What is the most difficult personality to write for you?

[VanVeleca]

We all have strenghts, but also weaknesses that just can't be quite overcome when it comes to writing

Sometimes you want to create a character who acts in a certain way, but they just don't come out quite right or sound robotic because you have no goddamn clue how to write a character like this "correctly"

You can't get into their head, but you still need them for a specific role in the story so you try your best even if it still comes out kind of...rusty

For me it has to be "cool" characters, like the sunglasses indoors kind

Most of my characters are very much over emotional or exaggerated, cool characters tend to be more held back and rarely emote since they have a #icecold attitude and a mysterious aura

[R00by646]

I'm with you on cool characters being really tough to write full stop! Like it doesn't feel like they have that hook to write in their perspective like a dorky character or someone flawed. They're better as a side character honestly.

Runner up for me is a smart character where you need to do a bunch of research in order to properly write them. I had to look up a bunch of stuff about chickens and egg processes and came out a little more disgusted with the American Agricultural Industry

[2CFox]

Clever, intelligent, witty, these things we compliment or envy people for. If we had all the answers, we'd be that person now wouldn't we?

It's one thing to write a character with a lot of knowledge. You can do your homework and research the answers to the questions they know off the top of their head. Their talents, their capacity for growth, the breadth of their knowledge, you can read up on whatever you need to.

What you can't research is the ability to make brilliant use of this knowledge, to handle situations with the efficient precision which most cannot. From a petty-argument-ending shutdown to a waterproof societal overhaul, it's not just about what the character can do. It's about how they use it and how they got there.

[Quinnfinity3]

Wholsome personality. Maybe I am a very cynical or stressed person, but I have trouble making somone innocent. Maybe it's for the best?

[Kunishiro]

I don't find them on their own difficult to write, usually the difficulty comes trying to make two personalities bounce of off each other in a realistic way.

[VictorVonVice]

I guess one way of doing it would be to approach writing the story in the same way one would sketch a drawing. Put down the fou dating of what you want and then add to it (in this case, how the character in question would get from A to B in their own way and how the other characters would react or behave)

[Skoops]

I think "damaged" characters are really difficult to make likable. It's the kind of character that angsty teens self-insert into as an act of self pity, so there's a lot of cringe edgelord landmines to avoid on the way to depicting someone like that from a perspective that isn't enamored with their least endearing qualities but isn't punching down on them either.

For them to be realistic, they'll be withdrawn or lashing out and taking their trauma and insecurities out on the few people that try to involve themselves in the damaged character's life. They'll be stuck in contradictory vicious cycles where they're hurting and lonely, and yet they still push everyone away because they don't want to risk getting hurt, ensuring that they stay alone. Depicting that is easy. Making them likable enough for a reader to bear with them is HARD. They're not likable in real life; the whole point is to get them on an arc towards a healthier mindset so they aren't like that forever. I don't want to just throw a manic pixie dream girl at them or make it some other character's job to fix them, so there's this razor thin line I've got to walk witch tired cliches on one side and teenage cringe on the other.

Writing cool characters is easy for me, though. I just write something I'd say. 😎

[ZombieGhost]

usually good women personalities.

Since I am a man, and don't have plenty of women to inspire from in my entourage. I have to imagine what is exactly

fitting and sometimes I don't even try. For some part, I just avoid the backstories and made them look mysterious.

Which is okay at first, but I have to be more efficient in that regard.

Must of my inspirations come from women that doesn't exist at all.

So, yeah it's rather artificial how I make women in stories.

And I am perfectly aware of that.

This is why I made a new story about an evil witch in my new story, which is kinda a new thing for me.

But I still don't know what will come in the end of that.

Will have to do research about proper women personalities and etc.

[Meuny]

At 12/18/23 05:33 PM, VanVeleca wrote: We all have strenghts, but also weaknesses that just can't be quite overcome when it comes to writing
Sometimes you want to create a character who acts in a certain way, but they just don't come out quite right or sound robotic because you have no goddamn clue how to write a character like this "correctly"

You can't get into their head, but you still need them for a specific role in the story so you try your best even if it still comes out kind of...rusty

For me it has to be "cool" characters, like the sunglasses indoors kind
Most of my characters are very much over emotional or exaggerated, cool characters tend to be more held back and rarely emote since they have a #icecold attitude and a mysterious aura

I think creating a character with no will (that is, a nihilistic character) without them being edgy.

