What character traits do you most want your character(s) to have? \ stacker news ~the_stacker

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What character traits do you most want your character(s) to have?

360 sats \ 10 comments \ @cryotosensei 27 Oct the_stacker_muse

Decluttering my worksheets. Thought I would conduct a thought experiment in the process. When you guys write, do you consciously think about the traits you want your characters to embody? Are there particular qualities that you have a soft spot for?

I don’t know about you, but whenever someone compliments me funny, I still feel as if my heart were squeezed warmly bu this praise.

Anyway, here is my list of positive attributes that I have taught my students:

creative - able to make new things or think of new ideas competent - able to do something well diligent - working hard and steadily earnest - serious in effort adaptable - able to change to suit new conditions self-motivated - initiative to do something without supervision conscientious - putting in a lot of effort for your work determined - persistent meticulous - very careful about doing something accurately broad-minded - able to accept diverse opinions energetic → Has lots of energy, vigorous enterprising → Ready to try new and difficult things enthusiastic → Having a lively interest experienced → Wise or skilful in a particular field through experience fair → Free from bias or injustice firm → Not likely to change, fixed genuine → Not fake, real sincere → truthful in feelings honest → Upright in actions, honourable innovative → Introduce something new and different

Example sentences:

A technician with ten years of experience is an example of an experienced technician.
Dexter is an enterprising person because he is always ready to take on new challenges.
As a fair person, I do not take sides when my friends quarrel with one another.
When we go overseas, we should be enthusiastic and try new things so that we can understand foreign cultures better.
They have a bubbly personality and are very energetic on the beach, playing beach sports for many hours.
A technician with ten years of experience is an example of a competent technician.
An avid sportsman, he plays all kinds of sports and leads an active lifestyle.
Accepting of people from different cultures and races, she is broad-minded and has an open mind.
When we work with people who are different from us, we must learn to be adaptable and flexible.
A history book full of true facts is an example of an accurate reading material.
As a fashion designer, she produces imaginative and creative work.
He is a dependable person and you can always count on him to do what he promises.
Alex was conscientious and never missed out on any detail in his work.
Irfan was an efficient class chairman and finished all his duties properly every day.
The mouse was so determined to get the cheese that it wore a helmet.

You must be curious about Sensei’s favourite attributes. I won’t keep you hanging there for any longer:

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160 sats \ 3 replies \ @hannotek 27 Oct

I love thoughts like this!

Whenever I envision a character for a story, I like to focus on their grit, the stuff that makes them real. It is that grittiness, from the trenches of their lives, the unexpected strengths, that makes this imaginary person real and tangible.

Throughout my life as a soldier, or a diesel mechanic, or a salesman, or writer, I have encountered many real people who have real strengths, real weaknesses, and a profound sense of dedication to something in life.

Grit is that eclectic mixture of our flawed dedication to some aspect of life and that irreducible drive to accomplish an otherwise unimportant goal or task.

Grit is the guy going through a divorce who repairs engines on fire trucks as he silently suffers through cancer because he doesn’t want his ten-year-old daughter to worry or think him weak.

Grit is the overweight, introverted salesman who makes up for a low self esteem by becoming the best salesman in the company, just so he can prove to his father that he’s not a failure in life.

Grit is the young adult addicted to pornography who longs so much for human intimacy that suicide is a daily threat.

For my characters, grit is just the stuff that makes them real and relatable, highlighting their struggles even when they succeed.

Grit is the real humanity behind the facade of perfection we often portray to strangers. If anything, I want my characters to have grit so the reader can instantly connect and live through them and their story.

Thanks for sharing! These types of writing experiments are always rewarding to me.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DP0604 27 Oct

Wow, you've described what we feel when we write and read those texts with which we identify and remember that we are imperfect beings.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 27 Oct

Thanks for the detailed message and for sharing your process!

It’s always interesting to read how people - fictional or real - overcome trials in their lives.

Have you written about characters who LACK grit?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @hannotek 27 Oct

That’s a great question, and I don’t really know if I have done so on purpose.

I’ve written plenty characters that were just boring and flat. They were like cardboard cutouts, in that they looked like characters but they had no depth. And when I first started writing years ago, I just couldn’t figure out why my story wasn’t moving forward. I thought the plot was wrong, or even that my ideas for the story weren’t worth writing down.

In 2019, I attended a fiction workshop with other writers, and I realized that the characters I was writing were a big part of my problem. A YA fantasy writer named Kirk interrogated my characters and wanted to know about who they really were.

After just a few questions, I realized what he was trying to teach me: if I wanted to write realistic characters, then they had to be real. If they weren’t real to me, then they wouldn’t be real to the reader either.

Honestly, that workshop was more way than worth the few hundred dollars that it cost. It taught me something so simple that it’s almost stupid–Without characters you don’t have a story, and without real characters you won’t have readers.

There are many ways flesh out characters, like the sheets someone else mentioned earlier in this thread. And the great part is that they can be whoever you want them to be. I just focus on the “grit” because that helps keep me grounded. Otherwise, my characters would likely all be superheroes with no flaws and perfect lives, and that just sounds abysmal!

72 sats \ 4 replies \ @Scoresby 27 Oct

I find it difficult to keep a particular trait or set of traits in mind when writing a character. I think I focus on a feeling of who I want them to be and see where that leads us.

102 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 27 Oct

You can buy trait sheets from WotC for your characters ~lol

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 27 Oct

I'm not necessarily at a loss for such traits, only I find defining a character by their traits turns them into cardboard while harboring a feeling about them in my mind helps me imagine them as a person I'm getting to know. Keeps it interesting.

102 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 27 Oct

Yeah, I get it (was just taking the piss, sorry)

I also think that the magic of discovering character traits is best enjoyed when it isn't all too static, unless we're talking about AIs that don't learn. I think it goes like this is irl too, even when it could happen sometimes that you disappointingly find out about your own bad trait (and then do something about it!)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 27 Oct

Ah! So your passion project is a work of fiction? Do you still spend time on it every day?

I think I have become so uptight with working and parenting that I feel I cannot just go with the flow with regard to time. Like I am very intentional about the way I spend my spare pockets of time. So, writing to discover the inner life of a character doesn’t gel with my headspace these days haha

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DP0604 27 Oct

This is an excellent post, I've always wanted to write ✒️ , although it seems that inspiration hasn't come to me yet.