On this week’s Story Works Round Table, we disscuss character traits that can make or break your character. Love them, hate them, need them?
SWRT 152 | Inventing Characters
Where do your characters come from? What if you get stuck? How do you create a character when you don’t know what to write about? What about innovating characters? We discuss thinking about what your story needs, working backwards, and thinking who, what, and why in order to invent the best characters for your story.
SWRT 040 | Character Relationships
Are you supporting characters always supportive? How can you use character conflicts and relationships to up the stakes and tension in your work? Don’t forget: no one exists in a vacuum! And characters are defined by how they interact with others!
SWRT 029 | Emotional Wounds & Character Arcs
What is a character arc? What are the three kinds of character arcs and four main components of a character arc? How can you use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help with pre-writing? And how present does your characters wound need to be? Should you state it outright? Or should you weave it into the narrative? How many of your characters need wounds? And how can it affect your antagonist? Finally we discuss the details of finding your wound, and what it might do to your character.
SWRT 026 | Writing Villains
Is writing villains easy? How can you develop a villain without a point of view? Is a villain always seen as evil? How can you get into your villains head? Can we effectively troubleshoot our own villains? And what about writing them with a point of view? So take your villain, give them a good shave and a motivation and get writing!
SWRT 023 | 3D Villains
What makes a good villain? How do you avoid cliches? How do you effectively layer your villains? And how do you use villains in different genres? Can you have an ideal as a villain? And what about those villains we don’t vanquish by the end of the book? Don’t forget that your villainy must be tangible to your protagonist and relatable to your reader!
SWRT 021 | Distinct Characters
How do you know if you have created a distinct character? How important is role? And what is a supporting character anyway? How do motivation and subplot work toward giving your characters individuality? And what sort of tools can you use to help create these individuals? In the end Alida wraps it all up together, and even gives some great exercises to help you create distinct characters.
SWRT 007 | Arcless Protagonists
Is it even possible to have an arcless protagonist? What is an arcless protagonist? After diving into some famous and beloved arcless protagonists, we dive into how to make it work. How can you use your secondary characters to create emotional resonance? And how can you keep that emotional buy in through a series? Do you need the same supporting characters around your arcless protagonist? And what are some of the drawbacks to using one? Just remember: an arcless protagonist is the exception, not the rule!
SWRT 34: Developing Your Supporting Characters
How do you develop supporting characters? What goes into them versus your protagonist? How do you move them from plot device to fully fleshed being? And what role should they play? Above all how do you keep them from all sounding the same?
SWRT 17: Finding Your Protagonist
What is a protagonist, and does your story need one? What are the stakes your protagonist needs? Who is the right person to tell your story? And how is a protagonist different from a point of view character? And ultimately, do you have to discover one thing before another in your pre-writing process?
SWRT 8: Active Protagonists
What is agency? And how do you keep your protagonist active? Do coincidences and natural disasters take away character agency? What is they try/fail cycle and what does Alida have against it? What is the difference between a reaction and a response? When should you plan your characters agency? And how do you handle reaction scenes? In the end just ask yourself: “did my character lose a hand?”. If he did, then you have a pretty good chance – he’s active!