: Re: Getting Inside Someone Else's Head A common problem for novice fiction writers, and one that I feel that I myself haven't quite graduated from, is always writing characters who are like the

@Lengel543

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If you understand enough about psychology and are rational enough, this sort of thing can be approached from an analytical perspective. On a fundamental level, everything that a person or character does is done for a particular reason. They key to getting into the mind of a character who is unlike yourself is to understand those reasons. Keep in mind that the reasons themselves are not always rational.

For instance, a certain character might suddenly burn down an apartment building. They did this because they have schizophrenia and voices in their head told them to do so. They have a reason for burning down a building, albeit one that does not apply to others. This is also a very blatant example; well constructed characters will typically be a lot more subtle.

One of the best ways to come up with a character who develops different reasons to do things than your own is to develop a different rationalization system. Everybody has certain needs, and many of them are the same (think money, food, shelter). However, different people use different rationalizations that let them determine the actions they will take to obtain these things. If you have low moral standards, than theft may be your primary course of action to fulfill your need for food. Or, alternatively, if you are in a dire situation, other, more extreme actions may then become more "rational".

In essence, you can design a character as a type of system. They have needs and desires, which are then processed by a series of rationalizations which then lead actions that they take in order to obtain what they need or want. Sometimes just making a character ignorant to certain actions can create vastly different scenarios because they are not able to take the same actions as a character who "knows better".

Some people will probably argue that this method is too sterile or boring and subsequently shouldn't be applied to realistic characters, but psychology is a regimented science and can absolutely be broken down systematically in a manner just like this. All of the flavor and substance that makes a character interesting needs to be added in after you've developed a proper understanding of their psychology.

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