April 18, 2019
Character Nods: a Development Tool for Fiction Writers
Please note that none of my Android apps is any longer maintained – and they’re not even available on Google Play anymore – for reasons you can read about here. If you still have any of the Home for Fiction Android apps installed on your phone, you’re advised to uninstall them. The post below should be seen purely as a snapshot of history.
My plot development tool, Narrative Nods is by far the most downloaded of my apps on Google Play. A lot of people have told me it’s helped them a lot. And so, I made another similar app, Character Nods, which is based on character narrative theory.
How Character Nods Helps You Design Better Novels
If you haven’t read my article on fiction character types, I really suggest that you do. It gives a lot of information of various character types you can implement in your plot.
However, the focus of Character Nods is on your protagonist and your antagonist. They are by far the most important characters of your book. As a result, it’s them you should make sure to develop properly. The reason? The interaction between protagonist and antagonist is what creates the narrative tension of your story.
If you recall my article on narrative antagonists, this tension is an absolutely critical aspect of story-telling.
Is the protagonist a thinker or a do-er? Is the antagonist after material possessions or personal achievements? And how do their personality traits affect the area of conflict between them?
And so, analyzing key personality traits, the app creates a complex, analytic report of the protagonist and the antagonist of your novel. In the process it detects problem areas and, more importantly, it offers suggestions.
Among other elements, the analysis contains concrete advice on how to develop the narrative tension of your novel. That is, it suggests ways for which area is worth focusing the narrative struggle between your protagonist and your antagonist.
Furthermore, it points out inconsistencies between personality traits, where one character attribute is somewhat conflicting with another.
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helpful a little
Just to reiterate the warning at the top of the post, none of my Android apps is any longer maintained. If you still have any of them installed on your phone, you should uninstall them. For my webapps (accessible on phone and desktop alike), see this page.