Albert Wesker Is Alive? Apparently According To Umbrella Corps He Is! This Makes Me Super Happy.

how could you forget man.

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Actually

The question I get the most is how I write characters that feel like real people. 

Generally when I’m designing a human being, I deconstruct them into 7 major categories:

1. Primary Drive 2. Fear: Major and Secondary 3. Physical Desires 4. Style of self expression 5. How they express affection 6. What controls them (what they are weak for) 7. What part of them will change.

1. Primary Drive: This is generally related to the plot. What are their plot related goals? How are they pulling the plot forward? how do they make decisions? What do they think they’re doing and how do they justify doing it. 2. Fear: First, what is their deep fear? Abandonment? being consumed by power? etc. Second: tiny fears. Spiders. someone licking their neck. Small things that bother them. At least 4. 3. Physical desires. How they feel about touch. What is their perceived sexual/romantic orientation. Do their physical desires match up with their psychological desires.

4. Style of self expression: How they talk. Are they shy? Do they like to joke around and if so, how? Are they anxious or confident internally and how do they express that externally. What do words mean to them? More or less than actions? Does their socioeconomic background affect the way they present themselves socially?  5. How they express affection: Do they express affection through actions or words. Is expressing affection easy for them or not. How quickly do they open up to someone they like. Does their affection match up with their physical desires. how does the way they show their friends that they love them differ from how they show a potential love interest that they love them. is affection something they struggle with?

6. What controls them (what they are weak for): what are they almost entirely helpless against. What is something that influences them regardless of their own moral code. What– if driven to the end of the wire— would they reject sacrificing. What/who would they cut off their own finger for.  What would they kill for, if pushed. What makes them want to curl up and never go outside again from pain. What makes them sink to their knees from weakness or relief. What would make them weep tears of joy regardless where they were and who they were in front of. 

7. WHAT PART OF THEM WILL CHANGE: people develop over time. At least two of the above six categories will be altered by the storyline–either to an extreme or whittled down to nothing. When a person experiences trauma, their primary fear may change, or how they express affection may change, etc. By the time your book is over, they should have developed. And its important to decide which parts of them will be the ones that slowly get altered so you can work on monitoring it as you write. making it congruent with the plot instead of just a reaction to the plot. 

That’s it.

But most of all, you have to treat this like you’re developing a human being. Not a “character” a living breathing person. When you talk, you use their voice. If you want them to say something and it doesn’t seem like (based on the seven characteristics above) that they would say it, what would they say instead?

If they must do something that’s forced by the plot, that they wouldn’t do based on their seven options, they can still do the thing, but how would they feel internally about doing it?

How do their seven characteristics meet/ meld with someone else’s seven and how will they change each other?

Once you can come up with all the answers to all of these questions, you begin to know your character like you’d know one of your friends. When you can place them in any AU and know how they would react.

They start to breathe.

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I’m constantly asked about this, so I’m posting my brushes here. A friendly reminder that my SAI is russian and I have to roughly translate the signs.

Also they’re half-transparent

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Concept: bi/pan/ace kids feeling safe and welcome in their community.

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Writing References

I decided to make a reference post on most of the writing topics I’ve covered so far. If you’re looking for something specific, this might make it easier. Hope this helps!

General writing posts—

Ideas Worth Your Time

Antagonists

How to Keep a Deadline

How Anthropology Relates to Writing

Incorporating Flashbacks

When to Use Bad Language

How to Write What You Know

Is Your Novel Working

Introduction to Screenwriting

Writing with Others

Working on Multiple Projects Simultaneously 

Picking Up an Old Story

Developing a Well Paced Novel

When to Include a Prologue

Dialogue Writing

Embarrassing Writing Habits

Developing Good Writing Habits

World Building 101

The Opening Hook

Developing Your Style

Types of Endings

Plotting Failures

Forging Friendships

Editing posts—

Easy to Miss Writing Mistakes

Staying Motivated During the Editing Process

Is Your Story Too Telly?

Editing: Who Should You Trust?

When to Begin Editing

On Editing

Easy Editing

Content Editing

Character posts—

My Character is Drunk

Writing the Significant Other

Writing the Best Friend

Writing the Best Antagonist

Introducing Your Characters

Character Trait Cheat Sheet

Characters You Need to Stop Writing (Or Reinvent)

Making Your Characters Likeable

Prewriting Characters

Writing a Young Character

The Importance of Characters

Is Your Character a Mary Sue?

Character Development Exercises

Strong Characters

Too Many Characters

Genre posts—

The Space Opera

Historical Fiction

What is High Fantasy?

Figuring Out Your Genre

The New Adult Genre

Different Types of Science Fiction

Writing Horror Novels

Teen Sick-Lit

Fantasy Clichés

Motivation—

Keep Being Weird

Important Writing Lessons

My Favorite Writing Quotes

You’re Not Perfect

Where to Write

Negative People to Avoid

Quick Motivation Tips

Using Rejection to Motivate

Finding the Courage to Share Your Writing

Staying Motivated

How to Stay Motivated Over the Weekend

Publishing—

Writing a Blurb

How to Make Sure Your Novel Won’t Get Published

Full Querying Guide

What is a Crossover Novel?

Body Language—

The Importance of Body Language

Further Understanding Body Language

Random posts—

Why Everyone Should Continue Writing Love Stories

Why Writer’s Are Insane

Don’t Preach to Your YA Readers

Overused Situations in Fiction Writing

Male Readers and Female Protagonists

The Power of Silence

Studying People

Trends I’m Sick of in YA Fiction

Virginity as an Identity

Sorry I couldn’t replace the link with the title of the post. CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THINGS ON TUMBLR NOW. Also, you can obviously follow my blog for more writing tips or suggest topics for me to cover. Thank you!

-Kris Noel

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Cake - Submitted by Anonymous

#33032F #871C4E #FDEBE4 #FCECC9 #FCB0B3

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WHY IS HE SO SAD SOMEONE HUG HIM

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IT LOOKS LIKE A RAINBOW!!!

I want 50 ;-;

@smolshyghost :D I got it!!

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..not what I meant to do this evening but look I made a tutorial!

this kinda got out of hand but I was having fun shh

remember to experiment around, there are many different ways to do things! B) it’s up to you finding the one you like!

also gomen for crappy handwriting and some rushed drawings

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Smoke Tutorial by Portohle @ DeviantArt

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