Prisimpad: A Guide to Wattpad, Writing, and Whatever

ON WRITING: Give Birth to a Character

That is kinda how my cheat sheet will look. It'll be a rambling of all things about that character. And making them realistic is as simple as drawing inspiration from the people around me.

So let's look at Terrick, who is one of my favorite characters because he was both fun to write and a pain in the ass. Terrick is a wood nymph. I decided to break away from conventional norms and make my wood nymphs have males. Because of that, I needed a reason, one that wouldn't upset fantasy purists and make sense to the world I was building. So I had to think about that with him and list it. He's also from the magic side of the rift. Because of that I had to think about those people.

I decided that they wouldn't know of our slang and other interesting things we do over there. Terrick's never been to the "real" world, so how could he know those things? In many ways, I make him very literal. He doesn't speak with contractions and is often confused by things Abby and the kids from the "real" world side of the rift say. As the books move on, to make my life easier, I have him start to learn how to at least speak in contractions, but there are still several sayings the normal teenagers say he doesn't understand that often adds an element of humor to their conversations.

You need to think about things like that. If your character is from the Victorian Era he/she isn't going to say "Dude, that is so rad!" when talking to somebody. They need to sound and act like they're from that time period. This will require research even if you're a pantser. If you don't know the era/place well enough to have them sound like they're from there, you probably shouldn't be placing it there if you're not up for researching. Fantasy gets some leeway because the worlds are often made up. In fantasy, a Victorian era setting very well could have people who speak modern.

This also leads me to another segment, which is your style of writing may have to be influenced by the character and setting you choose at least when that character is talking or in first person narrative. In third person you can get away with writing in your native terms for that narrative as long as when the character is speaking their dialogue conforms to where they're supposed to be from.

Let's say you're a US writer like me, writing a character who is from London set in London. You better be ready to conform to London slang and standards. Characters from London will use certain terms and slang that a US character won't use and vice versa. These are all things you have to consider when crafting your character.

The English language was created by demons who wanted to make humans rip hair from their heads while simultaneously pissing themselves. Seriously. For every country, for every state, for every town—there is something they say different even if they're still speaking the same language and your characters have to reflect that. Again, you have a lot more leeway in a world that's completely made up versus a real world setting. Who's to say the land of Scallywag doesn't sound entirely US? Or the people who live in Bopeep strikingly sound like they're all Australian... you don't have to conform to jack in that case. But if you have an Australian character set in Australia, the reader needs to believe they're Australian. That is all part of character development.

Back to using my character development with Terrick as an example. Because he's a wood nymph, I had to think about my culture for those people. Most of this came after the first draft but a lot came while I was writing it, but you can do it first if you're a plotter. Again, how much you do to start is dependent on what kind of writer you are. I'm perfectly okay with coming up with stuff on the fly, but you might not be.

Anywho, my race of wood nymphs are modeled after my friend who is a Vegan. They don't eat meat, they don't use animal skins unless it was provided to them at will by the animal, they respect the earth, things like that.

Character development is as much their personalities and their looks as it is the race they're from, be it fictional or real ethnicity, so be ready to think about that kind of information. Again even if it's not listed in the story, think about it. Have the answer ready in case some day you need it.  Someone might ask you some obscure question about your characters and you have to be ready to answer it.