10 Tips for Creating a Protagonist by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
10 Tips for Creating a Protagonist
10 Tips for Creating a Protagonist
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 2 “Protagonists”
(Previous Tutorial) (Next Tutorial)
“Plot is people. Human emotions and desires founded on the realities of life, working at cross purposes, getting hotter and fiercer as they strike against each other until finally there’s an explosion—that’s Plot.”
—Leigh Brackett
Apart from Primary and Secondary Protagonists, there are many other different protagonist characters-types that can drive a story—ranging from heroes, to villains, to antiheroes
Please copy and paste this into a Word document or deviation. Then highlight the information after the colons and type over it.
Setting
Time/Era: Exact year or approximate time
Name of Country: For fun, you could alter the name of an old country to amuse more educated readers. For example, I altered the Assyrian Empire's name for a conquering people to evoke images of brutality and Mesopotamia.
Geography: Keep track of all the places you mention and their approximate locations. I find it handy to draw a rough map of the area.
Landscape: Trees, soil, water, buildings... Imagine you were flying over the place in an airplane. What would you
Basic Statistics
Name:
Nickname:
Meaning of name:
Origin of name:
Age:
Sex:
Blood type:
Nationality:
Ethnicity:
Race:
Sexual Orientation:
Current status:
Political Party:
Police/Criminal/Legal record:
Socioeconomic level as a child:
Socioeconomic level as an adult:
Birth date:
Birth place:
Current residence:
Occupation:
Title/Rank:
Hobbies/Pastimes:
Talents/Skills/Powers:
Past History
Hometown:
First Memory:
Most important childhood event that still affects him/her:
Why/How?
Other memories/events that still affects him/her and why/how:
Past failures s/he would be embarrassed to have people know about and why:
Bigg
The Truth About Selling Fanart by KiRAWRa, literature
Literature
The Truth About Selling Fanart
Update notice as of January 17, 2013: I have given this guide a MAJOR overhaul. It was originally written over a year and a half ago, and since then my own views and understanding of copyrights has changed. I felt that this guide should reflect those changes, so if you read this guide in the past, please take a moment to look through it again as I have added MANY new topics, information, and sources. Unlike my first draft, I have also changed my viewpoint to neutral throughout this writing.
Update notice as of July 17th, 2015: Check out DeviantArt's new article on art theft, fanart, copyrights, and other relevant topics! http://protectart.de
How to Start and Stay Writing by illuminara, literature
Literature
How to Start and Stay Writing
I recently solicited my watchers to ask me writing questions that I would then attempt to answer in a writing guide such as this. This article is my first response, and there will be many more to come.
I've been asked to give advice on ways a writer can begin to put words on a page. The bottom line is as simple as this: sit your butt down and write.
Duh, right? It's the only way I know to actually write.
Sure, sitting your butt in a chair is easy, but getting your fingers to move and stay moving is a challenge. Here are three things that have helped me.
1) Have a goal.
Your goal can be as simple as "describe the person in this picture" o
.:Things Every OC Bio Should Include:. by Veidara, literature
Literature
.:Things Every OC Bio Should Include:.
~Basic Bio Breakdown~
NAME: You should provide the character’s full name, even if it’s not what they go by. If they go by something else, include it in the same category like so: Joshua “Josh” Nickelson.
AGE: If your character is in a timeline where it’s simple enough just to list one age or a range of ages for them, then by all means, please do so. If you have a long, complicated series or a lot of time that passes in your book, show a birth year for your character instead—something we can measure things to.
APPEARANCE: This should contain everything there is to know about your character visually withou
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel
8 Tips for Composing Each Chapter of Your Novel
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 Chapter 7 “Editing” – Section 1 “The Chapter”
“Many first-time novelists end up rewriting their first two or three chapters, trying to get them 'just right.' But the point of the first draft is not to get it right; it's to get it written - so that you'll have something to work with.”
-Matt Hughes
Recently, we've been working on all of the plot-points contained within a story and what function they serve to the overall plot. And if you've been following along with the “Write-A-Novel” exercises, and writte
dA Guide: Text Formatting by SweetDuke, literature
Literature
dA Guide: Text Formatting
- - - - - - - - - -
UPDATE for January 2020:
I created this guide in 2011, so you'll have to take it with a grain of salt since dA has updated a bazillion things since then LOL. It now looks like many codes don't work in Literature submissions anymore, (or disable the "Eclipse" version of the site and show the old site instead), so some of the demonstrations here only look like regular text. But they should display properly if you copy/paste them in the comments. I'm so glad to see how many of you wonderful people still utilize this resource, so I wish you the best and encourage you to go ahead and experiment to see what works and what do
.:Developing Your Own Species:. by Veidara, literature
Literature
.:Developing Your Own Species:.
• Unusual Characteristics: Creating a species usually stems from the writer envisioning a character or a group with characteristics impossible for a human to have. Determine what odd characteristics you have in mind for your characters and collect them together to begin to form traits of a species. Determine any unusual markings or colorations, how they hold themselves, their tendencies, and begin to think about powers and special abilities apart from that which a human can do.
• Powers: Writing normal lice of life humans isn't for everyone. Characters with powers are unique and intriguing if you can write them as such. Be carefu
7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist
PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION.
