GojiBean
Your resident irradiated Kaiju King
Grrrrrrrrreetings, everyone! (Imagine the tongue roll "r" sound)
GojiBean here with a new guide on two topics of writing which both gave me no end of headaches for many years, and they are character depth and character development.
Put simply, character "depth" is an expression describing whether or not a character feels, thinks, and acts like a genuinely real being (I say "being" because there are non-human characters out there to consider as well).
The less depth a character has, the less real as a person/being they will feel when you read the posts their controlling player puts together in the RP's posting threads. And the more easily you'll be able to spot unrealistic or otherwise unexpected/unjustified behaviors, words, and actions throughout the role-play experience.
For example:
Our character's name is Samson. He's 19 years old and grew up in an average family as the middle child of five children. He's very smart (straight A student), personally competitive, fit, good looking, soft spoken, non-confrontational, and generally an easily likable guy. He's also got a crush on a young woman named Kari who works at the local bakery just down the street from his house.
The Situation
One day Samson decides to muster the courage to go talk to Kari. When he gets to the bakery she greets him with a smile and he orders some goodies and a drink and sits down at a table. When she delivers the food he tries to strike up a conversation by asking how her studies are going and if the upcoming midterms have her stressed or in cram mode. She laughs and says it's going well, and the two begin a light hearted chat about classes and study interests.
However, one of the Football jocks has eyes for her as well and comes over to the table. He's polite about it, but there's no mistaking that he came over on purpose to end Kari's chat with Samson and get her to come to his table. When Kari leaves to go prepare the goods he asks her for, he gives Samson a sideways grin and whispers for him to stay away from Kari if he knows what's good for him, and then goes to sit down with some of his other jock friends at the other table. Kari delivers the goods to the jock and he starts flirting with her, making her obviously uncomfortable since she's at work and her boss is on deck nearby. Despite her passive attempts to end the convo and get back to work he insists she stay and talk because "you talked to the other guy," and he grips her hand to make her stay put.
What does Samson do here?
...
If your first thought was "he marches over and tells the guy to let go, potentially slapping his hand away"... BBZT!!
Remember, Samson's character description states that he's a "personally" competitive person, meaning he competes against himself instead of against others, and he's "non-confrontational." Marching over to swat a jock's hand away in an act of chivalry is not who Samson is. And to have Samson do this would force him out of character and into an unrealistic situation which, while uplifting to read at first, would completely destroy the foundational principles of his stated behavior patterns and mentality. Eventually someone would come forward and ask, "Wait, I thought he was non-confrontational. Why's he going over and basically picking a fight?"
Given the traits which Samson was stated to have, his most realistic reaction to this development would be to quietly seethe and hope that Kari's boss intervenes since he's present in the bakery.
This is a bit of an oversimplified example, but this is what it means for a character to have "depth."
Samson's quiet, passive response is believable and true to who he is as a person because he's not an overt and confrontational person who knows how to take charge and divert or overcome a physical obstacle like this jock and his friends. It might not be what a lot of us want him to do, or wish he would do. But Samson is his own person. He's not ours to control. And he's not there to do what's right based on our preconceptions of what the "ideal" reaction would be.
Depth is not "ideal."
Depth is "real."
Why is this true?
Because depth, quite literally, is what allows development to take place at all.
Character development is all about the character living within themselves to start the story (within their given depth), and over the course of their personal journey their outlook, behavior, mentality, and sometimes even their personalities will undergo a positive (or negative) change.
This cannot happen genuinely or with any sense of true meaning (see my other tutorial about meaning) if there is no depth to the character to begin with.
Why?
Without depth and a sense of realism to their backstory, a character is basically just a piece of pliable putty waiting to be molded as the controlling player goes alone. Their personality may even change from post to post (yes, I've seen this happen). And I think we can all agree that it's incredibly irritating when a character has no sense of consistency between posts, and wildly jumps around acting in the "ideal" fashion to whatever the situation may be and having their controlling player claim that it's a "change" and that it's "natural" or "who they are." You take one look at their character sheet and the listed bio information and scream "BS!"
This kind of random adaptation to unfavorable situations isn't change. And it certainly isn't development. This is Mary Sue-ifying the character, bordering on Metagaming, which is always a negative.
And this kind of inconsistency is a major red flag that the character has no depth, and that their controlling player didn't give much thought to who they are versus who they are meant to become over the course of the journey.
