Workshop Sharing Forum

loveydove668

making secondary characters (and incorporating them in a story well)

The secondary character is a character that plays a significant role in your story but is not the main character of it. When done right, these characters can be just as likable and relatable as your protagonists. But, if you aren't careful, they can quickly turn stale and serve little to no purpose. Here are some pointers on how to craft a secondary character and incorporate them seamlessly into your story.

* Role: The most important thing to know about your secondary character is their role in the story. What is your character's purpose? Why are they there? Is it to mentor the protagonist, offer them a place to let their feelings out, to be a foil to their personality, or maybe just to be a good friend? After you answer this question, you can further expand your character out by giving them personality traits and other key information.

Let's take Lavender from the movie adaptation of Matilda as an example. Lavender isn't too prominent in the story, but she is likable as she gives Matilda a friend and a companion when it seems like there is no one else there for her. Lavender also helps Matild escape the chokey by throwing a newt into Ms. Trunchbull's water, scaring her to pieces. Also from the same movie is Hortensia, an older girl who helps Matilda during her first days at her school. Hortensia warns Matilda about Ms. Trunchbull and her antics. Lavender is used as a friend and companion to Matilda while Hortensia serves as her mentor.

* Personality and Traits: The next point you should worry about when making secondary characters is their personality and their traits. Depending on the role, their personality may be influenced by the part that they play in your story. For example, Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter franchise serves a role as Harry's friend and roommate. He also serves as the series' comic relief character in the early books. Ron is a foil to Harry as his more immature and goofy personality contrasts with Harry's courage and maturity, fleshing out his dynamic with the titular character.

Keep in mind that not every character in your story needs to be likable. Sometimes, the most hated characters can turn into the most interesting ones. Take Phoney Bone from the Bone series. It can be hard to like him at times, but he still comes off as dynamic and interesting as the series goes on.

Feel free to expand your character out with different hobbies, interests, and motivations. Remember that even if they don't have a huge role in the story, they are still characters and deserve to be fleshed out as such.

* Names: The name of your secondary character may not be the first big thing that comes to your mind when creating one, but a unique name will distinguish your character from others and make them stand out to your readers. Take Star Wars as an example- names like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia stand out way more than names like Joe or Susan. The power of names should not go unrecognized.

Writing a secondary character may see intimidating, but in reality, it's quite simple. Writing one is almost identical to writing a main character, just with a smaller role. Now that you know how, you can make as many secondary characters as your heart desires.

krizpii

How to Create a Villain/Hero // A Workshop

Introduction:
Villains and heroes are often very key characters in novels and stories, and making sure that those characters have depth and are interesting is an important part of making sure your story is enjoyable, relatable, and realistic in a sense. This workshop is mainly based on more suspenseful genres such as action, but the wording can be changed to apply for other styles as well.

Stereotypes:
First off, let’s start with a few stereotypes that you may want to avoid when writing your villain/heroes. The first stereotype you may want to avoid is making a character too nice/evil for no reason. Your villain shouldn’t be running around the city blasting fireballs at the buildings all day, and your hero shouldn’t be running around at every move your villain makes and saving the city with a hose. The villain shouldn’t be doing the same thing every time they start their evil intentions, and if the main protagonist does plot against it and saves the day, it shouldn’t be the same repetitive conclusion of saving the day, because especially with faster pace novels, you’d want there to be less predictability. (Example: if the hero stopped the villain from touching a magical chest last time, it can seem repetitive if you put that in again. Of course, though, exceptions can be made depending on a variety of factors.) A better reference of this would be Dora the Explorer episodes, where Swiper often comes out and tries to creep up to Dora, Dora looks around while Swiper hides, Dora finds Swiper and tells him to go away, and then Swiper goes away and it all happens again a few episodes later.

Personality:
Intentional repetition of something can give a few hints to the personality of a character. If your villain does something over and over again even though their partners told them not to, it can give sense of ignorance, confidence, and stubbornness. Using writing techniques to build up the personalities of your characters is a very useful thing to keep in mind. If your hero always takes the lead even when they are nervous, and need help but denied help multiple times, it can show that your hero feels the need to show that they can do things by themselves without help, feels pressured to prove they are capable, doesn’t want to get others into trouble, is very brave and independent, and such. Using repetition to keep on proving a point can lead back for the readers to wonder “Why is this character doing this?” Which will make it easier to carry in more backstory information.

Backstory:
On the topic of backstories, it is recommended that you create the backstory concepts before starting to write your story: that way you can adjust events accordingly to the backstory of a character, the character’s personality, their intentions and which direction they take from the past, and all of that. You can add a few pieces of his information into the prologue (if there is one) or exposition of your story.

Relationship:
What makes the villain so evil? Is it because the hero was his brother that betrayed him? Is it because they were once friends until something happened? What causes the villain to have all of the evil intentions they have, and what does it do with personal relationships? Is this all for revenge? This is important to keep in mind to make sure your villain is relatable and such.

