OKAY LISTEN UP YOU BEAUTIFUL OC-DEVELOPING FIENDS
After my long and lengthy years of developing characters (not really) I have a nugget of wisdom for y’all.
Do this:
Look. You don’t need any artistic talent. Hell, this could be a vaguely brain-shaped oval with some words in it.
But the point of this is that you draw your character’s brains and fill it with the things they think of most, the things that matter to them most, the things that are so essential to them that they are nothing without it.
I find that doing this helps so much when shaping a character’s voice, and it visually maps out their personality in a way that character sheets can’t.
For example, my character Isha is logical and she compartmentalizes things, so I drew a more angular design, while Aster’s mind more resembles her anxiety and wandering thoughts.
Yeah that’s all.
Knock yourself out friends.
Visual writers have an especially hard time with this (fiction writers who “see” their story in their head, and write down the images blow-for-blow, as though narrating a movie).
There’s nothing wrong with this writing process, of course. Just know that you’ll be more prone to adding excessive, pointless movements to your novel or short story.
Then, when revising, ask yourself if they are important to the story (sometimes, it is important that someone took a step forward!) and take out the ones that aren’t. Or, better yet, delete them all, then put back only the ones that have left holes in their absence.
Remember, stage direction is different from meaningful gesture or action.
Meaningful gestures and actions can orient the reader or give information about character or plot.
Here is an original excerpt from Haruki Murakami’s Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World to illustrate my point.
“See anyone milling around in the hall?” I asked. “Not a soul,” she said. I undid the chain, let her in, and quickly relocked the door. “Something sure smells good,” she said. “Mind if I peek in the kitchen?” “Go right ahead. But are you sure there aren’t any strange characters hanging around the entrance? No one doing street repairs, or just sitting in a parked car?” “Nothing of the kind,” she said, plunking the books down on the kitchen table. Then she lifted the lid of each pot on the range. “You make all this yourself?”
Here, we get just enough to orient us–we know the woman was outside the apartment, she walked into the house, went into the kitchen, and the narrator followed her there. But Murakami doesn’t actually say that. He allows us to infer those movements from the dialogue and the light peppering of action and description.
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“One of the biggest, and possibly the biggest, obstacle to becoming a writer… is learning to live with the fact that the wonderful story in your head is infinitely better, truer, more moving, more fascinating, more perceptive, than anything you’re going to manage to get down on paper. So you have to learn to live with the fact that you’re never going to write well enough. Of course that’s what keeps you trying – trying as hard as you can – which is a good thing.”
— Robin McKinley
Character Help
MBTI Personality Test
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123 Character Flaws
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List of Personality Traits
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Write Real People Generator
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55 Words to Describe Someone’s Voice
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Writing Characters Of Colour
More On Writing Characters Of Colour
Describing A Character’s Skin Colour
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100 Character Development Questions
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Mysterious Characters
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Creating Believable Characters
Writing A Character Who Has Lost Someone Important
Writing A Drunk Character
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Writing Stalkers
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Writing Males as a Female
Writing Convincing Male Characters
Writing Characters Of The Opposite Sex
Revealing A Characters Gender
The Roles Of Characters
Creating Fictional Characters From Scratch
Creating A Strong, Weak Character
Writing Characters Using Conflict And Backstory
Writing A Character Based On Yourself
Switching Up A ‘Too-Perfect’ Character
Help I Have A Mary-Sue!
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(Idk where to ask this so if you cant do you know anyone that can?) Im new to creating ocs and im overwhelmed w all the resources...I have basic appearance down but i feel i dont know my characters at all. I feel picking personality traits/background will be like throwing darts at random and wont come together like theyre an authentic, real person. Any advice? Thx.
This is a common thing for writers, artists, and character designers, so no worries! You’re completely on the right track! It can take months or even years to flesh out a character! I’ve found the best method of working through this is the use of OC interviews!
What are those you ask? They’re questionnaires made specifically for your OC’s to answer! It’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to start getting to know your characters. It’s like you’re asking them the question, and they’re answering. It gives you a sense of how they may talk, form their sentences, or even respond to such a question.
Ask yourself one simple question when working on character personalities: Why? Why do they like this specific color? Why do they behave this way? Questions like these help the characters flesh out more. You need to ask yourself these questions because your audience will be expecting answers to them.
