I, too, am always in a sweatshirt with no make up on and i really have little intention of changing that lol also, i just love your videos. They’re so chill, and cozy, and i feel like I’m learning a lot from your writing/development process. ❤
My favourite exercise for character creation is 'What does this character have in their room?' This is a fun thing that a friend of mine recommended to me and I absolutely love it. It allows you to gain a greater understanding of the things they consider important. Do they have any personal photos? Any mementos they consider important? Any rewards? What kind of things do they use of unwind? Is their room clean or messy? How big is their bed? What kind of clothes do they have within an arms reach? etc. It allows you to create a much more closer understanding of the character you are trying to create and understand what they consider important.
I loved the video!! I'm really lucky that I have a backgroud as an actor, so creating characters and bringing them to life has always come really naturally to me. I absolutely use the AU idea; I usually imagine what they'd do if they were playing dnd lol
I love this way of figuring out characters. I unfortunately overthink everything. For instance, today I spent 4 hours brainstorming 2 characters. Just 2. I figure out their MBTI profile, what enneagram they are, become their therapist and ask a hundred different questions. But your new way is so concise and gets you in your characters mind in a whole different way. I am going to try and use the scenario, I have never heard of that, and it sounds so fun.
I feel the overthinking everything 😅😭 -- I love that you "become their therapist" hahaha that is great. Let me know if you took anything that worked for you!!
I'm just going from the "I have an idea" phase to learning the nuts and bolts of putting it all together, and I'm finding these videos very helpful. The character questionnaires feel so tedious, and this seems like a good alternative. Thanks!
So glad they can be helpful!! If you’re just starting out I definitely recommend trying any and every technique out there - writing is such an art form and everyone does it differently which is why it’s so beautiful 💗
Whenever I am writing, I feel like I need to know my character deeply, before starting the book, and I decided to take that step before starting this new project tho and damn, thank God I watched this video.
This is extremely similar to Abbie Emmons’ videos about the science of story, she does a phenomenal job of making things make sense and teaching people how to write something people will want to read. Worth checking out. Excited to read this book! 🙂
I love the relationship web! I'll definitely try it out for my next project. It's going to be my first series and the cast is big, so this might work wonders. Thanks a lot! I absolutely love your videos
I write very similar to what you're doing regarding my characters. I sit and try to mind map on a whiteboard who all my characters are information about them within the book and then how they interact with each other that really helps me to build who they are sometimes I don't know what their needs and their ones are, but as I think of the story and how they interact with other people and needs to come to the surface and once I see that I can build from there
I loved this video! Thank you so much for giving step-by-step instructions on how you do this because I have been struggling on how to create the best, most well-rounded characters and quickly figured out that the questionnaire just isn't the right thing for me and my characters. Writing mini scenes and throwing all of your characters into it sounds like such a great way to get to know your characters and I am definitely planning to do that with my characters!
Thank you so much! This was so helpful. I thought I was the only one who found the random Q&A style character profiles difficult. 😅 Keep writing and thanks for inspiring others to do the same. 💗 P.S. totally would love to know your fav DCP story someday
yess! so excited for this video! i was literally thinking about how i have to flesh out my characters this morning and how i didn't know/want to do that. thank you so much! will update when i've finished the video!
Yay! I hope this helped in some way - I definitely find writing helps me fully figure out who my characters are !! Have you tried putting characters in different scenarios?
I always have some sort of backstory but I definitely figure them out more as I write - I envy writers who think of fully fleshed out characters before they write haha!
Love this. My process is very similar. I have basic information about the character (name, age, job, appearance, also a distinguishing feature and something small about their family, work or play/friends). Then I have want, need, false belief + ghost (the reson for their false belief). I also use logline character description (depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, anxious clownfish). I love using that for minor characters.
