so I'm trying to get back into writing my webcomic idea after over a year, and I need to fill in my character profiles so I can start getting critique and sharing my ideas with people.
the problem is, I've never really been good at using words or descriptions, I can only seem to portray things using drawings, which I don't have the time for.
so how do people describe their characters' personalities? do you have any tips? examples? words I should know? am I overthinking this? how does the english language work
Wonderful question, especially the very last one.
For personalities, I usually explain how they would act in certain situations. I ask myself questions like, “If they were to lose a loved possession, how would they feel?” Or “if someone expressed emotion to them, how would they react?”
In turn, I also ask, “how would they express emotion?” It normally results in things like:
Lost a possession — they’d be angry about it = which means they’re quick to anger, or use anger as coping.
Someone expressing emotion to them — they comfort the person = which means they have sort of a comforting or brotherly/sisterly energy.
Personalities are really hard, and I’m realizing that so much more so as I write this. To make it short(er), I just throw situations at these characters and estimate how they react, then latch on to their reactions and work from there. I hope this terribly confusing message works!
Hey! Here's a personality type sheet that I use when developing characters: http://www.personalitypage.com/html/high-level.html
Think of your characters and their flaws and what the post above me said, and when you kind of have an idea of who they are and how they act you can go in and pick character traits from one or different personality types that you think would fit the character.
Think about how they act on a regular day or in story then write what you think of them.
I usually start broad with the biggest parts of their personality (their usual mood, their most common reaction to positive and negative things, their general worldview and how it affects their decisions/behavior). Then I fill in the cracks with habits, mannerisms, personal opinions, how their past influences them, on and on until I think I can confidently predict how they'd act in any given situation (or if you want to save time, just the situations they'll encounter in your story).
Hope that helps!
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