Complementary Character Traits

Anonymous said:

Hey Nony! Before I start, thanks so much for your patience with me. I was out for about a week longer than I initially said and I really appreciate it.

So these are definitely a bit of a challenge to come up with someimtes; it’s hard to figure out which ones would go well together without creating too much conflict between your characters. 

The dictionary defines complementary as “combining in such a way as to enhance or emphasize the qualities of each other or another”, so that’s how I’m interpreting this. The qualities on the left side of the list were taken from The Positive Trait Thesarus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (but that doesn’t mean that those on the right are definitively positive or negative).

You’ll find some tips for incorporating these qualities into your characters beneath the cut. But without further ado! Behold, the big ol’ list of complementary character traits:

Choosing Traits

So, that’s a pretty long list of traits to choose from. As you’ve probably guessed, though, there are any more to choose from; what’s above is just a fraction of all the possibilities. But if there are so many, how do we know which ones to choose?

If you’re just starting off, choose two or three pairs to work with. Create your characters and develop these traits, building off the ways that would separate them. Then, find some traits that they would have in common, traits that would actually give them a reason to stay together. Maybe Character A is more perceptive while Character B is a bit more on the ignorant side, but they’re both extremely creative and loyal. In this case the reasons for these characters to stay together outweighs their differences, so that would be a good goal to start with.

A general guideline that’s worked well in the past for me has been to choose differences that you know can be balanced out by shared traits. I don’t want the characters in my pairing to have six complementary traits and only two shared ones; that could create a lot of conflict and would make the relationship more work than necessary. You want them to complement each other, but don’t overdo it.

Creating “Complementary Characters”

Well, my first response is this: You shouldn’t create a character based off of the traits of another. If you do this, there’s an extremely high chance that your readers will be able to tell. Another thing you’ll probably want to avoid is adding these traits into a character you’ve already created. If that character has already been rounded off, throwing more traits into the mix might mess with the balance.

Instead, I would advise choosing your traits and developing a character around them. If we’re using the character example from above, I know that I want A to be perceptive, creative, and loyal. These aren’t the only three traits they might have, but those are the three I want to start with. The same goes for B; they’re a little ignorant, really creative, and loyal, but those aren’t their only three traits. I find it easiest to start with things like these and develop the characters more from there, letting things evolve naturally to create the characters I want.

Something to Remember: These traits don’t all follow the same path, based on the character’s entire personality. Keep this in mind; chance are it’ll help you vary your characters’ personalities during development to really make them stand out.

Something to Remember 2.0: The above list and tips don’t apply only to romantic relationships! Complementary traits will play a huge role in (probably) every single one of your character’s releationships!

Working on pacing is literally the worst thing.

It’s so hard to find the will to fix something that has all the right content and all the right words, but somehow still reads wrong. 

For anyone else who might struggle with pacing in some parts of their story, the solution that’s worked for me without fail is:

Usually, one round of this does it for me, but if you give it another as-if-it’s-written-by-your-favorite-author read-through and it still falls flat, rinse and repeat!

Alternate technique if the above doesn’t work for you is to paste the section into a text reader. The emotionless reading of my work has really helped me weed out weird wording and needless sentences, as well as point out places where conjunctions are required.

Most importantly, it responds to punctuation better than the average person reading it out loud would. If a sentence is missing/misusing punctuation, I now know to fix it. Punctuation has a huge influence on pacing.

girls learn to watch themselves in third person so they can constantly fix their laugh and smile and hair and dancing and speech in hopes they can transform into a different person that someone will love and girls fear that if anyone sees them in their most candid self then they will be deemed unlovable and I’m so exhausted from practicing my smile in the mirror but girls also know that the ability to be loved is synonymous with their worth

It’s always a little unsettling when you catch yourself doing it in a moment—realize you’re seeing yourself from a position detached from yourself, observing yourself to see if you’re performing correctly. And then you realize what you’re doing and there’s almost a sense of vertigo

Pssst. Two things that really helped me (and still help me!) write good dialogue are the following exercises:

1. Go someplace public and listen to a conversation. Is it weird and creepy. Yes. For about 3 minutes just listen and try to type what they're saying as they say it. I have very good typing and this is still very challenging. It's not important that you get the specifics right, what you're actually doing is hearing the rhythm of how people actually talk - how they interrupt or show that they're listening or how they follow the thread of the conversation.

