𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐤𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐤, writing help

𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐜'𝐬

*•.¸♡ 📓 ♡¸.•* 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐜'𝐬 can seem like an easy task at times, and at others much more difficult, however this will be the foundation of your story and so getting them right is extremely important. Luckily for you, I'm here to help! *•.¸♡ 📓 ♡¸.•*

( -judestfrancis )
( 𝐜𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚 )

I'll be using my most established OC as an example throughout this chapter when it's required — Louie Holt from 'brat'

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬

First of all, you should have at least a brief idea for your plot. I knew with brat that I wanted to write a story about Richie Tozier and a stuck up, privileged character. This is important because you need to be able to know how your OC will fit into the story appropriately, if you can't do this then the book is going to grow hard to write and things will fail to add up with its plot.

Once you have that laid out, you can actually start developing your character.

Details such as their name and their face claim can either be decided before you begin writing their character: in this case, their face claim may be significant to part of their arc or background. Likewise, their name may have a certain meaning of importance.

In other cases, you may choose to pick out their name and face claim afterwards — this allows you to choose details that are fitting to their newly developed characterisation. It doesn't matter when you actually choose these things, it's whatever works best for you — just know that these two are essentials within the basic details of your character.

𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞

name: Louie Francis Holt
face claim: Elijah Stevenson

I personally had no particular reasoning for my face claim other than that I felt he fitted the role well. As for my character's name, Louie was a name commonly given to numerous kings — I thought it fitted with his personality and his specific traits.

𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 & 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

This is where you really need to make sure you're developing your character correctly. Never give your character traits just for the sake of having them as you'll find yourself stuck later on. You should feel inspired to write about them, so make sure they mean something to you in some shape or form — this will make writing them much more enjoyable and hence easier.

For example, Louie is icy and treats people very coldly. This trait ties in with his backstory — he has never experienced a touchy, warm kind of love from his parents. They aren't that type of family, and so he finds it difficult to give others what he most craves — compassion.

You should always try and make your character's main, typically negative traits link into some part of their backstory and arc. I say negative traits, because if you are writing a character who's traits are purely positive then you are going to have a very hard time writing. Main and accompanying characters are literally made in order to be developed! That is what your story is about — your characters. They have to develop in some way, whether that be in a good way or a bad way by the end of the story, otherwise there's no point and your audience won't feel any sort of connection or empathy towards your book. This is why you should have significant negative traits to your character's personality — e.g: they are unreliable (they have grown up with an absent routine and hence feel they don't need to be relied on by anybody), they can't accept love from anybody (they've been told they're undeserving in the past) etc etc etc.