A few more ways to develop characters: from experience, I found that roleplaying, making AU’s (alternate universes), and writing oneshots about them are the most effective!
Antagonist OC Interview
How to Write Diverse Characters
OC Interview: Through Another Character’s Eyes
5 Minute OC Interview
Foolproof Ways to Flesh Out Your Characters
8 Other Ways of Fleshing Out Characters
Character Profile Sheet
Character Traits
Archetypes to Avoid in Character Creation
Strong Female Characters: How to
Characterization Ask Game
Five Traps When Creating Characters (and tips on how to improve!)
Traumatized Character Profile
So you want to make an OC? (Masterpost)
30 Uncommon Character Development Questions
The Importance of Weaknesses in Your Characters
Qualities of Realistic Characters
Ultimate Guide to Creating Authentic Villians
I’ve decided to make a masterlist of asks I’ve done to make them easier to find for you guys (and for myself). I split them into categories as best as I could by genre and topic. Also, some asks have some helpful tips in the notes as well to check out (some are marked but not all) and if you have anything to add that you think would help, feel free to reply or reblog with your addition. I’ll try to keep it updated with future asks.
Now without further ado, the strangest and most wonderful list I’ve ever made.
Urban fantasy prompts/creating urban fantasy world (also linked under fantasy)
Links to help with world building
Creating a pantheon of gods
Things to research when writing a historical novel (also linked under Historical)
Using metaphors in descriptions
Too much world building?
Asking questions to develop a magic system
Wizard school ideas
Why magic would drain from a world
Tips for descriptions
Reasons for civil war
Writing confusion in your character
Obstacles to character goals: traveling abroad
Reactions to sadness
Reactions to a devastating event
Showing a character’s anxiety towards something
Showing a character’s secret without revealing it
Reasons a character would die for another
Secrets in a character’s past
Culture shock with loss of rules
Growth of a trainee witch
Characters provoking other characters
Dealing with moving to a completely new place
Why a 19yo would allow a strange boy to live with her
Why a character would want a do-over in life
Showing a character going from good to bad
Possible good messages when the villains aren’t reformed
Kid growing up surrounded only by adults
Quirks for characters
Showing friendship with reserved characters
Introducing an antagonist
Introducing side characters
When you don’t think your character’s backstory fits
Writing Different Types of Characters
Writing antiheroes
The reluctant hero
Writing a violent character afraid of their mind
Making an immoral character likeable
Not a normal girl
Sympathetic villain
Making sure your character isn’t just a flirt
Writing intelligent characters
When your hero isn’t very heroic
Confident characters
Writing an antisocial character
Visiting family for the first time
Showing closeness in siblings (opposite twins)
How a joker and a quiet character can become friends
Daughter of a party organizer prompts
Parent jobs where the kid needs to keep up appearances
The mom that left comes back…a vampire
Including character’s parents
Why a character would leave another
Sibling relationships
character with an abusive father (and how to show fear)
Writing a slow paced love story
love interest vs the ex revamped
Platonic male x female relationships
Random places to get married
Suspense and romance with a “different” male lead
sad relationship prompts
Asexuality and romance
Mutual pining
Romance with large age differences
Childhood friends falling in love
Fluffy unique first kiss
Ways of showing commitment in characters (vampire edition)
Friendship to romance
Small situations for a couple story
fantasy creature and human fluff
characters meeting and falling in love during war
Why best friends might fall in love
Unlikely soulmates prompts
Using dreams as energy
Time travel prompts (asked for male x female protags)
Time travel: how saving someone can go wrong
Reliving memories
Android characters
Writing humanoids in post apocalypse
Consequences of growing a baby in an artificial womb (theoretical)
The evil AI that characters can’t (shouldn’t) destroy
Girl and guy get trapped in the same body
Rich people in post apocalypse
Discovering you have a doppelgânger
Superheroes
Teenagers, hormones and their superpowers
Weird superpowers
Superhero kids reluctant to be superheroes
Aliens
beings traveling to Earth
Why an alien wouldn’t be able to leave Earth
Reasons an alien would be sent to live on Earth
Human/alien team surviving on hostile planet together
Urban fantasy prompts/creating urban fantasy world (also linked under world building)
gods losing their powers
creations turning on their creators
