Welcome to meet Janina!

In my last post "Doing a questionnaire about a character" I described how I felt about the questionnaire about a character. The questionnaire was based on the facts about the character I had listed on this post. Now as an assignment as part of the Start writing fiction -course, I have summarized what the character is like and what her appearance is like. I decided to make it a simple brief description without much froufrou.

 

A summary of what the character is like

Janina likes to live in the moment, at least when the moment is nice. When not, she dreams and plans adventures. She is a big dreamer and gets easily excited about things. 

She is open-minded, spontaneous and unpredictable, but she also has a habit of procrastinating things she should do. With her unpredictability also comes a fickleness in temper, one moment she can be on top of the moon and a minute later she is solemn.

Janina is seven years old and feels unloved by her parents, and because of that lonely. She has become rather independent, and spends her time being adventurous, curious and photographing. She has already decided that she is going to be a professional photographer and that better sooner than later.

Showing the character through appearance

The small girl has light blond hair, which even though it is long and straight always looks unkempt. She is tall for her age of seven, but very thin. Her face is diamond-shaped, wide at the cheekbones and narrow at the forehead and jaw. She has a tiny chin and a button nose, and her cheeks flush easily. Her face looks innocent, open and curious, mainly because of her large blue green eyes.

She is dressed in plain jeans, a long dark red sweater and simple black jogging shoes. She doesn’t wear any jewelry, the only thing that adorns her hands and face are a couple scratches. Her scars aren’t visible, because those few she has are hidden under her jeans. She has a couple of twigs stiking from her hair and her jeans and shoes are covered in mud.  

In future posts I will show her through a habitual or repeated action and through a speech in a scene.

I started my "free writing courses online" -project with the course "Start writing fiction" from the Open University. You can see all my posts regarding this course here. This is Part 1.9 of the project based on an assignment of a Part called "Portraying a Character", where one was supposed to portray the character in four different ways, here I have described hat the character is like and the appearane of her.

Doing a questionnaire about a character

In the Post "Creating a Character" I listed traits and descriptions that I thought would be interesting to know about a Character, this was based on the thought (for example) from Josip Novakovich that a questionnaire could be a good way to create a character. Based on these facts I portrayed a character answering every point I thought essential.

I thought for a long time wheatear I should share the answers of the questionnaire with you and before I had done it I thought I would, even though that basically is not the goal to show it to your readers. I invested a lot of time and energy into it and was for a long time sure that I would share it with you before I would to the next assignment regarding the character in question.

But later I figured, what if I really share my expanded notes of the character with you and you read them and then later you cannot tell wheatear you have read some tidbit in the answers of the questionnaire, in the background information, or whether it came across in the stories.

Also I consider that in the end the background information contains so many spoilers that the stories would lose some of their values and for you it would be even more difficult to evaluate my writing. I am still going to share the summary about the character though.

But I decided to share some of my thoughts about the questionnaire.

In my opinion the questionnaire took a rather long time to finish because I really had to think about so many little things... I didn't necessarily have to invest so much time in it... on the other hand it just made me think so much that I had to invest more time in it than I had thought.

What I really appreciated about the questionnaire though was the fact that I really started thinking about the other persons in my characters life. There weren't any more just mean or stupid people, I also thought about other people’s desires and background. (In this case the parents.) I think this alone will make the story of my character in question much better.

I also enjoyed thinking about "childhood smells" it made me really consider her environment more. Other things that really piqued my attention and made me think and see the character in (a bit of) a new light: desires, character timeline, mannerism and often used phrases/words.

Comments or thoughts are welcomed,
Kim A. Dreamreich

I started my "free writing courses online" -project with the course "Start writing fiction" from the Open University. You can see all my posts regarding this course here. This is Part 1.8 of the project based on an assignment of a Part called "Portraying a Character", where one was supposed to fill a questionnaire about a character.

Ways to create a likable character

How to create likeable characters:
What makes a character (or a person) likeable?
What should a character be like to be likable?

Why should a character even be likable?

Because, a likable character makes the story compelling and makes the reader care about what happens next.

There are endless ways to making a character likeable and they can even be inconsistent with each other. Just think about different people that you found likeable, they probably weren't all formed with the same mold.

Still, I wanted to list some ways to make a character likable, just to get the thoughts rolling.

Being truthful as a character

The character should not show you that they are nice (by saving animals and being the nicest person ever), they should be real and truthfully shown, going after the things they really want. They should be a complex, round person.

