Hii!! I Just Want To Ask If You Have Any Tips Or Resources In Writing Character Relationships?? Like

Hii!! I just want to ask if you have any tips or resources in writing character relationships?? Like I want to build a relationship between two characters in a relatively short time but i dont want it to feel rushed,,,,thank you so much!! Your blog has helped me alot!!

I have quite a few resources and advice on the topic of building romantic relationships in a story, so I’ve linked some relevant resources below that you might find useful:

How To Fit Character Development Into Your Story

Creating A Love Interest For An Introvert

 Writing Opposites Who Attract

Resources For Plot Development

Guide To Plot Development

Describing Heartbreak

 Developing Complicated Plots Around Characters

Writing Great Fanfiction

How To Write The Perfect Kiss

On Romantic Subplots

Resources For Romance Writers

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

Guide To Writing Friends To Lovers

Guide To Writing Enemies To Lovers

Guide To Writing Faded Love

Resources For Writing YA Fiction/Romance

Guide To Writing Will-They-Won’t-They

Rivalry vs. Abuse

Guide To Writing Forbidden Love

20 Mistakes To Avoid in YA/Romance

Balancing Fluff and Conflict

 Best Friends To Lovers Resources

How to develop an Emeies-To-Lovers story

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how to keep people in character: a guide

I have gotten some requests for advice on how to write specific characters, but the underlying principles to keeping characterizations canon-compliant can apply to writing anyone in any series. Better yet, this advice may help you come up with character interpretations that feel both canonical yet original (and distinct from mine!).

You can reduce characterization to three basic principles:

1) Habits and speech patterns

Habits and speech patterns serve as “shortcuts” that immediately connect the character to the canon. The audience recognizes these cues and will associate them to the actual character.

Speech patterns are particularly important to keeping a character recognizable. As soon as the speech pattern of a person deviates from canon with no explanation, the suspension of disbelief will break for an audience. A common issue I see in shipping fics is that people will make a character give the love interest a pet name that just would never leave their mouth in canon-compliant situations.

Habits can be verbal tics (e.g. they say “babe” a lot), bodily motions (e.g. touching their hair or pushing up their glasses), behavioural trends (e.g. eating a lot), or even phrases that come up often. The latter I find is underused but very effective. Here’s the thing about people in real life: they will repeat phrases and stories, sometimes even verbatim, to different people! If you lift a line out of the show or book and re-contextualize it, it’ll immediately feel like the canon.

Habits come with two caveats:

Do not overuse the tics. It can be annoying and intrusive, especially when used more frequently than in canon! 

Do not rely too much on these habits for characterization. Your character may come off as a shallow imitation of canon without “substance” if so. 

The next two tips will help give your characterization substance and originality.

2) Drivers in decision-making and thought patterns

People in real life often have patterns in the decisions they make or the thoughts they have because of some kind of underlying motivation, whether or not they are cognizant of it. The same will apply to well-written characters in fiction. Try to think about any significant decisions the character makes in canon and why they might exist. (Hot tip: If these motivations are not explicitly stated in the canon material, this is where you can come up with some extremely juicy headcanons!)

Understanding the fundamental drivers behind the character’s actions will allow you to extrapolate and write what they’d do in the situations in your fanfic. These non-canon situations can include relationships! It’s a common issue for romantic relationships in fanfic to feel OOC because the characters act inconsistently with their canon decision-making and thought patterns solely for their love interest.

Examples of common drivers in fiction:

Abstract values such as freedom, revenge, survival, self-preservation. (If you’re writing anything political, try to figure out how they value conservatism vs liberalism, anarchy vs authoritarianism, etc).

Baggage and trauma relating to familial issues or past relationships, which can often result in maladaptive trends in behaviour or hard-lined moral codes and ideals.

Significant relationships that affect their needs, goals, etc. Pay attention to platonic, familial, or romantic bonds that are strongly featured in the canon.

All these examples are interrelated. Often our abstract values will arise from baggage, which then influence relationships, which in turn influence our values. Try to think about how each of these types of drivers may relate to one another for your characters.

