Behavior Creates Personality

Alright, alright, I missed Monday. I know. My sincerest apologies. There was shopping to be had, and shopping to be done. In other words: it was girl’s day, and I forgot to even get online.

But this post is more fun than what I was going to talk about on Monday anyway!

We’ve been talking about characters a lot on Wednesdays, so I thought it would be good to get into the personality traits a bit. These are a little tricky to determine, as they’ll depend on your story and the role of your character, but there are some things that can help you to determine how your character would act in certain situations.

It’s important to think about all of the little details (if you use Scrivener, it’s easy to have a file for each character, so that you can write all of the little things down, but a notebook or an amazing memory also work wonders).

Ask yourself questions like these:

• ·         How does your character walk?

Long strides could indicate a stronger personality or mentality, while short strides could indicate nervousness.

• ·         How do they sit down?

Ever seen Star Trek TNG?—Riker sits down by swinging his leg over the back of the chair. This gives him personality, even though a lot of people don’t notice it. If your character crosses their legs yoga style no matter where they sit down, this could mean that they put comfort over appearance, and would probably alter how your other characters view them.

• ·         How loudly do they speak?

This can tell you how comfortable they are around people. If they’re very quiet, they’re probably introverted, or maybe even afraid of social situations. If they're loud and demanding, they might be a character born to lead, or one who's utterly domineering and, well, mean.

• ·         What do they wear?

Though this question is mostly for human or humanoid characters, it can tell you how they view themselves. For instance, a woman who always wears revealing clothing would probably act more sexual than one who is consistently modest.

• ·         Do they know how to fight?

A character who knows how to handle his or herself in a fight would probably be cockier than one who didn’t. Unless, of course, they didn’t realize that they knew how to handle themselves…

• ·         Do they consider themselves to have the same appearance you’ve given them?

Yeah, you’re right; I could’ve worded that better… It’s like this: if your character is skinny but thinks they’re fat, or fat and thinks they’re skinny, this means they have a skewed self-image, and are probably a little unreliable. Those can be really fun to work with, but you’ll need to keep this skewed-ness in mind while you’re writing them. If they don’t see themselves the way that you envision them, then they probably don’t see the rest of the world the way that you envision it.

            The list could go on, but that would turn into a never-ending spiral of question and answer time. I trust you see my point, in that questions about their abilities or behaviors can determine the personality of your character.

            I promise I will not forget to post on Friday. I’ve already written the post and everything!

{Rani D.}

p.s. The daily meme, because this happens to me all the time…