Saturday, July 31, 2010

Character Traits

Now that we've chosen a unique profession for our characters, let's choose some interesting traits and personality types. Choose two, three or four distinct traits (good or bad!) for each character and use them consistently in your novel or short story. Then, you'll ensure that your characters are all very different, likeable (or the love to hate type) thereby captivating the reader.

Here are several mannerisms that come to mind: boastful, shy, silly, conceited, confident, possessive, jealous, intelligent, belligerent, charming, nosy, tattle-tale, hateful, racist, flirty, sexy, loud, fun-loving, persuasive, generous, stingy, selfish, sweet, generous, sensitive, pretentious, talkative, quiet, sarcastic, funny, neat, sloppy, punctual, habitually late, brooding, hopeful, hopeless, positive, negative, pessimistic, optimistic, power hungry, timid, and the list goes on.

Which of these personality types have you used for characters? Which combinations would be the most fun? Freel free to add more.

3 comments:

  1. Definitely used the power hungry trait! All kinds of romantic AND mystery-related themes for that one. Romantic because while the character has a thirst for power, he still can't get that one sexy woman out of his mind.

    Mystery speaks for itself. Power hungry enough to KILL for what he wants?

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  2. Here are several more character traits that come to mind: nervous, prissy, conservative, liberal, athletic, clumsy, vain, slutty, potty mouth, low self-esteem, confident, fashionable, casual, organized, charismatic, competitive, couch potato, doting, smothering, possessive, over/under achiever and what else, folks?

    There are plenty of ideas here to incorporate to make your characters stand out. Make them all individuals and very different. Actually, I'm telling myself this as much as anyone. :)

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