Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How to make a mimicking character believable

I think that one of the important things about a character like this is that there has to be some kind of consistency. You can have the wild mood-swings depending on who he is interacting with, but...

posted 7y ago by Jackson‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:41:28Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25434
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Jackson‭ · 2019-12-08T05:41:28Z (over 4 years ago)
I think that one of the important things about a character like this is that there has to be some kind of consistency. You can have the wild mood-swings depending on who he is interacting with, but I think there needs to be some kind of base-line, something which tells (or even just hints) that this character has some standard of behavior.

It's an interesting idea, but it begs the question - "What happens when he is not around other people?" If I understand the character correctly, he consistently imitates anyone he is interacting with. The problem that occurs with this is that when he's NOT around other people, he has to behave in some way, even if it's sitting in a chair, staring at the wall.

Even if the audience never sees him by himself, or doesn't see much of him at all, you as the author should have a good idea of how he behaves in many different situations. In this way, you have a greater understanding of him, and this will inform you about why he behaves the way he does.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-03T03:06:49Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 0