Closing:
Those are a few points you may think about when writing your characters, good, bad, main, sides, backgrounds, and such. This may not work with every piece of writing, but this is a general thought.

AnnaHannah

How to write different relationships (platonic, romantic, rivalries, etc) and set them apart from each other (ib: @strange_skies) (937 words)

Choosing, setting apart, and defining relationships is very important in writing books. Writing them realistically can make readers enjoy your story much more. Well-written relationships, with their peculiarities, confusions, and consequences, will often inspire new directions to take the plot in.

So how do you define relationships, and how do you show the character's feelings towards them? How do you stop a friend being confused with a romantic interest by the reader?

Your character's emotional reactions towards others are very important to show their relationship. Generally, people will feel vastly different emotions depending on their relationship to a person who does something that affects them. For example, if your protagonist's best friend saves their life by pulling them back from the edge of a cliff that starts to crumble, they'll be grateful and happy, but probably not very surprised (alongside their relief from not falling over). Instead, if their rival who absolutely hates them and would stand to benefit by their death saves them, your character will probably feel surprise, disbelief, and possibly resentment. Whereas if a crush saved them, your character might feel a mix of embarrassment and a surge of feelings for that person and perhaps a dismayed realisation that they're not going to get over them very fast.

Obviously, your main character's own personality will affect their emotional reactions and the way they express them. For example, in the saving-from-falling-over-a-cliff example above, a quiet character might stare at their saviour in shock before remembering to speak (for someone unexpected) or hug them tightly without saying anything (for a friend). A loud, carefree character might exclaim, gasp, and verbalise their reactions in a way a quiet character wouldn't, then laugh it off.

If you're having trouble differentiating between whether your character has a romantic or platonic relationship with another character — although you know which one you want it to be, it keeps reading as the other — consider these points:

• Romantic relationships will usually have an element of tension in them before the characters get together. This stems from the will-they-won't-they aspect, aka the lack of surety as to whether or not the characters will end up together. A character will a crush will want the relationship to develop into something new. This means that they will start to gently test out where the boundaries are (by flirting / teasing / figuring out whether or not their crush is comfortable with touching them and using that to assess the possibility of romantic feelings being returned).
• By contrast, friends are generally more assured in their relationship to each other — both of them are satisfied with what they’ve got. If they’ve only just become friends, there will probably be a period where they both have to work out their dynamic and how they relate to each other (however unconsciously), but after a while, healthy friendships fall into a comfortable pattern, with understood boundaries.
• Close friendships will have different boundaries than looser friendships. For example, best friends may hug and touch each other a lot more than they do other people. This may start gradually as they get closer, for example just with celebrating a win or comforting each other, but then become a habit.
• Unhealthy friendships will also have different boundaries as well. For example, your main character may be friends with someone who pressures them into doing things they don’t want to (eg drinking heavily / using their magical powers to show off). There may be a cycle of Pressuring Character saying that it’s “just this once” and telling them they’re boring if they don’t do it, then guilt-tripping them (“it’s not the same without you”) until your protagonist ends up doing what they say. Your main character may grow used to ignoring this. While they might not tolerate Pressuring Character’s behaviour in other people, they could mentally excuse them by thinking “Oh, it’s just the way Pressuring Character is. We’ve been friends for so long; it doesn’t really matter.”

So, if your characters who are meant to be platonic best friends of a few years keep overthinking whether or not it’s okay to hug the other and dwelling on it too much, that can give the impression that either a) they’re not actually close b) one of them has romantic feelings for the other.

Likewise, if your main character doesn’t really seem to care about their crush (who they’re not close to) taking their hand to pull them along for the first time, that doesn’t make it seem as if they’re interested. In that scenario, there should be more of a “they just touched me omg???” vibe, which can be portrayed through the character’s inner thoughts and physical reactions, e.g. butterflies, as well as them looking to see signs of whether this means anything to their crush (depending on their personality, this could be a direct smile with eye contact, looking away and grinning, or blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact). By contrast, in the same scenario with their best friend, the character probably isn’t going to think about it much.

If, however, someone they didn’t like took their hand, your protagonist will have very different reactions. They may drop their hand and glare at the person or express dislike of the action. If your character just lets their academic rival who they’re supposed to hate pull them along by the hand, readers are going to start to suspect that maybe their feelings for said academic rival aren’t quite all that they seem…

There’s a lot more to writing relationships that this, and I feel that this is slightly muddled but hopefully helpful to someone

superdidi2012

Weekly 2 for Real-Fi

Part 1 (556 words)
How to character plan efficiently and stick to their personality throughout your novel // A Workshop

One of the most important parts of a story, besides from the plot, is the characters. Writers put a lot of thought into their characters, but one of the most important things to remember is that, no matter what type of person- or creature- you're writing, you have to stick to their personality and character traits throughout the whole story. For example, if a character is cold and unwelcoming in the beginning of the story, you can't have them be loving and kind to every person they meet 3 pages afterward. It could also be something as simple as changing their hair from blond to brown simply because you forgot why you chose the color blond.

