#ask gb

[plotlinehotline]

Hm, I'm actually having quite a bit of trouble trying to fully flesh out a character's personality. Is there any tips you could give to help with developing main character personalities?

Character Development

One thing all readers and writers can agree on is that character development is an integral part of a story. We need to believe this character as a person. We need a reason to care about them.

Here are a few things I suggest if you’re having trouble developing a character:

First decide who you want this character to be. Are they a jokester? An intellectual? A bad boy? The mom friend? They’ll need specific traits to display this character type. These traits will dictate their actions. What would an intellectual do if they saw someone fall over? What would a bad boy say to his friend if they just won the lottery?

Consider your plot. This relates to the previous point; what kind of person is your character and why? Who do you need them to be for the story? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Memories? Hopes and dreams? Beliefs? How do these things affect their personality? Their actions, their voice? How do they use all of this to achieve their goal?

Complete character sheets. You can find loads with a quick google search! Character sheets ask personal questions about your character that will help you figure out where they’ve come from and why they are the way they are. A fun thing I do is come up with little facts that may not be directly relevant to the story, but that build a character into a real person. For example, I pick their star sign, their favourite colour, least favourite food, etc.

Complete a Myers Briggs test as your character. Make use of the 16 MBTI personality types. It may help you understand how your character would react, think and behave in certain situations. It’s important, however, to remember that no person fits into a perfect little box. People are multi-faceted and are capable of tremendous change and growth. Give your characters the chance to grow!

Take inspiration from others. Maybe people you’ve met. Maybe pre-existing characters. Not to say you should write your cousin into the story, but you can take little habits of theirs and put it into your characters.

Love them! It is important to remember your story and characters are fictional, but giving love to them will show in the writing. It will make your story fun to write!

I also recommend checking out the tumblr blog @characterdevelopmentforwriters. They post niche questions that get you thinking about your characters in a fun way.

Good luck!

-Cait :)

[plotlinehotline]

So I'm trying to write a novel that is a revenge story, where the main character loses his humanity in the pursuit but finds it again way later. I'm currently stuck on how to continue because I have an idea for beginning, middle, and end, but I don't know how to fill inbetween those. Advice?

I feel your pain, anon. Filler material and transitions between scenes can be a tricky part of writing for those of us who are more plot driven.  

You know where your character is and where they need to end up. Now, you need to figure out how they’re going to get there!

-Remember your side plots. Don’t have any? Create some! Use your minor characters and other aspects of your protagonist’s life to create some side plots that can be explored when you don’t know what else to write. Side plots are ultimately there to support the main plot. Your character can’t be fighting the bad guys in every single scene. What else is going on in their life? What specific items, skills, etc. do they need to achieve their goals? Who do they meet along the way? Do they learn any lessons?  

-Include your side characters. You’ve created each character for a reason. Use them! If you find that you don’t have enough characters, you can always create more. Is there a love interest? A voice of reason? A mentor? A protégé? Figure out all of the types of characters you need for the story and put them to use!

-Consider the theme and message. What exactly do you want to say with your story? What do you want your readers to get out of this? Perhaps you need specific scenes to further this message.

-Refine your notes. Sometimes our story notes are vague. You may have a point that says, “they have a conversation”, or something of the like. Expand on everything. What is this conversation about? Why does it need to happen? At what point does it fit in to the story?

-Take your time. The ugly truth all writers know; writing takes time. We all want our stories to be at their best when we’re finished with them. Rushing your story will show in the writing. Taking time to think and simply live will allow you to come up with more and more incredible plot points, themes, lines and ideas that will make your story everything you imagined it would be. Waiting is difficult when you’re really eager, but patience pays off.

Good luck!

-Cait

[plotlinehotline]

Hey plotlinehotline, sorry to bother, but I really need help. I'm currently trying to rewite a book I've started about a year ago and then left half unfinished. After going over my notes I found back to the story. I like it but it's kinda boring and it and the main character feel flat and boring. What can I do to make them more interesting. Do you have any tips for me? Thank you very mucg

Dealing With a Boring Character

Friend, I’ll get to your specific questions about your plot and characters in a moment, but first, here’s some general advice about tackling an abandoned draft. Think about why you started writing this story. You might already remember, since you want to rewrite it, but consider this question anyway, in case you want to set it aside again. Did the characters grab you? The setting? The plot? Does this book send a message that’s important to you? Whatever that reason is, write it down. Keep it nearby, so you have it on hand when you feel unsure.

