: Re: What should I do if I can't properly formulate the personality of one of my characters in my novel? In my novel, my protagonist joins a team with four other characters to go on a quest.

When I have trouble finding a character's voice or personality, I tend to go through a process of interviewing characters ... literally. I write a scene where they come in and discuss who they are, and why they're the right character for the story. If they're not convincing, I'll do it again, with a slightly different character, until they seem right.

The results are sometimes a little odd. Many characters don't like being pulled out of their ordinary lives and treated that way. It's not like they want to be in a book anyway, really... but that's fine. They don't have to actually cooperate with the interviewer. They just need to show who they are.

Other things to consider are that for this kind of story, where you're building a team, every character has to fit in with the team in a useful way. That's not just to say that each character provides talents that the team will need to finish their task: they also all need to provide conflicts that will make the process interesting, flaws that differentiate them from the rest of the team (and which can be countered by the others, so that the team doesn't actually fall apart because of them), and probably even it would be helpful if their personalities complement other team members. If one team member is quiet, it's useful if one is a little too loud. If there's a team member who doesn't quite understand why he's there, then having one who is particularly clued in could be a good idea too. And so on. So perhaps the reason you're having trouble with this character is that she doesn't complement the rest of the team in a way that's useful. Try to see which of the other characters could be her opposite in some way. Or make her opposite to all of the others, just in different ways.

And never forget to make sure everyone has plenty of conflict. :)

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: Questions related to writing in any role-playing context, over any media (by chat, forum or email), or for discussion of roleplaying games (RPG) of various sorts.

: Re: What should I do if I can't properly formulate the personality of one of my characters in my novel? In my novel, my protagonist joins a team with four other characters to go on a quest.

More posts by @Shanna875

: If your audience is modifying code whatsoever, they should be using version control. Either you assume they already know how, or you first walk them through the basics before getting into tasks

: On what basis can existing writings be analyzed? On what basis can I analyze the piece of writing? Like, what are the things that tells me writers state of mind, or certain effects that a

: Make the stakes more personal for your protagonist(s). The stakes can be smaller than those involved the previous episodes without feeling anticlimactic if your characters would feel their loss

: Questions related to writing in any role-playing context, over any media (by chat, forum or email), or for discussion of roleplaying games (RPG) of various sorts.

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