7 Steps to Creating a Great Protagonist
Anybody Can Write a Novel
Chapter 3 “Characters” – Section 3 “The Protagonist”
With Links to Supplementary Material
So I've talked about a couple types of protagonists, and how to create them: Heroes and Antiheroes. As well as what types of Character to Use or to Avoid. But not every Protagonist will be a hero or antihero. Today, I'm going to discuss what universal attributes make a great protagonist, that will drive your
100 Questions to Ask Your OC by viralremix, literature
Literature
100 Questions to Ask Your OC
Hello, folks! The purpose of this exercise is to delve deep into a character's mind and tease out interesting eccentricities about them, the bits and pieces of unique information that make them special. Each question is designed to help think about the character more and understand them. Whether you're responding to one question or all of them, hopefully your character speaks to you all through it!
PERSONALITY PROFILE
1. People don't behave the same way all the time. In fact, they generally have a mask for every social group -- friends, family, business. Sometimes they have a different mask for different groups of friends. How does your
.:Create Your Own SPECIES Bio Template:. by Veidara, literature
Literature
.:Create Your Own SPECIES Bio Template:.
If you’re dabbling in the genres of supernatural, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, and horror, you’re probably going to want to make at least one of your own species eventually. And that’s why I made this short and concise form for you to fill out! This form is free to use but only for those who give credit to me.
Species name:
Outward distinguishable feature of species:
Any notable habits/tendencies:
Any enhanced or extra powers or abilities:
Describe how they discover, train, and harness their abilities:
Various strengths and skills of the species overall:
Various weaknesses and detriments of the species overall:
An
~Valuable Character Bio Creation Advice And Information~
• NONO: The BIGGEST nono for bios is putting something like “unknown” or “N/A” in a bio category of a character. First of all, why did you even include that category in your bio just to pass it up? It’s an eyeroll for a serious writer to see these things in bios. Even if the character or other characters don't know their name or even their age or parents, it should ALWAYS be listed in the bio. These are things that everyone has (unless they are a robot).
• CATEGORIES: I have included a blank bio form with all the categories I find to be necess
Huge character profile of completeness TEMPLATE by ElithianFox, literature
Literature
Huge character profile of completeness TEMPLATE
Huge character profile of completeness
This character profile template was made by compiling a whole lot of templates made by other artists that I felt were not specific enough and adding many more questions to make everything more specific. The links are in the description, please visit their versions too. This profile is ginormous, not every question may be relevant to your character. The main goal is to have a profile that is as complete as it can get, so not every question will need to be filled in. Add and remove as is needed as there's only few characters every question is relevant for. If you think questions should be added, commen
Blank OC Reference Sheet by AmandaLyn11, literature
Literature
Blank OC Reference Sheet
Character Reference Sheet-ness
Basically this reference sheet covers pretty much everything a person would ever need to know about your character.. and then some.
-Basics-
Lets face it. If somebody were to just glance over the reference sheet, at least you can feel some reassurance in knowing that they got the bare minimum
Name (Nickname):
Age:
Please if youre going to give your character some ungodly, few centuries old, age, make sure to include what age they looks like. Otherwise all shall assume they appear to be a rumpled piece of leather, ran over by some sort of moving vehicle, after being regurgitated by a cat. Obvio
Character Profile Outline by KittyFelone, literature
Literature
Character Profile Outline
Okay, before anybody starts to think this is some weird idea, let me explain.
For anyone who knows how to write (and I mean, REALLY knows how to write), you understand that a good story has everything written out on paper first. You know, stuff like Outlines, Plot Triangles, Character Profiles. This might be of a challenge to some of you and tie you down, but unless you are capable of keeping every piece of information in your mind, this is a good resource to fall back on. If you do not need this, then fineyou arent required to use it. According to Science Fiction Writers of America, do
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World
6 Tips for Mapping a Fictional World
Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0
Chapter 3 “World Building” – Section 2 “Maps”
(Previous Tutorial) (Next Tutorial)
“I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit (generally with meticulous care for distances). The other way about lands one in confusions and impossibilities, and in any case it is weary work to compose a map from a story.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien
If you've ever read or written a story that seemed unintentionally ethereal—where the descriptions did not paint a vivid picture of the setting but instead a more vague dreamscape that t
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters by DesdemonaDeBlake, literature
Literature
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters
8 Tips for Writing Dialogue for your Characters
Anybody Can Write a Novel
Chapter 5 “Choosing and Designing Characters” – Section 4 “Dialogue”
With Links to Supplementary Material
Dialogue is a tricky topic, and for two key reasons. The first is that creating realistic dialogue is a difficult skill to master—even in day-to-day life—without speech coming out plastic, pointless, or otherwise unconvincing. The second problem is that the proper dialogue for your story is deeply rooted within the other elements—the characters, the setting, the genre, etc... Because of this, writing dialogue tha
Hover over blue text for elaboration.
Overview
Mary Sues are a common phenomenon in stories: a character who gets special treatment. The definition of a Mary Sue is subjective, so it isn't always easy to tell whether a character is or isn't a Sue.
A male Mary Sue might also be called a Gary Stu, Marty Stu, or Marty Sue. Male characters are less often accused of being Mary Sues than females are.
Mary Sues are a natural part of learning to write, and while the writing community often lashes out at writers for creating them, their existence does not indicate a lack of writing ability. Mary Sues can be analyzed, improved, and outgrown over ti