Hi, y'all, and sorry for the lateness! I promise, I'll get more on top of this next month.

So last month, our theme was about writing characters who are unlike you. We didn't get as much feedback as we did for these sections last year, but it's all good advice, and hopefully more people will reply as we get back into the swing of things!
Now, onto characters:


<sub>Well, I just take people surrounding me as the models for the character. I mean, in the end, a character has to be modeled either by you or by someone that you've been around for some time (this could be a real person as well as a character...) Otherwise the character would not even probably come to your mind. For example, if I'm writing about some terrifically mean character that my main character despises and with whom I cannot build some empathy with, I take "the girl that I hate" in real life as the model for the character, so that I can still guess the character's behavior.

However, you also said "characters very unlike you:" Well, many of my characters are very unlike me, but in the end I am the one thinking for them, being them, and seeing them when I write them. So, no matter how the puppet looks like, I am still the one pulling the strings behind it.


I think I mostly agree with Wella. You are, after all, creating the character, so you can never write someone who is entirely unlike you; and using people you know as models is a great way to populate your world with believable secondary characters instead of archetypes.

I will add that I find the further out of a character's head you are, the easier it is to make them unlike you. When I write in the first person POV, I can't usually bear to have the character whose head I'm in, say, have a smaller vocabulary than me; but if it's a character my protagonist is going to observe/interact with, I can stray much further from myself, because I only have to deal with the outward behaviors and mannerisms, not the internal monologue.

You've only been yourself, but you've probably interacted with loads of people who are nothing like you.


I think the best way to make sure a character doesn't seem forced - especially one who's unlike you, whose motivations and actions you will actually have to work out, rather than just know - is to consider their backstory. You don't have to have it fully planned out, but there must be reasons why they are the way they are. If it's a villain, then what is it that drove them to their megalomaniac, murdering, nasty, rude ways? (Or whatever other ways your villain has...) If it's a friendly character, then why are they friendly to your protagonist? What is it that's set them on that route, as opposed to some other one? I've always found that the strongest characters are the ones that any reader can understand, at least to some degree; they're more interesting, and more 3D, even if you don't give us the backstory - their personality will still feel consistent if you've worked from this solid base. (Of course, remember that most characters will go through a character arc over the duration of your story. This may affect how they react to situations, so someone who may have done one thing at the start of your story may not even consider it as a possibility by the end.)

When writing in first person, it's definitely harder (in my opinion) to keep characters from becoming too similar to you. But again, I think it's mainly an issue of knowing your character well enough. I have friends who aren't like me at all, but because I know them, I can predict how they would act in most situations. This isn't to say that your characters should or have to be directly based on people you know (not necessarily ones you like) for you to write about them, but it illustrates how well you should understand them. Every character - just like real people - should be different, and will be an amalgamation of many different character facets and flaws, which will in turn play off each other in different ways. Be aware of at least the main motivators your character has, if not every tiny little detail. Referencing similar people you know from life can be helpful though, especially when it comes to dialogue.

If it helps, when you come to points where your character has to make a decision, then you could think of it a bit like an RPG: at situations like this in such games, you'll be given several options. Step back from your character for a moment, and just look at the situation, and consider different ways it could go, and different options that could be chosen, assuming you had no idea who was making the decision. Then pick up your character again, and look at that list - it might be that none of them suit your character, but it's a good way of keeping a broader picture in mind for character development, and makes sure you have to step out not only of the character you're writing, but also of your own opinions</sub>


Thank you to you wonderful commenters! Everyone else, hopefully this month's theme will be more inspiring for you!

The theme for the next Tips & Tricks section is...

Transitions

There are so many ways to transition between scenes in a story - how do you decide which to use? Is there a particular one (e.g. "cut to black") that you use more than others? Is it possible to overuse one type of transition? More personally, how do you get into the mood for writing the next scene? Do you ever get stuck finishing a scene, and not know how to move on? If you have more than one writing project on the go at once - or have just finished one and are moving on to the next - how do you get your mind out of one work and into the next one?

I'm looking forward to hearing your responses!

Hello, everyone!

Every time I come to the group page, I keep noticing that this blog hasn't been updated for months, and thinking that we should do something about it. But I always forget to bring it up with the other admins, and it's July now, and we haven't had a new journal since New Year, and so I'm taking drastic measures!

...I'm writing a blog entry myself. Super-drastic, I know. (Other admins, if any of you have a problem with this, or want to add anything, feel free to edit and/or yell at me!) But this is the first blog entry I've ever made here, so I guess that makes it dramatic? Maybe?

Whatever. Come on, Moose, get on with it, you're rambling.

Sadly, I don't really have anything specific to say other than HELLO EVERYONE and HURRAH I AM UPDATING THE BLOG. So...


Tips & Tricks

Do you all remember our Tips & Tricks sections from last year? I thought they were really interesting and helpful, so let's bring them back! For those of you who've forgotten in the mists of time, or who're new to the group and so have missed out, this is the part where we pose a general question that is relevant to almost every writer in some way. You give us your answers, and after about a month we make a new journal sharing all your responses with the rest of the group, and then posing a new question. And thus, the cycle of amazingness continues!

The last question - which didn't get any replies, but was a really good topic - was this:

How do you write about characters very unlike you?

How do you make sure that they seem realistic and not forced? How do you keep them from becoming too much like you? Or is your writing lacking in characters that you can't identify with?

_{Sorry for this ridiculous journal, guys, but it really did need updating, and I wanted to bring T&T back I'm sorry I'm a moron when I'm hyper...}