When creating a character, there’s a lot of questions you ask yourself. Whether it’s an original character or one you’ve been playing for a long time, using a character sheet to get to know your character better can always be a nice idea. With it’s help, you’ll be able to think about things you didn’t necesarily thought about, and ask some important questions to yourself that might activate your character’s voice, or help you to get your muse back with them. Everyone has their favorite character sheets, some people prefer to have a lot of questions, some others like it a bit more vague, so here’s a masterlist of the character sheets I found on various websites and found quite interesting, plus some other things that could be used to help you see, for example, how other character view yours.
- Blank Character Sheet (+370 Questions)
- Abridged Character Sheet (100 Questions)
- Big-Ass Character Sheet
- Character Creation Form
- Character Sheet by Jody Hedlund
- Creating a character Bio Sheet
- Character Analysis Worksheet
- 100 Character Development questions for writers
- Create a Character Profile
- Character Development Worksheet
- Original Character Bio-Sheet
- Character Chart for Fiction Writers
- A Character Chart By Charlotte Dillon
- Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
- Detailed Character Sheet
- Character Sheet Template
- Character Twenty-Question Worksheet
- In-Depth Character Sheet
- Character Worksheet
- Character Interview Sheet (First Person)
- Background Questionnaire (First Person)
- Characters Perceptions (How do other people perceive your character?)
With these sheets, you could also try to find your character’s Jung and Enneagram Type or use the Moral Alignment tool. All of these things can be really useful to get a better grip on a character.
Then, if you’re trying to create a character, and do not have many ideas, or get stuck, I’d suggest for you to roam around TVTropes, which gives you a lot of tropes used for character creation. Maybe you could try to mix a few of these and create an original character?
Or, if you’re a skillful writer and know how to make your character different from another, make a list of characters in fiction you happen to find interesting and why. Try to keep it short. Then, maybe, try to mix and match things from two or three characters, take a character and change their backstory, to see what would change. Play with them to inspire yourself and create something new, original and truly yours.
Oh, and here’s a little guide to Mary-Sues and OCs, just in case you want to make sure your character isn’t going to become a Mary-Sue or a Gary-Stu
And last but not least, this article about building fictional character definitely seemed interesting to me, and is full of many other links that could guide you during the creating of your character and help you file one of these sheets.
charlie's writing reference blog! i needed a place for the writing specific things i want to keep track of, and this url means too much to me to let it gather dust so here it is. i'm only writing this much because the theme looks weird if there isn't a lot of text WOOPS.
enjoy your stay, and check out the tags page for easier navigating. :>
enjoy your stay, and check out the tags page for easier navigating. :>
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Some resources for those writing medieval-type stories:
writing a kiss, tips for everybody
- whatever the hell you’re doing with tongue, stop
- invade, fight for dominance, and wrestle are literally the worst descriptors ever in the whole entire world of talking about kissing
- tongues do not roam and they do not go exploring they are like TIDES they come forward a little bit and then maybe recede a little bit EVEN IN FRENCHING
- most kissing action actually happens with the lips GO FIGURE??
- kissing is really awkward you get noses bumping everywhere and sometimes saliva all over your chin or theirs, please keep this in mind, only the chastest kisses are clean and neat
- really aggressive tongue is really an acquired taste not gonna lie (L O L)
- Avoid scientific clinical words like probe for the love of god
- you’ve ever listened to a kiss you know it sounds really gross with all the sucking and smacking breathy moans and hums are the way to go
- No one pays enough attention to the lips imho y’all are so damn focused on tongues
8 Words You Should Avoid When WritingAs always, Orwell’s final rule applies: “Break any of these rules before saying anything barbarous.” There are instances where each of these words fills a valuable role. However, especially among inexperienced writers, these words are frequently molested and almost always gum up the works.
1. “Suddenly”
“Sudden” means quickly and without warning, but using the word “suddenly” both slows down the action and warns your reader. Do you know what’s more effective for creating the sense of the sudden? Just saying what happens.