i love how chill your videos are like i can relax while i learn something new. also the whole thing with the 100 questionnaire is so real like they never worked for me so i sort of gave up cuz i thought that i was the problem 😭😭 anyways i will be trying things your way since it seems more helpful
omg--this video was great! such good insights! i definitely fell down the rabbithole of character profile questions and i found that i really didn't help at all! what actually helps me the most is figuring out what kind of story i want to tell with my characters. each character has a purpose in the story right? so what is it? why are they important? what does their story arc have to stay and why is the reader supposed to care about them? then i get into what the reader is supposed to feel towards them. like if i want to reader to like them or not. then i make their profile (i always answer a few questions like their age/appearance/personality. but i also like to give them a life motto. i actually got that from ana neu on youtube. (love her videos!) this helps me to focus in what is important to them. on of my characters mottos "family comes first" and he definitely sticks to that. if he had to choose whether to save the world or his girlfriend, he is going to choose his girlfriend without a second thought or a guilty conscious. a big part of his character arc is losing his guilt and his empathy and succumbing to power. (it's hard to not do that when everyone thinks he's an actual god lol.) anyway. I never really vibed with the want/need/false belief system. but you explained it so well and made it really simple and i think that I actually want to try it with my new story idea! i always have a different system for each story lol. i can never just stick to one! but that's because each story needs different things. like with my epic fantasy, i need to know those characters inside and out because i'm trying to do so much with the story and it is completely character driven. but with less intense stories, i am more able to pants (my fav) and discover the character as i right. my other project is a contemporary romance (i know complete genre switch lol) and i know what the characters want, their motives, and where they end up, but that's about it. I don't really know WHO they are until i write and get it down on paper. which is why i think your idea of writing mini scenes in GENIUS! i will 100% be doing that from now on. anyway, sorry for the long comment but this video just came at such a perfect time! i had planned to flesh out my characters for a new story tonight! i hope you have a great day! thanks for such a great video! also i would love to read the scene you wrote of them in disneyland! that sounds so fun!
You’re so right - every story can have a different process and it seems like you’ve figured that out for your different genres! (Love genre switch ups honestly haha) - I have always found the want/need/false belief system to formulaic until I started studying story and realized every well written character that I loved had them! Now that I have it in my process it makes it easier for the character to appear on the page and then the rest I flesh out in rewrites!! 🫶 would love to hear how the mini scenes go!! I love writing them 😂
Wow, that's a cool way to look at how to flesh out the characters and the story! But you shouldn't watch Ana neu anymore, I heard she has minors moderate for her channel. That and their not protected from p**ophiles 😢
I kinda created my characters through mbti types and then picked hobbies, identities and family trees as well as intercharacter relationships (they are all best friends but how did they bond?) and then thought about each character having (a) person character arc(s). Now I made pinterest boards (2 per person) for fashion and for aesthetic which helped a lot
@@mikwrites i normally just do a habdful of clothing pics and thats it but I wanted to try something new. I also have fixed actors in my mind on how I feel like the characters look. I don’t actually have pictures in my mind so I heavily rely on pinterest. Next I want to make each character a spotify playlist which will be fun (not really I hate listening to songs I don’t know yet 😂 )
Aaaaah I loved that! Like your other videos, it made me instantly want to go and work on my book! I had Helen Mirren in my cast too at one point 🥲 she transformed into Vanessa Redgrave recently!
Hi Mik, thanks for the shout out 😊. I’m totally with you on character, I need to discover them along the way. I’ve taken your advice and am half way through outlining. Through that process I’ve been able to develop the plot and create supporting characters who will help my protagonist move the story along. I heard an interview with Joe Abercrombie who said he doesn’t worry about if his characters are flat in the first draft, he then enriches them in the editing passes. This firstly give me hope lol, then it give me permission to just write. I’m definitely going to be doing a relationship map, I definitely need it for my cast 😊. Thanks for you video, they really help, Adele x
Thanks so much for the great question, Adele! So glad that outlining is working for your process 🥰 - and I agree with Joe 😂 I definitely need to write a draft before I can really flesh out my characters so that gives me encouragement as well!! Happy writing 💗🫶
@@mikwrites it’s such a steep learning curve fore sure! It’s a skill like any other I guess, it’s practice, no shortcuts, much to my dismay lol 😂. Your videos are super helpful so I’ll be here to soak up everything you say 😉. Thanks, Adele x
I have never thought about he AU thing lol but now that I think about it that is the perfect way to get into my characters head and see their personalities while also figuring out the writing style. Thanks for sharing your process
@@mikwrites Yes! I decided to do four of these one where they are ordering from a coffee shop, one where they are working in a cafe, visiting a mall, and then visiting magic kingdom I can definitely see one of them running to the shops to buy mucky mouse ears then taking pictures lol
I don't really build my characters at all I just know if they're a introvert or extrovert, and what's there favorite food. I also know one of their character traits. I know there external and internal problems too though. I don't build my characters like others I know though, so compared to them no, not really.
For so long I thought I was being a bad writer because character profiles just never worked for me. Afterwards, my characters felt overworked and uninteresting to me. Honestly a lot of my projects ended after doing character profiles.
This is such a good video! The way you map out your characters has finally made something click for me so I'm really excited to work on my own project now :) Will you be doing Camp Nanowrimo in July at all?
