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PLEASE NOTE THAT WHILE THIS PAGE WILL REMAIN ACTIVE FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AND RECORDS, IT IS OUTDATED. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWEST VERSION. 5 Steps to Creating Great Supporting Characters Anybody Can Write a Novel Chapter 3 “Characters” – Section 4 “The Antagonist” With Links to Supplementary Material With your Protagonist and Antagonist up and ready to go, you are now ready to create your Supporting Characters. These are the people in your story who show up multiple times and play an important role in the plot—not to be confused with Universe Filler Characters, who may only show up once. The fo

First of all, I freely admit that what I say isn't gospel. I am a total amateur at art and writing. I've learned everything that I know via the internet and a few books. It's just that I appreciate all of the tutorials here on dA that have helped me out, and I want to put a little bit of my own methods back in. I've run across an odd myth about fictional characters here on good ol' deviantART:  If my character isn't a Mary Sue then I've definitely written a good character.  Sadly, this is not so.  A Mary Sue (see here for more) is just a specific kind of bad character.  Not all bad characters are Mary Sues.  It would be like saying that sinc

"Your need to tell me absolutely everything, as if every tiny detail were just so integral to the plot, was supremely annoying." You can always tell when an author has gone through many drafts, and when an author has gone through just a few. There are many details that work their way into writing that don't necessarily have to be there. Some of these unnecessary details may offer seasoning to the story---mood, tone, or serve to draw attention to something specific; just be careful, as too much seasoning can ruin the flavor of your soup. You don't want it too bland, but you don't want it too salty, either. This is what makes being a writer nic

7 Tips for Introducing Your Characters Anybody Can Write a Novel   Chapter 5 “Choosing and Designing Characters” – Section 3 “Introductions” With Links to Supplementary Material When a reader first picks up a book, they create an instant connection with the author of the story—formed through a required level of trust just so that the two of you can immerse yourselves in the world you have created. The writer and the reader are, at that point, friends or pleasant acquaintances; and at that moment of relationship and immersion into the realm of story, the characters become just as real as the reader/write

How to Write Good Characters By Sithking Zero (Note: it is recommended, but not necessary, that one reads the companion work "How to Write Fanfiction," in addition to this.) What is a character? Quite simply, it is a person who only exists within the bounds of a story, movie, play, or other fictional work. They are the medium through which the story is told, the screens through which we see their world. They are as varied and unique as real people are, sometimes even more so. Characters are absolutely vital to the narrative process, and a story cannot exist without them. But what separates the good characters from the Mary Sues? What d

NAMING YOUR CHARACTERS There are many problems that a writer can come across when selecting a name for a character, here I hope to deal with some of the major pitfalls, and hopefully give some useful tips… ~ Unique and different names are not an excuse to ignore good characterisation.  Would you take these characters seriously? Randilynia McDanovich Southern. D. Wattserfield Floyd Picasso Ise Speranza Nine Purple These are all names that I came up with off the top of my head or based on words about my desk.  It is not difficult to come up with a new, unique name.  But that doesn’t instantly make your character interesting or

I know a lot of you out there are aspiring-writers (I’m one myself!) and sometimes we get so caught up in this “must publish!” attitude that we get lost in our stories along the way. Sometimes there comes a point when we stare at our half-finished novel and say “I’m stuck. “ Usually these moments happen when we don’t know where we’re going next with our story, and usually that’s because somewhere along the line we’ve strayed off the path and we aren’t quite sure how to get back. One of the things that you may find helpful if you’ve never done it before is to take a reall

When it comes to writing novels, names often get overlooked in the grand scheme of things. Most of us are happy if we can tell who is talking and we can remember the character’s names for the entirety of the book, but bad names can ruin a book. I don’t know about you, but when I get a hold of a book where the main character’s name is a comical 20-character tangle I can’t pronounce, it ruins the book for me. It’s hard to take a book, or a character, seriously when you want to roll your eyes every time you read the narrative. In this article I’ve compiled a list of things to consider when naming a character