2. Find a YouTube video or other clear audio of someone talking in an unscripted way. (While it might be fun to do this on a podcast, choose a podcast where people are speaking unscripted or untrained for maximum effect, as podcast people are not "the average person", unless u want to learn how podcast people speak). Now listen and transcribe it. This is an accuracy test and also helpful for any people who need the transcript. Make sure you keep or notate any nonverbal halts or noises, any false starts, etc. Get it as accurate as you can.

Now, I'm ADHD. I have auditory processing problems. Both of these helped me anyway because what they're doing is building a bridge between "I know how people talk" and "I know how to write how people talk." In the first assignment, every time I do it, I realize how often people hop from topic to topic, how often they interrupt each other, how often people fall silent. The second helps recognize - we have no idea how often we or others trip on words, because our brain edits that stuff out in post. People in the real life don't have endless funny quips, they mishear stuff, they shift topics, they repeat themselves, they take pauses. Having to type it forces us to actually pay attention to the specifics so our brains don't edit out all the stuff that makes dialogue sound natural. It was also, as someone who is shy, helpful to realize I'm not the only person who says "what?" Only to process what they said 2 seconds later.

Okay good luck love u bye

people who write gorgeous metaphors and make comparisons

and i’m like

“he walked forward and got there.”

if you keep walking forward, you’ll get there too.

How to Plot a Complex Novel in One Day

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin?

Disclaimer for this post.

It’s Thursday again, and today I pose more a challenge then a question: Share with me one line (or small collection of lines; we’re not rigid rule followers here) that just made you go, “Oh hell yeah, I am a writer.” It can be from nano, it can be from your current WIP, it can be from a project you worked on 12 years ago. Go ahead an paste that little nugget with as much or as little context as you choose! 

If you want to participate, all you gotta do is send an ask, a reblog, or a comment with your line. 

I tag everything with ‘writeblr conversations’ in case people don’t want to see me reblog the same post over and over again, or in case you want to check out other people’s answers, which are always awesome! I also have a tag list for those of you who want to join in ever week! Let me know if you’d like to join/be removed:  @elybydarkness​​​​@tjswritingstuff​​​​ @gettingitwrite​​​​@gooseandcaboose​​​​ @julesruleswrites​​​​ @dawnhorizons​​​​​ @kd-holloman​​​​​  @reininginthefirewriting​​​​​ @writingonesdreams​​​​​ @brb-writing​​​​​ @celstefani​​​​​  @kirstenmcwriter​​​​​ @no-negativity-writes​​ @bardicfool​​​​​ @nemowritesstuff​​​​​ @wortfinder​ @katekyo-bitch-reborn​ @weareallfallengods​

This was my first line for Nano:

“The girl was dead, but only the forest would be completely certain of it.  The search party that rummaged through the brush below would never know for sure. ”

writing is either

or

there is nothing in between.

Always reblog

@paradeofimaginations

Someone: I’d love to read some of your writing some time

Me, who never gets anything finished:

None of your old writing was a waste of time

You had to write what you did, when you did, so you could write what you’re writing now.

We only get better with experience.

So don’t worry if what you’re working on now doesn’t quite feel up to par. Think of it as paving the way for bigger and better things to come.

Oh, well that’s ok then

A friend of mine sent this to me and… Yeah, it’s something we all need to keep in mind

It's time for you to start taking the necessary steps to become that version of yourself that you can't stop dreaming about.