How elemental powers might work
Why NOT to destroy the world when it’s your goal
Mistreated genies
Tropes of a fantasy (also linked under Writing Motivation/Tips)
Male character ideas in a fantasy
Immortal woman prompts
Beauty and the Beast revamp
How Death and a teenage girl become adventure teammates
Powers for magical beings writing down history
Girl meets demon from forest behind her house
Reverse fairytale prompts
Revamped fairytale prompts 2
Manatees being confused by mermaids
a princess befriends a baby dragon
Making a character believe in a cure for a curse
Egyptian gods living among us
A love between the sun and the moon
What fantasy creatures do on Halloween
Human and fantasy creature become pen pals
Creatures
Monsters and urban legends
Fantastic creatures
A little bit on dragons
Kind dragons
Magic and Witches
witch x wizard romance
witch prompts
Witch being protective over a human-turned-doll
magical boarding school
Ideas for curses
A young witch exploring the boundaries of her powers
Traps a wizard could set for a thief
Angels and Demons
Angels and demons
Angel as a human on earth
Jobs for angels and demons who fall in love
Physical impacts on a demon who keeps dying and coming back
Demons hunter prompts
Vampires
Human meets vampire 1
Human meets vampire 2
How to hide your vampirism from your family
Royal vampires
Vampire hunter gets bitten by a vampire
Reasons a locked up vampire would go after your character
Why a vampire and vampire hunter would work together
Vampire x werewolf forbidden love
Ghosts
Helpful ghost prankster prompts 1
Helpful ghost prankster prompts 2
Human and ghost solving mysteries together
1776 woman with supernatural abilities prompts
A medium whose friend is in a coma
Medium question Pt. 2: their fatal flaws
Battle Scenes
Writing Battle Scenes Tips
How to lead up to an action scene
Keep reading
A lot of writers believe you cannot intentional write to a theme. I completely disagree. And I’m suspicious that those who say that, just don’t understand how to write to theme intentionally. They claim that if you do, you’ll just become preachy. Sure, that can absolutely happen, but it only happens when you don’t understand how theme actually works in a story.
You see, for a theme statement to be powerful, it needs to have opposition. Who cares if the tortoise in “The Tortoise and the Hare” wins, if he isn’t racing the hare to begin with? No one. The thematic statement (“It’s better to move forward at a steady pace than go so fast we burn ourselves out”) is only powerful because we see it paired up with its opposite (the hare).
Often it’s helpful to breakdown how theme functions, like I did in this article. But here is a quick recap.
Every story has a thematic statement.
A thematic statement is essentially the teaching of a story. So for the Good Samaritan, the thematic statement is, “We should love, be kind to, and serve everyone.”
The Little Red Hen: If you don’t contribute or work, you don’t get the rewards of those efforts.
The Ant and the Grasshopper: If all we do is have fun and entertain ourselves, we won’t be prepared for difficult times.
Harry Potter: Love is the most powerful force in the world
On a broader scope, we have a theme topic. The subject or topic about which something is taught. It’s the concept, without the teaching attached. It’s what the theme or story is “about,” in an abstract sense.
Here are the theme topics of those stories:
The Little Red Hen: Contribution and work
The Ant and the Grasshopper: Preparation
Harry Potter: Love
In a strong story, the theme topic will be explored during the narrative, through plot or character or both. The story will ask (directly or indirectly) questions about the theme topic. This can happen through main characters and main plots, or side characters and subplots, or all of the above.
Often, in most stories, the protagonist’s character arc starts an a false or inaccurate idea about the theme topic and ends on the true thematic statement. Example: Harry starts unloved and powerless, living in a cupboard. By the end, he’s surrounded by supporters, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself (the ultimate manifestation of love) to pave the way for Voldemort’s defeat.
Between the false thematic statement and the true thematic statement is the struggle that leads to transformation, or at least, demonstrates a point.
Sounds great, right? But what do we put there? After all, that transition part of the story will take up most of the story, and so far, we only have black and white: false thematic statement vs. true thematic statement. I mentioned that the theme topic needs to be questioned and explored. And by the climax, it needs to be proven. Do we just reiterate the same false statement and true statement over and over?
Life is rarely so black and white. It’s more complex.
