Hey everyone! Just thought I’d share some tips for writing and directing :))
Character Development:
Before you even begin to write, you should have your main characters completely developed and outlined. This will help you out so much in the future and it’s very exciting to create your own unique character with their own unique traits.
First, here’s some tips for developing characters:
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Give them a name with meaning
Where did the name originate? Which parent gave them their name? Why did they choose this name? Does the character like their name? Is the name unique or is it more common? -
Specify the character type
Is this character a protagonist or an antagonist? Does this character give off good or bad vibes? Is this character a villain or superhero? -
Outline their personality
What are some traits and adjectives to describe this character? Is this character serious or laidback? Is this character easy or difficult to get along with? How does this character behave? Describe, describe, describe. Remember that this is your character. Give them traits that stand out to you. If you want them to have a common personality, that’s fine. If you want them to be more unique and special, that’s fine too. -
Start with some basics
How old is this character? What is this characters ethnic background, height, shoe size, favorite food, style, sexual orientation, pronouns, zodiac sign, religion, political lean, etc. Include any basic information about your character during this period of outlining. -
Write their background
Family members, relationships with family members, pets, home life, traumatic experiences, childhood friends, favorite childhood memory, hometown, etc. -
Give them flaws
Nobody is perfect, neither is your character. Search the web for some unique flaws that you may want to give them, or even use some flaws that you have personally! -
Empty their pockets
What does this character keep in their pockets? You can tell a lot about a person just by knowing what they carry around with them. Does this character carry medicine? Chapstick? Spare clothes? Headphones? Personal aid? Hygienic aid? Empty those pockets, dude!! -
Give them small details or quirks
Some examples would be:
This character bites their nails.
This character cracks their joints.
This character is afraid of the dark.
This character sleeps without socks on.
This character bites their lip when they are nervous. -
Physical Traits
Describe your character’s body type, hair color, eye color, face shape, jawline, distinguishing marks, hand size, hair type, brow type, muscular build, etc. -
Psychology
Fears
Secrets
IQ
Eating habits
Music preferences
Addictions
Pet peeves
Stressors
Ambitions
Antisocial or social butterfly?
Sexual preferences
Questions to ask your character:
Where were you born?
What do you do for a living?
What was your life like as a child?
Did your childhood cause any permanent changes in your attitude towards life?
How would you describe yourself?
How would others describe you?
What are you most afraid of?
What is your philosophical take on life?
Do you care for morality? Why or why not?
What do you value most in life?
How do you feel about yourself? Are you satisfied with yourself as a person? Why or why not?
What would break you completely?
What does your family think of you?
Are you a good person? Why or why not?
Are you proud of yourself? Why or why not?
Do you believe in love? Why or why not?
Do you consider yourself stable?
What does wealth mean to you?
How do you feel about sex?
Is sex important to you in a relationship? Why or why not?
What was your last relationship like? Why did it end?
If you found yourself being arrested, what would you have been arrested for? Explain
Have you done or tried drugs? What was your experience with them like?
Character development is a key factor in writing. You may include as many details as you wish to your character, the ones I listed are just some examples and ideas for you to start from.
I recommend recording all your character development information in a google doc or anywhere suitable for you.
Writing tips
Next, we move along to some writing tips that may help you improve your story-telling and overall writing skills.
A few tips for prior to actually writing your story. This information could also go into the development section, but rather the story development part.
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Have a setting
Where does this story take place? What year is this story set in? What’s the weather like in this place? What time zone are we in? What’s the population of the set place? Do the characters enjoy living here? Are the characters from this place or are they visiting? How would the main character describe the setting? -
Know thy enemy
What is the plot of this story? What is the general conflict? How does the conflict effect the main character? Is the conflict inevitable? Explain, explain, explain!! -
Have an idea of where to start
You must start somewhere, right? You cannot jump straight into the present day. Instead, you should have such an intro that’ll bring the readers to the edge of their seats!! Maybe you’ll start with a flashback? Or even a flash-forward? Perhaps you’ll begin with some action, or maybe even a sad scene. Whenever you start, be sure to grab the attention of the reader. Make them want to read more. -
Rid yourself of yawn-worthy dialogue
This may be one of the most important parts of writing a story. Boring, fast-paced dialogue will surely grant you access to a disappointed reader. Instead of using such boring dialogue, spice it up a bit! Do not use simple, common words. Instead, use synonyms for those words.
Rather than saying:
“We can’t go to the party tonight.”
Say something like
“We are unable to attend tonight’s party.”
Another tip for boring sentences is to stretch contractions. A contraction is a combination of two words such as “can’t” or “they’re”. Rather than using contractions, spread the words out. So, “can’t” would become “cannot” or “can not”, and “they’re” shall become “they are”.
- Do not force yourself to write
This is something that will absolutely destroy your motivation and inspiration. Rushing and pushing yourself to write or code should never be something you do as an author. Let scenes and ideas come to you naturally. Give yourself a break, bro. You’re so incredibly talented and you deserve to have a stress-free writing experience. Plan out a schedule for your creative hours. Maybe you’ll spend a day working on outfits, overlays and backgrounds, and then the next few days planning your episode in google docs. Once you have a nice, detailed plan for your episode, you can begin coding!