Been trying to create a character that is empty inside but still has some personality besides "oh boo hoo, my backstory is sad and i'm depressed because of it". I think that it is very hard to know what this character would react to certain things that are happening around them because of this "lack of will" that i wanna portray. However, i gotta keep in mind that even though they're depressed or even mad at some things that happened, they may have reactions that are unpredictable like any human being.

idk mate, maybe i'm being too picky about what their personality should be like. Sometimes i feel like they'd be somewhat of a absurdistic-stoic-nihilistic personr - that is, they recognize their suffering and acknowledge that there are no more ways of aiding em -, and other times, i just don't know how they would react.

I think they'd think the same thing i always think about when writing about their backstory: 'idk what the fuck i should do/what the fuck i'm thinking".

[Meuny]

At 12/21/23 07:29 AM, R00by646 wrote: I'm with you on cool characters being really tough to write full stop! Like it doesn't feel like they have that hook to write in their perspective like a dorky character or someone flawed. They're better as a side character honestly.

Runner up for me is a smart character where you need to do a bunch of research in order to properly write them. I had to look up a bunch of stuff about chickens and egg processes and came out a little more disgusted with the American Agricultural Industry

I do agree, i had to study a lot about how shotokan karate works to understand how exactly a guy which practised it would behaved in a fight and i ended up changing completely his ethos as a character - he went from a guy that loved fighting to a pacifist.

When i started to create a realy smart person, i had to read nietzsche's entire bibliography to correctly portray them as a philosopher :P

[ErasmusMagnus]

The trick is to take inspiration not from tropes or fiction to become derivatives of derivatives, but take inspiration from the original source of stories: reality. You want to write a cool character? Who's the coolest person you know? There you go. They're not a walking exaggerated cartoon, they're real. Man who can't write believable female characters? That's because wish fulfillment gets old the tenth time. You want inspiration? Take your mom, your aunt, your classmates, your coworkers, your teachers. It's not hard.

Want your stories to be believable? Take inspiration from the most believable thing in existence.

[ErasmusMagnus]

At 12/22/23 01:24 PM, ZombieGhost wrote: usually good women personalities.

Since I am a man, and don't have plenty of women to inspire from in my entourage. I have to imagine what is exactly
fitting and sometimes I don't even try. For some part, I just avoid the backstories and made them look mysterious.
Which is okay at first, but I have to be more efficient in that regard.

Must of my inspirations come from women that doesn't exist at all.

So, yeah it's rather artificial how I make women in stories.

And I am perfectly aware of that.

This is why I made a new story about an evil witch in my new story, which is kinda a new thing for me.
But I still don't know what will come in the end of that.

Will have to do research about proper women personalities and etc.

Instead of derivatives of derivatives, you must take inspiration from the original source: Reality. The real women you know in your life.

[VanVeleca]

At 12/23/23 01:32 AM, ErasmusMagnus wrote: The trick is to take inspiration not from tropes or fiction to become derivatives of derivatives, but take inspiration from the original source of stories: reality. You want to write a cool character? Who's the coolest person you know? There you go. They're not a walking exaggerated cartoon, they're real. Man who can't write believable female characters? That's because wish fulfillment gets old the tenth time. You want inspiration? Take your mom, your aunt, your classmates, your coworkers, your teachers. It's not hard.

Want your stories to be believable? Take inspiration from the most believable thing in existence.

I think the problem with that is, I don't really have anyone in my real life relationship who I would consider cool

My personal image of cool in general is like...very different from the typical image, and the character very specifically needs to have this kind of chill, laid back and popular personality type for their role in the story

It IS that hard for some, bud

[ErasmusMagnus]

At 12/23/23 06:49 AM, VanVeleca wrote: I think the problem with that is, I don't really have anyone in my real life relationship who I would consider cool
My personal image of cool in general is like...very different from the typical image, and the character very specifically needs to have this kind of chill, laid back and popular personality type for their role in the story

It IS that hard for some, bud

Guess you'd better go looking for some new people for inspiration then.

Hell, why not me?

[OnixDark]

At 12/22/23 01:24 PM, ZombieGhost wrote: usually good women personalities.

Since I am a man, and don't have plenty of women to inspire from in my entourage. I have to imagine what is exactly
fitting and sometimes I don't even try. For some part, I just avoid the backstories and made them look mysterious.
Which is okay at first, but I have to be more efficient in that regard.

