DID SOMEONE SAY Sir James William Hudson Honorborn?

DID SOMEONE SAY Sir James William Hudson Honorborn?

How to write charming characters

With both positive and negative aspects to their personalities, charming characters can be difficult to write convincingly.

Whether you're writing a romantic love interest or a compelling con man, here are some examples for giving your charming characters depth.

How do they behave?

Attentive listeners: they pay close attention to people around them

Take pride in their appearance

Are happy to share personal space

Speak with a strong voice and an energetic tone

Are often hospitable and give off an air of welcome

Always give the impression that they are happy to see you

Demonstrate empathy

How do they interact?

Have a firm handshake and make strong eye contact

Are often encouraging

Compliment freely

Use humour to create a fun atmosphere

Communicate physically (through touch and gesture)

Make a point of using a person's name

Initiate conversations

Describe their body language

Have a relaxed stance with a straight and confident posture

Inclusive and attentive

Mirroring: they will mirror the body language of the person they are interacting with

Will lean forward to show attention

Lightly touch to create connection

A slight head tilt to show interest

Rarely cross their arms or legs

Maintain eye contact

Describe their attitude

Carefree

Good sense of humour

Friendly and playful

Self-aware

Opinionated and confident

Exhude an impression of honesty

Good intuition

Highly social

Polite and respectful

Eager to please

Potentially manipulative

The positive aspects of charm

Charming characters put people at ease, praise them freely, and boost their confidence. They make friends easily, talk their way to favourable resolutions, and are often the centre of attention.

They have impeccable grooming, conveying trustworthiness and concern for others, leading to a sense that they have your best interests at heart.

The negative aspects of charm

A charming character can manipulate others for personal gain. They can be overbearing, exerting their will on less confident individuals.

Their charm often draws focus, making others feel inferior, making them perfect for a protagonist to exhibit personal growth, or for a villain that a reader will fall in love with.

Hello, I am / do all of these. Alterra is a high fantasy, semi- sci-fi original novel I’m working on that I post weekly updates on. The protagonist to this story is aro ace, as am I. If this interests you, come check it out!

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Original writing only (sorry I'm not a fanfic person don't hate me)

Fantasy / Sci-fi / Horror (bonus if no or side-plot only romance)

Any type of minority rep, especially ownvoices

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Any queer stories, especially aro/ace/queerplatonic and nonbinary

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Feelings Wheel

This is the feelings wheel by Geoffrey Roberts, shown to me by my therapist. My initial thought was, "what amazing synonyms to use for diverse emotional vocabulary!"

More than that, this wheel is great for understanding your characters inner motivations and reactions to situations. For example, if a character constantly feels helpless, then their overarching characteristics will be that they are fearful.

Characters who are less emotionally aware may use words and act in the inner most circle. Those much more aware of their emotions may describe themselves or express and use words from the outer most circle.

Hopefully you guys find this as helpful as I did! Let me know down in the comments.

Happy Writing!

The Chapter Checklist

Here’s a checklist you can use against your chapters to make sure they’re hitting all fronts they should be!

This chapter checklist is a great way to avoid writing filler chapters in your novel, and to know that whatever you put in your book actually has a reason to be there.

My E-book: The Plotter’s Almanac, actually has all the theory you need on structuring a chapter, as well as a bunch of templates for outlines and chapter treatments!

You can grab it on its own as a set with my other 2 writer’s workbooks:

The Writer’s ToolBoox

Find it through [the link here] or below!

the-plottery.mykajabi.com

Writer's ToolBoox

The Writer's ToolBoox is a pack of 3 extensive E-books that cover the areas of: character craft, world building, and plotting. It comes with

Also, I would just like to add to point 3) give the a space.

This is actually a really good one that I haven’t seen before, so massive props for that one. Having a reliable method of reaching a character is really interesting, but I have a way to add humor to it. I plan to almost completely rework a lot of the character stuff in my second draft, including giving them a “place,” all apart from 1 side character that is. Said character is, my personal favorite, James Honorborn, and his place is showing up wherever the fuck he likes to, seemingly at random, inappropriate moments. I hope I’ll be able to contrast this enough with the other characters to provide a fun gimmick to this character.

Creating Memorable Side Characters

                Not everyone gets to be the star of the show. Side characters fill out your world and add context to your main character’s journey. Often they are the parents, friends, or coworkers of your main character and as important of a role they play in the MCs life, it’s easy to forget they exist until we need them next.

                While they shouldn’t take the main stage, creating memorable side characters gives them a sense of realism and importance. They can provide motivation, inspiration, or a little bit of support when the MC needs it next, which will all land harder if we care about them as people. So here’s a few ways to do it:

Give them a little arc.

While the journey of the main character is why we’re reading your story, they aren’t the only people who can change. Allowing your side characters some development across the story, even in small ways, can add a layer of depth and intrigue to them. This can look like going from “dad hates all of MC’s friends” to “dad houses and feeds all the friends when they need it most”.

2. Give them a space

Unmemorable characters are treated more like tools to the narrative than people. If your side character shows up wherever they are needed at any given time, they’ve become a plot convenience rather than a person. Give them a place to exist—they hang out in the library, they can be found at the café down the street, they’re three phone calls and a flare in the sky away. Give them a reliable place that’s just theirs.

3. Give them a point of interest

While your side characters aren’t going to be as fully developed as your MCs, you can pretty easily give them some intrigue and the hint of a broader life by giving them a specific point of interest. Maybe the friend is in the photography club, the parents go out to drag shows on the weekend, the coworker always has a new crochet scarf to bring to work, etc. Just make sure it doesn't stand in alone for further character development.

                What are some examples of memorable side characters you can think of?

Yes, but… shut up.

writers be like "I'm going to work on my WIP." my brother in christ, you've already opened tumblr