# Character development



## playstation60 (Feb 23, 2012)

I suppose that this request could go in a few different slots within the forums here, we'll go with this one and Mod's feel free to move it as needed. 

Character development is among the harder tasks facing any author. For me development of the secondary characters always seems to bog down my writing process. I'm currently in development of a Java application that I hope will help authors with this problem. Taking away some of the secondary development requirements, answering those stupid questions for you or at the least prompting the author with possibilities for filling in the blanks. 

The program can be used for other things, and future developments will add additional features as I move along with things. 

What I'm looking for right now is sources of information. I need lists of distinguishing characteristics (mental, physical, emotional), physical imperfections (from the real obvious to the minor), turn ons and turn offs, etc....As the program is supposed to randomly generate a value for a specific "question" I need a fair amount of options to pull from to avoid repeat answers too often. 

Before anyone can tell me to just Google it, I have and am continuing to do so. I know that a lot of authors will keep such information on their own and may have master lists to draw from already that they'd potentially be willing to share, else they may know of places I have not found yet that has information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## playstation60 (Feb 23, 2012)

When it comes to turn ons and turn offs, I'm looking for more than just the physical.


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## playstation60 (Feb 27, 2012)

33+ looks and no responses....well booo.


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## archer88iv (Mar 13, 2012)

Well, I have to tell you... For secondary characters (and even for primary characters), development is, for me, incidental. I don't sit down and take the next half hour to design a character. Rather, I "discover" things about that character as I write.

Major Patterson prefers a meerschaum pipe because, being deployed to some rather warm and toasty places, the cooler smoke such pipes produce is quite a treat. Unfortunately, his tobacco is cheap and difficult to light--or else he simply lacks the patience or the dexterity to do it just right. I don't know these things because I just happened to think, when I created Patterson, "He should be a smoker, but he should be bad at it." Rather, I was writing dialog between Patterson and another character and Patterson's smoking is the pseudorandom hand-busying activity I came up with to add detail to the scene, so that it wouldn't be just a pair of talking heads.

The most significant point here, at least programmatically speaking, is that I don't usually know the same things about each character. That's important, too, because when you know the answer to a given question (turn-ons!) for every character in a book, the book becomes *about* that question. Patterson smokes cheap tobacco in a meerschaum; Thorne doesn't like liquor that doesn't burn; Cantion keeps hounds and doesn't like when others spoil them; I do not (and do not want to) track a given set of data points for each character I write.


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## SouthernRiver4 (Mar 13, 2012)

I must agree with Archer. When writing anything, a book, or a screenplay, the fact of the matter is, characters develop as you write, Typically, at least for me, I usually begin with a base idea for my character. Usually a personality trait (Happy-go-luck, brooding...etc.) and base his dialogue around that. And honestly, writing for a character is similar to meeting someone new. You know nothing about them until they tell you things. 

So for instance, if your character's name is Tony Marx, and you have already decided that he will be a more brooding character...upon interacting with Jackson Newman, he divulges dialogue that reveals something fascinating about him, perhaps some insight into his personal life. When you began your story, you probably weren't thinking about that _one_ line of dialogue until you were typing it, forcing you to learn something about Tony. And, obviously, as a reader, the character of Tony Marx is growing before your eyes.

Well, I know I may have rambled a bit, but I just wanted to explain _my _take on character development.


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## WolfieReveles (Mar 21, 2012)

If you only want advice on inspiration for characteristics, skip down to the underlined and bold. 

 I can only speak for what I'd like to see or use. As far as software goes, all the writing software that I have found useful has one central objective: Visualization.
I don't use any software to develop the plot, the pace, or the characters. What I do however, is us a myriad of programs to visualize my thoughts. Mind maps, sticky-notes, multiple timelines, basically everything I could do by hand if my wife would just allow me to draw, write, and freely stick notes on the walls. Women, huh?

Now, basically, what I would like to see in a character development software is some way of visualizing a characters development. Perhaps seeing it as a curve, indicating drama and tension, with color coding to indicate changing objectives or emotional state. Pop-ups with graphs, and spaces to add notes about important events and perhaps an important line that you may want to use later on when you get to writing that part of the story. Future lines labeling the turning points in that character's story. I'm starting to ramble.

*Now, this may sound dumb, but *if you want a more systematic way of viewing a character, take inspiration from *textbook RPG*'s (preferably an RPG that deals *with ordinary human characters*). I'd send you the PDFs of New World of Darkness, but that would be illegal so... yeah, they're not so hard to find. Torrents are your friends, but always buy the book if you enjoy it. RPG's don't often take into account the character's psychology since players act out and interpret the characters, but perhaps you'll find the concept helpful or inspiring.

Oh, and browse through some really cheap *self-help books* at a local library. Look for the ones* that ** label and rationalize people*; they should provide you with an ample set of words to describe people with.

Oh, and add spaces for freetext. I don't think any writer will ever be fully content with a "check the box" system, so give them the option to expand. If you select a trait, like "volatile mood", every writer will have a different image in his head and some may feel limited if they can't elaborate.


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## WolfieReveles (Mar 21, 2012)

Might I add how I love that the button says "post quick reply" in a forum for writers, where almost nobody posts a _quick_ reply?


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## archer88iv (Mar 21, 2012)

They should change it to read "quicker."


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