HOW TO GIVE PERSONALITY TO A CHARACTER

HOW TO GIVE PERSONALITY TO A CHARACTER

Giving personality to a character is an essential part of character development in storytelling, whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, or creating a character for a role-playing game. Here are some steps and considerations to help you give personality to your character:

Understand Their Backstory:

Start by creating a detailed backstory for your character. Where were they born? What were their childhood experiences like? What significant events have shaped their life? Understanding their past can help you determine their motivations, fears, and desires.

2. Define Their Goals and Motivations:

Characters often become more interesting when they have clear goals and motivations. What does your character want? It could be something tangible like a job or a romantic relationship, or it could be an abstract desire like happiness or freedom.

3. Determine Their Strengths and Weaknesses:

No one is perfect, and characters should reflect this. Identify your character's strengths and weaknesses. This can include physical abilities, intellectual skills, and personality traits. Flaws can make characters relatable and three-dimensional.

4. Consider Their Personality Traits:

Think about your character's personality traits. Are they introverted or extroverted? Shy or outgoing? Kind or selfish? Create a list of traits that describe their character. You can use personality frameworks like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Big Five Personality Traits as a starting point.

5. Give Them Quirks and Habits:

Quirks and habits can make a character memorable. Do they have a specific way of speaking, a unique fashion style, or an unusual hobby? These details can help bring your character to life.

6. Explore Their Relationships:

Characters don't exist in isolation. Consider how your character interacts with others. What are their relationships like with family, friends, and enemies? These relationships can reveal a lot about their personality.

7. Show, Don't Tell:

Instead of explicitly telling the audience about your character's personality, show it through their actions, dialogue, and decisions. Let the reader or viewer infer their traits based on their behavior.

8. Create Internal Conflict:

Characters with internal conflicts are often more engaging. What inner struggles does your character face? These can be related to their goals, values, or past experiences.

9. Use Character Arcs:

Consider how your character will change or grow throughout the story. Character development is often about how a character evolves in response to the events and challenges they face.

10. Seek Inspiration:

Draw inspiration from real people, other fictional characters, or even historical figures. Study how people with similar traits and backgrounds behave to inform your character's actions and reactions.

11. Write Dialogue and Inner Monologues:

Writing dialogue and inner monologues from your character's perspective can help you get inside their head and understand their thought processes and emotions.

12. Consider the Setting:

The setting of your story can influence your character's personality. For example, a character who grows up in a war-torn environment may have a different personality than one raised in a peaceful, affluent society.

13. Revise and Refine:

Don't be afraid to revise and refine your character as you write and develop your story. Characters can evolve and change as the narrative unfolds.

Remember that well-developed characters are dynamic and multi-faceted. They should feel like real people with strengths, weaknesses, and complexities. As you write and develop your character, put yourself in their shoes and think about how they would react to various situations. This will help you create a compelling and believable personality for your character.

PFF-

wait what? fr?

f r o p

hi!!!!!!

=D

HEYYYYYYY HEIIHIHIHIHIHIIH

:DDDD

can you draw my goobers pls cause i see you have artblock

Hehheehheheheheh 👉👈 ignore Quinn’s hand-

Also bonus doodles under the cut

ꜱʜᴏᴡ, ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴛᴇʟʟ (ɪɪ)

fear - open mouth - backing away - fake smiles - hugging themselves - long / dragged breaths - rocking

jealousy - snide remarks - darting looks - self-deprication - visible judging - folded arms - arguing a fair point

hurt - steadying breaths - overly bobbing head - teary - anger - trembling - pressed lips - insisting everything is 'fine'

lying (ticks) - picking at nails - touching hair - licking lips - laughing too loud - avoids subjects - won't meet eyes

worry - reaching out physically - pursing lips - looking to others - reassuring smiles - looking you up and down - tilted head - sympathetic nod

shame - will not meet eyes - feet turned away - teary - desperate - fidgeting - begging

humiliation - lashes back - cheeks flush - palms turn sweaty - face frowns -> brows scrunch, lips pull back - teary

love - looks for approval - blushing / turning red - clammy palms - nervous around certain people - laughs hard - turning clumsy - slip of thought

making this post bc i’ve seen some of y’all shipping sherbet and milky way with adult characters

and yes, i know, i kinda messed up with putting candy diver there, you guys can leave me alone in the notes abt it now

Random + angst prompts:

By @me-writes-prompts

Yearning prompts

Character A gets hurt/injured ft. Character B’s feral response

Situationship prompts

Reuniting angst prompt

“What are we?” Prompts

Ghost x vampire prompts

More ghost x vampire prompts

Close proximity prompts

Crush prompts

Navigating through new relationship prompts

"Please don't leave me" prompts

Lovers in "denial" prompts

Reunited lovers prompts

Grumpy x sunshine prompts

"You're too good for me" prompts

"I think...I'm in love with you" prompts

Fake dating prompts

Betrayal prompts

"What would I do without you" prompts

Roommates to lovers prompts

Ice cream prompts

Underrated trope list

First date prompts

Oblivious x pining prompts

Break up prompts

Marriage of convenience prompts

Jealously prompts

OTP bonding with their children prompts

Secret relationship between two boys prompts

Denial of feelings prompts

Internalized homophobia prompts

Sunshine vampire x grumpy human prompts

Party game prompts

Family fluff prompts

Hero/warrior prompts

Lovers to friends prompts

Childhood friends prompts

Self-esteem issue prompts for your ocs

Nervous/awkward couple prompts

Forced proximity but one of them is claustrophobic prompts