer of 5-8 sentences long. He said we were all wrong, that the length of a paragraph can be as long and as short as you want. He's written and read essays that have 1 sentence paragraphs and the next one being about a page to 2 pages long. As soon as I got my hands on that information, I applied it to all of my writing. Your chapters can be two sentences, 5,000 words long, or even completely blacked out (I forgot the name of the author that did that in one of his books). IT DOES NOT MATTER. Just because you have a short chapter doesn't mean that you're too lazy to write more. And just because you wrote a long ass chapter that takes 30 minutes to read doesn't mean that you're completely dedicated and motivated.
As long as you believe that your story has been broken up into the right sections... It. Does. Not. Matter.
“There are two ways of thinking. Everyone starts out on a tight-rope; walking on a thin line and staring out at the beautiful horizon above you. But as soon as you look down, even for the smallest second, you can’t stop looking down. When you begin to look down and below the rope that’s holding your entire life together, you begin to think the worst of the chasm that’s calling out your name. You want to look up so badly and see the beauty of everything, but you’re scared of the thing that’s beneath will haunt you when you stop looking. Up and Down. Optimism and Pessimism.”
“Heat. It comes from the flames of fire and also from some of the most intense moments of our lives. We feel it in spring and summer, wrapping us up like a blanket but it could also be suffocating. It burns and darkens our skin. The sun. It’s rays has the potential to poison us, but a barrier prevails again and again through the ages. It also gives life, it gives the green of this earth growth. But it also has the potential to scorch it to the ground. The heat; fire and sun; it’s a beautiful and elegant thing but full of mass destruction as well.”
“The feeling of fear. The feeling of being shaken to the core, the feeling of being paralyzed. Waves of tears crash across my cheeks. The feeling of helplessness, of incapability. My limbs are now made of lead. My mind is filled with thoughts yet I can’t think at all. My chest tightens at the sight before me. My willpower, my determination, it turns to dust. Forgotten. This feeling comes and goes in waves. The ocean ruthless, the ocean calm. Some call it a mercy killing, others an honorable death. The hope that once filled my being, has left me an empty shell.”
“I’m nice. I don’t like hurting others or bringing them down. I don’t enjoy being cruel just to be cruel. I’m nice. But as soon as you push me, and keep pushing me, to my limit, I will no longer be nice. I will be the nightmare that haunts you when you’re awake, I will be the ticking time bomb that will keep you at the edge of your seat, I will become the monster that turns when the moon isn’t full. I’m nice because I choose to be.”
"I turn back to the veiw of the skyline: the mountains and clouds are beautiful at this time of day. If only it could last forever, but unfortunately things like this don't. The cycle of life is a cruel and undeserved curse."
“Winter. Something about this particular season is wrong. The snow wrapping around the earth, trying to suffocate all life that Mother Nature has to offer. It’s chilling. The gentle winds stabs your skin with ice. Teeth clacking together with no control. The sun is weak in this weather, it can do nothing to help create that warmth you once knew. Watching everything wilt at a distance is not only disturbing, but a comfort as well. Just knowing that as soon as the winds turn into fire against your skin, as soon as the sun returns with power that no one has ever seen, that Mother Nature will be as relentless as ever. Mother Nature will always find a way to rise with the sun.”
“This book isn’t just about me, the involvement of my family and friends are too significant. I wouldn't have been able to fill out as many pages without them. And speaking of pages, this large book holds some of the most important decisions I've made: bad and outright disgusting. However, it also holds the greatest chapters of my life.”
“Every story ever written has been told by the victors, the champions that defeated the evil. This is not that kind of story. This one is nothing but grey. Not black or white. My philosophies and morals are what made this entire thing possible. It’s what will make us succeed. To triumph over others.”
“I’ve been eating dinner alone these past few days. It may seem sad, but after a while, I've come to enjoy not just the peace that comes with it. There's no pressure talking about your day, you don't have to worry about manners and proper etiquette, don't have to worry about excusing yourself from the table, and definitely not being asked question after question if the food is good or not. Instead, I make my own meals, put my elbows on the table, wipe my mouth with my sleeve instead of a napkin, and can leave whenever I want. There's no trying your hardest to pretend to be a part of a social norm. There's just you. There's no standard.”
“Heroes and villains. In most stories that you read, the roles are well defined. It's black and white. However, this story will be more focused on the gray area. The line that's full of philosophical love and warfare. When you first approach the border, it doesn't matter what side you come from, it may seem thin: a small spider string holding everything into balance. But if you walk on the line long enough, if you don't fall out of balance first, you may find it to be the very thing that puts the world into perspective.
There are no real definitions of evil and good. The world will forever go on and on about what truly defines evil and what defines good. It's not that simple. Ideas, rules, and philosophies can't be sorted into two categories. People have tried but it never ends well, it always ends in disaster. There have been debates taken to the extreme point of war, of hurt words. But no one learns, no one has ever stepped on the line to look at both sides in their true form. Rather they step over it, looking at one side at a time. Society will forever never look at all three perspectives because they are so focused on the idea that black and white are completely different. They become so focused on one thing they never reach the border, they don't come close.”
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