I pay attention to every motion, every movement, my eyes locked on them.Suddenly,The gun goes off.When using “suddenly,” you communicate through the narrator that the action seemed sudden. By jumping directly into the action, you allow the reader to experience that suddenness first hand. “Suddenly” also suffers from being nondescript, failing to communicate the nature of the action itself; providing no sensory experience or concrete fact to hold on to. Just … suddenly.
Feel free to employ “suddenly” in situations where the suddenness is not apparent in the action itself. For example, in “Suddenly, I don’t hate you anymore,” the “suddenly” substantially changes the way we think about the shift in emotional calibration.
2. “Then”
A (not at all comprehensive) guide to the portrayals of angels, from Biblical to comedic, and how to research your friendly terrifying representations of divinity. Please note, I cannot vouch for the quality or reliability of all these sources, this is meant to simply be a compilation.
ORIGINAL SOURCES
- The Torah/The Christian Bible—the Bible website also has this topical list of references to angels with chapter and verse; this tumblr post discusses angels’ true forms with quotes. In particular, pay attention to the books of Ezekiel, Tobit, Revelations, and some of the chapters of Daniel.
- The Holy Quran—search for Jibrael or Gabriel (this translation has both.)
- The Book of Enoch and Jubilees—apocryphal Jewish works that expand on Genesis, and feature the fall of the Nephilim and the fallen angels.
- At this point you start getting into Jewish mysticism and its ginger stepchild, Kabbalah—the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh (Book of the Angel Raziel) in particular features an elaborate angelology; The Magus, by Francis Barrett is a good guide to Kabbalah as a whole, and The Celestial Intelligencer (scroll down on that page) has a lot to say about angels and planets.
- Aleister Crowley would continue this line of thought in Hermetic magic, particularly in the Book of the Law, where he converses with his Guardian Angel, and the 8th Aethyr in the Vision and the Voice, which describes him.
- In addition, there’s always John Dee and his Elizabethan angel magic as well. The Enochian that Supernatural uses is originally his.
- Encyclopedia articles—Jewish angels, Zoroastrian angels, Thelemite concept of a guardian angel, wikipedia
FICTION
- his dark materials trilogy (philip pullman)
- good omens (terry pratchett and neil gaiman)
- a wind in the door (madeleine l’engle)
- the vintner’s luck (elizabeth knox)
- the glory days (isobelle carmody)
- daughter of smoke and bone (laini taylor)
- the space trilogy (cs lewis)
- angelology (danielle trussoni)
- skellig (david almond)
- angel fire series (andrew greely)
MOVIES AND OTHER MEDIA
- wings of desire (1987)
- touched by an angel (1994-2003)
- the prophecy (1995)
- michael (1996)
- city of angels (1998)
- dogma (1999)
- constantine (2005)
- supernatural (2005-present)
- gabriel (2007)
- legion (2010)
NONFICTION
- angels in late ancient christianity (ellen muehlberger)
- from gabriel to lucifer: a cultural history of angels (valery rees)
- heaven and its wonders and hell from things heard and seen (emanuel swedenborg)
[many thanks to my followers who contributed and this post by dottewa, which helped point me in the right direction when it came to crowley and thelemite literature]
Writers, when penning scenes in which two or more characters are of the same gender, often encounter the problem of how to distinguish one person from the other. If everyone is a “she” or a “he,” how is the audience to know which character is doing or saying what and when?
As I’ve often noticed in slash fanfic, writers have the tendency to twist their prose into knots, trying to accomplish this in a “creative” fashion. If I had a nickel for every time Tony Stark was referred to as “the billionaire,” or “the resident genius” in fanfic, I’d be sipping Mai Tais off the coast of Florida instead of running this blog. “But Dr. E,” you might say, “if I don’t use descriptors, how will my readers ever understand who’s doing what in my story?”