Being unique and making different choices

The character should make big and unique, different decisions, according to who they are. The decisions don't need to be nice.

Suffering

In order to get people to like your character you have to make sure that the character suffers misfortunes in order to accieve what they want. Also, being an underdog and having a wound, psychologically or physically, gets people to care. We can relate to that, because we knows how that feels.

Being good at what they do

Being good at their job or at what they do. When a character is competent at what they do, we are attracted to that.

Wanting something

Having something they love/want/are passionate about makes us relate too.

Being funny

Being able to laugh about things, for example about themselves, not being too uptight. When a character is too uptight, that easily can annoy the reader.

Treating others well

The character doesn't have to be nice. But they must have someone, who they treat well, even if they are not the hero or "the good person". We are not drawn to someone who exists in his/her own world without caring about anyone or anything.

Being humble

Humility, realizing that the world doesn't revolve around them. They can know that they are good, or important, but they have to realize that they are only one part of the whole, one prt in a chain of events.

Being attractive

Being attractive is an often used and obvious way to make a character likable. On the other hand as with the suffering also imperfections can make one more likeable.
 

Leading by example

If the character leads as an example (either in a good or a bad way) to the reader (but feels still truthful) the reader can relate and get an rewarding feeling.

Somebody else liking the character

If someone else (often a nice person) around the character likes him/her they lead by an example and that gives the reader the clue that there must be something likeable about that character.

Do you like the character?

You have to try to transmit what you like about the character.

Sources:

YouTube video: How to Create Likeable Characters by BigPuddleFilms
YouTube video: What Makes a Character Likeable? by Jacob Krueger Studio
YouTube video: Making Your Characters Likeable by Story Dorks
YouTube video: The (Secret) Quality of Attractive & Likeable People by Shogo Garcia
YouTube video: Write Fiction that Captivates your Audience with Character Appeal by Cy Porter


You can watch these videos as a playlist:

If you have any comments, or any other ideas how to make a character likable, (or other reading, listenoing or watching recommentations) just comment below or contact me.

Kim A. Dreamreich

Writing about what you know versus about what you've read

I was starting to create the character for the exercise of the Start writing fiction -course, when I realized how easily I would like to slip into things I myself had read.
Let me explain to you the background of this realization. A couple of days ago I had watched the TED talk from the writer, novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "The danger of a single story". (I absolutely love TED talks, and I definitely recommend hers.)

Her talk was really inspiring, she talked  about how she was writing exactly the kind of stories she was reading although they didn't have much in common with her own life. Chimamanda Adichies talk brings to the front that there isn't just one story forming our lives, for example not only the negative experiences but also the good ones. If one takes only one component of something and makes a story out of that, that only creates stereotypes. Stories that aren't the whole truth, stories that are incomplete, only a part of the whole.

I read a lot of western books, English, German, Finnish. But mostly American and English. And when I started creating my own character from scrap I noticed how I put the surroundings into England, and the time into middle age. Why? Because I have read books where that was so, even though I myself have never been in England.

I am not saying that it is wrong, or not good to write about things you don't know about. (quite the opposite, things would be quote dull if people would only write about things they knew.) And I also realize that there is a big difference in the cultural background from Chimamanda Adichi and me.

Still, it made me think why I wouldn't write more about surroundings familiar to me. Why wouldn't I write something that happened in Finland or even Germany? Why did I want to write things like I had read them, not like I know them? It just didn't feel as appealing to me. It is perhaps more difficult to write something opposed to what you have yourself read, something you have "only" lived.

But because of these thoughts I decided to make the conscious decision to place my character in Finland. Let's see how that will work out.

Kim A. Dreamreich

A likable Character

Have you ever read a novel or a text and you just couldn't figure out why you didn't like the character?

They did everything correctly, always tried to do the right thing and they just keep on saving animals and helpless people. And still you don't like them. They are being so overly nice and their unbelievable deeds just keep coming up. And even though you theoretically would think that they are really admirable you are really more annoyed with them.

And then there are characters who do some of the same things and them I like... or someone who doesn't save an animal in the whole text.

There have also been a lot of characters who occasionally are real jerks but I still like them... in their own way and I want to keep reading about them.

Why don't we always like a nice character? And what makes a character likable?

I started wondering this thinking about characters I hadn't liked and had liked previously after I listed facts that would be interesting to know about a character when creating them (in my previous post).

So I decided googling the question and immediately stumbled upon a YouTube video with and from award winning screenwriter Jacob Krueger about the topic.