Must of my inspirations come from women that doesn't exist at all.

So, yeah it's rather artificial how I make women in stories.

And I am perfectly aware of that.

This is why I made a new story about an evil witch in my new story, which is kinda a new thing for me.
But I still don't know what will come in the end of that.

Will have to do research about proper women personalities and etc.

May be worth paying newgrounds chat a visit. There are a few regulars who happen to be women over there and may be willing to help you with the reseach/interviews and reviews.

One interesting piece of feedback regarding the personalities of female characters from game of trones I heard from a(n open-minded) man and from a woman: the man said the female characters were either dudes with female bodies or childish; the woman noticed no such thing. So what men and women percieve as well-written female characters may also vary.

But one thing that may help you is simply: write a human being 1st, worry about them being a woman later. Unless being a woman or a man is somehow relevant to the setting itself (strict genrer roles, porn, prostitution, reproductive slaves, sex slaves, romance, discrimination, parenthood, etc.), there's little reason to stress the fact that the character is female. Sure, there are A LOT of settings where gender matters, but are you really writing one such setting? Why does gender matter in the setting you're writing?

-x-

Aaaaaaaaaaaand since I bothered to reply to this thread:

Characters who are genuinelly happy despide them living the kind of life I can't imagine anybody wanting. Their happiness feels fake or forced to me; a façade to hide the fact that they're miserable. And it doesn't even have to be something where it'd be unrealistic for people to be happy through. It can be the kind of situation where there are real people who are genuinelly happy despide their situation looking dire to me.

[ZombieGhost]

At 12/23/23 12:04 PM, OnixDark wrote:

Why does gender matter in the setting you're writing?

Well, genders are a very hard subject to get by. Since in today era of gender liberty and etc.

I doubt I know plenty of things in life, over all the things I learned.

My experiences limit myself much than anything.

So to answer it correctly, I shall say it matter for the simple reason of biology and psychology.

I am not really an expert at these two things, since I dropped high school before finishing

biology and psychology.

I read great books though, and I am quite the nerd none the less.

Will have to research and study for the sake of understanding fondamentals of many things.

Note that, I am not looking to argue and I am much the guy who wish to be better in what he is doing.

[Foxmosis]

My biggest difficulty when writing is making sure all the characters don't sound like me, and then making sure they all don't sound like each other. I'm getting slightly better at this!

[ethanblair]

At 12/18/23 05:33 PM, VanVeleca wrote: We all have strenghts, but also weaknesses that just can't be quite overcome when it comes to writing

Hehehe Its Strength Not "Strenghts" Hehehe

[VanVeleca]

At 12/23/23 12:45 PM, ethanblair wrote:

At 12/18/23 05:33 PM, VanVeleca wrote: We all have strenghts, but also weaknesses that just can't be quite overcome when it comes to writing

Hehehe Its Strength Not "Strenghts" Hehehe

[ethanblair]

At 12/23/23 01:59 PM, VanVeleca wrote:

Come Here I Think We Will Become Best Friends

[NeedVeggiesCarnally]

At 12/22/23 01:24 PM, ZombieGhost wrote: usually good women personalities.

Since I am a man, and don't have plenty of women to inspire from in my entourage. I have to imagine what is exactly
fitting and sometimes I don't even try. For some part, I just avoid the backstories and made them look mysterious.
Which is okay at first, but I have to be more efficient in that regard.

Must of my inspirations come from women that doesn't exist at all.

So, yeah it's rather artificial how I make women in stories.

And I am perfectly aware of that.

This is why I made a new story about an evil witch in my new story, which is kinda a new thing for me.
But I still don't know what will come in the end of that.

Will have to do research about proper women personalities and etc.

A personality is molded by experiences and environment(s) which influence it.

Depending on the setting, the society your character is in may have gender roles or subtle biases based on gender that influence how a woman may turn out in comparison to a man (and vice versa). This is where most common/expected "differences" in "female" or feminine personalities and "male" or masculine personalities seem to derive from, not any innate traits.

[TorgoTheEnfeebled]

Honestly, probably just like a normal dude or someone who is less exaggerated. I mostly write comedy and my humor revolves around my characters being insanely neurotic in different ways. My fear is trying to write a more serious character and them coming off as boring compared to the lunatic who will throw hands if someone bends a book page.