Personality

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I probably will restate a few things word for word from the last chapter, sorry I'm lazy 😅 This can be used for any kind of character, but CP personalities will be included.

Personality is the most important part of any character, aside from the development that comes with it. You gotta have personality to have a good character. You need a good personality for a good character.

Points for creating a good personality

1. Make sure it makes sense
If your OC grew up in a middle-classed family, show that. If your OC had/has a lot of pets, show it. Add anything into their personality, but make sure it makes sense. If they grew up in an uneventful home, they might be a thrill-seeker, or dislike conflict. Give believable traits to your OC or character, but make sure it is understandable.

2. Try
Of course, writing a personality and good development is hard, so try! Don't be lazy and throw cliche and overlapping traits at your poor character. Do your best, put effort into your character and make them unique, but not too flamboyant. Ask yourself: Is my character realistic? Is my character someone I would be able to connect with if they were real? Could I easily describe them?
It's awesome to have a complex character, that's an exception, but make sure you'd be able to somewhat describe and connect to them. It's hard to write a character because you need to create their everything. Movie characters usually look super well portrayed because they don't have a paragraph of personality behind them, which is why it's so hard to write a character well. You have to keep persisting though, skip the personality and don't touch that empty box until you know your character to the core.

3. Use building blocks
Base your character's personality off of literally everything they encounter. Lay down 1-5 main, notable and unique traits and start at the bottom. When they were a baby, what was their life and care system like? Take traits that may have came from every event they've lived through, and erase any unecessary ones. That's what I started doing on a chart/web and it's helped a lot with development and practicing realistic personality. Literally write down how they were raised and main things that happened throughout their entire life. Add and subtract, simplify and make traits more complex, screw around with their developed traits and build off of the big things. Lots of characters and OCs are super dominant in one thing. They are super shy, or super outgoing, there's usually not a large space in between. Don't stick with just a few huge traits, expand in them lots more than just having them be labeled as so and so.

4. Erase crappy cliches
Nearly every Creepypasta character has these traits:
- sarcastic
- insane
- mean but sometimes nice
It's so lazy! It's fine to build off of these but do not end with exactly what you started with! Develop it! Tons of regular characters involve these traits:
- sarcastic
- mean but sometimes nice
- sweet
- smart
First of all, those overlap each other. Second, this is the most basic but common personality type. Sarcasm is really overused but never even shown in the character. Or it's showed so much it washes away anything else. Also, smart isn't a personality trait. Don't use cliche words and traits to describe your character. Even if your character does have these traits, explain them better than just using that word. Say what you mean by it, it'll save you explanations. I'll keep this short, but yeah, try to avoid cliche traits as much as possible.

5. Don't overlap traits
Being shy but outgoing contradict each other. Simply try your very hardest not to overlap traits! If you find yourself doing this, ask what you really mean by it. Does your character take any strangers into a huge disliking? Then there you go, it makes more sense to say that rather than to overlap their traits. Explain their personality in more than a few words, explain what each trait actually means in your perspective.

6. Don't use lists or give a short personality bio
We all want a good character! No one truly wants to have an underdeveloped character, and short personalities can unintentionally lead to a bad personality. If your personality is listed, or less than about 10 sentences, you're gonna have a rough time. Wikipedia may be a hated website to some, but they actually give a whole 1 or 2 paragraphs to describe some of the movie or book characters they are talking about. Listed personalities take away any emotional connection to your OC or character, so avoid them.
Ex. Silvia is
- aggressive
- fatherly
- tough
- emotionless
- keen
- protective
See how long this can drag on for? Even if you have a lot to say about your character, take the time to describe them in something other than a list. It's too...boring and unemotional. Another bad way to go is only a few, or even one sentence.
Ex. Amber stands tall with a good demeanour but is weak in strength.
Ex. Amber is quiet.
I don't care whether or not Amber is well portrayed or not here, use more than one sentence to describe your character. If someone sees a short little personality in the character bio, their brain is just gonna go, "Um, nope." and skim over it. I understand many people have difficulty explaining their character, but try your very best to avoid lists and little sentences. Lay down one dominant trait and explain the hell out of it. Take your time on personality, it's crucial.

So that's all I got for today, I KNOW I SAID I'LL POST EVERY 2 or 3 DAYS BUT THAT KINDA APPLIES MORE STRONGLY ON WEEKDAYS. Since it's the weekend, I'm a writing machine and when it's the weekdays, I'll be slow and very busy. Sorry about that, I'm going to run myself out of ideas XD comment suggestions below, and I'll see y'all in the next chapter.

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