And I must say, that really answered some of the question I had and got me thinking even more about likable characters. I am most definetly going to think about the likability of characters a lot in the future while reading.

Besides, the video was really nicely done and Jacob Krueger explained everything in such a clear and understandable way.  I really have to check his other videos out too at some point.

Anyway, I continued my "research" with a couple of other videos too and made a sort of summary out of their topics. So if you are interested in how to make a character likable or ways to make a chracter likeable, read this post. 

Kim A. Dreamreich

Creating a Character

How does one create the character when writing fiction?

How to create a good character? How to know the person you are writing about and portray them accordingly?

According to Novakovich one will work better with the characters the more one knows them.

So how does one know his/her characters? 

Well, according to him you need to sketch them in several ways. He suggest using for example a questionnaire. The answers to certain questions, for example about the background, or major struggles, might give you ideas. He is also of the opinion that with a questionnaire one can either support and develop an existing plot or develop a new plot based on the character.

So I decided to list characteristics and facts about a Character that would be interesting to know when creating a character.

In that way by thinking about them one can figure out character traits or personality traits or a list of character traits that the character has.

I am not saying in any way that you should decide each and every one of the things I have listed, not at all, I am merely trying to give you, and myself, ideas about what to think about.

I thought about multiple things I would like to know and other things I have heard that other people consider being important in a character.

After I had listed some of the things I want to know about a character in order to portray them better, I realized that a mind map would probably work better.

At the end of this post there is a list about possible facts about the character one is portraying or describing.

You can also see this list as a mind map below.

This mind map (or list) is not, and is not trying to be the all compassing truth. It is just my way of displaying my thoughts about a written character, that is also the reason why you won't necessarily agree to the way the topics are ordered, but it worked for me.

Below I have embedded the mind map about a characters characteristics and backgrounds in two different ways. Once from wisemapping and once as a pdf from Google Drive. You can also download the pdf.



Or open mindmap in new tab here.





Or download the pdf


1 The Character
  

 1.1 PHYSICAL

        1.1.1 NAME
            1.1.1.1 NICKNAME
        1.1.2 AGE
        1.1.3 APPEARANCE
            1.1.3.1 DRESS
            1.1.3.2 SIZE
                1.1.3.2.1 HEIGHT
                1.1.3.2.2 BUILD
                1.1.3.2.3 DIET
            1.1.3.3 POSTURE
            1.1.3.4 DISTINGUISHING MARKS
                1.1.3.4.1 SCARS
                1.1.3.4.2 TATTOOS
                1.1.3.4.3 PIERCINGS
                1.1.3.4.4 BIRTHMARKS
            1.1.3.5 STATE OF HEALTH
                1.1.3.5.1 ILLNESS
                1.1.3.5.2 ALLERGIES
            1.1.3.6 RACE
            1.1.3.7 CHARACTERISTICS
            1.1.3.8 HEAD
                1.1.3.8.1 HAIR
                    1.1.3.8.1.1 HAIR STYLE
                    1.1.3.8.1.2 HAIR COLOR
                1.1.3.8.2 EYES
                    1.1.3.8.2.1 EYE COLOR
                1.1.3.8.3 NOSE
                1.1.3.8.4 MOUTH
                1.1.3.8.5 SHAPE
            1.1.3.9 FLAWS
                1.1.3.9.1 HANDICAP
            1.1.3.10 ASSETS
            1.1.3.11 SKIN
            1.1.3.12 VOICE
            1.1.3.13 GAIT
            1.1.3.14 CLOTHING
        1.1.4 SEXUALITY
        1.1.5 RIGHT- OR LEFT HANDED
    1.2 PERSONAL HISTORY
        1.2.1 CHILDHOOD
            1.2.1.1 EARLIEST MEMORY
            1.2.1.2 AMOUNT OF MOVING
            1.2.1.3 TRAVEL
            1.2.1.4 CHILDHOOD DREAMS
            1.2.1.5 SCHOOL
            1.2.1.6 FEELINGS
                1.2.1.6.1 FAVOURITE THINGS
                1.2.1.6.2 SMELLS
            1.2.1.7 FRIENDS
                1.2.1.7.1 POPULARITY
            1.2.1.8 ENEMIES
            1.2.1.9 PERSONALITY TRAITS
        1.2.2 MOST TREASURED POSSESSION
        1.2.3 EDUCATION
        1.2.4 MAJOR EVENTS
            1.2.4.1 MAJOR STRUGGLES
            1.2.4.2 THE BEST
            1.2.4.3 MOST EMBARRASING
            1.2.4.4 THE MOST TRAUMATIC
            1.2.4.5 CHARACTER TIMELINE
            1.2.4.6 WORST THING HE/SHE HAS DONE
            1.2.4.7 THE GREATEST SUCCESS
            1.2.4.8 EROTIC HISTORY
                1.2.4.8.1 LOVE OF LIFE
                1.2.4.8.2 FIRST KISS
                1.2.4.8.3 FIRST MEMORY
                1.2.4.8.4 MOST TREASURED MEMORY
                1.2.4.8.5 FEELINGS
                    1.2.4.8.5.1 WHEN
                    1.2.4.8.5.2 WITH WHOM
  

