Idk if I’m too late (or even if that’s a thing), but I’m still gonna share my input
- One of the biggest things that helps me is Novel Factory (How to write a novel step by step | Free guide to writing a novel) and I plan my story in this order
- Premise
- Story Skeleton
- Inciting Incident
- Ending
- Characters
- Episode as I code them (plan episode one, code episode two, plan episode two, code episode two, etc)
- One thing I always keep in mind while planning my characters is that I need all of them to have a flaw as well as a pro. No character is all good or all bad. I kinda have a folder full of character designs so I pick the one that best suits the character’s look and goes off that. Sometimes I even do some research on something that my character could be into so it’s easier to write info down. I answer all of the following questions
- Gender, age, profession, physical appearance, family, scars, health, education, archetype, ulterior motive, external/internal motivation, positive/negative traits, quirks/mannerisms, fears/phobias, seen by others, favorite animal/song/food, eating habits
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I go through and fill out my “eight hero’s journey archetypes” (Character Archetypes for Novel Writing) and see who I should fully plan out (it normally is only characters in this plan, but sometimes I go through my skeleton just in case)
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I always fully plan out my mc and li, no matter what. If I ever leave out a section ill go back and have to fill it out. After them sometimes I leave out some info, but I always try to fill everything out so that way I can always make another scene (conflict, romance, etc) if needed.
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From what I’ve learned, it is always easier to use dialogue instead of narration. I always prefer using animations and dialogue to convey something.
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I hate to say it, but my go-to setting in Beaufort, South Carolina, but I always at how many characters in my story are wealthy. For example, in my current story that I’m writing, my MC Hazel lives on the streets, but her brother and her LI Henry (the two other important characters) live very wealthily, so I picked my setting in Beaufort since its a more wealthy area.
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I’ll share what I wrote for my MC Hazel in my story
- Positive Traits: Adaptable, independent, mature, responsible
- Negative Traits: Cold, dishonest, miserable, selfish
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Always plan the ulterior, external, and internal motives. It’s easier to plan their actions based on that. For example, one of my character’s ulterior motivations is money, so she might do what’s in the rulebook (and not morally correct) because she knows she’ll make more money. I also plan out a quirk ab them (They like stargazing, secretly plays video games and is really good, always makes time for people, would wear comfy clothes 27/4 if they could, etc) and a fear/phobia (I look up what the phobia is of their fear and write that down). And, for grins and giggles, I write their favorite animal, food, and song, as well as their eating habits.
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I really don’t focus much on that, I would just write how their attitude is. Here, I’ll make a sample narration of the li Henry to mc Hazel (remember, Hazel has been living on the streets for 4 years and Henry is a boss as a well-known company)
Even though she had been living on the streets, she still cleaned herself up even more than I could sometimes. I remember her posture. She would be a good debater. She looked like someone I couldn’t mess with. And her gaze. I’ll never forget how strongly her hazel eyes stared into me, like as if she was staring into my soul.
I tend to focus on her approach, and I LOVE using similes and metaphors to help with the mood -
I (so far) haven’t written any foreign characters, but if I had to (and they were one of the MC) I would put lots of googling into answering the questions. That way, not only is the information I’m putting down correct, but I might get away with having to do as much!
I hope some of these questions help you, or anyone else scrolling through here looking for tips! Have a great day!