The deeper your character is as a person/being, and the more genuine their behavior, words, thoughts and actions are to the parameters you set when you first made their character profile, the more room to grow they will have if you stick to those starting parameters and allow the character to dynamically grow over the course of the story by letting it change them instead of forcing them to change when you want them to.
For example:
Using Samson and that same situation described before, let's say Samson quietly seethes and hopes that the boss will intervene. Luckily for him and Kari, boss man does just that. He tells the jocks to leave his bakery or he'll call the police. The jocks leave, but they threaten the aging man never to try ordering them around again before walking out the door. Samson and Kari both know this threat is real because they know these jocks have a reputation for violence outside of school. Samson leaves the bakery once he's done with his meal and thanks Kari for her service and for the chat and takes hiss leave.
When he gets home, he knows he wants to protect Kari from that guy. He wants to make sure her boss is okay too. But he doesn't know how to accomplish this.
How quickly is this resolved?
If your first thought is anything like, "He can start taking self defense classes, and by the end of school he can beat that jock in a fight and make him leave Kari and her boss alone"... BBZT!!
As a former martial arts instructor with over a decade and a half of experience teaching self defense to all age groups, I hope it's not too arrogant to convey that I feel uniquely qualified to tell you that this is beyond unreasonable and unrealistic to expect Samson to start taking a few classes and suddenly become a good enough fighter to beat a jock with a history of violence. That history of violence means he's been in a lot of real fights before which is something Samson will have no matching experience for. And a few self defense classes won't close that gap. Those self defense classes are going to be more about personal development, confidence building, and sport "combat" than actually teaching him how to fight. Trust me, the sportifying of "martial" arts is real all over the world which, honestly, makes me sick. But that's a whole other issue. And taking classes like that certainly won't give Samson the confidence to overcome the mental barriers of being in his first real fight without pads or referees to protect him in case something goes wrong.
Samson's non-confrontational nature also flies in the face of this course of action, as does his "personally" competitive nature of wanting to compete against himself and get better on his own.
So, what's the most realistic course of action for Samson to take given his personal traits and mentality?
Arguably, it's to use his intellect to outwit the jock and put him in a situation where his history and obvious desire for violence gets him expelled from school and in trouble with the law so he can't go after Kari and her boss outside of school hours. There are many different ways he could accomplish this. The method which popped into my head first was coming up with a plan to have the jocks chase him to the nearest police station and let them beat him up right outside. Remember, Samson is 19 and in college. He's an adult. So are the jocks. And as adults the jocks would all be immediately arrested and charged with aggravated assault (among other misdemeanor charges depending on the law in Samson's area) and put behind bars. This would get them out of Samson's, Kari's, and Kari's boss's hair for quite some time without endangering them in the process. Samson has to take a bit of a beating. But hey. Small price to pay for protecting the girl he loves, right?
And with this course of action Samson remains true to himself and reinforces the depth of his character which was established at the start. But, more importantly, we give him room to grow as well. He's non-confrontational. But because he's using his natural intellect to come up with this plan, he doesn't even realize up front that he's now entering a confrontational situation. He might not be actively trying to fight. But a fight is a fight. And a fight is a confrontation. Samson is about to enter into a confrontation for the girl he loves despite being "non-confrontational."
So, what separates this from the original version of just marching over and swatting the guy's hand away?
Simple: This version is born from Samson's natural intellect and non-confrontational mindset.
Despite leading him into a confrontation, he's seeking a way to avoid conflict that could harm the girl he loves as well as her boss. And because he knows he's not going to ball up a fist and fight back, he believes he's being non-confrontational. But he's wrong. He's stepping outside of himself just a little bit without even realizing it, and is about to engage in confrontation. This is a natural development for Samson. Not a forced one. In trying to remain true to himself, his burning desire to protect Kari is leading him in a new direction with potential for more growth.
Development should always be dynamic. And to be dynamic, it has to be natural. If it's natural, it'll happen slowly more often than not (and I mean 99,999 times out of 100,000).
For Samson, this choice to let the jocks chase and beat him up will not change who he is fundamentally on its own. But, as stated before, it did change him in the moment for the sake of the girl he loves. Small, subtle, and momentary changes are often the catalysts to much larger and fundamentally major changes further down the line. Following his beating at the jock's hands, the jock's arrest and imprisonment, and him going to visit Kari all bruised and battered with her frantically asking what in the world happened may yet lead Samson down a road to discovering that sometimes one has to take that stand and be the force of change they desire if they want the change to happen at all. And his formerly non-confrontational nature will begin to fade as he becomes more assertive and dominant in his efforts to keep Kari safe, regardless of whether he ends up with her or not.
