#mannerisms

[originalmeganprincess]

The captions with men in them always make closeted sissies like you a little nervous. Transwomen are much less repressed over such things.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Quirks, Habits & Mannerisms

Character Quirks - the memorable little things about a character’s personality that make them charming, endearing, weird, or unique. A quirk is anything worth describing about a character that makes them stand out, like certain speech patterns (a character who mumbles), or behavioral tics (someone who can’t make eye contact). Quirks can also be a character’s clothing, the way they smell, or whether they use their left hand or if they’re ambidextrous. Little quirks or idiosyncrasies can humanize a character—or at the very least, make them interesting.

Character Habits - the patterns of behavior exhibited by characters either involuntarily or in response to other stimuli. For example, a character who can’t stop winking when they get nervous, or someone who always smokes a cigarette with their morning coffee. Habits are often repeated under specific circumstances, or in some cases incorporated into a character’s routine. Good habits can reveal things about your character, like someone who always cleans their house before company arrives can be a stickler for neatness and presentation. However, bad habits can also be especially powerful, as they expose certain flaws about your characters, paving the way for growth and development.

Character Mannerisms - a character’s unconscious individual gestures, affectations, or other distinctive behavioral traits. Characters’ mannerisms can indicate particular aspects about them. For example, someone who is always slouching may perpetually lack confidence, or a character is always squinting because they’re too prideful to admit they need glasses. Mannerisms can help your audience tell your fictional characters apart from one another, giving them their own identity. They can also help your characters feel more three-dimensional, like people you’ve met in real life.

Tips for Using Quirks, Habits, and Mannerisms for Writing Realistic Characters

Quirks, habits, and mannerisms can be so useful for writers to incorporate during the character creation process. Whether your focus is writing a novel or short stories, little aspects of a character’s personality can help make them feel layered and real, strengthening the connection and empathy your audience has with them.

Make a list. Write your own list of quirks, habits, and mannerisms. Think about the people you know. Which family members are introverts? Who is always the life of the party? Do they say any specific things or behave in a particular way that indicates these aspects of their personalities? Think of a character you’ve read about in a book or seen in a TV show or movie—what were their strengths? What were their foibles? Also, consider complete strangers you’ve passed on the street. Which ones do you remember, and why?

Ask yourself why. If you’ve thought of a list of character traits you find interesting, consider why those particular ones stood out to you. Why do you want to give your character a weird sneeze? Why is it important that they’re vegan? Why you want to use a trait and its effect on personality are two important things to be cognizant of when building your own characters.

Show, don’t tell. Use quirks, habits, and mannerisms to say more about your characters than words can. You don’t have to tell your readers that your protagonist always feels awkward when he enters a crowded room—show them he feels that way by putting it into his movement. Instead of normally walking into the room, the character always shuffles meekly, or has to give themselves a pep-talk before entering. Descriptions like these can paint a more vivid picture of both the scene and your character for audiences.

Consider your setting. If you’re writing a piece that takes place in the 1990s, your main character isn’t going to check their cell phone constantly, or use certain types of modern slang. Make sure the behaviors and habits you incorporate into your character development line up with the time period or setting you’ve established.

Don’t overdo it. In fiction writing, a good combination of quirks can help create more memorable characters by including small things that make them charming, endearing, weird, or unique. However, overloading your character descriptions with these traits will have the opposite effect, and make them feel ungrounded and unrelatable. Quirks, habits, and mannerisms should be used sparingly, and only to enhance the character as a whole. If your character walks with a limp, has a catchphrase, wears ugly clothes, speaks with a stutter, and considers their stuffed animal their best friend, they will seem like a complete caricature to your audience. Characters shouldn’t need an overload of gimmicks to be memorable, just a few specific details that help bring them to life in a natural and interesting way.

Avoid clichés. Nothing makes a character feel less realistic than an adherence to unbelievable and tired tropes. If you want to develop unique characters, go against the grain. The gruff character with the eyepatch might be the nicest person in the neighborhood, or the clumsy girl-next-door might actually be a serial killer. Even if you’re experiencing writer’s block, don’t rely on clichés. Instead, think of all the basic ways characters have been portrayed throughout and go in the opposite direction.

Try writing prompts. Character writing prompts can help you imagine new combinations of traits to give to your characters. A prompt can force you to think outside the box you’ve built for your character, putting them in other situations and seeing how they behave. This can help draw out features of the character that you hadn’t thought of yet, while also expanding your character writing skills.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[saffronish]

Just yesterday I started thinking about Castiel in season 12 and how certain mannerisms of his seem to have changed since season 11, or, more specifically, since he was possessed by Lucifer.

One particular scene from 12x03 really made this suddenly very obvious to me. Take a look at Cas' reaction to finding out that Crowley had tried to team up with Rowena to hunt Lucifer before going to Castiel himself.

Castiel outright mocks Crowley and makes a face that reminded me so much of Lucifer that for one split second I forgot that Castiel wasn't possessed anymore

Compare with this scene^ Is it just me or is this a very Lucifer thing to do?

Here're some more examples that stood out to me:

^ This last one here is really interesting, actually... The whole leaning on the windowsill, the rather patronizing look, chewing his tongue in thought

The whole episode in itself is littered with bits and pieces of a rather more sarcastic Castiel than usual (the whole season, even). We can frequently see him rolling his eyes at Crowley... which, yes, understandable... it's Crowley, but I feel like Cas didn't act around Crowley like this before... or with anyone for that matter except for a few rare occasions.

