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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

  15 Tips for Writing Horror Chapter 2 “Genres” – Section 6 “Horror" Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0 (Previous Tutorial)             (Next Tutorial) “[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.” ― Clive Barker Horror is a genre which plays upon the emotions of the audience, but it does so for very specific reasons. We may not always analyze why we are made afraid by a sotry, but there are usually specific reason for our fears, a specific nature to them, and a specific way in which we can make fear more eff

On writing three-dimensional villains Brought to you by Super Editor Disclaimer: (as experience suggests that I need one) This resource consists of opinions. There may be better ways to write, and my advice may not fit your type of story. Please use common sense when applying the ideas expressed below. Thanks for reading! Do you remember the Big Bad Wolf? He destroyed the Three Little Pigs' houses and ate them (or only chased them, depending on the rendition). He ran to Little Red Riding Hood's home and devoured her grandmother. The Big Bad Wolf appears in countless fairy tales to eat and terrorize the general populace. In many children's

Don't panic. Don't blame yourself. Writer's block requires a thoughtful, logical approach. Give yourself a little grace and time to think. The first thing we tend to do when we have writer's block is to leave the book. We close the file or notebook and say we'll get to it later. Well, sometimes that works, but sometimes we still haven't touched it a week later. Or a month later. At that point things get a little worrisome. That's why I've compiled this list. 1. Try taking a walk or bike ride. Sometimes you just need the time to yourself. I know you've probably heard this before, but that's because it works. Let your mind drift to your chara

9 Tips for Creating Your Antagonist Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0Chapter 5 “Characters” – Section 3 “Antagonists” (Previous Tutorial)             (Next Tutorial)                                                             “You don't really understand an antagonist until you understand why he's a protagonist in his own version of the world.” -John Rogers Whether the obstacle that stands in the way of your protagonist is an evil person, a person of just another philosophical belief, a person with a contradicting goal, a force of nature, a force of the supernatural, a monster, an emotion, an exper

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

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

~Something’s Missing~ • NOTE: This is a generally speaking list, again, directed at the major characters of stories/books/movies/television of the modern times. I know there exist characters with these traits; I just think they are rare and should be brought more to attention if you're looking to expand your character diversity and add realism. • Humility: This is the big one that I think a lot of characters are missing. Lots of the mains I see today don't even have a shred of this or if they do it’s forced into them. How about writing a person who’s naturally humble? These people are amazing. They don’t

Conflict is the central element of any story. It’s what keeps us on the edge of our seats and turning page after page until 3:00am. Or, as Wikipedia puts it, narrative conflict is “an inherent incompatibility between the objectives of two or more characters or forces. Conflict creates tension and interest in a story by adding doubt as to the outcome.” So how do you create this all-important conflict in your stories? Well, it all starts in the development process. There are three basic steps to developing conflict, and they follow a specific logical progression because, ultimately, developing a good story is an exercise in l

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

The Art of VILLAINY ~ Making Realistic Villains for your Fiction ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "People will do far more to Avoid Pain than they will to Seek Pleasure." -- CIA Profiler Gavin DeBecker on Human Nature True Predators ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When I craft a villain, I go out of my way to make darned sure that my fictional villains are as realistic as the villains we face in real life. I begin by giving them ordinary human Issues. Within every villain (fictional and non-fictional) there's a human issue at core that drives them to BE villains in the first place. Even mass murderers have reasons (however twisted) for doing what they do. NO villain

When writing a Horror story, one must begin with a Monster. The most terrifying of course, are the ones you don't notice, or refuse to notice. The ones right next to you. "The most dangerous werewolves are the ones that are hairy on the inside." -- A Company of Wolves Making a MONSTER Think, who are the people that walk right up to you every day – and you let them? • Your neighbors • Your co-workers • Your friends • Your lover • Your parents • Your siblings • Your children Now imagine if one of them was a man-slaughtering or even man-eating Monster? In reality, it happens all the tim

How to Be a Better Deviant Despite so many of the complaints some people have against it, DeviantART is a very good social network geared specifically towards artists and people who appreciate art.  DeviantART is, in fact, one of the very first sites of its kind, predating even such social networking giants as Facebook and Myspace. It is a wonderful place to share your work, to look at the work other artists have created, to offer and receive advice on artwork, and many other functions.  You will find that there are lots of fellow Deviants out there who want the best for you and want to see you excel as an artist and as

27 YouTube Channels to Help Improve Your Writing Anybody Can Write a Novel 2.0   Chapter 11 “Resources” – Section 1 “Youtube Channels” One of the things that inspired me to begin writing these writing tutorials was that, about a year and a half ago, I came to a frustrating point in my writing where I knew enough about the craft to no longer be a novice but not enough to make my novel publishable. In particular, I wanted to find a Youtube channel that I could listen to while I was cooking or working, so that my skills as a writer could increase. Since then I have found (through research, friends, and even 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

Basics Name (& pronunciation): Date of Birth (& age): Place of Birth: Gender:   Species/Racial Origin: Social Class/Community Status: Language: Family/Friends/Pets/Etc: Physical Description Height: Weight: Hair: Eyes: Limb Dexterity: Detailed Physical Description: Typical Clothing/Equipment: Personality/Attributes Personality/Attitude: Skills/Talents: Favourites/Likes: Most Hated/Dislikes: Goals/Ambitions: Strengths: Weaknesses: Fears: Hobbies/Interests: Regular Routine: Philosophy of Life: Attitude Toward Death:   Religion/Beliefs: Fetishes/Strange Behaviors: Most Instructive/Painful/Mem

Are you starting a story? Do you have an incomplete, flawed, or no character at all? It's happened to me many times and in my struggles to perfect my creations, I have learned a few things. I present you with seven easy steps with a challenge each to get you thinking. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil. Let's start… Step 1: Past When creating a character, you must first establish a past. Even a person with amnesia has a past, they just don't remember it. Pasts are important, they show what shaped the person and why they are the way they are today. If your character has a scar, why? If they have amnesia, why? If they have a phobia of

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

I can tell you this with near-certainty: Everything you think you know about autism and empathy is a lie. "Lacking empathy" oversimplifies and distorts the truth. Autistic people have a much more complicated relationship with empathy than a simple two-word phrase can describe. Some of us claim that we have too much empathy. Others say that no, we truly are deficient in empathy. Who is right? Both sides! Let's look at empathy deficiency first. It doesn't mean what you think it means. When Audrey integrates a conversation function with respect to pizza, you know things just got complicated. When empathy is hard Empathy is hard for me. So

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