#that will be great. perfectly fine and blank slate background do not fail me now

[beaversatemygrandma]

Today was GOOD.

So. First off, I got a job interview with a BANK. BANK. GUYS A PROPER CAREER TYPE JOB. It was a phone interview and me and the person were enjoying talking to each other. I can count money and have been told I'm easy to talk to. Win-win here. Seems like all that was required. Just have a background check and I have a good feeling about this one. :3c Fuck getting turned down at panera. Fuck restaurant service. BANK. Now to hope that having non-existent credit and me being in-person eventually doesn't fuck me over. I want this so bad. Real job. ohhh it's a real fucking job.

Also. My bf's sister picked up a dog today. This one's a story. She was driving home early this morning and she watched somebody put this 6 month old puppy on the back of their open tailgate of a truck and drive off, essentially launching the puppy into the bushes. She immediately pulls over, picks up the dog, Which apparently required untangling her from thorny vines and such, put the dog in her car, and took it home. This dog. An absolute damn sweetheart. She's young, she's calm, she's well-behaved. She will straight up cuddle with you. She's a blue merle, seemingly purebred, catahoula leopard dog. We think she was a rejected hunting hound. Somebody who didn't take the training right and was too shy to be a hunting dog or something. I mean, that stuff happens out here. It's common. But a gorgeous catahoula? She's so pretty and well cared for. Anyways, due to my bf's sister not being allowed to have any pets here (has de-house-trained a dog before), she's what their mom calls a "Time Share Dog". We're all essentially splitting up responsibilities here, and because we're the most active and basically missing the schedule of daily walks with Tabby, uh, this may be a mostly around us dog. I've already walked her around the property, gave her Tabby's old squeaky ball (which she loves), and the treats that Tabby never liked (Tabby didn't like sweet potato. They were dried sweet potato sticks wrapped in bacon and she'd rip the bacon off and leave me with a wet sweet potato.) Rosie is loving those. His sister is very much under the impression of "her dog" but honestly, it's now their mom's dog under our supervision most of the time. She'll just take Rosie on rare adventures and give her pretty collars and such. And give her the baths thankfully. About it really.

Anyways, partial owner of an adorable hound now. I already taught her "down" because that was a big issue. She jumped. A lot. And bf's sister has a 4yo and this dog will get big. Such a smart dog and already knows how to sit and come. Though, there's a chance she didn't have a name or was just called 'puppy' because that's what she responds to. She really does seem like a pick of a litter that failed the hunting training. She'll be a damn perfect house dog though.

#taks speaks #a dog and a possible job? FUCK YES #literally fuck going after my old job. this is a lifetime job possibility #I could be a bank teller and work my way up and learn everything i need to there and if i ever want to leave. then boom. fantastic ref #good job. good pay. hopefully has medical and dental. likely has pto. guaranteed sundays off #reasonable hours bc BANK. like they're only open 9-5 anyways #no night driving to work for me #that will be great. perfectly fine and blank slate background do not fail me now #also the dog is so strange. very much looks like a purebred #but purebred and catahoula don't go together very well because it's a specific mix of a louisiana hound dog #it's like heeler. cur. hound. mastiff or something #idk. they're hunting dogs and surprisingly uncommon out this way #they're boar hunting dogs. and deer and mountain lions.. #BIG DOG. anyways

[tsvitok]

Creating your characters

Stories are about characters, be they people or worlds. It is important to know how to make a good one.

First though, let’s talk about the role of the character.

There are two types of roles a character can play, major and minor. The major character is the character that is central to the story, while the minor character is one that is not central to the story and usually acts to support the major character.

The major character, usually being the one that the story is about, is typically the one that gets the most attention and development.

Minor characters are often not overly developed because they do not need a great deal of detail for them to work. Minor characters act a bit like background or props when you are telling a story, they’re there to help the story work smoothly and seem more real, but not necessarily all that important by themselves.

