How to Write Great Characters
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- Chris shares his tips & insights on writing memorable characters
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This is probably too late but if you're modeling a Raven character after Dr. Cox you should definitely name him Dr. Caw.
How did I miss this? I'm totally changing the character's name to Caw.
This is lit 😂
or if you're modeling a penis character name him Dr. Cocks.
I used to have an interest in writing, but I lost that interest until recently. I would love to try to reignite that interest and maybe start writing short stories as a hobby. A video like this is pretty helpful, as creating and developing characters has always been something that I've looked at with fear. It's easy to write a character, it's hard to write a great one.
Awesome video Chris! Thank you. I'm writing a novel right now and didn't have a good handle on who my characters are. A lot of people seem to get a character and then build a story from there but I always get story ideas that I then have to populate with characters. I tried a method I've heard Dan Wells say he does, I wrote out an interview with the characters asking them about themselves. It helped. I think this method will help me get an even deeper take on who my characters are moving forward. Thanks Chris!
Hey, Dan! Love the sound of the interview method. That's clever.
Love the idea of using existing IPs to brainstorm traits for a character. As you illustrated with the Haymitch example, it can also help you decide what kind of character you don't want for the role, which sharpens the character concept and makes it easier to decide on how you do want to write them.
Very good idea, thanks for posting this.
Thanks for another great insight!
THIS IS SO HELPFUL!!! TYSM
❤️ your videos. They're so inspiring and full of great ideas. Thank you.
I like this using pple as a muse for your characters.. thank u for sharing.
Timing is so good!! I have a minor character who dies a horrible death and I've made her far too sympathetic. Now I know how to make her death feel right and how to place the sympathy where it's too late to matter, as a life lesson for my protagonist. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!
love the advice
Total aside from character building, I am obsessed with Japanese mythology and Tengu is one of those creators that are so fascinating and you don't see enough of. I'm so excited you're using it!
Ravens in general fascinate me =)
Excellent Chris.
Tried this technique in my latest novel, out of desperation...hahaha. Good to know someone else does similarly.
I took an obscure over the top gangster from a British crime film, made him a London atheist cannabis dealer of Middle Eastern descent that attends a high school for the gifted. Then I threw him into an end of the world scenario.
He's in charge because he has the gun, the weed, and a plan....hahaha.
Need to watch Scrubs at least once now.
Also use the Myers Briggs personality matrix sometimes to make sure they aren't all INTP too.
Remember the Michael Keaton movie about clones?
Yikes written myself twenty seven times...hahaha.
Do you ever use Myers Briggs in your profiles?
It helps me write extroverts, which I ain't.
Look forward to your next video.
You keep making them, and this humble narrator will keep incorporating them into my work.
Thank bro,
steve m
(escaped prisoner from the information cages of Mega Corp)
Dr. Cox is one of the best "reluctant mentor" characters in any medium.
Hey there Chris love your videos!
When you build character do you incorporate things like the myers briggs test or any kind of psychology to establish real relatable characters?
Are you familiar with the Enneagram? It breaks all characters down into 9 different archetypes. I do use that, and should probably talk about it in the next video.
Chris Fox What happens when one of your minor characters is more popular with some readers than the main character? 😯
Chris Fox Just looked this up. Intriguing.
That character tends to become larger in my stories, and may end up in a spinoff series =)
Uh neat ^_^
Which book is this mentor character in? :) Want to read!
I love the Japanese folklore and i'm glad that i'm not the only one who's using it.
Hello Chris! I’ve read almost every one of your non fiction books, I’ve learned a lot, and write so much faster. Now I’m watching all your videos, they are super helpful. I just want to suggest if maybe sometime you can add them subtitles, for some people (like me) can’t watch it with sound on, I have two daughters and i write and study about writing when they’re asleep and the small one is very sensitive with sounds so I need to listen it at a very low volume, and English is not my mother language, so is kind of hard to understand, and I can’t use headphones because I need to be able to listen to my daughters in case they need me, so if they had some English subtitles would be very helpful to watch the video without sound.
Karla Marcin dunno if you're already aware now but you can turn on the Captions in the settings
Do you use any sort of character profile sheets, if so how complex or basic are they?
Something I like to use are the sixteen personality types (INFJ, ESTP, etc.)