Next, think about why you stopped writing. It might have been a crazy life event–those happen, and if so it’s no fault of your own. But it might have been something deeper. You say the plot and characters feel boring. Did you sense that while you were writing the first time? Or was it something else? Did your plot run into a wall? Did you feel unsure about the voice and tone? Did the characters feel like cardboard cutouts? If you can answer this question now, you can avoid running into the same problem. If your plot didn’t work, try some outlining techniques. If the voice was wrong, try to nail it down. As for the character problems…

You say the main character feels flat. Again, the question here is why. They could be boring because they aren’t well developed. How much do you know about this character’s history? How alive do they feel to you? Would you want to be friends with this character, or at least find them interesting if you met them in real life? It may be that you need to sit down and write out some character sheets for your protagonist. Or you could try writing some short stories about them, to flesh them out without the pressure of writing an entire novel.

The main character could be boring in terms of the plot. Are they a passive protagonist, reacting instead of acting? Do they lack a driving motivation? If so, go back and figure out how to make them an actor. What do they want more than anything? Figure out how they can get it. What can’t they bear to lose? Take it away from them.  What’s the worst thing they can imagine? Make it happen to them and see what they do. None of these things have to be part of your story, but they can help you figure out what your story is.

Or the main character could be boring compared to other characters. Do you like other characters better than your protagonist? If so, why? Are they more motivated? Funnier? Charming? Do they drive the plot instead of the protagonist? If the answer to these questions is yes, then take a step back and ask why your protagonist is the main character. What makes them important enough to be the center of your book? Why are they more important than this other character you like more? Bring that reason into the story. Or maybe you need to refocus the book around that other character.

Finally, you say your story overall is boring. This could be the main character’s fault. They’re the focus, after all, and if you don’t like them, then the rest of the story won’t work either. As you improve your main character, your story improves with them. And if you’re writing about the wrong main character altogether, then of course the story feels boring.

However, there could be problems with the story beyond the protagonist. You might mean that your plot meanders. Break your story down by scene and list what happens in each. Is there a clear forward momentum? Does each scene do more than one thing? If not, how can you fix this? Even a slice of life story has an engine  hidden somewhere.

Hopefully those get you thinking, friend. One final note: this could just be a crisis of confidence. If none of these questions help spark your thoughts, ask someone else to take a look at your draft. Showing unfinished works to other people can be scary, but sometimes all it takes is one person who says, “I really like this!” to get you started again.

-M.A. 

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[plotlinehotline]

I have a story where I have two protagonist. The story is set up so that they both have the same plan but they do their own thing from time to time. I'm having a hard time being able to narrate what they're doing (I was originally going to do it in the character's POV) while keeping the plot coherent. Would jumping back and forth between character prove to be top confusing? I can't seem to to force myself to make one of them the one protagonist either. Any help is appreciated!

I’ve had a similar problem in the recent past, so I hope this is helpful!

Too much jumping back and forth can be confusing, yes. If you need to switch the POV, I recommend alternating each chapter: every odd chapter= character A, every even chapter= character B.

This will make the story neat and keep the POV clear. Some examples of this in literature are the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan.

However, one sad truth about writing is that you may need to cut some things you really thought you needed for your story. For instance, I too was writing a story with 2 narrators (3rd person limited), but for the sake of simplicity, I ended up choosing one character to narrate alone. It was tough, but it had to be done.

If switching the perspective becomes too messy, you can always decide which character’s voice is more prominent and stick with them. It’s usually the character you created first, or spent the most time on. If you want to pick one narrator, try writing the same scene from both perspectives and see which one comes off stronger. Which one is more fun to write? Which one fits with the mood and theme the best? Which one tells the story better?

If your answer is both, then alternating the POV each chapter is the safest way to go!

Good luck!

-Cait  

[plotlinehotline]

Write a story where, by the end, it’s hard to tell who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy; Any advice is welcome

We may venture into a little bit of philosophy here, so beware!

Determining Good Verses Bad

The first thing you need to consider is what you actually want out of your story. Does there need to be a good guy and a bad guy? Sometimes there are none. Some of the most interesting characters are the ones whose moral alignment is indeterminable. Such a character will keep your readers guessing.  

If you do want a clear hero and villain, figure out what qualifies as good and bad in your story.

Say your story is about people fighting to stop an old building from being demolished. Maybe this impending demolition is so they can build a new school, which the protesters are selfishly getting in the way of. Or, perhaps the building is a safe house the protesters are trying to protect from a big corporation. Why is the right thing right? Why is the wrong thing wrong?What determines the good from the bad often depends on the point of view from which the story is being told. This, as well as the way it’s portrayed.

That in mind, who is your protagonist? What are they trying to accomplish? What do they have to do to get it? Do they succeed? Who is in their way? What is at stake? What do they lose? How do they interact with others in the story? Why?    

Sometimes your narrator is the villain and their rivalry is the hero. Either way, your narrator needs to believe they are doing the right thing. A well written villain may even be able to convince your readers they are doing the right thing e.g. Light Yagami from Death Note. Stories like this can raise questions of morality.

Good luck!

-Cait