1.3 SOCIAL/CULTURAL

        1.3.1 FAMILY
            1.3.1.1 PARENTS
            1.3.1.2 CHILDREN
            1.3.1.3 PETS
            1.3.1.4 SIBLINGS
            1.3.1.5 KIDS
            1.3.1.6 HER/HIS/THEIR FEELINGS
                1.3.1.6.1 THEIR BACKGROUND
        1.3.2 FEELINGS ABOUT SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS
        1.3.3 FRIENDS
            1.3.3.1 HER/HIS/THEIR FEELINGS
                1.3.3.1.1 THEIR BACKGROUND
        1.3.4 ENEMIES
        1.3.5 DATING, MARRIAGE
        1.3.6 SOCIAL CLASS
            1.3.6.1 FREQUENTLY USED
                1.3.6.1.1 WORDS
                1.3.6.1.2 PHRASES
                1.3.6.1.3 MANNERISMS
            1.3.6.2 RELIGION
        1.3.7 COLLEAGUES
        1.3.8 HOW IS HE/SHE VIEWED BY OTHERS?
    1.4 PSYCHOLOGICAL
        1.4.1 (UN/)HAPPINESS
            1.4.1.1 IDEA OF HAPPINESS
            1.4.1.2 OUTLOOK ON LIFE
        1.4.2 (DIS/)LIKES
            1.4.2.1 IDEA OF GOOD/BAD ENTERTAINMENT
                1.4.2.1.1 CULTURAL
                    1.4.2.1.1.1 BOOKS
                    1.4.2.1.1.2 MOVIES
                    1.4.2.1.1.3 MUSIC
            1.4.2.2 FOOD
            1.4.2.3 DRINK
            1.4.2.4 LAUHGS/JEERS AT/ABOUT
            1.4.2.5 GETS ANNPYED BY...
            1.4.2.6 GETS CHEERED UP BY...
        1.4.3 DESIRES
            1.4.3.1 FUTURE
            1.4.3.2 OCCUPATION
            1.4.3.3 AMBITION
                1.4.3.3.1 MOTIVATION
                1.4.3.3.2 GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT
                1.4.3.3.3 ROLE MODELS
                1.4.3.3.4 GOALS
            1.4.3.4 SOCIAL LIFE
            1.4.3.5 HOPES
            1.4.3.6 DREAMS
        1.4.4 BELIEFS
            1.4.4.1 SELF-KNOWLEDGE/ SELF IMAGE
            1.4.4.2 RELIGION
            1.4.4.3 BIASES/PREJUDICES
            1.4.4.4 VALUES
            1.4.4.5 ATTITUDES
            1.4.4.6 POLITICS
        1.4.5 CONFLICTS AND CHANGE
            1.4.5.1 REACTION
                1.4.5.1.1 PASSIVE
                1.4.5.1.2 ACTIVE
        1.4.6 HABITS/MANNERISMS
            1.4.6.1 ANNOYING ONES
            1.4.6.2 TICS/QUIRKS
            1.4.6.3 TYPICAL EXPRESSION
                1.4.6.3.1 WHEN HAPPY/ANGRY/SAD
        1.4.7 WEAKNESSES /STRENGTHS
            1.4.7.1 FEARS
                1.4.7.1.1 TRAUMAS
            1.4.7.2 REGRETS
            1.4.7.3 WHAT DO PEOLPE LIKE BEST/LEAST ABOUT HIM/HER?
            1.4.7.4 INTERESTS
                1.4.7.4.1 OBSESSIONS
            1.4.7.5 TEMPERAMENT
            1.4.7.6 SECRETS
            1.4.7.7 AMOUNT OF SELF-CONTROL/SELF-DISCIPLINE
            1.4.7.8 INTELLIGENCE
                1.4.7.8.1 WHERE FROM
            1.4.7.9 GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE
            1.4.7.10 WEAKEST/STRONGEST CHARACTER TRAITS
        1.4.8 UNCONSCIOUS ASPECTS
            1.4.8.1 LIES?
  