Happy it unlocked something for you!! I will be doing a *version* of camp nano yes! I’m posting a video on Tuesday about my writing plans 🥰 are you doing camp nano?
@@mikwrites Great! Looking forward to watching when it comes out :) I will be attempting camp nano this year on a story that no one is going to read because it's a blatant rip off of other books, but I like the idea and want to pursue it just to prove I can get further than 10,000 words in a project!
It’s really just my first draft but I’m calling it the zero draft because it puts less pressure on me and I know that not everything is 100% fleshed out !
I, too, am always in a sweatshirt with no make up on and i really have little intention of changing that lol also, i just love your videos. They’re so chill, and cozy, and i feel like I’m learning a lot from your writing/development process. ❤
There’s no better way to live than in a sweatshirt with no makeup on lol but aw thank you 💗🥹 so thankful you watched!
My favourite exercise for character creation is 'What does this character have in their room?' This is a fun thing that a friend of mine recommended to me and I absolutely love it. It allows you to gain a greater understanding of the things they consider important. Do they have any personal photos? Any mementos they consider important? Any rewards? What kind of things do they use of unwind? Is their room clean or messy? How big is their bed? What kind of clothes do they have within an arms reach? etc. It allows you to create a much more closer understanding of the character you are trying to create and understand what they consider important.
I LOVE that! What a fun exercise to do!
For my character its their set of knives and plans on how to take down the queen. ^^
I loved the video!! I'm really lucky that I have a backgroud as an actor, so creating characters and bringing them to life has always come really naturally to me. I absolutely use the AU idea; I usually imagine what they'd do if they were playing dnd lol
That is a great background to have for this!!! I love the idea of putting characters around a DnD table omg 😂😂
I love this way of figuring out characters. I unfortunately overthink everything. For instance, today I spent 4 hours brainstorming 2 characters. Just 2. I figure out their MBTI profile, what enneagram they are, become their therapist and ask a hundred different questions. But your new way is so concise and gets you in your characters mind in a whole different way. I am going to try and use the scenario, I have never heard of that, and it sounds so fun.
I feel the overthinking everything 😅😭 -- I love that you "become their therapist" hahaha that is great. Let me know if you took anything that worked for you!!
I'm just going from the "I have an idea" phase to learning the nuts and bolts of putting it all together, and I'm finding these videos very helpful. The character questionnaires feel so tedious, and this seems like a good alternative. Thanks!
So glad they can be helpful!! If you’re just starting out I definitely recommend trying any and every technique out there - writing is such an art form and everyone does it differently which is why it’s so beautiful 💗
girl I literally just subbed and watched your last two vids on this earlier today… did I manifest this upload 🧐
I think you did manifest this 🤔💘 but thanks for the sub and watching my vids 🥹
I discover my characters and stories through writing. But I need to get better at organzing things afterwards.
Excited for you to write your book! ❤
So do I! haha thank you for watching!!!
Whenever I am writing, I feel like I need to know my character deeply, before starting the book, and I decided to take that step before starting this new project tho and damn, thank God I watched this video.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, I couldn't make any progress because I was spending too much time trying to make the perfect character profile
So glad this helped in some way! Thank you for watching! 💗
This is extremely similar to Abbie Emmons’ videos about the science of story, she does a phenomenal job of making things make sense and teaching people how to write something people will want to read. Worth checking out.
Excited to read this book! 🙂
You’re so gorgeous with and without makeup
I love the relationship web! I'll definitely try it out for my next project. It's going to be my first series and the cast is big, so this might work wonders. Thanks a lot! I absolutely love your videos
Thank you so much!! and yay I hope the web works for you 💗
I write very similar to what you're doing regarding my characters. I sit and try to mind map on a whiteboard who all my characters are information about them within the book and then how they interact with each other that really helps me to build who they are sometimes I don't know what their needs and their ones are, but as I think of the story and how they interact with other people and needs to come to the surface and once I see that I can build from there
A great method!! So fun that your relationships come first and then their wants build off of those!
I loved this video! Thank you so much for giving step-by-step instructions on how you do this because I have been struggling on how to create the best, most well-rounded characters and quickly figured out that the questionnaire just isn't the right thing for me and my characters. Writing mini scenes and throwing all of your characters into it sounds like such a great way to get to know your characters and I am definitely planning to do that with my characters!
So glad this can be helpful!! A questionnaire just wasn't cutting it for me either - let me know if the mini scenes worked!
taking your au method, tysm bff!