Directing Tips:
Directing is also a huge part of excellent story-telling. Here are some tips to help improve your directing skills!
- Loose the fast zooms!!
For zooms, I use “using easeinout” to help my scenes flow smoothly. You don’t want your zooms to be very fast and choppy (unless it is intentional).
To avoid these types of zooms, I recommend timing your zoom commands. To do this, you’ll want to code the zoom like this:
&zoom on x y in t using easeinout
The “t” stands for the time. So, if you want a slower zoom, something around 3-5 seconds would do you justice. If you want an even slower zoom, 6 and up would be your best bet.
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Use text effects!!
Text effects add so much detail and spice to your story. You can add as many effects as you’d like, just be sure not to over-do it. When you wish to emphasize a word or sentence, italicize or bolden it! I recommend playing around with all the effects and getting a sense of when to use them! -
Filters, Filters, Filters!!
Filters are another way of spicing up your scenes. You can either play around with some of the filters in the portal, or make your own with overlays!
Here are a few of my favorite “tints” to use!
You can lower the opacity of the overlays if the tint you made is too bright or dark!
Inspiration Tips:
You can’t write without any inspiration or motivation, can you? Here’s some tips and ideas to help you find your inspiration/motivation!
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Create a Pinterest Board
Creating a board that includes character muses, pictures that describe a characters aesthetic, pictures that explain a character’s personality and hobbies, and anything that relates to your story or characters! This helps me out so much when it comes to lack of motivation, I definitely recommend this trick! -
Make a Playlist
What are your characters favorite songs? What songs describe your character’s personality, life, aesthetic, flaws or anything that your character relates to? Put these songs into a playlist and listen to it while you’re planning your episodes or coding your scenes! This might also help you think of scene ideas if you are struggling to think of some. -
Watch a Movie
Watching movies helps a lot of authors gain inspiration and ideas for writing! The best way to choose a movie for inspiration is to pick one that has a plot, character, or topic similar to your story. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to gather some scene ideas from this trick as well! -
Stop Rushing Yourself
Whether you’re rushing to publish or rushing to write scenes, half-assing and forcing yourself to write does not benefit you in any way. Color me blunt, but rushing will only leave you with zero motivation and a boring scene. Instead of rushing, pace yourself. Pick a certain time of day to write, code, create outfits and make overlays. You do not have to do everything in one day, though. Maybe you’ll choose to spend a few days writing an episode, take a break then create overlays for the episode, take a break and then code the episode, so on and so forth. Personally, I use this exact order for planning and producing episodes. Write, create, code. I hope this was a helpful tip, but it was meant to be more of a lecture. To summarize this “lecture”, don’t force yourself to write.
Research Tips:
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Know what you’re looking for
Are you looking for information on a mental illness? What about information on Hispanic culture? Maybe you’re trying to learn about how criminals behave and why they behave this way? Whatever topic you’re researching, you have to have one. This will help you find exactly what you need. -
Why are you researching in the first place?
Are you trying to gather information so that you can portray a certain character correctly? Most likely. So, keep in mind why you’re doing research along the way. -
Find accurate sources
You can’t believe everything you find on the internet, you would be foolish to do so. Instead of blindly trusting a random article, here’s some things to look out for:
• Misspelling of easy words (the most accurate articles are usually proofread before publishing)
• No sited sources or information credit
• The article is at the very bottom of the browser page (I wouldn’t be too trusting of these)
• Obvious red flags (biased information, opinions and words such as “I believe” or “I think”)
• Outdated statistics or information (be sure to look at the year the article was published and see if there has been any recent statistic changes since it was published)
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Ask friends and family for information
If you have anyone in your life who has information on the topic you’re researching, don’t shy away from asking for help! -
YouTube
YouTube is good for if you’re researching mental illness or criminals. You can find interviews of people with different lifestyles and disorders. Just be sure to look for obvious red flags and body movements that indicate a staged interview. -
Stereotypes
If you’re researching a culture, religion, ethnic group or illness, be sure to avoid any stereotypical information. You can use the app “Quora” to ask questions about different topics and what stereotypes to steer clear of! (Quora is also good for gathering information, just be sure to look out for false info) -
Culture
If you’re researching different cultures or ethnic groups, I would suggest that you ask someone who belongs to the group or culture that you’re researching. Same thing with foreign language, its best to ask a native speaker themself.
These research tips are not professional and I am not claiming that I know all about research. These are just some tips that help me personally. That goes for this entire thread, all these tips are ones that I suggest because they work for me.
That concludes my tips for now, but I’ll be adding plenty more within the next few days! If this helped you out at all, please leave a like and reply letting me know that I didn’t write this whole thing for nothing 
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Also, if you want me to make you any templates or charts for character development or story planning, leave a reply specifying which one you want and I’ll have it too you as soon as possible :))
Thank you so much ~