1.5 ENVIRONMENTAL

        1.5.1 WHERE DOES HE/SHE LIVE?
            1.5.1.1 REGION
            1.5.1.2 COUNTRY
            1.5.1.3 ALONE/WITH FAMILY
            1.5.1.4 RICH/POOR
            1.5.1.5 FEELINGS
                1.5.1.5.1 WHEN DID HE/SHE MOVE THERE?
                1.5.1.5.2 HOME?
                1.5.1.5.3 HOW DID HE/SHE END UP THERE?
            1.5.1.6 RESIDENCE
                1.5.1.6.1 WHERE
                1.5.1.6.2 HOW LONG
                1.5.1.6.3 STYLE
                1.5.1.6.4 WITH WHOM
            1.5.1.7 BIRTHPLACE
                1.5.1.7.1 COMPARED WITH NOW
  

 1.6 LIFESTYLE

        1.6.1 EDUCATION
            1.6.1.1 AMOUNT
            1.6.1.2 SPECIAL TRAINING
            1.6.1.3 FEELINGS
                1.6.1.3.1 FAVORITES
                1.6.1.3.2 DISLIKES
        1.6.2 OCCUPATION
            1.6.2.1 WORK HABITS
            1.6.2.2 SALARY
        1.6.3 HABITS
            1.6.3.1 DRUGS
            1.6.3.2 HOBBIES
            1.6.3.3 COLLECTIONS
            1.6.3.4 SKILLS
            1.6.3.5 DIET
            1.6.3.6 SPORTS
        1.6.4 HEALTH
        1.6.5 THE CONTENTS OF
            1.6.5.1 HIS/HER BAG
            1.6.5.2 HIS/HER POCKET
            1.6.5.3 HIS/HER GARBAGE CAN
            1.6.5.4 HIS/HER BEDROOM FLOOR
        1.6.6 WEALTH
            1.6.6.1 SAVINGS
            1.6.6.2 RICH
            1.6.6.3 POOR
            1.6.6.4 CAR



Feel free to comment or share your thoughts,

Kim A. Dremreich

I started my "free writing courses online" -project with the course "Start writing fiction" from the Open University. You can see all my posts regarding this course here. This is Part 1.7 of the project.

Argument gives ideas (Practice)

I was outside of Kamppi, Helsinki when I saw a grafitti where somebody had written:

"Love is free

but everything costs"

For some reason I found that sentence really inspiring.

I loved the structure of that sentence and decided to utilize the idea for inspiration.

One would write a claim, for example "Summer is coming." (jep, summer, not Winter)
Then one would continue that claim with a "but" and something negative/ an other statement.

For example: "Summer is coming, but I won't be here to see it."
Then one can start thinking about the why, the what and the when. Why was the first statement made? Why won't I/you be there? What is this about?.... And then you can start writing a story about it, or a poem.

I rather liked this idea.

Other (rather random) examples:

Claim 1: 
Everybody loves books.
There is nothing out there.
Feelings get hurt all the time.
Cooking is not as easy as it seems.

Claim 2 or a negative comment: 
... but she didn't know that.
... but I am just lost.
... but nowadays nobody cares.
... but I can't even try.

Let's combine these:

Everybody loves books, but she didn't know that.

OR

Everybody loves books, but I am just lost.

OR

Everybody loves books, but nowadays nobody cares.

OR

Everybody loves books, but I can't even try.


There is nothing out there, but she didn't know that.

OR

There is nothing out there, but I am just lost.

OR

There is nothing out there, but nowadays nobody cares.

OR

There is nothing out there, but I can't even try.


Feelings get hurt all the time, but she didn't know that.

OR

Feelings get hurt all the time, but I am just lost.

OR

Feelings get hurt all the time, but nowadays nobody cares.

OR

Feelings get hurt all the time, but I can't even try.


Cooking is not as easy as it seems, but she didn't know that.

OR

Cooking is not as easy as it seems, but I am just lost.

OR

Cooking is not as easy as it seems, but nowadays nobody cares.

OR

Cooking is not as easy as it seems, but I can't even try.

I won't comment how smart these became, but did you get ideas from any of these? I got plenty :)

Kim A. Dreamreich