Aw thank you!! And yes 🫶 the AU method is the best
Thank you so much! This was so helpful. I thought I was the only one who found the random Q&A style character profiles difficult. 😅 Keep writing and thanks for inspiring others to do the same. 💗 P.S. totally would love to know your fav DCP story someday
ooooh omg yes I will have to answer that in my next Q&A video!!! thanks for watching 💗
I love this way of creating characters!! Thanks for sharing!! ❤
You are so welcome! Thanks for watching 💗
Wow, I love the character connections chart! It’s well organized and succinct!
Please share your short story you wrote with those questions in mind. ❤
I definitely need to think of how I can share that with all of you bc it is too funny 😭
loving this series! i've just started plotting a new book so it's come at the perfect time 🥰
Amazing! Thanks for watching along 🫶
yess! so excited for this video! i was literally thinking about how i have to flesh out my characters this morning and how i didn't know/want to do that. thank you so much! will update when i've finished the video!
Yay! I hope this helped in some way - I definitely find writing helps me fully figure out who my characters are !! Have you tried putting characters in different scenarios?
such a cool idea with the AU stuff! will have to try out :)
Yay! Definitely let me know if it works for you! :)
I love this idea! I’m going to try it 😃
Thank you for watching 🥹💗
I really enjoyed this! I do backstories for them to understand them better. I really like these ideas though
I always have some sort of backstory but I definitely figure them out more as I write - I envy writers who think of fully fleshed out characters before they write haha!
Love this. My process is very similar. I have basic information about the character (name, age, job, appearance, also a distinguishing feature and something small about their family, work or play/friends). Then I have want, need, false belief + ghost (the reson for their false belief). I also use logline character description (depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, anxious clownfish). I love using that for minor characters.
Looooove the logline idea ! May start using that in my process pre-zero draft!
i love how chill your videos are like i can relax while i learn something new. also the whole thing with the 100 questionnaire is so real like they never worked for me so i sort of gave up cuz i thought that i was the problem 😭😭 anyways i will be trying things your way since it seems more helpful
So glad this method seems helpful for you!! And what a compliment about my videos - thank you 😭💗
omg--this video was great! such good insights! i definitely fell down the rabbithole of character profile questions and i found that i really didn't help at all! what actually helps me the most is figuring out what kind of story i want to tell with my characters. each character has a purpose in the story right? so what is it? why are they important? what does their story arc have to stay and why is the reader supposed to care about them? then i get into what the reader is supposed to feel towards them. like if i want to reader to like them or not. then i make their profile (i always answer a few questions like their age/appearance/personality. but i also like to give them a life motto. i actually got that from ana neu on youtube. (love her videos!) this helps me to focus in what is important to them. on of my characters mottos "family comes first" and he definitely sticks to that. if he had to choose whether to save the world or his girlfriend, he is going to choose his girlfriend without a second thought or a guilty conscious. a big part of his character arc is losing his guilt and his empathy and succumbing to power. (it's hard to not do that when everyone thinks he's an actual god lol.) anyway. I never really vibed with the want/need/false belief system. but you explained it so well and made it really simple and i think that I actually want to try it with my new story idea! i always have a different system for each story lol. i can never just stick to one! but that's because each story needs different things. like with my epic fantasy, i need to know those characters inside and out because i'm trying to do so much with the story and it is completely character driven. but with less intense stories, i am more able to pants (my fav) and discover the character as i right. my other project is a contemporary romance (i know complete genre switch lol) and i know what the characters want, their motives, and where they end up, but that's about it. I don't really know WHO they are until i write and get it down on paper. which is why i think your idea of writing mini scenes in GENIUS! i will 100% be doing that from now on. anyway, sorry for the long comment but this video just came at such a perfect time! i had planned to flesh out my characters for a new story tonight! i hope you have a great day! thanks for such a great video! also i would love to read the scene you wrote of them in disneyland! that sounds so fun!
