How To Keep People In Character: A Guide

how to keep people in character: a guide

I have gotten some requests for advice on how to write specific characters, but the underlying principles to keeping characterizations canon-compliant can apply to writing anyone in any series. Better yet, this advice may help you come up with character interpretations that feel both canonical yet original (and distinct from mine!).

You can reduce characterization to three basic principles:

1) Habits and speech patterns

Habits and speech patterns serve as “shortcuts” that immediately connect the character to the canon. The audience recognizes these cues and will associate them to the actual character.

Speech patterns are particularly important to keeping a character recognizable. As soon as the speech pattern of a person deviates from canon with no explanation, the suspension of disbelief will break for an audience. A common issue I see in shipping fics is that people will make a character give the love interest a pet name that just would never leave their mouth in canon-compliant situations.

Habits can be verbal tics (e.g. they say “babe” a lot), bodily motions (e.g. touching their hair or pushing up their glasses), behavioural trends (e.g. eating a lot), or even phrases that come up often. The latter I find is underused but very effective. Here’s the thing about people in real life: they will repeat phrases and stories, sometimes even verbatim, to different people! If you lift a line out of the show or book and re-contextualize it, it’ll immediately feel like the canon.

Habits come with two caveats:

Do not overuse the tics. It can be annoying and intrusive, especially when used more frequently than in canon! 

Do not rely too much on these habits for characterization. Your character may come off as a shallow imitation of canon without “substance” if so. 

The next two tips will help give your characterization substance and originality.

2) Drivers in decision-making and thought patterns

People in real life often have patterns in the decisions they make or the thoughts they have because of some kind of underlying motivation, whether or not they are cognizant of it. The same will apply to well-written characters in fiction. Try to think about any significant decisions the character makes in canon and why they might exist. (Hot tip: If these motivations are not explicitly stated in the canon material, this is where you can come up with some extremely juicy headcanons!)

Understanding the fundamental drivers behind the character’s actions will allow you to extrapolate and write what they’d do in the situations in your fanfic. These non-canon situations can include relationships! It’s a common issue for romantic relationships in fanfic to feel OOC because the characters act inconsistently with their canon decision-making and thought patterns solely for their love interest.

Examples of common drivers in fiction:

Abstract values such as freedom, revenge, survival, self-preservation. (If you’re writing anything political, try to figure out how they value conservatism vs liberalism, anarchy vs authoritarianism, etc).

Baggage and trauma relating to familial issues or past relationships, which can often result in maladaptive trends in behaviour or hard-lined moral codes and ideals.

Significant relationships that affect their needs, goals, etc. Pay attention to platonic, familial, or romantic bonds that are strongly featured in the canon.

All these examples are interrelated. Often our abstract values will arise from baggage, which then influence relationships, which in turn influence our values. Try to think about how each of these types of drivers may relate to one another for your characters.

Stories tend to have the most layered characterizations when the author has identified two drivers that are in conflict with one another, or one that leads to opposing behaviours. This can also be the starting point for character growth, whether it’s a hero’s journey or descent into a villain role.

3) Cultural context

Cultural context is a subcategory of drivers that I often find is overlooked. 

The culture in which someone was raised will often influence their decision-making habits, whether they conform to it or outright reject it. Recognizing the cultural context for a character can be very useful for figuring out cool little headcanons or extrapolating behaviour/opinions in the absence of canon material.

Some examples of how culture contributes to behaviour:

The kind of art and hobbies they enjoy, or at least are on their radar. 

Knowledge they would have about certain topics—even mundane things like musical instruments, certain skill sets, etc.

Their judgments on themselves and other characters, as well as the values they’d project onto their relationships.

The actions they would take when trying to conform to social norms of the time period—or even the set of actions that might occur to them!

It’s a pet peeve of mine when characters behave in a way that ignores their cultural context, simply because it won’t feel realistic! Since I’ve been relating this to shipping, I will make this point: what time period and country (or coded culture) is this character in? What are courtship norms like? And, if we’re going to go the nsfw route, what “interests” (haha) would exist?

Here are some quick examples of this analysis applied to two different characters: Hakuryuu Ren (Magi), Daryl Dixon (TWD). These are characters I’ve gotten requests for—let me know if anyone is interested in others!

Keep reading

options for when you no longer like a fic you wrote

Orphan it. By adding it to the orphan_account on AO3, you remove your name from the fic and from the comments (if you replied to them). The work is removed from your account and from your stats. You will not see future stats or comments or kudos on that work unless you click into the fic yourself to investigate. You can no longer edit or delete the work after you orphan it. You can not get the work back.

Add the fic to an anonymous collection. This will remove your username from the story and from the comments if you choose to reply, but you will retain ownership of the work and still be able to edit/delete/orphan it in future. You can also regain ownership at any time by removing it from the anonymous collection. 

Add a disclaimer or other author’s note to the top of the story explaining how you feel, or what’s changed since you wrote the fic. 

Edit the fic. Either make changes to the existing story on AO3 or create a new story and include something in the summary or an author’s note that says you are rewriting your own work. You can even link the two together in a series or with the inspired by function. 

Delete the fic. While this will sadden readers for whom it might be a favourite story, this is always an option. Your Archive is your own, and you can control which of your works remain on the internet.

Remember that you wrote that fic at a time in your life when you felt a certain way or had a certain skill level. There’s no shame in that. You had to start somewhere to get where you are today. ❤

YES.

Final word on horror, I promise, but I think great horror of any genre hits you in the hindbrain. You can ask yourself post-facto why something works, talk out the logic and its loopholes, but the initial flush of terror? the flinch, the finger digging into your limbic system/guts? that’s what horror is. And no matter how you frame it, discuss it or dissect it, that first flush of shock, pleasure, or revulsion endures.

writing tip #3011:

your work should not be judged by its length, but by its girth

where’s that one “pakige” post bc like

AO3, Basic Logic, God, Everyone: You posted a chapter five minutes ago, and should get comments gradually over the next few hours! Me, .5 seconds after posting, sitting with my face pressed up against my AO3 inbox: commente