So one time i was scrolling through.... something idk, and I came across an interesting video that said:
"What do you want/what do you care about more than money? Why? Those are your values."
And beyond being interesting for personal introspection, it's also really useful for creating character values sets. If you can peg down specifically what their values are, you can better understand how they'd react in certain situations and what they're going to prioritize.
Some other ways to restructure that original question could be:
If someone offered your character a fairly considerable amount of money, what would cause them to turn it down?
Your character has to choose between [getting money and knowingly let bad thing happen] or [reject the money and prevent bad thing from happening]. What would constitute bad thing enough for them to reject the money (and why?)
remember that the "bad thing" can range from things really obvious like "prevent genocide" to comparatively small things like "being caught wearing makeup"
ok so I’m looking for this site and basically it’s a place you can log all of your characters in. you answer all these different questions about them like their age, height, species, etc and stuff like their song and favourite food and whatever and you can add pictures of what they look like. you can have loads of characters saved and you can link all the ones from the same stories and whatever and it’s driving me mad. I haven’t been on it in years and I have no idea how to search for it so I’m just gonna tag random things cause I need to know...
I'm gonna try and get a day ahead on my word count, in case I have a hard mental or physical health day this month. It will give me a little breathing room, and I feel like I'll have the energy after work today. Wish me luck!
Questions to ask about your demiboy/demigirl character
Since the post about questions to ask your genderfluid characters is still popular apparently, I decided to do something similar. Enjoy!
(For anyone who doesn’t know, a demiboy is someone who feels partially - but not fully - connected to masculinity and being a boy/man. Or, partially a boy/man, partially another (possibly undefined) gender. The same is true for a demigirl, but with being a girl/woman instead)
What aspects of femininity/masculinity do they embrace?
What aspects do they reject?
Do they consider themself to be trans or nonbinary?
Do they use the term demiboy/demigirl?
If not, do they have a different term that they use? If so, what?
Do they consider themself to be different from others gender-wise?
What pronouns do they use?
Do they have just one set of pronouns, or are they comfortable with multiple?
Do they go by their given name, or a different name?
Was discovering that they were a demiboy/demigirl a longer process of searching and self-discovery, or was it something they discovered fairly readilly? (I cannot spell, sorry)
How did they discover they were a demiboy/demigirl
Do they tell others that they’re a demiboy/demigirl?
If someone doesn’t know what it means to be a demiboy/demigirl, do they often go out of their way to explain it, or do they ask/tell the person to look it up on their own?
Do they experience dysphoria? If so, what kinds? (note that not all non-cis people experience dysphoria, and that’s completely vaid)
What is their stance on shapeshifting as a magical power (I know it’s random don’t judge)
When it comes to developing characters for a story, a lot of the questionaires and other prompts have a lot to do with what characters look like: what's their weight? what's their hight? eye color? Favorite color? The thing is, none of these things are usually going to help when it comes to making fleshed out and rounded characters - the ones readers will root for. The reason why is looks don't compare against who a character is on the inside. What are their motivations? Why? Where do their little quirks come from? These are the things that make a character memorable.
When it comes to creating dynamic characters, this is the process I usually default to, adapted from indie author Jenna Moreci. All of the catagories belore are intertwined, which will be broken down as well. The beauty of this method is that you don't have to have everything fleshed out from the get-go. Even if you only have one or two details, you can use this to build that into a whole dynamic character.
The main points you want to get by the time you’re done are:
their backstory/life experience
social role
motivation described in 1-2 words
three strengths/three weaknesses
what the perfect novel ending is for your character
why that’s the perfect end
what your character’s underlying need is
(This has been one of my longest posts in a while, so I’ve put all of the questions below the break)
1) What's their backstory/life experience?
Basically, this is where I bullet-point big life events. Brainstorming isn't always chronological, but for easy reference, when I put this information into my spreadsheet, I put it in the order it all happened. Basically, summarizing their life up until the events of the story in about ten to twenty short sentences.
What this influences:
(Basically EVERYTHING)
Social Role: What types of experience have they had that will influence where they fall in social circles?
Basic motivation: What aspects of their life experience have shaped the backbone of your character's goals?
