Newest characters Questions | Wyzant Ask An Expert

08/06/19

Filling' up a school setting without making a bunch of new characters?

In a school setting, what is a way to allude that a school is full of students, without making new characters or overusing pre-existing ones?A school is the main setting of a book. The main and... more

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Characters Writing Description Novella

08/05/19

Describing a person. What needs to be mentioned?

When describing the physical features of my more important characters, I often don't add much. I of course describe important features, especially if they will be relevant in the story. For example... more

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Characters Writing Plot Character Development

08/04/19

Does this scene fail the Bechdel test?

My novel has approximately a dozen women in it, but they don’t tend to talk to each other. Most of them are separated geographically or philosophically and sitting down for a chat does not seem... more

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Characters Writing Plagiarism Copyright

08/03/19

Borrowing Characters?

Would it be a violation of copyright and/or plagiarism to “borrow” a character from another novel?For example, I have a short story and want to include as a side character Ender (of Ender’s Game).... more

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Characters Writing Creative Writing Novel

08/03/19

Does the reader need to like the PoV character?

I have the feeling this is already been asked, but I can't seem to find it. Close the question if it comes out as duplicate.There's an issue with novels with a first-person narrator, or a third... more

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Characters Writing Creative Writing Gender

07/29/19

How would we write a misogynistic character without offending people?

In a short story I am writing, I have this misogynistic character who keeps saying misogynistic stuff, and I thought it would be a bad idea to give him dialogue lines. I was thinking that, because... more

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Characters Writing Pov Character Development

07/16/19

How to write a convincing character with a opinion that differs from the author's?

So I wrote a short text recently in which the character has a very strong political opinion (anti-LGBTQ), which in addition is totally different to my own opinion. Now, I wanted to make the... more

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Characters Writing Plot Planning

07/16/19

Why is character lifetime proportional to character development so often?

Hollywood movies are a good example of this, but also many books feature the rule.When the plot revolves around life and death situations, the first to die are the characters with least... more

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Characters Writing Creative Writing Fiction

07/15/19

How do I find flaws in a character I'm building?

I have a particular character in my story who I feel is great. He's a retired monster hunter who settled down with his wife for his later years. He's all-around friendly, respectful, empathetic,... more

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Characters Writing Plot Romance

07/15/19

Choosing between two people in a romance?

So, my dilemma is as follows. I have a romance project with the MC trying to choose between two women who he cares for very much. Each has broken his heart, but are willing to make amends and... more

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Characters Writing Creative Writing Fiction

07/14/19

Is it better to describe the main character's physical appearance early on in the story?

I'm writing a novel, and I just realized I don't describe be main character's appearance until Chapter 3 (each chapter is 1500~2000 words long and there are 25 chapters in total).I *do* mention... more

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Characters Writing Series Novel

07/12/19

How can I Switch Protagonists Between Books?

*Disclaimer: I am not intending on doing this. It is just a question I thought was fascinating and might be useful to other writers.* Here's the scenario. You're writing a series of novels. After... more

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Characters Writing Protagonist Readers

06/29/19

Two protagonists where one is dark - a mistake?

I'm currently writing a tale with two protagonists. One of them is a dark protagonist - that is, technically evil. The other protagonist is not evil. I'm wondering if this will cause the reader to... more

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Characters Writing Naming Readers

06/28/19

Would it confuse my readers to give two siblings nicknames that can be abbreviations of the same name?

In my book, there's two brothers, who are named **Nick** and **Cole**. Now, I've always thought that *Nick* and *Cole* are cool names, so therefore I named the two brothers "Nick and Cole". But... more

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Characters Writing Creative Writing Novel

06/25/19

What are character flaws and what makes a good one?

I mean, what exactly defines a flaw for a character? I know that the character's flaws should have at least some impact in the story, instead of being just a mere detail, but what makes flaw X... more

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Characters Writing Viewpoint

06/25/19

Sympathetic portrayal of devout, rule-abiding characters?

I'm having trouble portraying religious, devout characters as protagonists or viewpoint characters. When I try, I get the sense that the reader - not sharing the characters' beliefs - will have... more

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Characters Writing Novel Process

06/25/19

What are the signs of accidental self insertion?

I am currently writing a novel where the main character will be far more powerful than most of the people in the world and I am worried that I will end up losing sight of what I am writing and... more

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Characters Proofreading Editing Plot

05/30/19

How to edit story structure?

I’ve written a plot for a long story. But it’s not easy for anybody to review because my characters’ dialogue and goals are all over the place, it’s often usually mixed up and I struggle to... more

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Characters Proofreading Editing Quotes

05/29/19

How to show that a character is quoting from a book?

I am editing a text in which the characters use quotations from the Bible quite often.Example: Jeremiah turned toward him, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to... more

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Characters Proofreading Editing Novel

04/06/19

Referencing real and fictional people/characters in novels - legal implications?

I've been going out of my way to avoid referencing famous people in my novel as well as fictional characters, but I keep seeing pop culture references in other books I read as well as in TV shows,... more

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