Everyone does this, and there's no reason to worry about it, but there are some easy things you can do to improve how you portray your characters and make sure this doesn't happen.

Tip 1: Planning out your characters neatly and in a way that's easy for you to remember.
There are lots of ways to plan out your characters. Some people simply write it down in a notebook or on a piece of paper, some email it to themselves, while others create entirely new emails for their characters! You can do it whichever way works best for you, but making sure that it's neat is proven to help your brain remember it more. You should also make sure you put it in a place where you won't lose it because you do NOT want to have to rewrite every single character. Putting it in a safe place near where you work on your novel can also help you keep the consistency of your characters because you can refer to it easily whenever you need to.

Tip 2: Making sure you're efficient with your character planning.
If you're not efficient with character planning, it could take you days to figure something out and get it written down on paper. You also might always be adding on to your characters, even when you're halfway through the novel. You want to get it done and stick with what you have. One way to do this is coming up with a format to use for every character. You can find great character building pages online, but you can also just come up with a base yourself. Some of the things to make sure you have are: physical description, personality, past, family, present life, and their dreams for the future. You also want to put a specific amount of your “novel time” into character building, or maybe even one character per day.

Tip 3: Reread your chapters.
Reading each chapter after you write it, especially if you don't have a professional editor, can help you make sure you're sticking to the same ideas and not starting to lead into something else. It also gives you a better opportunity to cross check your writing with your character sheet because you have your whole chapter laid out in front of you, instead of just a paragraph or two at a time.

Thank you for reading my workshop! I hope these tips help you with your character building and staying consistent with your characters' personalities. There's a lot more about this topic that I wish I knew, but for now, I hope this is helpful to someone!

Last edited by superdidi2012 (July 15, 2023 14:41:46)

ForestPanther

Creating and Introducing Concepts in Fantasy or Sci-Fi Writing that are Believable to the Audience

Idea courtesy of @legocookie6 | 1294 words

Many people- including myself- enjoy worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is the art of creating a world that isn’t Earth, often for your story to take place in. Often, these worlds, especially in fantasy or sci-fi stories, have elements that aren’t seen on our Earth, such as people born with magic or weapons that can talk and have feelings. These may seem like events that simply wouldn’t make sense in a story, but the author introduces them in such a way that as a reader, we can easily understand this concept and fit it in to our picture of the world. This is known as making believable concepts.

There are a few guidelines that help ensure that ideas in a fantasy/sci-fi story are believable, which I will go over briefly.

Rules And Schools are Tools for Fools

Though this piece of poetry courteously written by Constance Contraire might be the easy way out, the creation of a realistic world requires rules and guidelines. Every world has rules- our own Earth follows the rule of gravity, for instance, which yours might alter or remove altogether. But the main thing about these rules is that they are never broken. Your rules can be as wild as you like as long as you keep them consistent. For example, if you’re in a world where gods watch over the protagonist but are sworn to never directly interfere with their journey, you can’t have them swoop down just as the main character is about to be defeated in order to save the day. If you’re in a world where poisonous plants will instantly kill a character if they ingest them, your character must die if they eat the plant and have no protection.

Some more examples of rules in a world are these:

In Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, you are immortal when you are in Hotel Valhalla.

In The Hunger Games, unless sanctified by the government, you are not to leave your district.

In Wings of Fire, it is impossible to fly across the ocean from Pyrriha to Pantala in one trip.

In Six of Crows, Grisha found in Fjerda are executed as monsters.

If these rules were broken, the story would be very different. If Magnus died on his first battle in Hotel Valhalla, the rest of the story couldn’t have taken place. The division in The Hunger Games is a rule put in place by the Capitol to prevent unity and uprising. If you could cross the ocean in one trip in Wings of Fire, an entire plotline of getting refugees from Pantala to Pyrriha would have been lost. If Nina was found as a Grisha in Fjerda but was spared with seemingly no reason, the reader would be confused and would lose belief in the reality of the world.

You should establish rules for your world. Say you’re creating a sci-fi galaxy based on travel between planets. You may have a rule of how far you can travel before your ship needs a break. You can set this rule in place by describing current technology limitations.

Rules should make sense in the context of the world, and they shouldn’t contradict each other. For example, if you could only go to planets three thousand light years away in this sci-fi world due to tech limitations, you shouldn’t have another rule saying that people can actually teleport as many times and as far as they like.

Rules may be unspoken rules of nature, such as gravity, or may be rules put in place by characters or groups in the story itself, such as not being able to leave your district in The Hunger Games- this rule is put in place by the Capitol.