Strengths/weaknesses: What life experiences have taught them well (strengths)? What life experiences have they not had, creating weaknesses?
Ideal ending: What is a hole in their life that has not been filled that they want filled?
Ending reason: What have they promised themselves they will get out of completing their goal?
Need: What aspect of your character's life has been neglected, at least for a long time?
How to come up with your backstory:
If you've already gotten other aspects of your character down, think about what types of life experience would be needed to justify their ideals, thoughts, and actions. Given that life experience pretty much affects everything, you can refer back to the questions listed above.
2) What's their social role?
This is not the same thing as plot role (mc, love interest, etc). Instead, this is a one to two word description of who they are in relationship to other characters. This can be fairly archetypical. For example, your character might be the leader or bully. Compared to other questions, this is in my mind, less important, but it can be helpful when picking which tropes you want or don't want to include.
What this influences:
Strengths/weaknesses: what aspects of this role allow your character to flourish and develop strengths? What aspects of this role bring your character down and create weaknesses?
How to come up with their social role:
Life experience: What roles have they filled thus far? Did they fit well in those roles? Are they trying to maintain them, or are they trying to escape them?
Strengths/weaknesses: What social roles would make sense for your character's strengths and weaknesses? (This one's going to have less influence, as there are plenty of roles someone can get forced into, such as leadership, even if they don't actually qualify for it.)
3) What is their motivation in one or two words?
This is pretty much the simplest, most boiled down view of their motivation. It also will help to give a basic insight into what their character is. For example, they might be motivated by vengeance, or sense of duty. Pretty much, look at what they want, and boil it down to its bare essentials. Like the social role, this won't offer a ton of insight, but it can be useful for coming up with tropes and themes you want to use and avoid.
What this influences:
Ideal ending: how can the basic motivation, which is more of a concept, translate into a tangeable goal?
How to come up with their basic motivation:
Life experience: What aspects of their life has shaped their ideals to the point that they are motivated by them?
Strengths/Weaknesses: how can one or more of the given strengths yield themselves toward motivating your character (for example, if they've got empathy, maybe they're motivated by a sense of duty)? What weaknesses, when taken too far, can create a hole that your character feels they must fill (for example, if they have a lot of insecurity, maybe they're motivated by perfectionism)?
Ideal ending: what is the most boiled down version of the ideal ending? What is the driving force behind it?
Ending reason: what aspects of their reasoning point toward an underlying motivation archetype?
Need: how can their underlying need transform into motivation?
4) What are three strengths, and three weaknesses?
The key to creating balanced characters in terms of strengths and weaknesses is to make sure that you list just enough to get the gist, but you don't go overboard on either. For each character, list exactly three strengths and three weaknesses, and make sure that none of them are too similar to each other. Some examples might be: intelligent, athletic, abrasive, entitled, etc.
What this influences:
Social Role: what role or roles is your character going to gravitate toward, based on their strengths and weaknesses?
Motivation: how do these strengths and weaknesses transform into basic forms of motivation?
Ideal ending: what are your character's weaknesses stopping your character from achieving? What do they think they're capable of getting?
Ending reason: how do your character's strengths and weaknesses affect their reasoning when coming up with a goal?
How to come up with strengths and weaknesses:
Life Experience: what aspects of their life experience would have taught your character strengths? What deficiencies would have created weaknesses?
Social role: what strengths and weaknesses might your character develop based on their social role? Which ones are going to be the most apparent?
Need: what strengths would someone who has this need probably pick up? What weakness perpetuate it?
5) If everything turned out perfectly for this character, how would the novel end?
This is basically what the character's goal is. What does your character want to happen by the end of the book? This does not yet go into what they'd do to get it, just their wish. Keep it simple. What is ONE THING? Any more than that and things start to get convoluted.
What this influences:
Motivation: how can this ending be condenced to its simplest form? What is the motivation behind wanting this thing?
Ending reason: why do your characters want this?
Need: what does this thing appear to be fulfilling (even if it doesn't actually)?
How to come up with ideal ending:
Life experience/backstory: what's something they've never had that they want? Or, what's something they used to have that they want back?
