Hi! I am not sure if this is allowed or not, there is nothing about it in the rules so I am going to give it a go! I have been working on this urban fantasy WIP, it is an university setting and set at a place in the UK (still undecided what place), it's still in the planning stage. I have most of the worldbuilding, some themes I want to write about and now I am working on my characters it's been a slow process, and my characters are shaping up but I need more tips and inspiration and I am looking for people to bounce off ideas with. I'm a little stuck when it comes to finding my character motivations and character arcs while I do have the basic ideas. I have no friends anymore to share my idea's with, which is unfortunate, but I am hoping to maybe find some people who would like to help? I am also hoping to make new writer friends.
Do you have basic ideas for your characters? Like names, ages, etc. That's a good place to start, usually. I know it sounds like I'm being patronizing, but I promise I'm not. Sometimes the hardest part of writing is coming up with believable people to help tell the story. You probably know the dreaded "Mary Sue" tropes, but there's also the "Bad Bobby" tropes to avoid, too. The perfect girl falls for the perfect bad boy. So, you mention you have some themes you want to write about in your story, so how do they apply to your characters? You can use those themes as a basis for forming the foundation of who your characters are and eventually figure out what they want. Then the rest is preventing them from getting what they want until they succeed. Maybe. That's my opinion, anyway. I hope this helps a little.
Yes, I am aware of "The Mary Sue" tropes xD. I have a few basic backstory ideas for my characters and a bit of a personality idea. But for example, my protagonist, I am stuck on where the conflict is for her and what her motivation and goalss are and what her character arc is.I do have a bit of a backstory for her, but that's all. And I like to know that before I write. I thought it'd be useful to ask for help for other perspectives and opinions.
More important than anything else: trial and error. Mostly error Try something to see if it works or not, and if it doesn't work, then look at what about it doesn't work, that way you can point yourself to something different that might work better I personally love using personality profiles like MyersBriggs and D&D Alignment as my starting point. The two main criticisms that these kinds of systems get on writing websites are "a label can't tell you everything about the character" and "once you've set a character's label in stone, it's impossible for them to grow and change," however: A label isn't supposed to describe the entire character, it's just supposed to describe a few things about the character. You can combine any number of personality profiling systems you want, and there's always going to be something about the character that doesn't fit into any system you're using. Even if you start out thinking that the character is the kind of person who would have a certain label, you could still realize that you need to rewrite them as a different kind of person who'd have a different label. You could also have the character grow in-story from being "one kind of person who's described one way" to being "another kind of person who's described another way" Have you ever tried systems like this? Do you think you might be interested? More generally, I found three sets of approaches in a Great Course I took a few years ago (twice because it's so good ) Observation or Imagination: Do you base your characters on other people – real or fictional – that you've been exposed to, or do you make them up from scratch? I'm about 95% Imagination-driven, 5% Observation-driven myself. I've tried basing characters on other people before, and it's almost never worked. My father, on the other hand, says that he's about 70% Observation-driven, 30% Imagination-driven. Individual or Circumstantial: Do you focus on what makes your characters psychologically unique, or do you focus on them as sociological reflections of the world around them? I tend to aim as close to 50/50 on this one as possible, focusing on how the combination of a person's Nature and their Nurture is more important than just one or the other. Outside-in or Inside-out: Do you start with a character's actions/appearance and use this to figure out their values/motivations, or do you start with their values/motivations and use this to discover their actions/appearance? Technically, over the course of my entire process, I work Outside-In: my initial outline focuses on what my characters are doing, but my finished draft focuses more on why they're doing it But at any given point, this is the axis where I'm jumping back-and-forth the most from one extreme to the next: sometimes, a new idea for my characters' actions forces me to rethink their motivations, but other times, a new idea for their motivations forces me to rethink their actions. Where do you think you would work best on each of these?
Everyone's method is different but I will usually forgot about a characters story goal, story arc and spend some time just developing them as an individual person outside of the story I want to tell. Using existing character work sheets I created my own, because like you I always had trouble with character goals/motivations/conflict/arcs. I think it's because I really didn't know my characters. I started with brain-storming a back story for them. I tried to keep it realistic and even so the antagonist hadn't just had a terrible up bringing. I also tried to vary the back stories as much as possible and looked into child Psychology. Although we can learn things at any age, childhood seems to have this huge learning curve going on. They are more naive about the world and it's where are fears, flaws and personalities are born - although we can change at any time in life. Once the back story was written out in detail I tried to look at what flaws they naturally had. What fears, what desires, personal goals and ambitions and the characters wounds. I created roughly three characters in this persons life that had been influential to them, either positively or negatively. Hobbies can say a lot about a person. I did personality quizzes on my characters are insight and ideas. I have two "sisters" with the same upbringing but totally different personalities. One is drifting away from the path of their Mother and the other is following it, even though she has a conscious desire to be the opposite. Once I had developed them as people (this process took over a month and hours of work each day) I noticed creating a story for them became easier. Their motivations were there. Everything was there for me to just jot down. And it made the story planning process move much faster. Spending that extra time saved me from getting stuck.
My characters are impacted by the story line. My WIP is a young woman that begins the story as a naïve reporter who gets embedded with a group of soldiers in Iraq. Losing touch with them, she ends up fighting with the Kurdish Peshmerga. A group of female warriors known as the YPJ. Now she lives and breaths for her sister warriors and nobody would recognize the young woman that she was.
I have used character biographies and I used real people as inspiration but it doesn't help much with a character arc. I was hoping to have someone to help me brainstorm a bit on my main character at least.
If you've all ready created the character and you're still struggling with the character arc the chances are it's there is front of you, you're just failing to see it. I mean, knowing the character is what you need for a character arc. Knowing your plot, if you're still struggling I don't know what else to suggest with the little details you've given. People can help you by giving advice, but I don't think others should give you ideas for your characters. Writing is about being creative and pushing through the difficult patches so you learn. But I'm happy to help if you can give me the foundation ideas you have all ready for your character.
Mod hat on here: What you're asking for is totally okay, as far as the Rules go. Good luck! I'm sure lots of folk are willing to help with the brainstorming. Here's my two-cents' worth. This is the stage where you spend time with your characters in your head, and don't worry too much about writing them. Pick your main character, and see if you can envision her in the setting you've chosen. (Don't be afraid to REALLY develop that setting in your head.) And think about the other people who are also there. Who does she like? Who doesn't she like? Who is she attracted to? (Not just in a romantic sense, but who does she 'click' with?) Who seems to be giving her problems or a hard time? What is her state of mind? Miserable? Fearful? Friendly and outgoing? Introspective? Helpful, or needing help herself? Does she run the show, or is she usually on the sidelines? Is she a do-er or a watcher—or a bit of both? If there is something—or someone—she feels strongly about, that will help a lot. See if you can get some encounters going in your head. Don't worry about fitting these into the plot. Just throw her (and a few other characters) into a situation or two and see how she reacts, and how others react to her. As you get a stronger picture of your character, the notion of a plot will begin to emerge. Follow it ...but don't try to rush the process. Writing is the END result of all this envisioning.
