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characters

How to Write Realistic Characters

June 15, 2019

characters, creativity, fiction, literature, reality, writing

How to write realistic characters is something most fiction writers worry about. This is for good reason. Writing realistic characters, with realistic dialogues and inner worlds, is the key to writing realistic fiction.

Of course, before seeing how to write realistic characters, you should perhaps ask yourself whether it’s necessary for your novel to have realistic characters.

You might find that question a bit odd. Surely, what’s wrong with realistic characters? Why would anyone not want to write realistic characters?

We’ll take a look at this little detail, too. Sneak preview: it has to do with what I mentioned above, referring to “writing realistic fiction”.

After we get that out of the way, I’ll give you concrete tips on how to write realistic characters. Here’s another sneak preview: To write realistic characters, with believable dialogues and rich inner worlds, you must think like them, individually.

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Character Nods: a Development Tool for Fiction Writers

April 18, 2019

Programming

Android, app, characters, computer, fiction, programming

2 comments

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.

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Types of Fiction Characters: How to Use Them in Your Novel

February 26, 2018

Fiction Writing Tips, Writing

characters, comparing, experience, fiction, literature, writing

4 comments

To speak of character categorization might be a self-evident matter for some authors, and yet it might appear nonsensical to others. Surely, a writer of the latter group might say, you can’t just divide every character of every novel into just a few categories? The truth is neither “yes” nor “no” – or, if you’d rather see the glass half-full, it’s both. It’s true, that a skillful author can make the most stereotypical character appear as unique and original. At the same time, many character functions are similar. More counter-intuitively, perhaps, character functions need to be similar for reasons we will see further below. Today I’ll tell you a few things about the various types of fiction characters.

I’ll show you why it’s important to recognize, understand, and use these character categories. This article is based on various established sources (for further reading I’d recommend Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale), on my academic expertise, as well as on my own writing experience.

types of fiction characters — They all serve a role!

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