Well, here are a few tips that may help you:
- How to Write a Kissing Scene in a Romance Novel
- How to Write a Kissing Scene… Valentine Edition
- How to write a kiss (1)
- NaNoWriMo Expert: How To Write a Kiss? and Should You Write Sex?
- How to Write a Kissing Scene in 5 Simple Steps
- How to write a kiss (2)
- Kiss and Tell – How to Write a Kissing Scene.
- Masterlist - All about kisses in one place (GIFS, pictures, types of kisses)
a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post
General Tips
- Joss Whedon’s Top 10 Writing Tips
- Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
- 34 Writing Tips that will make you a Better Writer
- 50 Free resources that will improve your writing skills
- 5 ways to get out of the comfort zone and become a stronger writer
- 10 ways to avoid Writing Insecurity
- The Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Insecurity
- The Difference Between Good Writers and Bad Writers
- You’re Not Hemingway - Developing Your Own Style
- 7 Ways to use Brain Science to Hook Readers and Reel them In
- 8 Short Story Tips from Kurt Vonnegut
- How to Show, Not Tell
- 5 Essential Story Ingredients
- How to Write Fiction that grabs your readers from page one
- Why research is important in writing
- Make Your Reader Root for Your Main Character
- Writing Ergonomics (Staying Comfortable Whilst Writing)
- The Importance of Body Language
Character Development
- 10 days of Character Building
- Name Generators
- Name Playground
- Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test
- Seven Common Character Types
- Handling a Cast of Thousands Part 1 - Getting To Know Your Characters
- Web Resources for Developing Characters
- Building Fictional Characters
- Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
- Character Building Workshop
- Tips for Characterization
- Character Chart for Fiction Writers
- Villains are people too but…
- How to Write a Character Bible
- Character Development Exercises
- All Your Characters Talk the Same - And They’re Not A Hivemind!
- Medieval Names Archive
- Sympathy Without Saintliness
- Family Echo (Family Tree Maker)
- Behind The Name
- 100 Character Development Questions for Writers
- Aether’s Character Development Worksheet
- The 12 Common Archetypes
- Six Types of Courageous Characters
- Kazza’s List of Character Secrets - Part 1, Part 2
- Creating Believable Characters With Personality
- Body Language Cheat Sheet
- Creating Fictional Characters Series
- Three Ways to Avoid Lazy Character Description
- 7 Rules for Picking Names for Fictional Characters
- Character Development Questionnaire
- How to Create Fictional Characters
- Character Name Resources
- Character Development Template
- Character Development Through Hobbies
- Character Flaws List
- 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters
- Ari’s Archetype Series
- How to Craft Compelling Characters
- List of 200 Character Traits
- Writing Characters of the Opposite Sex
- Making Your Characters Likable
- Do you really know your characters?
- Character Development: Virtues
- Character Development: Vices
- Character Morality Alignment
- List of Negative Personality Traits
- List of Positive Personality Traits
- List of Emotions - Positive
- List of Emotions - Negative
- Loon’s Character Development Series - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
- Phobia List A-L (Part 1), M-Z (Part 2)
- 30 Day In Depth Character Development Meme
- Words for Emotions based on Severity
- Eight Bad Characters
- High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types
Female Characters
- How Not to Write Female Characters
- Writing Female Characters
- How to write empowering female characters
- Why I write strong female characters
- Red Flags for Female Characters Written by Men
- Writing strong female characters
- The Female Character Flowchart
- Eight Heroine Archetypes
Male Characters
Tips for Specific Characters
- Writing A Vampire
- Writing Pansexual Characters
- Writing Characters on the Police Force
- Writing Drunk Characters
- Writing A Manipulative Character
- Writing A Friends With Benefits Relationship
- Writing A Natural Born Leader
- Writing A Flirtatious Character
- Writing A Nice Character
- Fiction Writing Exercises for Creating Villains
- Five Traits to Contribute to an Epic Villain
- Writing Villains that Rock
- Writing British Characters
- How To Write A Character With A Baby
- On Assassin Characters
Dialogue
- It’s Not What They Say…
- Top 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue
- Speaking of Dialogue
- The Great Said Debate
- He Said, She Said, Who Said What?
