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

50%
+0 −0
Q&A What should I do if I can't properly formulate the personality of one of my characters in my novel?

Perhaps it would help for you to list what your character is not. Try to think of traits she doesn't have. What professional skills does she lack? Is she not a fighter, not a tech, not a magician?...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38511
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:40:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38511
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:40:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Perhaps it would help for you to list what your character is **not**.

Try to think of traits she doesn't have. What professional skills does she lack? Is she not a fighter, not a tech, not a magician?

Is she not a leader? Is she not a peacemaker? Is she not clever? Is she not attractive, or sexy? Is she not a good liar? Is she intelligent enough, but not **creative**? Or vice versa? Is she not careful? Is she not emotional? Is she not respectful of authority?

There are many more things to NOT be than there things TO be, but every thing she is NOT narrows down what she IS.

In the end, you don't have to have a character profile, you can work with an anti-profile: Here are the things she will not do, and her actions will be consistent with that.

Personally I don't use character profiles. I know many people that I can predict their actions, without putting exactly what I know into words, except for very specific things like Josh hates salads or Kyle likes action movies. Lana will go thirsty for hours before drinking _water_, she will only drink something flavored.

These are not "traits", exactly, just what they like or enjoy, what they don't like, specific types of things that make them upset, or laugh, or bore them to tears.

Work with that, and don't try to generalize it. You will get a sense of her without labeling what she is.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-08-25T20:34:43Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 1