Obviously there is much more to a person/character than that, since there are 16 personality types we can put all 7.5 billion people on but there aren't just 16 types of people in the world, but it's a good place to start. I find when I go through these and read them in-depth, that I already know my characters, I just need things like this to "release" it. I'm like "Oh! This sounds like X!" or "No, this is not X at all, moving on".
We're you trying in a specific genre? That's some box to think in.
Good tips, especially that bit about using a character for inspiration but changing your own character beyond recognition (I would hate to my book to be accused of being a rip-off!).
genius!
What about character backstories that are cliche like a charcter looking for redemption or a villain who has lost someone
Are there any tips to writing ensembles of main characters?
You'll love this! Do the same thing for every character. It's that simple. Make them all distinct, give them all unique flaws, but spend similar time on each of them =)
Where can I find a list of books you have written?
Here's my Amazon author page =)
www.amazon.com/default/e/B00OXCKD2G?redirectedFromKindleDbs=true
Sergeant Zim: Star Ship Troopers
Loved that character.
Ryan Burke I definitely want to know more
One time I had a unicorn and I based his personality off of Al Bundy
I'd read the crap out of this book.
Chris Fox it was for a D&D game. But if I ever get done with the comic I'm working on now that'll probably be the next one
Was his name Chaaaarliiiieeeeee!
Kaledrums no Ridley
what about a large cast of characters?
Write a bunch of great characters. Replicate the process for literally every character in your novel =)
Thanks for the video. Currently reading 5000 words per hour.
What did he sayyy...... Doctor WHAT!!!
It's a good thing you didn't pick this guy from Starship Trooper czcams.com/video/gbqf201kkaM/video.html
Though I don't have a story for him I came up with a zany mechanic from watching a guy on CZcams.
Dark Tori lol
How to write great Characters... Steal them from other great characters and apply a coat of paint?
No. Butcher several great characters, stitch them together as if you were Doctor Frankenstein, and then apply a coat of paint. If your audience can see your source, then you're doing it wrong. Note that the characters you steal from should also include people you know.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I suppose it depends upon the granularity of the breakdown. Everyone is made up of constituent parts of their personality and if you are breaking them down far enough then it is like working with blocks to build a different structure from what you found them a part of. When you go that far though, they aren't characters anymore, they are just building blocks. That isn't what you were describing though... you were talking about more than just an archetype. Mentor is an Archetype but Gandalf is a character who is a mentor. I don't think what you are doing is wrong at all but I think it came across in a way that was less appropriate than intended.
I've been making up characters for four decades and I know that there are times when internally I can say that this character has X's sense of humor, Y's dedication, Z's fierceness etc... but if you really examine anyone, real or imaginary, you will find they are made up of parts that can remind you of other people and characters... But like you say, if you can spot a 'source' in the character, youare doing it wrong.
@@llywyllngryffyn8053Check the like to dislike ratio on this video. Note the number of people who got something from this video. You’ve made characters for a long time. Great.
How many novels do you have out? How many books have you sold? What are your reviews like?
I’ve grossed a million dollars doing this. I do it full time. My average across 26,000 review is 4.6. I know what I’m about. If my material isn’t useful that’s fine.
I answered sincerely in spite of your snark. I don’t need to argue with someone both certain they are right, and who is clearly looking for a fight.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I wasn't trying to be snarky, in fact my reply was rolling back a misunderstanding from my original comment. However, if you think that having sold books and made money makes you an authority beyond reproach such that you are infallible, I suppose that is why I've never heard of your books or you for that matter. If not for a happenstance of the poorly written algorithms of the CZcams recommendation engine, I would never have known who you were. Note alos that being an author of novels is not the same as being the creator of CZcams videos. I was trying to point out that one could take the wrong impression from what you said in your video about your process... it can sound like stealing characters and glossing over them... because that is exactly what it sounded like when I listened to your video the first time.
Congratulations on your success as an author. I would have expected someone with such experience to be a little thinker skinned though...
STEALING CHARACTERS!? lol
its not like it makes that scrubs show any worse. besides you cant name one story that dose not barrow from another. think of it like he is standing on the shoulders of giants!
( you know giants like the screen writers of scrubs.....) lol.