Stories tend to have the most layered characterizations when the author has identified two drivers that are in conflict with one another, or one that leads to opposing behaviours. This can also be the starting point for character growth, whether it’s a hero’s journey or descent into a villain role.

3) Cultural context

Cultural context is a subcategory of drivers that I often find is overlooked. 

The culture in which someone was raised will often influence their decision-making habits, whether they conform to it or outright reject it. Recognizing the cultural context for a character can be very useful for figuring out cool little headcanons or extrapolating behaviour/opinions in the absence of canon material.

Some examples of how culture contributes to behaviour:

The kind of art and hobbies they enjoy, or at least are on their radar. 

Knowledge they would have about certain topics—even mundane things like musical instruments, certain skill sets, etc.

Their judgments on themselves and other characters, as well as the values they’d project onto their relationships.

The actions they would take when trying to conform to social norms of the time period—or even the set of actions that might occur to them!

It’s a pet peeve of mine when characters behave in a way that ignores their cultural context, simply because it won’t feel realistic! Since I’ve been relating this to shipping, I will make this point: what time period and country (or coded culture) is this character in? What are courtship norms like? And, if we’re going to go the nsfw route, what “interests” (haha) would exist?

Here are some quick examples of this analysis applied to two different characters: Hakuryuu Ren (Magi), Daryl Dixon (TWD). These are characters I’ve gotten requests for—let me know if anyone is interested in others!

Keep reading

Microsoft really out here trying to stifle my creativity

Sometimes you don’t make art that changes the world. 

Sometimes you make art that just makes someone’s shitty day a little bit easier to bear. 

And that? 

That’s damn good too.

Do you have any tips for switching point of view? Like my story i want written with 1st person following the main character around but at somepoint i wanna do 3rd person showing what another character is up to during a specific time period. Is there a way to smoothly transition? Or should i avoid doing that

First-Person POV for Protagonist/Third-Person for Another Character

When you’re talking about switching from one character’s POV to another, and switching from say first-person to third-person, you should do it after either a line break, scene break, or chapter break. This break lets the reader (and the editor) know that this POV change was intentional. You’ll also want to use a phrase that transitions into the next POV character to keep things extra smooth.  Imagine the following is an excerpt from a chapter of a novel...

POV/POV Character Transition with No Break

As I wandered down the park’s deserted path, leaves falling all around me, I couldn’t help but wonder what Pete was up to in L.A. at that very moment.

Pete slammed on the breaks, narrowly avoiding a fender bender with the car in front of him. “Learn how to drive, moron!”

Note: See how jarring and confusing that change is without a break? One minute you’re in the first-person POV of the protagonist, walking through an autumnal park, and suddenly Pete is slamming on the breaks... what?! Also, notice how the first section transitions into the second by mentioning Pete... sort of a hand off from one POV character to the next.

POV/POV Character Transition with Line Break

As I wandered down the park’s deserted path, leaves falling all around me, I couldn’t help but wonder what Pete was up to in L.A. at that very moment.

Pete slammed on the breaks, narrowly avoiding a fender bender with the car in front of him. “Learn how to drive, moron!”

Note: That extra line obviously looks more significant in a page of text rather than between just two example lines. But even here, it does just enough to separate the two. 

POV/POV Character Transition with Scene Break

Note: This is even more clear with the scene break. We have left one location and gone to another. We’ve left one character and gone to another. A whole new scene feels natural, and as long as we’re done with the protagonist’s scene and are moving into Pete’s scene, this works best.

POV/POV Character Transition with Chapter Break

As I wandered down the park’s deserted path, leaves falling all around me, I couldn’t help but wonder what Pete was up to in L.A. at that very moment.

Chapter Seven Pete

Pete slammed on the breaks, narrowly avoiding a fender bender with the car in front of him. “Learn how to drive, moron!”

Note: This is my favorite method, with or without the name label (it’s not necessary if you have another way of establishing the POV,) because it’s very clear you’re in a new POV and whose it is. The change from first to third is much less jarring this way. And, again, it works great if you’re done with the previous character’s scene and ready for this character to have a scene or a few.

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