How fast is too fast?
Example:
Samson does the whole "let them chase and beat me up" thing. The jocks are arrested and put in jail for aggravated assault and other misdemeanors. Samson gets with Kari because she's so thankful for his selflessness. They're happy together, and Samson grows a backbone almost immediately after this because his drive to protect his girlfriend has given him new confidence and drive to step up, man up, and protect her physically any time the need arises.
... That's too fast.
If you rush for the sake of impatience and wanting to see the change happen sooner than later as I did in the example above, you're going too fast.
For character development to be dynamic and natural, one thing must lead to another within a natural sense of flow. Nothing is forced. Nothing is out of character. Nothing is unnatural. And everyone can simply invest in the moment rather than realizing and asking later on, "Why did that happen? That's not (insert your character's name here)!"
Samson will never just transform as in that brief example. His change into a man of action will be very slow. At times it may even be very painful for him. Not necessarily physically. But mentally and emotionally. Especially if Kari doesn't just instantly fall for him and instead begins falling for someone else and Samson has to watch it happen and quietly cheer them on as her "friend." But he will change in time. Having pushed himself once to take more affirmative action, he will naturally be less afraid of the idea of doing so again. And gradually he may employ more and more direct means of taking such action in order to protect her. It may take months, or even years. But it will happen so long as he remains in love with Kari and he knows there are potential problems like that jock in her life for him to help with.
And that, my friends, is dynamic Character Development.
Hopefully this tutorial on Depth and Development has given everyone a slightly better understanding of what it means to provide a character with a sense of depth and realism, and for what it means to help a character develop naturally along the lines of their initially stated mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical parameters into a stronger and more mature version of themselves over the course of the journey.
The desire to see our characters develop can very easily lead us to rush that development.
Never allow yourself to do that.
Exercise restraint, and let your characters and the journey they're undertaking be the cause of the change. It should never be "you."
Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next one.
~ GojiBean
GojiBean here with a new guide on two topics of writing which both gave me no end of headaches for many years, and they are character depth and character development.
What is Character Depth?
Put simply, character "depth" is an expression describing whether or not a character feels, thinks, and acts like a genuinely real being (I say "being" because there are non-human characters out there to consider as well).
The less depth a character has, the less real as a person/being they will feel when you read the posts their controlling player puts together in the RP's posting threads. And the more easily you'll be able to spot unrealistic or otherwise unexpected/unjustified behaviors, words, and actions throughout the role-play experience.
For example:
Our character's name is Samson. He's 19 years old and grew up in an average family as the middle child of five children. He's very smart (straight A student), personally competitive, fit, good looking, soft spoken, non-confrontational, and generally an easily likable guy. He's also got a crush on a young woman named Kari who works at the local bakery just down the street from his house.
The Situation
One day Samson decides to muster the courage to go talk to Kari. When he gets to the bakery she greets him with a smile and he orders some goodies and a drink and sits down at a table. When she delivers the food he tries to strike up a conversation by asking how her studies are going and if the upcoming midterms have her stressed or in cram mode. She laughs and says it's going well, and the two begin a light hearted chat about classes and study interests.
However, one of the Football jocks has eyes for her as well and comes over to the table. He's polite about it, but there's no mistaking that he came over on purpose to end Kari's chat with Samson and get her to come to his table. When Kari leaves to go prepare the goods he asks her for, he gives Samson a sideways grin and whispers for him to stay away from Kari if he knows what's good for him, and then goes to sit down with some of his other jock friends at the other table. Kari delivers the goods to the jock and he starts flirting with her, making her obviously uncomfortable since she's at work and her boss is on deck nearby. Despite her passive attempts to end the convo and get back to work he insists she stay and talk because "you talked to the other guy," and he grips her hand to make her stay put.
What does Samson do here?
...
If your first thought was "he marches over and tells the guy to let go, potentially slapping his hand away"... BBZT!!
