your characters' personality

[Blessed-one]

*come out with a frying pan*

who's babbling gibberish?

 

[Surprised by joy]

In my experience (and that of many professional writers), good, lasting characters take on a life of their own and can't really be argued with. They are what they are. Ohhhh . . . old writer's reminisce . . . it has been too long since I've had a truly living character. I think I kill them by analyzing them too much (vicious psychiatric streak). Sarah was my last living character, a year or so ago, but then again I've been working mainly in plot and not writing much since then. Hey, I'm not an expert, I'm 16 and have been working on various novels for 7 or so years, never finished a single one. But I know what ought to happen -- go ahead, fall in love with your characters. They won't shine unless you do. Don't analyze too much, give them a little room to form themselves.

Correction: I did finish a novella once, for school, about four years ago.

 

[Blessed-one]

Don't analyze too much, give them a little room to form themselves.

yeah, i'm just afraid that i might go too off-track and end up creating unreal characters.
but, yes, i agree with what you said.
and Welcome to CF!

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

Come back! *chases after run away characters* Characters these days. Never do what you want 'em to.

 

[Blessed-one]

 

[crydun]

Before starting on a new piece of fiction, I like to sit down and write out a character outline. That is, I write out a list of all the major characters in my story and their major personality traits and what they contribute to the story. This helps me stay focused. Once the story gets going, these characters tend to take on a life of their own and minor characters come into play also. But still, it's a good place to start

 

[mbdeyes]

A character outline is great if it's not too rigid. There has to be room to move around a bit once the plot starts rolling.... look at Tolkien. He wasn't any more sure of who Strider would be than the Hobbits were! (when Strider was first introduced....)

 

[Lucubratus]

I ususally start with a basic idea of how I would like my character(s) but they generally tend to TELL ME who they are! I've got a writer friend that told me two of their characters fell in love and my friend had no idea whatsoever that it would happen!......hehe.

I think when that happens then you're on the write/right track
A character I had who was just an "extra" - a stony faced teacher to his student's magical studies - rather suddenly became the "Bane' of all his people, incited terror in the hearts of his students everywhere by telling the "scalding truth of your wretched lives" AND became a major player - all of that in like a week.

My best friend "critic" absolutely loves him and threatened to drive down here and kick my butt (from Idaho to Cali) if I killed him off. LOL!

 

[VigilanteHamster]

My charries tend to reflect parts of me, like most other writers in this universe... also, bit players in my stories have a rather annoying habit of becoming main characters...