Designing memorable characters doesn’t just stop at their appearance. The manner in which they speak and use body language is integral to building a full picture of who they are as a character as well as how others react to them. Here are some tips on how to make ...
Speaking in tongues - Character voice
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, July 23, 2021The Bestest Evar
Banes at 12:00AM, April 8, 2021
The Bestest Evar: Revisiting Mary Sues -
And a Contest!
Way back in the day our friend and my grizzled old mentor HippieVan did a post discussing Mary Sues - and we followed it up with a Mary Sue “contest”.
Many of us comic creator and reader types have probably known the ...
Unlikely Mentors
Banes at 12:00AM, March 25, 2021
the cruel tutor himself, Pai Mei
One of my favorite character types is the gruff/grizzled old mentor. Tough as nails, mean or cranky on the outside but with great knowledge or support to offer when you know them, or when they know - and trust - you.
I've talked about ...
The Loner
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 13, 2021
Silent types can be very alluring. They don't really engage with other people, they are content to be on their own, they have developed their own special, unique manner of wading through life independently, which makes them interesting. They are their own kind of strong, even if they are ...
The Duo
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 6, 2021
We've all been told how in story telling, showing is a lot better than telling.
Showing gets hard if your main character is a loner that interacts with nobody. Even harder if he/she is a stoic that emotes very little. The audience will have no way of knowing ...
The Work of the Mentor
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 17, 2020
Might as well get it out of the way: if you're a mentor in a story, chances are you're going on a boatride over the river Styx at some point.
When a mentor dies it's often the signal that the main character, the one being mentored, is ...
All is Lost
Banes at 12:00AM, April 30, 2020
I've talked many times about story structure. Even with a structural approach, there are a lot of questions to be answered, struggles to be had, and hard thinking to be done to make a story work.
One big moment that I like thinking about early in the writing is ...
Writing Wise Folk
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 1, 2020
Wise men are like valuable spice for a story. They are also a wonderful plot device, or an extremely cheesy one, depending on how the character is used and written.
Wise men (and women) are often the moral compass to the main characters, or hold some kind of answer to ...
Mentors
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 9, 2020
I like mentor characters.
This is not just me of course; the mentor and protagonist relationship is powerful. Some of the best moments in many stories are the first encounter with the mentor, the training and sense of discovery for the protagonist, and the eventual loss of the mentor character ...
Reflection Characters
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 2, 2020
Reflection Characters
When I was doing a little reading on the “Mentor” character type, I learned about something called “Reflection Characters”. It was an eye opener; I'd never heard of this before, though I could instantly see how it made sense in storytelling, and dozens of examples came to ...