Hi, I’m Elza Kinde! I write MG, usually fantasy but sometimes not. My favorite things to read are usually fast-paced, a little creepy, and funny.
Amy
1 year ago
Hi Jacob! I write mostly YA fantasy, but am working on some YA contemporary as well. Some of my favorite characters from recent reads include Lazlo from STRANGE THE DREAMER and Rachelle from CRIMSON BOUND (published like five years ago but a recent read for me).
Hi! My name is Azelyn, and I like to write YA fantasy and sci-fi. A few vivid characters off the top of my head are Kell and Vin from Sandersons’ Mistborn series and the Pevensie children from Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
How do you avoid relying on the same personality types, or should you even worry about that?
Jen Malia
1 year ago
I write PB and MG. My lead characters are autistic girls.
janewrites
1 year ago
Two characters I’m loving–Temeraire, in Naomi Novik’s series, and Ronan in Maggie Steifvater’s Raven Cycle and Dreamer series.
Tamara
1 year ago
Hi, I’m Tamara. I agree, in general, I don’t really care what a character looks like unless it affects them as a person in some way. I judge a character by the content of their character rather than their outer appearance.
How can backstory drive a character and make them interesting? (Instead of info dumps!)
Jenni Enzor
1 year ago
Hi, I’m Jenni. I write mostly MG, but sometimes YA. The characters in the INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN FROM ASHTON PLACE (Maryrose Wood) are some of my favorite recent reads.
I have a character who’s highly driven by the love/belonging sliver on the hierarchy–despite the fact that she’s very smart, her parents reject everything she does. When they go missing (in another world, because sci fi!) she tries to find them. She’s much more driven by wanting to impress them and earn their love than by the need to find them because well, they’re her parents. If that makes sense? 🙂
SheilaS
1 year ago
My character is a daughter who has gained the respect and confidence of her father in being left in charge of a very important task that he normally would be in charge of.
MBTabner
1 year ago
I am Marianne-PB writer. Some of my characters have been universal characters with a universal theme.
I am working on a story right now where the character is red in color (a marker) and a bit of a rebel. Is passionate about being a firefighter.
R’s primary emotion from the wheel would probably be vigilance. He would be alert, always pay attention to what people are doing around him, and would have a difficult time lying.
It was a perfect amount of time–and it gave me some new insights into my character!
RachaelB12
1 year ago
I was thinking of an artist driven by the belonging and feels the need to gain success, but is suffering from insomnia and that is preventing them from growing. They would act short-tempered, maybe form incomplete sentences, and is a perfectionist, and lack of sleep would make them forgetful and cause a creative block.
janewrites
1 year ago
My character is moving between two levels on the hierarchy, the safety and love levels. She has arrived in a location because she will supposedly be safe there, and there she makes friends and hopes for love and community. Do YA and MG characters ever hang out at the top of Lazlo’s pyramid, I wonder?
Loretta
1 year ago
I have written three YA books.
In one, my character with dyspraxia is driven by empathy.
In another, a character with PTSD and survivor’s guilt is driven by the need to feel safe and struggles with her guilt.
In my newest, a character who hears the dead and helps her investigator dad solve crimes is driven by a sense of justice and the need to find out what happened to her mom who has disappeared.
If they met Godzilla, the first would offer him food and water, the second would hide and feel bad about it, and the third would capture him.
Diane ONeill
1 year ago
I read of a study that challenged Maslow, saying that people can weave back and forth between stages. For example, someone who needs essentials like food and housing, may also find a need for art to give life meaning… Just a thought!
I believe “F” is chaotic neutral. Her wants and goals dictate what she does rather than going by a moral compass. How she goes about achieving those goals can be… creative at times.
MBTabner
1 year ago
My character has the need for a higher purpose to help people and will not necessarily follow all the rules to accomplish this.
SheilaS
1 year ago
The daughter acts impulsively and disobeys an important rule her father warned her about.
She then must do whatever it takes to fix the problem before he returns.
Chaotic-Good
Hope this is right prompt. I was answering the door for a UPS guy and missed the directions!!! 😀
RachaelB12
1 year ago
My character Mali is a pirate captain, and she is chaotic neutral, while my second MC Raiden is lawful good. It’s fun to see how Mali can teach Raiden to be more confident and bold, while Raiden can show her how to be empathetic.
Question for you: how can an author make a pure neutral character interesting? I could see it being a funny character, but how do you add depth when they’re not moved towards either end of the spectrums?
OK this is actually really an interesting challenge! I’ve got my character who follows her parents into the other world. At the beginning she doesn’t really care much about what the consequences would be–does that make her some kind of neutral? But by the end she realizes she hasn’t been thinking about others and she changes her ways… so this is related to her main flaw. Can the character’s status on the chart change like that?