To get ideas, it’s helpful to give your theme topic more dimension.
Luckily, Robert McKee (who I’ve been re-studying, as you may have noticed) has a method that will help you do just that. He doesn’t technically relate this to the term “theme,” but he relates it to what he calls a story’s “value,” but I consider that concept nearly the same thing as “theme topic.” (He’s just coming at it from a different angle.) So, I’m going to show how it applies to theme.
I’ll be honest, this was hard for me to wrap my head around, at first. But over time, the idea has become clearer to me.
So here is how this goes, from my perspective, in relation to theme (I’ve altered it slightly).
First, identify the theme topic of your story.
Then identify its opposite. Its contradiction.
From there, you have what he calls the “contrary.” It’s not really the theme topic’s exact opposite, but it’s not the theme topic either. It’s contrary to the theme topic. It’s not the thing, but it’s not the direct contradiction of the thing. It’s different, in some way.
Then we take it a step further. We look for something more negative than the negative. What is worse than the opposite? What is a step more extreme? McKee calls this the “negation of the negation."
Let’s fill this in with the theme topic of love, so you can see how this works.
The opposite of love is hate. Simple. But then it gets more complex. What is contrary to love? It’s not the same, but it is not a direct opposite either. Indifference isn’t love, but it’s not really hate either. It’s in between.
What is worse than hate? What is a step more negative? Or more extreme? What is the negation of the negation?
As McKee explains, it’s one thing to be hated and to know it. But to actually be hated by those who you think love you? People who want to pretend they care about you, but actually wish and do you ill? Now that gives me shivers.
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Hopefully by now you know that in most of your scenes you need to have a character in a setting with tension, but there is an area of writing where I don’t feel like we spend enough time talking about, which is blocking. And I’m not talking about writer’s block. The term “blocking” is borrowed from play performances. Blocking is just about anything an actor does that isn’t dialogue: where they stand, where they look, how they interact with the setting, how they move across the stage, how close they are to what, how they interact with props. Often audiences pay little attention to blocking, or rather they don’t think about it enough to appreciate it. But if a play has little to no blocking, well, that’s a tough play to sit through as an audience. They may not always have an eye for great blocking, but they’ll notice if it’s not there. Blocking is just as important in fiction writing. And like with plays, it’s likely the reader won’t appreciate great blocking, but they’ll get antsy and annoyed if there is no blocking, and they’ll get confused if there is poor blocking. If you don’t use blocking, not only does it make it difficult for the audience to imagine where your characters are relative to the setting, but you’re selling your story short by not using it to your advantage. As an editor, I see blocking problems crop up from time to time, usually in dialogue scenes. The writer will tell me where the characters are (for example, cooking in the kitchen), but then as I read the scene, I get no sense of specifically where each character is in the room, what each one is doing, if they are standing at an island or sitting at the table, chopping lettuce for a salad, or loading the dish washer. Next thing I know, not only are they done cooking, but they are done eating and are outside getting in the suburban. Sure, some scenes don’t require much, if any, blocking. But in most scenes, you need some sense of blocking. Likewise, you can over-block a scene–putting so much blocking in, that it becomes unnecessary, sucks up the scene’s focus, and slows the pacing. A great narrative hand knows how much to guide the reader and when to back off. So let’s get to some tips about blocking:
- Continuity Errors. One of the main problems I see with blocking in unpublished fiction is continuity errors. In one line, a character is sitting on a couch in the living room, and a few lines later, she’s sitting on her bed, in the same scene with no sense of motion. Often it can happen with objects characters are holding. Misty is knitting a scarf, but then a few lines later, it says she’s knitting a blanket. It can happen with food. Zack has a cup of orange juice, but later it talks about how he’s enjoying the taste of coffee. Watch out for when characters’ hands are full or when you have them doing something they aren’t capable of. For example, say it’s been recently established that Sandra glued back together two broken figurines and she’s holding one each hand. While she’s waiting for them to dry, she doesn’t dare put them down , and then suddenly she’s buttoning up the jacket of her little boy. What happened to the figurines? In some cases, motions can be assumed–but make sure they can be, or that you imply them somehow, so that it doesn’t read like a continuity error. Watch out for having characters sit down, who were already sitting, or characters standing up who were already standing. Characters who put on their shoes twice, or turn off the fan twice.
