Sizniche
This profile is no longer in use
I don't like giving advice on writing.
You'll note that I chose to use the "Character Theory" prefix for this as opposed to "Advice/Help", because, as I am no Dickens, you should take everything I say here with a grain of salt. There are certainly people who know better, and honestly, this is more for me to organize my thoughts and tackle a subject I struggle with frequently. For me, at least, writing a good personality is the hardest part of making a character. It's a damn shame then, that it is the most important; every single action in a roleplay is tinted with the personality of your character, and rightly should be. If it isn't, you haven't written or played your character right. However, I find it difficult to organize traits and properly describe how a character I want to make should act; often I have a vague idea in mind, even some situations, but I rarely really quite know how to organize it effectively. So how does one get around this? Before we even think about writing a personality, we should establish what a personality is (as pretentious as that sounds).
What should a personality be?
There are a great deal of times where I or a roleplayer I know will confuse a personality disorder for a personality; while depression is definitely something that would be important to the understanding a character, and something that would inevitably be core to the character, it does not define a character on it's own. Neither does narcissism, anger issues, or being a sperglord like me. Every person has more to them to their baggage, because if they didn't, they would be absolutely boring people; everyone has interests, values, vices, virtues, hobbies, and so on and so forth, and they are more important to who they are than their DSM-5 entry. There is nothing wrong with a character having a personality disorder, sure, but you need to make them more than that, because nobody's life constantly centers around their disorders.
Even worse is when you make a personality out of an emotion, such as a character that is described with ten different synonyms of "happy" and "upbeat" or "sad" and "gloomy". All people experience all emotions; no person is always happy, just like no person is always sad, angry, excited, serious, nervous, or jovial. Every person feels every emotion at some point, as it's the contrast of emotions that help us understand them; love could not exist without hate or vice versa, because our understanding of them is, in part, defined by our experience of the other, or the alternative.
Understanding this, it becomes clear that personality writing is not about which emotions are expressed, but when emotions are expressed. Even the happiest person alive will have their down days at some point, just as even the most depressed person in the world will have a good day once in a blue moon, so when are those good or bad days? Even the most lighthearted trickster has a joke he doesn't find funny, just as the most stonewall stoic will chuckle at something out there, so what is that joke? While there might be some emotional reactions that seem so obvious that you wouldn't think to add them unless you intended to do the exact opposite, many of them still require elaboration. Everyone but sociopaths mourns death in some form, but who do they mourn? Only the closest loved ones? People they know? Any human life in general? Any living creature at all? Everyone except sociopaths abhors murder in some form, but almost everyone makes exceptions, so what is your exception? A just cause? Self-defense? For a friend or lover? Or are you one of the rare few who refuses to murder in any shape or form? Everyone needs companionship, despite some people hating to admit it, but how much do you need? Do you feel the need to be the center of attention? Do you prefer a clique? Do you just need a few close friends? One close friend?
A theme starts to become apparent; personality often comes down to drawing the line, and defining where a person will go from one state of being to another. When will they be spurred to action, and when will they cower away? When will they feel happy, and when will they feel sad? When will they feel empowered, and when will they feel hopeless? I feel this is always important to keep in mind when thinking about personality writing, as it will have bearing over every single action you put into words in a roleplay, and it advances your understanding of what you want your character to be.
Another thing I feel is overlooked is values; people will say their character is "a good person", but not quite in what sense, which is relentlessly annoying since our understanding of morality is subjective to the point where people can't even agree whether or not morality is subjective. To understand the morality of a character means understanding their values, because what you consider "good" in blanket terms may not be exactly the example of a moral paragon to another person. Do they value honesty, integrity, humility, and such? Would they tell a lie to prevent hurting someone? Would they find someone talking behind another's back abhorrent, even if they are a terrible person? Do they follow rigid moral codes, or will they bend the rules to do good? You have to consider that one of the oldest examples of a good person in storytelling, Robin Hood, is literally a wealth redistributor, which is a horrific concept to a great many people in the modern world.
Just my two cents. Will be updated as my understanding of personality writing improves, or as I get tips and suggestions.