Remember, Samson's character description states that he's a "personally" competitive person, meaning he competes against himself instead of against others, and he's "non-confrontational." Marching over to swat a jock's hand away in an act of chivalry is not who Samson is. And to have Samson do this would force him out of character and into an unrealistic situation which, while uplifting to read at first, would completely destroy the foundational principles of his stated behavior patterns and mentality. Eventually someone would come forward and ask, "Wait, I thought he was non-confrontational. Why's he going over and basically picking a fight?"
Given the traits which Samson was stated to have, his most realistic reaction to this development would be to quietly seethe and hope that Kari's boss intervenes since he's present in the bakery.
This is a bit of an oversimplified example, but this is what it means for a character to have "depth."
Samson's quiet, passive response is believable and true to who he is as a person because he's not an overt and confrontational person who knows how to take charge and divert or overcome a physical obstacle like this jock and his friends. It might not be what a lot of us want him to do, or wish he would do. But Samson is his own person. He's not ours to control. And he's not there to do what's right based on our preconceptions of what the "ideal" reaction would be.
Depth is not "ideal."
Depth is "real."
Depth Leads To Development
Why is this true?
Because depth, quite literally, is what allows development to take place at all.
Character development is all about the character living within themselves to start the story (within their given depth), and over the course of their personal journey their outlook, behavior, mentality, and sometimes even their personalities will undergo a positive (or negative) change.
This cannot happen genuinely or with any sense of true meaning (see my other tutorial about meaning) if there is no depth to the character to begin with.
Why?
Without depth and a sense of realism to their backstory, a character is basically just a piece of pliable putty waiting to be molded as the controlling player goes alone. Their personality may even change from post to post (yes, I've seen this happen). And I think we can all agree that it's incredibly irritating when a character has no sense of consistency between posts, and wildly jumps around acting in the "ideal" fashion to whatever the situation may be and having their controlling player claim that it's a "change" and that it's "natural" or "who they are." You take one look at their character sheet and the listed bio information and scream "BS!"
This kind of random adaptation to unfavorable situations isn't change. And it certainly isn't development. This is Mary Sue-ifying the character, bordering on Metagaming, which is always a negative.
And this kind of inconsistency is a major red flag that the character has no depth, and that their controlling player didn't give much thought to who they are versus who they are meant to become over the course of the journey.
The deeper your character is as a person/being, and the more genuine their behavior, words, thoughts and actions are to the parameters you set when you first made their character profile, the more room to grow they will have if you stick to those starting parameters and allow the character to dynamically grow over the course of the story by letting it change them instead of forcing them to change when you want them to.
For example:
Using Samson and that same situation described before, let's say Samson quietly seethes and hopes that the boss will intervene. Luckily for him and Kari, boss man does just that. He tells the jocks to leave his bakery or he'll call the police. The jocks leave, but they threaten the aging man never to try ordering them around again before walking out the door. Samson and Kari both know this threat is real because they know these jocks have a reputation for violence outside of school. Samson leaves the bakery once he's done with his meal and thanks Kari for her service and for the chat and takes hiss leave.
When he gets home, he knows he wants to protect Kari from that guy. He wants to make sure her boss is okay too. But he doesn't know how to accomplish this.
How quickly is this resolved?
If your first thought is anything like, "He can start taking self defense classes, and by the end of school he can beat that jock in a fight and make him leave Kari and her boss alone"... BBZT!!
As a former martial arts instructor with over a decade and a half of experience teaching self defense to all age groups, I hope it's not too arrogant to convey that I feel uniquely qualified to tell you that this is beyond unreasonable and unrealistic to expect Samson to start taking a few classes and suddenly become a good enough fighter to beat a jock with a history of violence. That history of violence means he's been in a lot of real fights before which is something Samson will have no matching experience for. And a few self defense classes won't close that gap. Those self defense classes are going to be more about personal development, confidence building, and sport "combat" than actually teaching him how to fight. Trust me, the sportifying of "martial" arts is real all over the world which, honestly, makes me sick. But that's a whole other issue. And taking classes like that certainly won't give Samson the confidence to overcome the mental barriers of being in his first real fight without pads or referees to protect him in case something goes wrong.
Samson's non-confrontational nature also flies in the face of this course of action, as does his "personally" competitive nature of wanting to compete against himself and get better on his own.
So, what's the most realistic course of action for Samson to take given his personal traits and mentality?