- How to Write Dialogue Unique to Your Characters
- Writing Dialogue: Go for Realistic, Not Real-Life
Point of View
Plot, Conflict, Structure and Outline
- Writing A Novel Using the Snowflake Method
- Effectively Outlining Your Novel
- Conflict and Character Within Story Structure
- Outlining Your Plot
- Ideas, Plots and Using the Premise Sheets
- How To Write A Novel
- Creating Conflict and Sustaining Suspense
- Plunge Right In…Into Your Story, That Is
- Tips for Creating a Compelling Plot
- 36 (plus one) Dramatic Situations
- The Evil Overlord Devises A Plot: Excerpt from Stupid Plot Tricks
- Conflict Test
- What is Conflict?
- Monomyth
- The Hero’s Journey: Summary of Steps
- Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
- Plotting Without Fears
- Novel Outlining 101
- Writing The Perfect Scene
- One-Page Plotting
- The Great Swampy Middle
- How Can You Know What Belongs In Your Book?
- Create A Plot Outline in 8 Easy Steps
- How to Organize and Develop Ideas for Your Novel
- Create Structure in your novel using index cards
- Choosing the best outline method for you
- Hatch’s Plot Bank
Setting & Worldbuilding
- Magical Word Builder’s Guide
- I Love The End Of The World
- World Building 101
- The Art of Description: Eight Tips to Help Bring Your Settings to Life
- Creating the Perfect Setting - Part 1
- Creating a Believable World
- Setting
- Character and Setting Interactions
- Maps Workshop - Developing the Fictional World Through Mapping
- World Builders Project
- How To Create Fantasy Worlds
- Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
Creativity Boosters* denotes prompts
- *Creative Writing Prompts
- *Ink Provoking
- *Story Starter
- *Story Spinner
- *Story Kitchen
- *Language is a Virus
- *The Dabbling Mum
- Quick Story Idea Generator
- Solve Your Problems By Simply Saying Them Out Loud
- Busting Your Writing Rut
- Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips To Engineer A Productive Flow
- Writing Inspiration, Or Sex on a Bicycle
- The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
- Complete Your First Book with these 9 Simple Writing Habits
- Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging
- Random Book Title Generator
- Finishing Your Novel
- Story Starters & Idea Generators
- Words to Use More Often
Revision & Grammar
- How To Rewrite
- Editing Recipe
- Cliche Finder
- Revising Your Novel: Read What You’ve Written
- Writing 101: Revising A Novel
- 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes
- Synonyms for the Most Commonly Used Words of the English Language
- Grammar Urban Legends
Tools & Software
- Tip Of My Tongue - Find the word you’re looking for
- Write or Die - Stay motivated
- Stay Focused - Tool for Chrome, lock yourself out of distracting websites
- My Writing Nook - Online Text Editor, Free
- Bubbl.us - Online Mind Map Application, Free
- Family Echo - Online Family Tree Maker, Free
- Freemind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
- Xmind - Mind Map Application; Free; Windows, Mac, Linux, Portable
- Liquid Story Binder - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $45.95; Windows, Portable
- Scrivener - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $39.95; Mac
- SuperNotecard - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free trial, $29; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
- yWriter - Novel Organization and Writing Application; free; Windows, Linux, portable
- JDarkRoom - Minimalist Text Editing Application; free; Windows, Mac, Linux, portable
- AutoRealm - Map Creation Application; free; Windows, Linux with Wine
Specific Help
I made a very small noise to express a very large amount of happiness.
PLEASE, DON’T EVER DELETE THIS.
A Map to Get Out of Writer’s Block via NY Book Editors
