LF: Advice For Writing Characters!

Posted 5 years, 8 months ago by celestiials

What do you think of my characters?

0 Votes THEY’RE TRASH (ಠ_ಠ why would you even say that?)
0 Votes They’re not bad, but you do have a long way to go
7 Votes They’re good, but you can improve!
1 Votes They’re good as is

(Moved from the Character Discussion forum because it might not be the most appropriate forum for this type of thread rip)

But anyways:

I want some advice on what I can do better when it comes to writing characters!

If you want, you can give some compliments/praise but it’s not the main point of this thread; I’m looking for constructive criticism about my characters.
The only thing I should say is don’t be a rude prick. You can critique without being rude!

If you want examples of some of my character bios, here

celestiials

Kadrina I see, and personally I like longer profiles since they tend to give more info and I say the more info the better! I also tend to do it because I’m aiming to become a writer as well; maybe I should start outting “tl;dr” tabs so people don’t have to go through long walls of text lmao. 

But thank you! I’ll keep that in mind ^^

fuelli

Mhmm idk if my advice will be super useful, especially since I think that it's mostly a matter of personal tastes, but I'll try to give my opinion :')

First of all, a "well-developed character" and a "character with a good TH bio" are two different things. Of course, they often go together but there are exceptions. You can have a good idea in your head, but difficulties to translate it in written form. (I know because I'm still struggling with this... I think my bios improved a lot recently even though my ideas are still the same lmao, it's mostly trial and error + slowing adding and editing stuff) 


If you are aiming for characters with good TH bios for getting faves (don't worry, there's nothing wrong in wanting to get some recognition for your work, I'm saying this in a non-judgmental way), it's important to take a look at "popular" characters and members and see how they create profiles for their characters. As Kadrina said, people typically fav characters for their art, design and general layout over content.

First of all, a good way to have appealing characters is to have an appealing character icon and profile! Showcase the best artwork of your characters in their icon, gallery preview and even bios, and maybe add some aesthetic images as well; this way people can have the general feel of a character without having to read a long profile. It's a mix of publicity and "show, don't tell" imo

It's also a personal preference but I think that your collection would feel more harmonious if the layouts were similar, at least for characters in the same folder or just "group". For example, Raphael and Hermes are often linked together, but their bios follow a completely different layout and it feels kinda weird; keeping the same layout between all the cast of City Lights, for instance, would give the cast some harmonious visual identity.

Another detail that could improve navigation through your bios would be to link characters when you mention them, especially since most of your characters are part of the same stories and universe. When writing a bio, always imagine that this one may be the first one that someone will read. For instance, Celeste's bio mention Verdauga and Selene, but a new reader will have no idea who these two are unless they browse your entire profile. You can also use this to explain lore and other concepts, just like Wikipedia articles often link to other articles.


Giving advice for creating well-developed characters is a bit more complicated since just like I said at the beginning, it's mainly a matter of personal preferences, tastes, etc. I personally love characters I can relate too, characters who have to face the same, or similar difficulties that I do.

Adding "minorities" is a great way to diversify your writing and create characters diverse people can relate too, but I understand that it's not something everybody wants to deal with, since it often requires heavy research or/and personal experience. It may be difficult for you especially since a lot of your characters are gods, angels or other kind of immortal beings, so it may not always fit your lore. An alternative could be to have "coded" characters; characters who display some traits of said minorities without being explicitly stated as such. Of course, making a character part of some kind of minority should not be just done by slapping a pretty label on their bio, and "token characters" should be avoided as well, lmao; just do it if you feel like it, not out of "obligation".

