Reviews for How To Get To Know Your Character

Reviews For: How To Get To Know Your Character

Daimetreya 2006-01-09 ch 1, anon.	abuseI tend to think up the plot first, which adds up by itself like a grain of sand in an oyster, and then the characters just come along. How they fit in the plot first, with looks coming quickly after, and then personality traits, ect. The plot then darastically changes, and I have to do more in-depth research on the characters so that they actually fit with the new revised plot. Then I desperately check for Mary Sues/Marty Sams, and let my sister ruthlessly cut them down. Sigh.
Anya Tempest 2005-09-05 ch 1, anon.	abuseI really liked this. Unfortunately, I don't keep a physical biography of my characters, because they're always changing and growing more defined. If I try to pin them down in a word document, I'd never stop typing. My characters are like real people living in my head (That sounds wierd, but it's true). I find it very hard to sum them up in words, and I generally remember everything anyway. Maybe when I get my account I could give you it, and you could check out my story and tell me what you think of my characters? I would love to have your opinion on them.
McQuinn 2005-09-03 ch 1,	abuseInteresting. I'm happy to say that I do keep a character profile like the one you suggested. My character profiles are much more detailed, though, down to the knitty-gritty "favorite food/favorite song" questions. Things I thought you should've included: the characters' secrets, their values, their voice and vocabulary, hobbies/habits. Although these might seem very detailed, I feel like they are very important to include in the character's profile. I'm not sure if this link will work, but: article.com/articles/writing/article-245.html That is one of the best character profiles I've ever seen. And although it's very long, it helps me understand my main characters so much better. What I also find helpful - I base a lot of characters on people I know/meet. The characters don't have to be the exact image of the people you know/meet, but having subtle similarities between them make the characters seem more realistic. I often like to pick out cool, unusual names to give my story a little more originality. But what I find particularly interesting: In some allegorical stories (let's say...a modern story of Adam and Eve), I find the author chooses names like Addis (which means "son of Adam") and Everist (similar to "Eve"). I like the way certain authors connect known stories to their own just by making the names similar. Another great article about what to consider while choosing a character's name: article.com/articles/writing/article-166.html (FP won't let me write a repetition of zeros, so: twenty thousand (dash) names (dot) com I find that to be one of the best places to find names. A few criticisms: I’ll have it on it’s own - its. There were a couple of fragmented sentences, but they were minor. I think you could've expanded on the essay, overall. But I liked it, nonetheless. I will surely make sure to keep this in mind when creating new characters. McQuinn

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