Finally, if you’re going to make any exceptions to the rule, make sure you put the loophole in the rule itself. Again, the, ‘gods watch over the protagonist but are sworn to never directly interfere with his journey’ rule forbids the gods from defeating the enemy with one fell swoop, but it doesn’t prevent them from sending minions to interfere. Notice the ‘directly’ in the rule- this allows gods to send others to do their bidding for them.

Keep this in mind when you add new concepts to a world. If they directly contradict a rule, they won’t make sense! How can you alter the rule or the concept to house both?

In summary, make rules for your world and stick to them. This will prolong the reader’s immersion and suspend any disbelief in the world itself.

Relatability is Reality

If you’re putting in a concept that might be too wild for the reader to immediately comprehend, it really helps to relate it to something that they will be familiar with. Creating new monstrous creatures is a good example of this- they may not be based on any sole animal, but they will often have features not dissimilar to animals that everybody knows.

For example, if your creature is massive, compare it to the size of an elephant or two. If it has thick, long fur, compare it to that of a fluffy housecat.

This works for any concept, not just creatures. If you want the world to have lightning storms that rage for years and cleave open the world where it hits, think about the cutting of a giant cake, for example. The ground is the cake and the lightning is the knife.

An easy way to do this- and the way I’ve utilized in these examples- is through similes and metaphors. ‘The ground bent under the lightning like a cake to a knife’ could be an example of a simile, whilst ‘the toxic plant was a lion in its ferocity as it hunted’ is a metaphor.

Questions and Answers (But not from me!)

There are a few questions you might want to ask yourself when implementing a new concept to ensure that it will be easy to understand and make sense in the context of the world. Here are some examples:

On a scale of one to ten, how bizarre is this new element?
In its present form, would it break someone’s suspension of disbelief?
Would this element seem too ridiculous?
Does it break any of the rules that are set forth in my fantasy?
Would this new element be better introduced earlier in my narrative?
If this new element is a departure from the established rules, should I let my audience know ahead of time that this might be possible?
If I was a reader, would I want an explanation for this new element?

If you’re satisfied with the answers to these questions, it’s a good bet that you’ve successfully introduced a new concept into your story which will fit in well and make sense to the reader. Congrats!

If you really want to make sure that all is well, remember that you know everything about your world, and others don’t. Get someone else to read through the passage with only the context given. Does it make sense to them? If not, how can you clear the idea up?

Conclusion

In summary, some things you should be thinking about when putting ideas into your fantasy or sci-fi world are-

The rules of the world and how it interacts with them
How to give the reader a picture of it in their mind my relating it to something they know
Asking questions to yourself and giving reasonable answers
Checking with someone who is blind to outside knowledge

I hope that this workshop was helpful in some way- this is my first time attempting a project like this, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out!

Thank you for reading!

Last edited by ForestPanther (July 15, 2023 14:55:59)

stvrriii

Writing in a child's point of view can be a challenging task, but it can also be very rewarding. Here are some tips to help you write from a child's perspective:

1. Keep it simple: Children don't have the same vocabulary or understanding of the world as adults. Keep your language simple and straightforward, and avoid using complex words or concepts that may be difficult for a child to understand.

2. Use age-appropriate language: The language you use should be appropriate for the age of your protagonist. A five-year-old child will have a different vocabulary and understanding of the world than a ten-year-old child.

3. Use sensory details: Children experience the world through their senses, so it's important to include sensory details in your writing. Describe the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures that your protagonist experiences.

4. Show, don't tell: This is a good rule for writing in general, but it's especially important when writing from a child's point of view. Children are more likely to experience the world through their senses rather than through abstract concepts, so show what's happening rather than telling the reader.

5. Capture the child's voice: Children have a unique way of viewing the world, and it's important to capture that voice in your writing. Use the child's language, thought patterns, and perspective to create an authentic voice.

6. Avoid stereotypes: Children are individuals with their own personalities, interests, and experiences. Avoid using stereotypes or generalizations when writing from a child's perspective.

7. Consider the child's emotional state: Children experience a wide range of emotions, and it's important to consider the emotional state of your protagonist. Children may not have the same emotional regulation as adults, so their reactions to events may be more extreme.

8. Use dialogue: Dialogue is a great way to show the child's voice and perspective. Use dialogue to show how the child interacts with others and how they express themselves.

9. Consider the child's development: Children develop at different rates, so it's important to consider the developmental stage of your protagonist. A five-year-old child will have different abilities and interests than a ten-year-old child.

10. Be authentic: The most important thing when writing from a child's point of view is to be authentic. Children are complex individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Be true to your protagonist and their perspective, and your writing will be more effective.

11. Use humor: Children have a great sense of humor, and incorporating humor into your writing can make it more engaging and entertaining.

12. Keep the pacing fast: Children have short attention spans, so it's important to keep the pacing of your writing fast and engaging.