You’re so right - every story can have a different process and it seems like you’ve figured that out for your different genres! (Love genre switch ups honestly haha) - I have always found the want/need/false belief system to formulaic until I started studying story and realized every well written character that I loved had them! Now that I have it in my process it makes it easier for the character to appear on the page and then the rest I flesh out in rewrites!! 🫶 would love to hear how the mini scenes go!! I love writing them 😂
Wow, that's a cool way to look at how to flesh out the characters and the story! But you shouldn't watch Ana neu anymore, I heard she has minors moderate for her channel. That and their not protected from p**ophiles 😢
I kinda created my characters through mbti types and then picked hobbies, identities and family trees as well as intercharacter relationships (they are all best friends but how did they bond?) and then thought about each character having (a) person character arc(s). Now I made pinterest boards (2 per person) for fashion and for aesthetic which helped a lot
Ooh using MBTI is such a great tool! I also love the idea of having a Pinterest board for fashion AND aesthetic - that is true visual planning
@@mikwrites i normally just do a habdful of clothing pics and thats it but I wanted to try something new. I also have fixed actors in my mind on how I feel like the characters look. I don’t actually have pictures in my mind so I heavily rely on pinterest. Next I want to make each character a spotify playlist which will be fun (not really I hate listening to songs I don’t know yet 😂 )
Aaaaah I loved that! Like your other videos, it made me instantly want to go and work on my book!
I had Helen Mirren in my cast too at one point 🥲 she transformed into Vanessa Redgrave recently!
I’m so glad! Thanks for watching 🫶 and this characters FC has changed so many times haha but Helen seems right for now
Hi Mik, thanks for the shout out 😊. I’m totally with you on character, I need to discover them along the way. I’ve taken your advice and am half way through outlining. Through that process I’ve been able to develop the plot and create supporting characters who will help my protagonist move the story along.
I heard an interview with Joe Abercrombie who said he doesn’t worry about if his characters are flat in the first draft, he then enriches them in the editing passes. This firstly give me hope lol, then it give me permission to just write. I’m definitely going to be doing a relationship map, I definitely need it for my cast 😊. Thanks for you video, they really help, Adele x
Thanks so much for the great question, Adele! So glad that outlining is working for your process 🥰 - and I agree with Joe 😂 I definitely need to write a draft before I can really flesh out my characters so that gives me encouragement as well!! Happy writing 💗🫶
@@mikwrites it’s such a steep learning curve fore sure! It’s a skill like any other I guess, it’s practice, no shortcuts, much to my dismay lol 😂. Your videos are super helpful so I’ll be here to soak up everything you say 😉. Thanks, Adele x
I have never thought about he AU thing lol but now that I think about it that is the perfect way to get into my characters head and see their personalities while also figuring out the writing style. Thanks for sharing your process
So happy that helped! It’s honestly such a fun practice!!
@@mikwrites Yes! I decided to do four of these one where they are ordering from a coffee shop, one where they are working in a cafe, visiting a mall, and then visiting magic kingdom I can definitely see one of them running to the shops to buy mucky mouse ears then taking pictures lol
@@signature_SOSmucky mouse ears 😂
Awesome video! I find that when I do long character profiles my characters change once I start writing 😅 so it’s sometimes a waste of time
Yes! I found that too - thanks for watching!
I don't really build my characters at all I just know if they're a introvert or extrovert, and what's there favorite food. I also know one of their character traits. I know there external and internal problems too though. I don't build my characters like others I know though, so compared to them no, not really.
Still a great method!! Whatever works for you is what works for your book! ❤
For so long I thought I was being a bad writer because character profiles just never worked for me. Afterwards, my characters felt overworked and uninteresting to me. Honestly a lot of my projects ended after doing character profiles.
I definitely think it’s different for everyone! For me everyone feels 2D after a profile - writing is the only thing that really helps
What is this app or software you are using? I'm using a word doc rn and its just hard to do w images and text and not helping my flow lol
This is Milanote!!
This is such a good video! The way you map out your characters has finally made something click for me so I'm really excited to work on my own project now :) Will you be doing Camp Nanowrimo in July at all?
Happy it unlocked something for you!! I will be doing a *version* of camp nano yes! I’m posting a video on Tuesday about my writing plans 🥰 are you doing camp nano?
@@mikwrites Great! Looking forward to watching when it comes out :) I will be attempting camp nano this year on a story that no one is going to read because it's a blatant rip off of other books, but I like the idea and want to pursue it just to prove I can get further than 10,000 words in a project!
These videos are so helpful !! Just wondering what app you're using in this vid ? Sorry if you've already mentioned it!:)
The app I am using to whiteboard is called Milanote :)
sorry, what is the software you used for all of this? it would be really helpful for my book.
I used Milanote!
what program are you writing on?
@@lorrainecounts-ramirez6626 I believe it is Milanote in this!
What is the program you used for the whiteboard?
It’s a website called Milanote!
What software is this?
I use Milanote to visually show my process in these videos 🥰
what is a zero draft?
It’s really just my first draft but I’m calling it the zero draft because it puts less pressure on me and I know that not everything is 100% fleshed out !