Motivation: what is a tangeable manifestation of their base motivation?
Need: how does your character think they can fulfill their needs?
6) Why do your characters want their chosen ending?
This is their rational explanation for their goal. What is it that caused your characters do decide this was the perfect ending?
What this influences:
Motivation: what does your character believe they're trying to do?
Need: what need are they trying to fulfill, even if they don't know it?
How to come up with ending reason:
Life experience/backstory: what aspects of their life experience lead them to believe their goal is what they want?
Strengths/weaknesses: how do your character's strengths and weaknesses inform their reasoning? How do they cloud it or twist it?
Ideal ending: what makes your character want their ideal ending? What do they think they'll get out of it?
7) What need are they trying to fulfill?
This is something your character may not know specifically, but it impacts a lot of their decisions. Basically, this is going to be the thing that they are trying to fulfill throught the story, even if they don't go about it in any productive way. For some juicy conflict, you can make your character's need and goal/ideal ending contradict each other in practice, causing your character to make plot-driving decisions.
What this influences:
Motivation: how can their need motivate your character? What does that motivation look like?
Strengths/weaknesses: what strengths has your character developed to cover up their need? what weaknesses does your character's need perpetuated?
Ideal ending: what type of ending does your character believe will help to satisfy their needs, even if they don't know what their needs are? Or, what type of ending will help them survive without meeting their needs?
How to come up with a character need:
Backstory/life experience: what aspect of your character's being has been long neglected?
Ideal ending: what needs can that goal meet? or, what needs can be covered up by achieving that goal?
Ending reason: what needs does your character think they're meeting?
Hopefully this is helpful for coming up with dynamic characters!
tagged by @that-one-writing-blog! I’m gonna do JUST Conrad Fitzgerald from Daydream Walking this time, since I’ve already done something similar to this with all 3 of my mains and a good chunk of the Enforcers(aka wizard cops). Also reworded a number of the later questions to suit the setting/character.
Tagging: Nobody but if you wanna do it feel free and say I tagged you!
Rules: Answer 15 questions as either yourself or one of your OCs, then tag 15 people.
Below the cut to save space and also bc of brief mentions of war and being a prisoner of war.
Are you named after anyone?
I don’t know.
2. What is your gender?
Man.
3. What is your sexuality?
I am married to a woman, her name is Rosemary. >he stares into the camera< I have never slept with multiple men with my wife’s permission nor has she ever laid with her female friends with my approval, to my knowledge
4. Where are you from?
I’m from right here in Port Cassandra, California.
5. Where do you live?
. . . Right here in Port Cassandra, California.
6. When were you born?
At 2:32am.
7. How old are you?
Twenty-nine.
8. What is your relationship with your parents like?
I never knew my parents. They died when I was maybe two years old, and I was raised by my aunt and her best friend.
9. Did you serve in the war(WW2)?
Yes. I was drafted at the age of 23 and served until we won. However, I spent about half that time as a POW.
10. Why did you become a police officer?
I had the, uh, appropriate skillset when I came home. It just seemed like where I needed to be. Plus, I have fond memories of policemen from my youth, making sure I got home safe and the like.
11. Do you have any hobbies?
If boxing counts as a hobby, yes.
12. What did you do for work before the war?
I mostly worked on fishing vessels. It was grueling work and months of living at sea, but I made a pretty penny. >shrug<
13. Where do you live?
In a small, single-story house on the edge of town, in a wooded area. It’s well-shaded and not very visible from the road.
14. How long was your longest relationship?
Nine years, ongoing. I married Rosemary when I was 20, and she was 21. She’s the cradle robber, not me!
15. Who do you get along with best among your fellow officers?
Sinclair, with Crawford as a close second. Neither of them mind a chat, which I like, and they’re both rather pleasant fellows. I just happen to spend more time with Sinclair than Crawford, since Crawford is usually partnered with Sheep and seems >clears throat< rather close to him. Rigby is stubbornly quiet and Sheep manages to be standoffish without being markedly unfriendly. Morrin is a fuckin’ dick. Captain Pimento and Sawtelle are okay.
