Taco bout it Tuesday #5: Building Characters | THE LAST ONE!! | GIVEAWAY

Marshmallows. Realmers. Extraterrestrials.

It’s OVER. *SOBS*

WHYYYY. WHHYYYYYYYYY.

But don’t leave now!!! Read through this post for an awesome surprise you don’t wanna miss!

Anyway…. the actual discussion *ahem*

Character Building!

On Dasher! On Dancer! On Prancer! On Comet! On Cupid! On Vixen! On Donner! On Dixen! On Blitzen! On with the discussion!

First of All, What are the Types of Characters?

First of all, there’s the main character, or protagonist is the leading character ,hero, or heroine of any literary/work. The protagonist is the character that the story should focus on and the readers should connect with the most.

Then there’s the villain, or antagonist, who is basically the exact opposite of the protagonist. The antagonist is the evil, everybody hates character who makes the journey   of the protagonist harder. Not all antagonists are persons. Some are even objects, or even  something in nature!

There’s also the secondary characters. These are the protagonist’s friends that are featured in the story a lot but are not exactly protagonists.

Then there’s the itty bitty minor characters. The readers will only get a glimpse of these characters life and are not a huge part of the plot/story.

What are Some Examples of these Definitions?

Let’s use Harry Potter by JK Rowling. Harry Potter is the protagonist. (the main character/one that moves the story forward.) Hermione and Ron are the main secondary characters (Harry Potter’s friends/are featured in the story a lot and the audience begins to connect ((and ship!)) with them.) Voldemort is the antagonist. Characters like Dumbledore, Neville, Snape, Hagrid, Mrs Weasley, Ginny, Sirius, Filch, McGongall, Luna, Fred and George and several others are secondary characters. Other characters like Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, and Padma Patil are minor characters.

WOW. LOOOONG.

How Exactly do I Build Characters?

Good question, marshmallow. For some people (YOU!) when they are reading this part of the post they are like:

This is what I am doing right now.

Or you are screaming:

look at that cat #cuteness

Either way, character building is vital when planning your novel. Even if you are a pantser, autocorrect keeps changing that to panther lol you at least need to know the basics of your main character(s)’s personality, name, age, looks, etc.

There are many ways to confuse you little marshmallows  build your characters. Let’s take a look at some of those ways.

Worksheets! Aka #Pureawesomeness

Worksheets are my absolute favorite way to build characters. Some great resources are:

• http://www.the-writers-craft.com/support-files/character.pdf
• https://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun98/how-to-create-a-character-profile-6986
• http://englishlinx.com/character_analysis/
• http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/setting-and-character-development-worksheet/
• http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html

All you generally have to do is simply fill out the form that the worksheet has given you. Be sure to be very exact with your answers. I find it helpful to copy and paste your worksheet (but only for personal use! Did you know that copying and pasting a copyrighted worksheet of any kind on to your blog publicly is illegal?)  on to a Word document and then fill in the fields by computer so you don’t have to worry about lines and running out of space and stuff.

Illustrate it! Technique —–> If You’re a Visual Learner, this Technique is for You!

Here’s the Illustrate it! Technique! Here are the supplies you will need:

• A blank sheet of paper
• An imagination
• Marshmallows
• Colored pencils (PrismaColors Recomended)
• Pencils

What you do:

1. Using blank paper and imagination, draw a rough sketch of your character with a pencil. Let loose and draw your character! Be sure to add all the details!
2. Next to the character, put some of the characters details, just name, age, gender, nationality, personality basics, etc.
3. You could even add their horoscope!
4. Eat marshmallows and parade around the neighborhood yelling, I JUST FINISHED CHARACTER BUILDING AND I DIDN’T HAVE TO WRITE A SUPER LONG WORKSHEET NA NA NA BOO BOO and drive your neighbors crazy!

Pinterest Technique

What you’ll need:

• A Pinterest account

What you do:

1. Check out Charis’ post for the basics
2. Instead of using it for your storyboard, find pics of your characters by googling something like, 14 year old girl huntress green blue dress
3. Pin them on your board!
4. When writing your novel, check your board for inspiration!

TACO SONG OF THE DAY

TACO CAT.

TACO TAG

Captain Grace reblogged Taco ‘Bout it Tuesday #4: Editing and How Horrible it is on My Inexplicably Long Site Title

PoppleHillStudios reblogged I Wrote A Novel?! | #Snippets! on PoppleHillStudios

Giveaway!!!

If you skipped through the post and read straight to here, do ten jumping jacks and comment below your biggest fear!

Sorry, I just had to do that… XD

Ladies and gentleman, the moment you have all been waiting for…

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