- Spatial Vagueness. I’m trying to decide if I see this one more than continuity errors … and I have to say probably. Another one of the most common problems with blocking, is vagueness. This usually happens because the setting, objects, or characters’ distances from one another or other things haven’t been properly established. I might get a line that says, “Joey walked down the street”–and as the scene goes on, I get no sense of what street, what city, what it looks like, what season it is, or where or why he is walking in the first place. Sometimes I don’t get any sense of setting and only conversations and body language, and next I know, I read the line “Tiff walked inside.” What? They were outside that whole conversation? And what did she walk into? When blocking is vague, the audience has to fill in the blanks, which can be a problem if it’s not what the author actually pictures. As an editor, this often happens to me. I’ll be picturing the characters sitting in opposite places in a living room, and then suddenly I’m reading how one put her arm around the other. In my head, they weren’t close enough to each other to do that. Use:
- Specificity. Being specific isn’t necessarily the same as being detailed. Details can help make something be specific, but they aren’t the same thing. And with blocking, in some cases, the more detailed it is, the more it hurts the story because it slows the pacing and changes the story’s focus. In my example above, “Joey walked down the street,” the sentence can be more specific by adding and changing a few words. “Joey walked down Mulberry Street, autumn leaves crunching under his feet.” In certain kinds of action scenes, it can be very important to be specific in word choice, and not in details. “Joey leapt for the fire escape.” “Margaret hit Lolly in the jaw.” But if you try to put too much detail into action, it can slow the moment way down. In some cases, it’s helpful to establish the setting before the characters start interacting with it. This makes the setting or “stage” more specific in the reader’s mind. They know there is a pool table and pinball machine in the room, so when one character slams the other into the pool table, it makes sense. Be specific, not vague. How much detail you include depends on pacing and the focus of the scene. - Blocking to contribute to or emphasize points. This is especially true for conversations. As an argument gets more intense, a character may invade the other’s personal space. If one character suddenly says something that makes the other uncomfortable, the latter may take a step back. If one character is vulnerable, whether the second draws closer or steps away can convey a lot. Of course, you can use setting and props to do the same thing. As an argument gets intense, one character throws something at the other. If someone is uncomfortable, she might put something (an island, a couch, a car, a teeter-totter) between them. If she’s feeling vulnerable, she might “hide” or “block” herself by getting a blanket, picking up a book to look at, or turning away from the speaker to pretend interest in a rose bush. When Sherlock gets frustrated, what does he do? He stabs the mantle. He puts a bullet in the wall. This is blocking that emphasizes and contributes to the situation or point at hand. Even in a scene where blocking is the primary focus (building an invention, competing in America Ninja Warrior, forging a sword, hunting), how the character interacts with the setting and objects can emphasize points–how tightly he holds a screwdriver, how sweaty her hands are against a climbing wall, the way he beats the metal, how many shots she shoots. You can also use blocking to heighten tension. “He picked up a knife and concealed it under the table,” immediately adds tension and anticipation to a scene.