Her love interest is definitely lawful good! heh
kalice
1 year ago
I have a WIP character who is neutral on both counts. Maybe that makes her boring? Isn’t a character more interesting if she has stronger leanings to one side or the other?
Jenni Enzor
1 year ago
My main character in my WIP is neutral good. She’s willing to sacrifice herself and she’s willing to bend the rules to protect animals and people she cares about.
My antagonist is chaotic neutral, although she changes toward caring a little more about others towards the end of the story.
Diane ONeill
1 year ago
This exercise made me realize that I have to figure out the motivations of the ghost in the story–and whether she is good or not! Thanks!
My villain is a True Neutral. He’s motivated by wanting power, is savvy in navigating politics, and comfortable breaking the rules to benefit himself. He doesn’t seek to harm anyone, but believes that whatever benefits him will benefit the world. So he hurts people in his plots, because he thinks it’s for the greater good.
This session was incredibly helpful! I like the hierarchy of needs but hadn’t thought about the lawful vs. chaotic categories for my characters before. During the exercises, I found a great way to help develop my main character further. Thank you.
I think it comes down to that metaphor of a bunch of different trees, united by a common root system.
Less metaphorically, a single action might not be enough to convey your character’s deeper motivations. But if you know what drives them, and all their actions and thoughts and dialogue spring out of those drives, then the reader will put 2 and 2 together and form a picture of who the character is.
Thank you so much! This has been very helpful and inspirational!!!
SheilaS
1 year ago
Thank u :)))
Loretta
1 year ago
These exercised helped me realize that a character in my WIP who I thought would be minor, should have a more major role because his personality would make such great conflict with hers. She is lawful good and he is chaotic neutral. Thank you!
Promoting a minor character so they can spark off a major one is a great idea!
vchen
1 year ago
Thank you, Jacob!
Loretta
1 year ago
*exercises
jacobsw
1 year ago
Everybody–
Thanks for all the great participation, the excellent questions, and the very kind feedback! If you have any further questions that I didn’t answer in my talk, I will keep an eye on the thread in the forums: https://writeonconforums.org/thread/3134/jacob-sager-weinstein
ahope
1 year ago
I love all of the resources you brought in this workshop to help writers understand how to create character personalities! I was familiar with all the charts, but I haven’t applied them to writing! Very helpful workshop! I’m having fun brainstorming my own alignment charts now, haha
Kathie – CB, MG
I write picture books, magazine stories, and MG. The Weasley’s in the Harry Potter series are super vivid!
Hi, I’m Elza Kinde! I write MG, usually fantasy but sometimes not. My favorite things to read are usually fast-paced, a little creepy, and funny.
Hi Jacob! I write mostly YA fantasy, but am working on some YA contemporary as well. Some of my favorite characters from recent reads include Lazlo from STRANGE THE DREAMER and Rachelle from CRIMSON BOUND (published like five years ago but a recent read for me).
Kris- MG sci-fi fantasy
Jeanette MG
Hi Jacob,
I’m Lille, I write YA
Hi–this is Jane, and I write middle grade and YA.
Hi! I’m Viv. I write PB, MG, working on YA now.
I’m Kate, writing YA and adult 🙂
Hey
Sheila here! Picture Book writer and NF PB!!
Hi! My name is Azelyn, and I like to write YA fantasy and sci-fi. A few vivid characters off the top of my head are Kell and Vin from Sandersons’ Mistborn series and the Pevensie children from Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
How do you avoid relying on the same personality types, or should you even worry about that?
I write PB and MG. My lead characters are autistic girls.
Two characters I’m loving–Temeraire, in Naomi Novik’s series, and Ronan in Maggie Steifvater’s Raven Cycle and Dreamer series.
Hi, I’m Tamara. I agree, in general, I don’t really care what a character looks like unless it affects them as a person in some way. I judge a character by the content of their character rather than their outer appearance.
How can backstory drive a character and make them interesting? (Instead of info dumps!)
Hi, I’m Jenni. I write mostly MG, but sometimes YA. The characters in the INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN FROM ASHTON PLACE (Maryrose Wood) are some of my favorite recent reads.
I have a character who’s highly driven by the love/belonging sliver on the hierarchy–despite the fact that she’s very smart, her parents reject everything she does. When they go missing (in another world, because sci fi!) she tries to find them. She’s much more driven by wanting to impress them and earn their love than by the need to find them because well, they’re her parents. If that makes sense? 🙂
My character is a daughter who has gained the respect and confidence of her father in being left in charge of a very important task that he normally would be in charge of.
I am Marianne-PB writer. Some of my characters have been universal characters with a universal theme.
I am working on a story right now where the character is red in color (a marker) and a bit of a rebel. Is passionate about being a firefighter.
R’s primary emotion from the wheel would probably be vigilance. He would be alert, always pay attention to what people are doing around him, and would have a difficult time lying.
