CHARACTER PERSONALITY
Personality refers to individual characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. That is, understanding how the various parts of a character come together as a whole.
In this vein, it’s extremely important to look at how you reveal the personality of your characters to your readers.
You can do this by infusing it in various ways.
DRESSING
CHARACTERS RELATIONSHIPS
CHARACTER DECLARATION
CHARACTERS INTERESTS
CHARACTERS MEMORIES.
DRESSING
If you choose to show off your characters personality via their clothing, then you should ask yourself questions like:
* What does my character’s clothing or style of dressing say about them?
*What does my main character’s dressing say about him or her?
*Is their personality actually being portrayed in the way I want them to be?
For a mild illustration, here’s how I captured the personality of my main character in my flash fiction , ‘Bow and Arrow’
‘ …Standing in front of her open closet; that is overrunning with stylish dresses and blazers, she pulls out a lapel jacket.
Peering into her wall mirror, she brushes her Brazilian weave and throws the jacket on her body finishing off her look with a golden chain belt… ‘
From this illustration, it’s easy to detect that my main character is a stylish chic and an ultra-modern fashionista.
Often times, one can argue that character’s dressing may not say all about the character, but it sure gives off some information.
You can even go further to tell us why your character dresses that way.
I may be speaking gibberish in your ears now so let me show you how it works in this illustration.
In the Novel, ’What matters most’ by Melody Carlson here’s how the main character’s personality is revealed,
Brooke laughed as she tossed down the damp napkins, “It figures you’d keep your cool clothes in your car and dress like this for school.”
This mild comment from the other character, reveals that the character is one who’s interested in her appearance, fashion and style.
In the above illustration, it’s done through DIALOGUE but it can also be done through action scenes.
In the American movie – Wedding Planner, the scene where the main character- Mary Fiore struggles to pull out her designer shoes. She’s stooping at the middle of the major road, not minding the sight of an oncoming vehicle. This could be another way of rating her high interest and love for classy items.
There are various ways of revealing character’s personality through their dressing, In this case it’s her love for Her Expensive Shoes.
So, you can show your character’s personality via dialogue or action.
CHARACTERS RELATIONSHIPS
The kind of relationship your character keeps must tell us something about their personality.
From classic literature BOOKS by Chimamanda Adichie to Movies like War room; there are plenty examples of character relationships to explore.
Some might be believable others may be non-static relationships.
If a specific type of character relationship is central to your story (such as a life-altering friendship or romance), find books where these similar features occur and make a summary of the course of the relationship.
Jot characters interactions through the course of the story?
Do characters’ personalities complement each other? Can you give reasons why each character behaves the way they do? Does their behavior affect their relationships?
Like in the movie, ‘War Room’, we saw how the relationship between the elderly lady and the lady experiencing marital crisis was pivotal to the story.
Also ask what types of differences create the biggest conflict in their relationship?
You can observe relationships with your friends and people you know and infuse them when writing your STORY
You can further choose to section it, relationship with blood ties or relationship without blood ties.
The former could be stronger than the latter or vice versa whichever way
In the next post, other points of Character Personality would be tackled.
But till then; STAY MOTIVATED