Arguably, it's to use his intellect to outwit the jock and put him in a situation where his history and obvious desire for violence gets him expelled from school and in trouble with the law so he can't go after Kari and her boss outside of school hours. There are many different ways he could accomplish this. The method which popped into my head first was coming up with a plan to have the jocks chase him to the nearest police station and let them beat him up right outside. Remember, Samson is 19 and in college. He's an adult. So are the jocks. And as adults the jocks would all be immediately arrested and charged with aggravated assault (among other misdemeanor charges depending on the law in Samson's area) and put behind bars. This would get them out of Samson's, Kari's, and Kari's boss's hair for quite some time without endangering them in the process. Samson has to take a bit of a beating. But hey. Small price to pay for protecting the girl he loves, right?
And with this course of action Samson remains true to himself and reinforces the depth of his character which was established at the start. But, more importantly, we give him room to grow as well. He's non-confrontational. But because he's using his natural intellect to come up with this plan, he doesn't even realize up front that he's now entering a confrontational situation. He might not be actively trying to fight. But a fight is a fight. And a fight is a confrontation. Samson is about to enter into a confrontation for the girl he loves despite being "non-confrontational."
So, what separates this from the original version of just marching over and swatting the guy's hand away?
Simple: This version is born from Samson's natural intellect and non-confrontational mindset.
Despite leading him into a confrontation, he's seeking a way to avoid conflict that could harm the girl he loves as well as her boss. And because he knows he's not going to ball up a fist and fight back, he believes he's being non-confrontational. But he's wrong. He's stepping outside of himself just a little bit without even realizing it, and is about to engage in confrontation. This is a natural development for Samson. Not a forced one. In trying to remain true to himself, his burning desire to protect Kari is leading him in a new direction with potential for more growth.
How Fast Is Too Fast?
Development should always be dynamic. And to be dynamic, it has to be natural. If it's natural, it'll happen slowly more often than not (and I mean 99,999 times out of 100,000).
For Samson, this choice to let the jocks chase and beat him up will not change who he is fundamentally on its own. But, as stated before, it did change him in the moment for the sake of the girl he loves. Small, subtle, and momentary changes are often the catalysts to much larger and fundamentally major changes further down the line. Following his beating at the jock's hands, the jock's arrest and imprisonment, and him going to visit Kari all bruised and battered with her frantically asking what in the world happened may yet lead Samson down a road to discovering that sometimes one has to take that stand and be the force of change they desire if they want the change to happen at all. And his formerly non-confrontational nature will begin to fade as he becomes more assertive and dominant in his efforts to keep Kari safe, regardless of whether he ends up with her or not.
How fast is too fast?
Example:
Samson does the whole "let them chase and beat me up" thing. The jocks are arrested and put in jail for aggravated assault and other misdemeanors. Samson gets with Kari because she's so thankful for his selflessness. They're happy together, and Samson grows a backbone almost immediately after this because his drive to protect his girlfriend has given him new confidence and drive to step up, man up, and protect her physically any time the need arises.
... That's too fast.
If you rush for the sake of impatience and wanting to see the change happen sooner than later as I did in the example above, you're going too fast.
For character development to be dynamic and natural, one thing must lead to another within a natural sense of flow. Nothing is forced. Nothing is out of character. Nothing is unnatural. And everyone can simply invest in the moment rather than realizing and asking later on, "Why did that happen? That's not (insert your character's name here)!"
Samson will never just transform as in that brief example. His change into a man of action will be very slow. At times it may even be very painful for him. Not necessarily physically. But mentally and emotionally. Especially if Kari doesn't just instantly fall for him and instead begins falling for someone else and Samson has to watch it happen and quietly cheer them on as her "friend." But he will change in time. Having pushed himself once to take more affirmative action, he will naturally be less afraid of the idea of doing so again. And gradually he may employ more and more direct means of taking such action in order to protect her. It may take months, or even years. But it will happen so long as he remains in love with Kari and he knows there are potential problems like that jock in her life for him to help with.
And that, my friends, is dynamic Character Development.
In Closing
Hopefully this tutorial on Depth and Development has given everyone a slightly better understanding of what it means to provide a character with a sense of depth and realism, and for what it means to help a character develop naturally along the lines of their initially stated mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical parameters into a stronger and more mature version of themselves over the course of the journey.
The desire to see our characters develop can very easily lead us to rush that development.
Never allow yourself to do that.
Exercise restraint, and let your characters and the journey they're undertaking be the cause of the change. It should never be "you."
Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next one.
~ GojiBean