Five minutes was a good amount of time for me
It was a perfect amount of time–and it gave me some new insights into my character!
I was thinking of an artist driven by the belonging and feels the need to gain success, but is suffering from insomnia and that is preventing them from growing. They would act short-tempered, maybe form incomplete sentences, and is a perfectionist, and lack of sleep would make them forgetful and cause a creative block.
My character is moving between two levels on the hierarchy, the safety and love levels. She has arrived in a location because she will supposedly be safe there, and there she makes friends and hopes for love and community. Do YA and MG characters ever hang out at the top of Lazlo’s pyramid, I wonder?
I have written three YA books.
In one, my character with dyspraxia is driven by empathy.
In another, a character with PTSD and survivor’s guilt is driven by the need to feel safe and struggles with her guilt.
In my newest, a character who hears the dead and helps her investigator dad solve crimes is driven by a sense of justice and the need to find out what happened to her mom who has disappeared.
If they met Godzilla, the first would offer him food and water, the second would hide and feel bad about it, and the third would capture him.
I read of a study that challenged Maslow, saying that people can weave back and forth between stages. For example, someone who needs essentials like food and housing, may also find a need for art to give life meaning… Just a thought!
D&D reference for the win!
I believe “F” is chaotic neutral. Her wants and goals dictate what she does rather than going by a moral compass. How she goes about achieving those goals can be… creative at times.
My character has the need for a higher purpose to help people and will not necessarily follow all the rules to accomplish this.
The daughter acts impulsively and disobeys an important rule her father warned her about.
She then must do whatever it takes to fix the problem before he returns.
Chaotic-Good
Hope this is right prompt. I was answering the door for a UPS guy and missed the directions!!! 😀
My character Mali is a pirate captain, and she is chaotic neutral, while my second MC Raiden is lawful good. It’s fun to see how Mali can teach Raiden to be more confident and bold, while Raiden can show her how to be empathetic.
Question for you: how can an author make a pure neutral character interesting? I could see it being a funny character, but how do you add depth when they’re not moved towards either end of the spectrums?
Thanks : )
OK this is actually really an interesting challenge! I’ve got my character who follows her parents into the other world. At the beginning she doesn’t really care much about what the consequences would be–does that make her some kind of neutral? But by the end she realizes she hasn’t been thinking about others and she changes her ways… so this is related to her main flaw. Can the character’s status on the chart change like that?
Her love interest is definitely lawful good! heh
I have a WIP character who is neutral on both counts. Maybe that makes her boring? Isn’t a character more interesting if she has stronger leanings to one side or the other?
My main character in my WIP is neutral good. She’s willing to sacrifice herself and she’s willing to bend the rules to protect animals and people she cares about.
My antagonist is chaotic neutral, although she changes toward caring a little more about others towards the end of the story.
This exercise made me realize that I have to figure out the motivations of the ghost in the story–and whether she is good or not! Thanks!
My villain is a True Neutral. He’s motivated by wanting power, is savvy in navigating politics, and comfortable breaking the rules to benefit himself. He doesn’t seek to harm anyone, but believes that whatever benefits him will benefit the world. So he hurts people in his plots, because he thinks it’s for the greater good.
Good point — my villain is definitely not self-aware, haha. Maybe he’s Neutral Evil, but thinks he’s Neutral Good. 🙂
This session was incredibly helpful! I like the hierarchy of needs but hadn’t thought about the lawful vs. chaotic categories for my characters before. During the exercises, I found a great way to help develop my main character further. Thank you.
How would you recommend showing a character’s deeper motivations in action, rather than just telling the reader “she’s lawful good and angry”?
I think it comes down to that metaphor of a bunch of different trees, united by a common root system.
Less metaphorically, a single action might not be enough to convey your character’s deeper motivations. But if you know what drives them, and all their actions and thoughts and dialogue spring out of those drives, then the reader will put 2 and 2 together and form a picture of who the character is.
Great workshop! Thanks, Jacob
Thank you!
Thank you so much! This has been very helpful and inspirational!!!
Thank u :)))
These exercised helped me realize that a character in my WIP who I thought would be minor, should have a more major role because his personality would make such great conflict with hers. She is lawful good and he is chaotic neutral. Thank you!
Promoting a minor character so they can spark off a major one is a great idea!
Thank you, Jacob!
*exercises
Everybody–
Thanks for all the great participation, the excellent questions, and the very kind feedback! If you have any further questions that I didn’t answer in my talk, I will keep an eye on the thread in the forums:
https://writeonconforums.org/thread/3134/jacob-sager-weinstein
I love all of the resources you brought in this workshop to help writers understand how to create character personalities! I was familiar with all the charts, but I haven’t applied them to writing! Very helpful workshop! I’m having fun brainstorming my own alignment charts now, haha