You'll note that I chose to use the "Character Theory" prefix for this as opposed to "Advice/Help", because, as I am no Dickens, you should take everything I say here with a grain of salt. There are certainly people who know better, and honestly, this is more for me to organize my thoughts and tackle a subject I struggle with frequently. For me, at least, writing a good personality is the hardest part of making a character. It's a damn shame then, that it is the most important; every single action in a roleplay is tinted with the personality of your character, and rightly should be. If it isn't, you haven't written or played your character right. However, I find it difficult to organize traits and properly describe how a character I want to make should act; often I have a vague idea in mind, even some situations, but I rarely really quite know how to organize it effectively. So how does one get around this? Before we even think about writing a personality, we should establish what a personality is (as pretentious as that sounds).
What should a personality be?
There are a great deal of times where I or a roleplayer I know will confuse a personality disorder for a personality; while depression is definitely something that would be important to the understanding a character, and something that would inevitably be core to the character, it does not define a character on it's own. Neither does narcissism, anger issues, or being a sperglord like me. Every person has more to them to their baggage, because if they didn't, they would be absolutely boring people; everyone has interests, values, vices, virtues, hobbies, and so on and so forth, and they are more important to who they are than their DSM-5 entry. There is nothing wrong with a character having a personality disorder, sure, but you need to make them more than that, because nobody's life constantly centers around their disorders.
Even worse is when you make a personality out of an emotion, such as a character that is described with ten different synonyms of "happy" and "upbeat" or "sad" and "gloomy". All people experience all emotions; no person is always happy, just like no person is always sad, angry, excited, serious, nervous, or jovial. Every person feels every emotion at some point, as it's the contrast of emotions that help us understand them; love could not exist without hate or vice versa, because our understanding of them is, in part, defined by our experience of the other, or the alternative.
Understanding this, it becomes clear that personality writing is not about which emotions are expressed, but when emotions are expressed. Even the happiest person alive will have their down days at some point, just as even the most depressed person in the world will have a good day once in a blue moon, so when are those good or bad days? Even the most lighthearted trickster has a joke he doesn't find funny, just as the most stonewall stoic will chuckle at something out there, so what is that joke? While there might be some emotional reactions that seem so obvious that you wouldn't think to add them unless you intended to do the exact opposite, many of them still require elaboration. Everyone but sociopaths mourns death in some form, but who do they mourn? Only the closest loved ones? People they know? Any human life in general? Any living creature at all? Everyone except sociopaths abhors murder in some form, but almost everyone makes exceptions, so what is your exception? A just cause? Self-defense? For a friend or lover? Or are you one of the rare few who refuses to murder in any shape or form? Everyone needs companionship, despite some people hating to admit it, but how much do you need? Do you feel the need to be the center of attention? Do you prefer a clique? Do you just need a few close friends? One close friend?
A theme starts to become apparent; personality often comes down to drawing the line, and defining where a person will go from one state of being to another. When will they be spurred to action, and when will they cower away? When will they feel happy, and when will they feel sad? When will they feel empowered, and when will they feel hopeless? I feel this is always important to keep in mind when thinking about personality writing, as it will have bearing over every single action you put into words in a roleplay, and it advances your understanding of what you want your character to be.
Another thing I feel is overlooked is values; people will say their character is "a good person", but not quite in what sense, which is relentlessly annoying since our understanding of morality is subjective to the point where people can't even agree whether or not morality is subjective. To understand the morality of a character means understanding their values, because what you consider "good" in blanket terms may not be exactly the example of a moral paragon to another person. Do they value honesty, integrity, humility, and such? Would they tell a lie to prevent hurting someone? Would they find someone talking behind another's back abhorrent, even if they are a terrible person? Do they follow rigid moral codes, or will they bend the rules to do good? You have to consider that one of the oldest examples of a good person in storytelling, Robin Hood, is literally a wealth redistributor, which is a horrific concept to a great many people in the modern world.
Just my two cents. Will be updated as my understanding of personality writing improves, or as I get tips and suggestions.