13. Don't underestimate your audience: Children are intelligent and perceptive, and they can pick up on subtleties in your writing. Don't talk down to your audience or underestimate their ability to understand complex ideas.

14. Use the child's interests: Children have unique interests and passions, and incorporating these into your writing can make it more engaging and relatable.

I hope these additional tips are helpful!unanswered questions. It's unclear what the necklace is or why it is causing the destruction of the forest. Additionally, the character of the young girl could be developed further. While her fear and panic are well-conveyed, we don't know much about her beyond that.

By following these tips, you can create a convincing and authentic child's point of view

im in poetry

Last edited by stvrriii (July 15, 2023 18:46:09)

stvrriii

i accedtily posted it twice :< so i just editted this one

Last edited by stvrriii (July 15, 2023 18:43:04)

ap0l0

Motivation to finish your writing piece

Motivation is something many writers struggle with, especially when writers' block rears its head and has you stuck on one line for three weeks. (Been there, done that.) But something I've noticed is the inability to finish certain projects or writing pieces, no matter how long or short they are. This can be due to various reasons, and sometimes it's even hard to tell what those are.

Outlining:

Something many writers have found to help with this problem is effectively outlining your novel/ writing piece before you even start writing. Though this may be daunting when the idea is just starting to form in your head, it helps to blurt your ideas out onto a page or as a mindmap.
This usually gives you specific plot points that you'll need to include, and gives a rough idea of the order of events. Once you've translated all the jumbled thoughts in your head into coherent sentences, you'll find it much easier to organise the writing piece and this may motivate you to start writing.

Even if you've already begun writing, outlining might help you structure your ideas and give you the motivation to continue writing because the order is already mapped out. This is also a defence against writers' block and makes it much easier to commit to – especially large – projects.

Talk about it:

This may seem like a very simple exercise that writers would choose to skip over, but vocalising your ideas and explaining them to someone else works as a way to reignite your inspiration for the writing piece. When you're watching someone invested in your story and reacting with shock or sadness at a particular plot point, this gets you enthusiastic about your work again and you may find it easier to motivate yourself to write.

This technique would also order the ideas chronologically in your head as you tell it as a story, and this helps you organise them on the page, making it easier to return to the project even when writers' block tries to prevent you from doing so.

Create a writing routine that works for you:

A writing routine doesn't necessarily mean writing every day, but instead allocating time to write on a routine basis. This means eliminating any distractions (yes – turn your phone off) and forcing yourself to sit at your desk and write. This may be adding 250 words to your piece per session, or writing for a set amount of time. This leads onto my next point…

Setting timers:

The purpose of this exercise is not to force you to write for an hour, but instead simply set a timer for 10 minutes and see what comes from it.
Many writers (and procrastinators in general) find that getting started is the hardest part, and everything is easier from then on. Therefore, by setting a timer for only a short period of time, you can get your brain stimulated to begin writing.

Skipping to and from scenes:

Many writers find it difficult to stray from the chronological order of events, but sometimes it’s good to allow your mind that creative freedom to write that scene you’ve been looking forward to since you first came up with the idea.
That may be the epic fight scene at the end of the story, or where the main character comes to the realisation that their best friend was imaginary all along.

Whatever scene that gets you riled up to work on the piece and lets your imagination run wild – write that scene. Yes, when you return to it after/while writing the project, you will make edits and change it to fit the writing piece.
Don’t let that stop your creative juices flowing and pouring your enthusiasm into the scene. You can always come back and edit it – remember that.

Another thing to note is when you don’t want to write a scene or lack the motivation for it. This sometimes leads to a huge writers’ block or writers giving up on the idea completely. Don’t let those scenes stop you.

Instead, you can use (insert fight scene here) or (insert heartfelt apology here) for any scene you just aren’t able to write. This effectively enables you to carry on writing the next scene and reminds you to come back to it later.

- 738 words -

Last edited by ap0l0 (July 15, 2023 23:00:49)

-WritingIsCool-

Character planning and consistency
(1005 words)

Intro

One of the keys to writing a good story is its characters. If your reader can connect to, appreciate, or root for your characters, the plot doesn't even have to be so great. Of course I urge you to pay attention to your plot and craft your story well in many if not all aspects, but if your characters serve their purposes, your story or idea doesn't have to be revolutionary or completely original. So how do you create characters that aid the plot, have interesting arcs, stay consistent, and that your readers will love? (Or if that's not the intention, how do you make a character they can be fascinated by?) Here are a few tips to help you out!

