Here are more notes on a great panel at Life the Universe and Everything SF/F symposium. The topic is on characterization.

– Details are what define the character. The better you understand your character the better you can present them to be successful in your book. You don’t have to provide extensive details.
– Characterization can be borrowed from the dungeon Masters, role players, game, as it has a lot of building character traits already defined. Character sheets help keep the game/plot moving along. Role-playing. You just have to construct upon your character and not the side characters
– You can speed the process of remembering detailed attributes of a character by quickly checking the character sheet. You would update the sheet as new information is gained. The document can act as your cheat sheet. It helps with maintaining continueality, keeps track of motivations, and acts as a roadmap to you don’t get lost. Some authors may send the character sheets took a continuity editor so they can keep an eye out for inconsistencies with the character sheet
– A character’s name is very important. You may want to look up the meaning of a character’s name to see if it matches with what the character is that you want to have defined. The character’s name is the most frequent noun used in the book, Dolores umbrage of Harry Potter has meaning. For example, Dolores means ‘mean’ in another language and matches well with the character in Harry Potter. Even minor characters should have a name.
– The website, baby names.com is a nexus source of seeing what names mean
– As you fill out your character sheet, you will want to consider what the character can add to the story and what do you want the character to accomplish in the story. You do want to avoid stereotypes. An example of an archetype is such terms as hero or villain. While a stereotype would be a cop from one of the southern states.
– Society means. Where do they align themselves? Back story will influence a character and what they do in a day job and they even influence the type of things they observe. For example, a carpenter may notice the workmanship of wood or businessman will notice attributes of a situation that is linked to think he or she is familiar with.
– Some authors will create a character grid to see the relationships between all the characters and story. It can also act as a quick reference. If you need look up the name of a minor character.
– You want to ask yourself what makes the character unique. This can even be displayed by how character dresses and stress can define what a character thinks of themselves. But a sloppy ornate? Mannerisms also add uniqueness to character, such as a limp or twitch. Another unique trait can be speech patterns in the words they choose. Some characters have such a unique way of talking fantasy. For example, yielding store wars) they really don’t need speech tags to know who is talking. When you are touching upon dialogue because, not use too much jargon.
– Characters are also defined upon personality. Are they smart or charming. An example of attitude might be this quote. ‘The weak, our meat while the strong to eat.’ What kind the character would say that phrase?
– Every character should have a weakness. Even Superman that this kryptonite.
– Conflicts in character arches are the internal conflicts and evolutions of the character throughout the story. Confluence can create motivations for the characters take action. And arch would be where character is being weak they show bravery and in the end they win.
– You will want to have a point in the story that you define the characters description begetting a description and other notes of the characters traits and passed or motivations in the note form can be referenced throughout the book. Every time there’s a change noted in the notes. Some writers will actually write the chapter synopsis at the end of each chapter. They kind of document what was done in that chapter, so that they can know where to go with. I have look to the entire book to financing in case anything reference later.
– This information is available on website Johnnyworthen.com.

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