: Re: How to make a childish character that isn't annoying to the reader? I couldn't decide what type of dragon I wanted to write, so I decided to do a Rise of Skywalker and now my dragon is

@Reiling826

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Just a suggestion, but maybe consider splitting the dragon's personality up into an id/ego/superego system?

He can have a childish id that lacks impulse control and throws tantrums and all that. He can have a general ego - a mode where does other things like expand his territory or whatever regular business he has, and he can have a superego mode that's all old and wise with all the cool ancient dragon powers that inspire shock and awe... Just to balance it all out.

You could set up triggers so the readers learn his patterns and what sets him off, so they end up having some suspense...

Also, dragons don't need to be sympathetic. If the reader feels like they're in the dragon's head and they understand how his motives work and how he's wired, then they have empathy and with empathy comes genuine interest.

I think the main question is how human you want your dragon to be? What are his needs? What are his priorities. In a sense, it wouldn't be fair to a dragon to impose a system of human morality on him. All writers are human and all readers are human, so we end up writing very human characters even when we're writing aliens and killer sharks, but he doesn't have to be human.

Children grow out of childishness to function in an adult society. Children don't play with fire because they feel and fear physical pain. What are your dragon's drives/fears/needs? Does he have to blend in with other dragons? Does he need the village for food? Does burning a village help him in any way?

Are you basing his need for collecting things on Hoarding Disorder? There's poor impulse control and then there's compulsion. Does he feel a need to burn and hoard?

I think it'll come to you the more you think about the story itself. Once you have a handle on the world and all the characters, the dragon might more or less shape himself. Eg, if you have a world full of high-tech, magical dragon hunters, you're writing a very different dragon compared to one that exists in a world that's all sunshine and butterflies and bread-baking farmboys who don't believe dragons are real.

People can make suggestions but you alone will know how developed you need this character to be. If you only need him for a flyover or to show up to help the heroes by burning baddies to death, he can be a juvenile as Smaug.

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