Making sure your characters are realistic

Possibly one of the most important parts of creating a character your readers will love is making them realistic. Even in an unrealistic place or situation, there are many elements that can make them relatable and believable. One big thing is a good balance of good and bad character traits. It's important to include both with all sorts of characters. Try not to make your story so black and white, and step away from the fully good and evil narrative by adding negative traits to your heroes and positive traits to your villains. In real life, people are never completely one or the other, so why should your characters? Your antagonist can still be an awful person if they don't want bad things to happen to their family, and your main character can still be a good person if they're impatient and lash out from time to time, so be sure to incorporate both. Giving a bad character some good traits shouldn't have to make them redeemable, and giving a good character some bad traits shouldn't make them less lovable. Another thing is that personality traits, such as stubbornness, can often go both ways. Stubbornness can be both admirable and inconvenient, and it all depends on the situation and people. Two people who are lovely on their own can clash and cause problems when put together, too. One of the main things to think about it to treat your characters as humans (even if they aren't!). Another thing to avoid is archetypes. You don't wan't a walking cliché, you want a person. So even if you have what seems like a typical ‘mean girl’ it's important to give them depth. And again, character traits don't mean anything if they aren't put into play. If you're constantly saying your character is a very helpful and selfless person, but we don't see any examples of it, it holds no weight. They're empty words, as it were. Show, don't tell, what kind of person they are.

Avoiding the Mary Sue

A term I'm sure you're all familiar with is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, but if you aren't, the main idea of this archetype is that the character is inexplicably good at everything. They're attractive, well-liked, powerful and lacking any major flaws or flaws that are seen as realistic. This is often a type of idealized self-insertion from the author and is almost always the main character. This often makes your story feel unrealistic and less fun to read, as your audience cannot connect and relate as easily to a ‘perfect’ character. So how do you avoid this from happening in your story? Simple! Just add flaws! Or, as I said earlier, traits don't always have to be one way or the other. Your character's willingness to help everyone can become self-destructive, their power can make them start to think too highly of themself, etc.

Consistency

Even as your characters develop and grow, it's important to keep them consistent. If their personality seems to change from situation to situation, and their way of reacting to certain things happen doesn't align, your readers might lose interest or have a hard time connecting to the story or the character. One thing that helps very much with both making you really think about who they are and helps with keeping them consistent throughout your story is having some sort of character profile. You can find templates online or make your own, but they help a ton with both planning and consistency. If you're ever unsure how your character may react to something, or need pointers on how they would act in certain situations, you can always reference your character sheet/profile! These can (I recommend using all these things for a more fleshed out character but anything that might not fit isn't mandatory) include: name, age, nationality, physical description (detailed or not), backstory, personality, common situations they might find themself in and how they react, strengths, weaknesses, traits, interests, anything important that might be different in your story, and whatever else you feel inclined to add. These should serve you as a reference, guide, and way of connecting to your character.

Here's an example of what a profile might look like

Name: Alejandro Herrera
Age: 15
Nationality: Colombian
Height: 167 cm
Pronouns: he/him
Appearance: Feminine features, long dark hair, glasses, brown skin, dimples, acne, skinny
Personality: Very introverted, takes a while to open up, funny, obsessive, compulsive (only in certain scenarios with people he's close with), sassy, nice, antisocial (for the most part), kind
Strengths: Smart, common sense, level-headed
Weaknesses: Physical activity, closed off, indecisive
Interests: Video games, books/reading (specifically angst)

This is a brief example and doesn't have as much detail as I would usually add, but still is a good reference. See how I didn't use all the things I said, and added two things that weren't in the list? This is also inspired by my friend haha

Outro:

Now that you've read through this, it's your turn! Make a character profile, or take a pre-established character (your own or someone else's) and place them in an unfamiliar situation and, using your knowledge of them as a person, experiment with how they would react to this situation. Happy writing!

-BrokenMelody-

Here’s my Workshop!

Hello! Welcome to Clove’s workshop on character growth! Today I will be presenting you how to write strong character growth and help you understand what it is! First, what is character growth? Character growth is the development of said character’s goals, motivations, or the character’s adaptation to the conflicts happening in the story. It could be how the character’s belief changes through the story, or maybe it’s how the character’s personality changes through the story. You may be wondering, why is character growth important? Well, without character growth, your character is most likely going to turn out rather flat, and quite boring to read about. Without any character growth, your story will seem like it hasn’t progressed much anywhere. So let’s see how to write character growth shall we? First, take a look at you character. What do they not have? What goals might they need for their story to be worth reading. It is also extremely important to know your character. Do research on them, figure out their personality and habits. After figuring that out, it might help to plan out how your character would grow. Are they going to switch to the dark side, will they start to grow happier, or the opposite sad, and grumpy? What could your character earn as the story goes on? Or do they learn a new price of information. After you’ve figured that out, it helps to form a small timeline on how they might change. However, that step is not necessary, and it’s only a good trick so your ideas don’t get mixed together. Next, give your character a backstory. Why are they trying to accomplish their goals? What might their personality stand out? If your character is constantly a pessimist, was it from their difficult past? After that, start adding in changes or a conflict. They don’t necessarily need to be huge or really small, but without changes or conflicts, there simply could be no story. Conflicts and changes help start the character growth, since without it there would be no reason for the main protagonist(s) to do anything. A tip for showing how much a character has grown, is to add in the perspectives of other characters. Think about it, if the once happy and joyful queen turned sour and grumpy, how would the peasants react? Or if the popular high school girl started to hang out with ‘unpopular’ people, how would her peers react? In your story, make sure to add small issues that can set back the protagonist a bit, so everything doesn’t always go there way. If everything always went their way, it could be a bland story to read, and less relatable. Believe me, no one wants a Mary/Gary Sue character. My last tip is to remember that you don’t only need to focus on your narrator/main character. Build on some of the other main protagonists goals, or even some of the side characters! Just because they aren’t in the main spotlight doesn't mean their growth and achievements won’t be interesting. That’s all for now, I hoped you enjoyed my workshop!