Another thing I really like is "villain" characters who aren't 100% evil! Idk if you've noticed it but most of my "villains" (even if I don't have that much of them) often aren't unredeemable. They have good personality traits, and often do "good" actions, too! Life isn't black and white and while it's okay to have some punching balls, giving some good traits to a villian can give them more depth. "Are their actions still good if they were made by an horrible person?" is the kind of question I love lmao... And also really love the "does horrible things but is persuaded they are doing good" trope lmaoo


Sorry for the ramble, I just got inspired I guess :v Of course, these are just suggestions based on my own experiences and tastes! You're free to do want you want with your characters: the most important thing is to have fun writing them! I feel like I've just written some general advice and listed some little details that bugged me, it's difficult to give critique, especially since your characters are already pretty well thought-out in general!

fuelli

Kadrina

Lmaooo don't worry about this! It's a discussion after all, and in the end, the main goal is to give celestiials the best advice possible, "who has the last word" is unimportant. :')

But... I thought I said that I was against token characters? Unless I accidentally forgot a negation again, resulting in my sentence saying the polar opposite of what I originally meant oof- So yeah, as I said, the best is just to create a character (or take an already existing one) and make it X minority if you feel like it, not because "I need diversity because otherwise people will think I'm X-phobic". In addition, just like I previously said, it may not work with every writer and setting, it's just something I personally like and love to see. And of course, research needs to be done if you aren't familiar with the subject already, in order to avoid creating a walking stereotype or using expressions/words that are often rejected by the community (with I sadly quite often see on here).

Same with the second part about villains, it's just a matter of personal preference. I don't have that many characters that I would define as villains, and when I do have some, I usually try to find them a reason to act why they act besides "yeah they do evil because they are baaad, lol they are trash". Maybe it's because I'm the kind of optimistic person who believes in the good in people or idk :') I don't mean that every villain needs to have grey areas, just that I personally find them generally more interesting than 100% horrible people who end up being the writer's punching-ball, especially if they are one of the main characters of your stories. (Saying this because calliux was wondering what celestiials wanting to do with her characters... From what I know, it's mostly writing stories. And I'll assume getting feedback and favourites on the side.)

I've been writing stuff for some years too, but I'm still preeetty new to the TH community and I have still trouble figuring the community's standards and hidden rules. You're right, coming up with good stuff is mostly a matter of trial and error, rewriting stuff through the ages, etc. o/

(And I 100% approve of calliux's advice, haha! Especially the "explain what they are doing right now" part. I have nothing to add, just wanted to say it's good :') And yeah, have fun! Write something that pleases you, do not focus on what others may think. It's literally impossible to please everyone, just do something cool for you to enjoy, and I'm sure that people with similar tastes will show up :D)

celestiials

holy heck where did y’all come from- i’m kidding but i wasn’t expecting so much feedback aaa

I’ll just put my replies in spoilers, I’m sorry it took me so long to get to all of you! I was on an airplane trip aaa..


@Judas-la-Carotte

I found most of it pretty helpful actually, so thanks! Yeah I’m considering changing the layout for characters in the same folder/story to be more consistent because I don’t want people running away because of different layouts lmao. Yeah the icon thing and art I should do because typically I use the ref sheets as icons and that’s kinda lazy on my end whoops- I’ll also make sure to link characters so as not to confuse people!

As for the “minorities” thing, I typically haven’t used that due to me kind of afraid of backlash of accidentally portraying minorities wrong; I’m also not exactly sure on “coding” characters because most of the time I don’t do so because I haven’t found it necessary and again, fear of backlash.

Also villains who aren't 100% evil are good as heck, I seriously love them- I’m trying to make villains like that, even if it’s not immediately obvious right now. Morally “gray” characters are just fun in general!


Kadrina

Aaa whoops I didn't mean to come off that way! What I meant was that I’d just add “TL;DR” tabs for those who hate reading ling walls of text. But yeah I typically just stray away from writing in minorities most of the time because A: most of my characters are gods/angels/immortals so it feels a bit strange and B: I’m afraid of the possible backlash. And yeah I think that sometimes villains don’t have an excuse for their actions; don’t get me wrong, I do like morally gray characters, but I can’t justify the actions of a character like Caine for example.


callilux

Hmm, I’m not exactly looking for a specific type of advice; I was thinking of just getting general advice. My goal is to write my own stories with them, and I can see why you’re kind of confused, I’m sorry! ;;

But yeah, although I seriously like to develop characters because it’s just fun, I should probably keep that in mind too. 

But yeah, the advice of outlining what my characters are doing is really helpful, so thank you for that!