It's all very Lucifer-esque.

Fast forward to episode 12x07 when we see Castiel again; he very clearly does one thing that is, first of all, extremely funny but also not very Castiel-ish, if you get what I mean.

He complains about Crowley constantly talking, which is, again, understandable, but the way he does it...

Now, I'm not trying to say that Cas is never sarcastic or bitchy ("what part of 'I don't know' escapes your understanding?" "my 'people skills' are 'rusty.' Pardon me but I've spent the last 'year' as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent." "you think I came because you called?") it's just that in this particular season the way he acts when frustrated or pissed off sometimes reminds me of how Lucifer acted in season 11. It's really very subtle but it's undeniably there.

(Also, I will not be mentioning ep 12x10 even though we get peak Castiel sarcasm in that one. The reason for this is because that whole episode just feels like Cas rather then unconscious remnants of Lucifer, especially since he was also in a fight with Dean at the time and that would of course affect his behavior.)

So skipping that we move on to 12x19 and these reactions

^and this smile??? Context for those who don't remember: this is when Cas placed his hand on Kelly's belly and felt Jack for the first time... take from that what you will (Jack biologically being Lucifer's son and all). Don't get me wrong, this is a really innocent smile of an angel feeling the grace of an unborn Nephilim for the first time... it's incredibly sweet. But the half smile reminds me of this

...and both (especially the first one) remind me so much of these

Same side for the half smile (or smirk in Lucifer's case). Poor guy probably doesn't even realize he's doing it which just makes all of this so much more intriguing. Reminds me of how Nick Vaught (Lucifer's more recognizable vessel) snapped his fingers at Castiel to try and kill him in season 14 after getting angry. It was a habit for him to do so, and he regretted it immediately afterwards... but he still did it.

So I'm guessing that being possessed by Lucifer affected Cas similarly. Apparently some of Lucifer's more subtle mannerisms have stuck with Cas next to the emotional trauma. It doesn't always show, mind you (Castiel is still sarcastic in his own special way, and I love that about him), BUT when you put into consideration that he was possessed by Lucifer for half a season, it makes sense that this would happen...

There are probably so many more examples but I'm gonna have to stop here before my computer crashes from the amount of gifs I've been using lol

Cheers folks

[guildofscribes]

Daredevil’s “human but slightly to the left” mannerisms are endlessly amusing and not touched on nearly enough in fandom.

This is a guy who has had more time without sight than with it, and has had to rely on what he remembers about how people comport themselves, in order to conduct himself appropriately.

Since he was nine, he’s had no visual input for body language and how to interpret it. It would have taken a while to figure out how to translate brand new interactions into something he could emulate and use.

I need so much more of Daredevil using this to his advantage to throw people off. I need Daredevil really selling the idea that the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is an eldrich beastie playing at human.

(And honestly, the lack of gifs with the proper creepy clips is clearly an oversight, so an Intimidating Devil will have to do.)

And honestly, I’d take Matt doing it on purpose as well as by mistake, because both are equally funny.

Matt being an absolute menace and scaring people on purpose For Effect?

Delightful!

Matt forgetting that Humans Don’t Act Like That and scaring the mess out of people because he was focusing on more important matters?

Delectable!

Daredevil makes people question whether the eldrech horrors have crawled from the depths.

Daredevil makes people wonder what awful deal was done to bind this creature to Hell’s Kitchen and rain wrath upon criminals.

Daredevil makes people suffer without the mercy of death.

Daredevil makes bad guys think they better get to a church fast because God is sending the devil after them.

Daredevil freaks wrongdoers out so much that some of them will just give up on sight.

When it’s theorized that Matthew Murdock might be Daredevil, the bad guys don’t go after him because what if Matt Murdock is actually the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen?

Daredevil makes people think that something horrible crawled into a human’s skin and is trying to walk around and pass itself off as human.

Daredevil picks fights with the biggest, baddest, meanest, nastiest scum that the earth can drum up, and he picks these fights over and over and over again.

Daredevil goes after the nasties that whole police forces won’t touch.

Daredevil cannot be mortal, because Daredevil should have been dead many times over, but he always pops back up to take another run at his enemies.

Daredevil goes after the old, the gargantuan, the rooted-in crime elements that nobody else knows exists, or tries their hardest to forget.

Matthew freakin’ Murdock made New Yorkers, who had seen vigilantes crop up before, shake their heads and cross themselves and go, “Naw, that’s the literal devil himself.”

Named after Matthew the follower of Jesus who was martyred for telling off a king for attempting to force a girl to marry him, and for Michael the archangel of battle and end times… Murdock sure lives up to the spirit of savage battle in the name of justice. He’s so violent, such a powerful fighter, and he makes such an impression.

Daredevil is scary.

[mindinthevoid]

[ohlookitsabluejay]

The urge to give my friend’s mannerisms to my characters is strong

I’m not fighting this one

[elitadream]

I've seen a few stories where Luigi is portrayed as being slightly better/more confident at speaking English than Mario; I was curious if this is true in your version?

Oh I love this take! :D 👏 I've seen it a couple times too and always find it very fitting!

In my version, both brothers fluently speak English and are equally at ease with the language; the main difference being that Mario is a bit less talkative than Luigi. He'll usually give a verbal response when directly spoken to as opposed to initiating conversation, and acting on a thought is more instinctive to him than voicing it out loud. His speech is notably quieter and mellower too, and despite being presumed to be less socially anxious than Luigi, Mario has a harder time expressing himself with words when nervous. 🙇‍♀️💭