xXFierroOrFalafelXx

how to drop hints on worldbuilding without simply info dumping https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/users/ForestPanther/

Worldbuilding is an incredibly fun activity with endless room for creativity, but even if you have the most interesting fictional world ever, it won’t necessarily make your story amazing. When creating fictional worlds, it’s easy to get carried away on fine details and the history of the place six thousand years ago. The world you create is the backdrop for your story. It should be interesting and it should affect your story, but typically the most important thing in a story is the plot and also the character arc. Therefore, the worldbuilding you incorporate into your story should be relevant to the plot or the characters. There are many different types of worldbuilding, so let’s start with physical worldbuilding, describing what the land and climate are like. You’ve just created a complex map of your world, with all sorts of climates from hot sandy deserts to humid jungles to frozen tundras, but if you just list all the regions that will bore your readers. One thing you could do is have children talk about it in lessons, but that is often hard to do naturally, so try to figure out what is relevant to your character. Maybe they are from the desert so you can describe how the sun beats down on them and how they wear loose clothes and something over their nose and mouth to keep the sand out. If it is relevant to the plot for this character to perhaps travel to the sea, describe the effect the sea has on this character. In most modern fiction that I have read, even if a story is told in third person, it is still told in the point of view of the main character, so to really show worldbuilding one good thing to do is get in the character’s head, experience their world through their eyes and their ears, et cetera. What is normal to them that they will hardly give a second thought to? What is something they find strange in their world? Now obviously it’s important for you as the writer to know a lot about your world, such as the laws of magic, all the various cultures, history of wars and such, ecosystems, and more, but ask yourself: If I’m writing a story about a rebel group trying to assassinate the king, do I need to go into detail about the history of farming? Probably not, but maybe the rebels are farmers and then you can find a way to show how the king mistreats farmers. Here are some more ideas: if many people are wearing wool, it suggests that either there are many shepherds or they have allies from whom they import wool, it also suggests that the characters live in a cooler climate. Culture can be shown through the character going to an important festival and something affecting the plot can happen at the festival. Culture can also be incorporated in very simple things such as making food. I know you want your readers to know everything about the world, but you can always make a companion book for that. What I suggest is making a list of what different characters know about the world in the beginning, and what they end up finding out. How does the world affect your story?

xXFierroOrFalafelXx

seIkie- wrote:
How to Establish a Character's Voice

A character’s voice is more than their physical speech—it’s their thought process, their personality, their behavior, et cetera. Like people, characters are nuanced and have unique voices. Pinning them down can be tricky, so here’s a method to try out!

Step 1: Who are they?

This step is a given, but creating your character is the foundation of their voice. Have some fun here as you flesh them out! You can think of it as a stranger’s perspective on them: A stranger only sees the surface level and not much else. Depth comes later!

Here’s an example of a character sheet. (Note: This is shorter than what I’d use for a character in my novel. How much or how little you have on your character sheet is up to you, though!)

Name: Daisy Elaine Halsk

Nickname(s): Day, Hal

Brief physical description: Brown eyes. Chin-length brown hair. Short (under 150 centimeters) despite her age. Slender but callused hands. Freckled face and shoulders. Very tan.

Clothing style: Short skirts or cargo shorts. Anything with pockets. Jean jackets. Cocktail dresses. Any and all shoes. Fond of warm colors and the color lavender. Tank tops. Off-the-shoulder shirts.

Brief personality description: Exuberant. Amiable. Extrovert. Loud. Bad with social cues. A bit self-centered. Not super observant.

Family: Lives with Mom. Dad is “out of the picture.” Has two older brothers in college. Close with her maternal aunt’s daughters.

Favorite color: Lavender and marigold.

Favorite animal: Tiger.

Step 2: Why are they?

Take a look at every question you answered. Now, ask yourself, “Why is that?” If your character’s favorite person in the whole wide world is Taylor Swift, ask yourself why you decided that. Is it because of her music? If so, what specifically—is it the composition, the lyrics, or something else entirely?

