Fantasy Foretold Forum Character Personalities

Does anybody else find it hard to write different personality types?

That's not something that I feel like is really a problem for me, but I might be able to come up with some suggestions. Hm... let's see.

So, first I would try to imagine what that person would be like in some setting that you can easily imagine. For example, one of my favorite Raymond E. Feist characters is a man by the name of Amos Trask. Any time I write I gruff, foul-mouthed character without any real care for social decency, I go straight to my own interpretation of his voice. I start to hear that voice in my head and the dialogue becomes smoother. I even find that I'm able to picture what Amos Trask would be doing in a given situation. I still make him my own character, but that voice is where I draw the inspiration from. In fact, even though the voice reminds of a old, British sea-dog, when I try to say it out loud I just end up sounding like some country hick. All that to say, the voice is really the embodiment more than it is any kind of "voice."

So if you're trying to write an egotist, think to a TV show you watch - House is a great example, or Gilroy from season 3 of Burn Notice if you watch that one... at any rate, there's always a great, larger-than-life character whose voice will help you construct your own, larger-than-life character.

Another thing to do, if something more methodical helps, might be to contrive a set of actions or sayings from that character. So, for example, a nervous snitch might twitch or blink one eye constantly, a fat, jolly man might be constantly grabbing his rotund belly, or a short-tempered mean guy might be constantly raising one corner of his mouth and sneering. Whatever it is, those little bits and pieces can actually be preplanned to breathe deliberate life into your character.

So a cheeky teen is probably going to have this almost subconscious assumption that they know better than everyone else. At least, that seems like a common source of impudence. Maybe they're always raising an eyebrow as if to say, "you can't be serious..." or whatever it is. ;-D Good luck!

ok, yeah I get what you're saying, draw on my experiences of what i've read and watched and encountered in real life :)

You can also take it from a broader perspective. I had the same issue before, and still kind of do, but i found a website here that makes it easier...



You can pick and choose a mix of them, and in the detailed description it explains tendencies and such. Of course, if you have a large amount of characters there's bound to be some that overlap. we can get into a philosophy discussion on that...

Like Arutha said, imagining a character in a certain setting and how he would act definitely helps define them. It can make writing really fun whenever you let your characters grow as you write about them, instead of trying to define every little twitch and mannerism. Give them a mind of their own, rather then your own mind, i guess?

I had much the same problems when I first started shaping my characters for my story, so I understand how frustrating it can be.  I tried creating character sketches (e.g. age, height, weight, eye colour, profession, goals etc.), which certainly did help but I found that it led to pretty much one-dimensional characters - paper people, you know?  I mean, I tried to flesh out everything that I could but I wasn't connecting with my characters.

Hey again,

thank you Lubaina that makes alot of sense, as i was reading it i could picture in my head the interview. I could see the character reacting to your probing questions and the gestures he made as he talked, starting off flippant then going defensive at points.

I find that I have a very bad tendency to write my main character in how I percieve myself. My humor, my stubborness, my ambition, etc. I find that I have an extremely hard time writing in the point of view of a snotty, bratty teenager because I can never fathom being that self-centered and cruel (although, believe me, I've had my fair share of being a brat), along with other points of views that I just couldn't imagine being that way. So what I've been trying to do is look at other people around school or in Wal-Mart or something, watch their behavior, and try to mimic that in my writing, therefore giving it a whole new personality.

Another large problem I have is having them know different things. My main characters all do the same thing - write, draw, read a lot, hate horror movies, want to travel, love education, so on and so forth. I find that the only way I'm able to get over this is to start learning new things. Therefore, I've come up with a plan for my life to help increase my knowledge base and help me create stories that have different aspects. Also talking to people who really know the things and writing down the information helps too. By having your characters do different things, you can build a background as to why they do it, therefore expanding their personality.

Mmmmmm,

I have a similar problem when I write from the first person in terms of main characters pretty much having the same personalities, so I don't think I can really offer any assistance in that department. I did, however, notice this is labeled 'character personalities' not 'main character personalities', so, in regard to creating side characters with unique and varying personalities, I find that creating a backstory for ALL of my important characters (and even characters not essential to the plot) is something that really helps me create characters' personalities.  When you have a bit of history in mind for the character, it makes forming their dialogue and dictating their actions more believable and more in tune with their character.  There's nothing worse than when a reader says 'that seems out of character'. 

Something else you could try, in terms of establishing preferences, would be going shopping as your character (in your head, preferably).  Look at some clothes and think about what your character would buy or what it finds appealing (maybe you discover it despises wearing anything below the knees?), see what your character would eat to snack on (something healthy or maybe every snack is like a mini meal), read the backs of books and find out what the character would find interesting based on these summaries.  Of course, you'd do this after the backstory and some other exercises, otherwise you might just pick out things you like.

In regard to having a dynamic character, as JazzSoulKeke has already touched on, the thing about creating a character trait change is doing it believably.  Something I really dislike is when a character who has never or rarely spoken will randomly in the last chapter or last scene of the movie burst out in song with no qualms and everyone just excepts it.  It's unrealistic and, therefore (since most people reside in reality), unbelievable.  Make the change gradual so that the personality evolves instead of transforms in two seconds.  Perhaps the shy character could start out by inputting little ideas of his/her's into conversations, then maybe muster up the courage to talk to someone as opposed to being talked to, and, if you must, have the character find the joy of singing so that its end song will not seem as random.

Hope this helped with something

W#00

I used to have this problem before with stories I wrote as a younger boy. But, to avoid this now, I plan out my story and shape my characters before I introduce them so that I can have their personality in mind rather than building it as I go. Building as you go along isn't bad in most cases, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's better to plan then go in blindly. 

I fully agree with Jazz in that believable characters need to change as the book progresses - so by having an understanding of what your characters are like (and by association, figuring what change you want them to undergo), you can put them in relevant situations which also then helps to advance the plot.

Constructing personalties of different character is not easy. We writers not only have to decide what kind of personality each of our character will have but we also have a*s hard job of trying to understand our characters all at the same time. We have to put ourselves in their frame of mind and write from their point of view, which is difficult because our own personal views are never really the same as the character we write about.

It's absolutely true that creating a different personality for each of the characters isn't an easy task, but it's exacly the thing what makes writing so enjoyable. We get to show the events in our stories from various perspectives, there are sparks when the opposite personality types interract. Furthermore, readers can choose from all different characters and find the one who they can relate too.

It's not easy, but it's fun, just like creating out own fictional worlds.