The distinction matters for a deeper reason than just short-hard for important and less important. What makes a character good? How compelling they are.

A compelling character is one that gains the reader’s interest and holds it for as long as is necessary to justify them being in the story. Minor characters do not need to be compelling, they just need to help make the major characters compelling. A good minor character makes the major character good.

So now you’re probably wondering. how do I make a compelling character? It is no different than an opening line really. There are many different ways; they can be absurd, witty and acerbic, bleak, disorienting, foreboding, romantic, somber, they can break expectations.

But all things should lead to you wanting to know more about the character simply because you are interested in them. A compelling character evokes interest, not necessarily emotion. If a character is one-sided, one-dimensional, that means not much needs to be known about them.

One-dimensional, shallow characters do serve a purpose - but they are only ever useful as minor characters and the perspective character. Their purpose as a perspective character is to be a blank slate for the reader to step into. It is perfectly fine to write these characters if you are writing a story for escapism and self-insertion style fantasy.

A lot of people will scream of blasphemy for me saying this but, not all things need to be fine art. The majority of writing, painting, music, movies and so on, are made to give enjoyment and comfort to people who aren’t going to critically examine an artwork. Most people just want a bit of fun because life is stressful and pretty shitty.

Don’t aim for a compelling character if it doesn’t suit your needs. This goes back to the previous topic discussed - preparing your story, specifically about why you are writing your story. Know what you want to do with the story, it’ll make it infinitely better.

If however, you want to write a compelling character, maybe you aren’t doing a self-insert escapist story, then keep the following in mind. A compelling character is a realistic character. Keep in mind their motives for why they’re in the story. Characters must act in accordance to themselves. Doing otherwise is “breaking character” and it is pretty appropriately named. It breaks the character. Characters are like people, though there are exceptions, all people act in accordance to a personal rationale. People don’t act out of character, we often just don’t know the full story of why they’re acting differently from our expectations. The same must be true for characters.

For example, if I have a story about a knight who regards honour as more important than his own life, then he dishonourably kills an opponent to save himself - I can proceed in two ways. This can be a trigger for a change in himself, maybe he seeks redemption, or I can continue to play it as though nothing happened and later in the story reveal that the reason he did that was because he had promised his liege he would not dishonour them by failing his task of killing that opponent.

This can be a major point towards compelling someone into finding out about that character. A knight who says he lives for his honour and does something dishonourable will naturally draw people to wonder what went wrong and they’ll want to find out the results because they will expect there to be a reason.

It can also backfire, particularly if you do it too often or do not provide reason. If for instance my knight dishonourably killed everyone he met, people would lose interest because I didn’t show any consistency in my character. A character needs to have a reason for doing things.

And here I will introduce a final concept for this section, the idea of interaction. As with people in the real world, a character is a byproduct of their existence. They don’t exist in a vacuum, unless that is their literal backstory.

If you want a character to be interesting, consider what they are in their world. Consider their flaws as well as their strengths. No person is perfect, nor should a character. A character’s weaknesses will add to the trials of their narrative and their strengths will help them overcome those trials.

A perfect character is a bad character for two reasons; it is unrealistic and they are insufferable to read about. A person who can overcome all trials without suffering is not a compelling character, they are not a character but a force of nature that resolves the narrative without the need for the narrative. If a perfect character is faced with a challenge you must bend the narrative around them so that it becomes a challenge worth reading and you focus on them and that itself just goes to show how unrealistic they are.

Always consider your characters to be people, always imagine how they came to be in the story and how they’ll get where they want to go.

Examine who they are.

Ask what goals they aim to achieve by being in the narrative.

Ask yourself how they will achieve their goals through the narrative, and do not forget that they can fail to achieve the goal - but they must try.

Ask what strengths or positive qualities they bring to the narrative.

Ask what flaws or negative qualities they bring to the narrative.

Knowing these five things will bring you that much closer to creating a compelling character.

#writing #writing tutorial