- Blocking to Convey Character. Similar, yet different from, the last section, you can use blocking to convey character, rather than just the moment at hand. The fact that Sherlock stabs the mantle whenever he gets frustrated is something specific to his character. It helps establish who he is. And actually, that fact becomes specifically important in season four–when we understand that he, someone who is supposedly not driven by emotion, sometimes manifests more raw emotion than any one else. A character who sees litter at a park and picks it up is much different than one who adds to it. A character who comforts a crying stranger is different than one who ignores them. A character who always makes sure she’s near an exit is different than one who could care less. Blocking is great to show character and their feelings, rather than tell them. - Blocking to give motion to still or stagnant scenes. You may sometimes have scenes where all that really matters is the conversation between two of your characters, or maybe you need to have your character delve into a moment of introspection to solve a mystery. It might not matter even where this moment takes place. A lot of beginning writers will open a story with a character sitting and thinking. One of the reasons this is a problem is because there is no motion, there is nothing happening in the present moment. Use blocking to add motion. Instead of having your character sit and think, maybe you can have her catching insects for her bug collection while she thinks. Not only does this create more motion and interest, but also gives you material for the two bullet points before this one, so that it can actually add to the introspection and characterization. The fact she just caught a monarch butterfly might not be important to the main plot, but it tells us more about her, and in fact, you can even use that event and butterfly as a type or symbol of whatever she’s thinking about for added emphasis and tone. With that said, some conversations are very important, interesting, have high tension, or natural draws–they may have incorporeal motion–and already carry the audience, and sometimes when you put in blocking, it actually takes away from that, instead of contributing to it, by drawing away the audience’s attention. Their attention to the conversation is competing with the blocking. So watch for that. - Blocking for natural pauses, lulls in conversations, and for beats in dialogue. On the topic of dialogue exchanges, when there is a natural pause in dialogue or a lull in conversation, instead of saying “There was a moment of quiet,” you can put in a bit of blocking to convey that. “Forget it,” Fred said. “I didn’t want your help anyway.” Nancy looked down at the scarf she was crocheting and realized her hands had stopped moving. She put the scarf down on the coffee table, and flattened it out as she tried to find her words. “You like her, don’t you?” she asked. You can also use blocking for beats in dialogue. Rather than always using dialogue tags, you can use a beat to imply who is speaking what line. “Cedric Diggory was murdered,” Harry said. “Whatever you’ve been told,” Professor Umbridge said, “that. Is. A. Lie.” Harry shot up out of his desk. “It’s not a lie!”
Lees verder
I already love him
Neutral Good // INFP // Ravenclaw // Aquarius // Bi // Jewish-American // Playlist // Pinterest
If there’s a character who I would award with the “Most Relatable” award, it’s Zamsel. He’s been through a lot. A hopeful romantic with a competitive streak and a massive fear of failure, Zamsel puts a lot of pressure on himself.
Backstory
Zamsel’s grown up being mostly raised by his mother, as his father has spent a lot of Zamsel’s childhood in the Air Force. Mama Amsel is a sweet, understated woman who passed a lot of her softness onto Zamsel.
Halfway through high school, Zamsel began dating his long-term girlfriend, Chai Watson. Though their relationship was initially happy, it’s deteriorated into something really toxic and draining. Nevertheless, he graduated as co-valedictorian with Kam Suzuki.
Present
Zamsel’s entering his first year of college with Kam. They’re both sort of adjusting to the freedom that comes with living several states from their families, but Zamsel is adjusting to it far better than Kam is. He’s a fan of his new life.
Playlist
Zamsel’s playlist is huge. It’s full of jams from New Medicine and The Front Bottoms, which I use to more or less build up his aesthetic and general mood.
Twin Size Mattress - The Front Bottoms
Heart With Your Name On It - New Medicine
Boy Like Me - New Medicine
Bad At Love - Halsey
Flannel - The Cardboard Swords
Called You Twice (feat. K.Flay) - FIDLAR, K.Flay
Peaches (Text Voter XX to 40649) - grandson, K.Flay
Self Esteem - The Offspring
Excerpt
Zach closes his eyes. His face is wet from crying, raw from rubbing at it, red all over. Even then, even after what’s happened, he still looks almost beautiful. There’s something about the lighting in an art museum that makes everything look like art, even raw emotion. It rounds out the patheticness of breaking down in public into something artful. Zach doesn’t look anything like a model, but he does look like art.
Aesthetic
Lying on the ground when you’re overwhelmed with emotions, mumbling the lyrics to your favorite songs under your breath to the radio, duct taping all your things together because you don’t want to buy something new, buying new sweaters from Goodwill, when a cat lays on your chest, wearing sweaters that are too big so you can ball your hands in the fabric, people with small voices, leaning your head on someone’s shoulder while you’re talking, the feeling of slowly falling in love.
Taglist
@aelenko, @keen2meecha, @magic-is-something-we-create, @emdrabbles, & @yourwriters
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Take the pyramids in Egypt. Those are works of art, but they are based on stones. Those stones are the autobiography of a mountain thirty kilometers away. Those stones are cut from that mountain. They were then put together artificially. That is a work of art. Art without autobiography does not exist, whatever you describe, it is autobiographical, but you put it together in such a way that you turn it into art. It transcends reality. And then you give your own reality. Those stones have been given a new identity, by the makers, by the kings buried underneath, the slaves who gave their lives for it.
Kader Abdolah