Some questions can’t be answered or are very obvious. For example, physical traits: Daisy’s hair is brown because her parents have brown hair. (Or maybe you could spin it—maybe both of her parents have blond hair, and one of them had an affair. Whatever you want!) These ones you can ignore.

As you answer, encourage yourself to write at least two complete sentences, and try to repeat yourself as little as possible. The more you write, the more you’ll start to “understand” the character. This can also help you flesh out their backstory!

For the example, I’m only going to elaborate on a few. :]

Name: Daisy Elaine Halsk. Her father wanted to name her “Bella,” and her mother was a fan of it until she found out that was the name of a cow he’d owned as a child. His mother took his wife’s side, and thus “Daisy” was chosen.

Nickname(s): Her mother calls her “Day” as a shortened form of “Daisy.” Her childhood best friend, Alex, calls her “Hal” as a shortened form of her last name; he wanted to call her by her last name, but he had trouble pronouncing “Halsk.”

Favorite color: Lavender and marigold. Lavender is Daisy’s favorite flower, contrary to what her name suggests, because of its scent and pain-relieving abilities. Her paternal grandmother used to have fields have marigolds behind her house, and Daisy fell in love with the colors after spending years running through the bushes.

Favorite animal: Tiger. Her last good memory of her father is when he took her into the city to the zoo, and they took a selfie in front of the tiger enclosure. She has it framed on her desk, and she smiles every time she sees it.

(Optional) Step 2.5: Complete this character sheet.

If you’re still struggling—or just want to challenge yourself!—consider filling out this character sheet. I can’t name where it’s from (since I didn’t find it on Scratch), but it’s one of my favorites and one I find very helpful. As you go, the questions get more and more personal to the character, so it's phenomenal for adding depth.

1. What is their name?
2. Do they have a nickname?
3. Do they have any other names (aliases, et cetera)?
4. What is their age?
5. What is their eye color?
6. Hair color?
7. What languages can they speak?
8. What is their favorite food?
9. Least favorite?
10. Who is someone they would d#e for?
11. Who is someone they would k#ll?
12. Do they have any family members?
13. Did they go to school?
14. What was/would be their favorite class/subject?
15. Who was their childhood friend?
16. What is their clothing size?
17. Shoe size?
18. Height?
19. Gender orientation?
20. S#xual orientation?
21. Do they have a sworn enemy?
22. Do they have any tattoos?
23. Have they ever sm#ked?
24. What is their mental state?
25. What is their darkest secret?
26. Who is their sacred confidant?
27. What is a lie they tell everyone?
28. What is one lie they know is not true but continue to believe?
29. If they were under different circumstances, (how) would they stray from their storyline?
30. What makes them hurt?

Step 3: What is their style?

This step is hard to explain. By “style,” I mean how the character themself translates into your writing style.

Have you ever read a book where the perspective switches between characters, but sometimes you couldn’t tell them apart? Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to avoid here. Here are some style changes I consider when I’m writing from a character’s perspective:

Do they think/act in long sentences? Short sentences? Choppy sentences?
Do they swear? If so, do they often or rarely? Do they use “gosh” instead of “god”? What words do they repeat a lot?
Are they an “I think” (logical) person or an “I feel” (emotional) person? For example, would they say, “I think we should do this” or “I feel like we should do this”?
What do they notice (about people/places)? What don’t they?

Some of these tweaks are more subtle than others. They may seem inconsequential, but they can add a bit of “flavor” to the character. One of the coolest effects to me is if you have another character who is their complete opposite. It does wonders to highlight the differences between them.

Step 4: Combine & write!

Now, take a look at everything you’ve written. You know who they are, why they are that way, and how they narrate. All together, these details create your character’s voice! In the beginning, you might have to remind yourself to do this or that (or not do this or that), but you’ll get the hang of it! ^^

As you continue writing, you may notice that their voice changes and that’s okay! I’ve found the original ideas for some of my stories, and I have to laugh about how much they’ve changed. Characters develop, same as people, and you can always go back and edit when you’re done! Don’t be afraid if the character starts to take on a life of their own—that’s a sign you’re on the write track. ;]

I think I'm gonna use this one

cs4438815

how to make your characters more realistic and relatable

When you are writing a story, it is important that you have good characters in them. You might be asking, Yume, what makes a good character? Firstly, the character has to be realistic. I’m not saying this in a way that you cannot have fantasy or supernatural characters, this is about the character's personality and traits. In this workshop, I'll go through a few ways to make your characters seem more realistic, and let readers easily make connections with them.

1. Personal experiences and/or traits
First and foremost, if we want the readers to connect to the story, then they must find something they relate to in any of the characters. One of the most efficient ways to do so is to incorporate your own experiences into them. Maybe you've been misunderstood before, or maybe you've been bullied. It could even be the smallest things or the most drastic experiences, like having a sibling or being ghosted and/or excluded in school. (Yes, I did go through all that, if you were wondering.) Maybe you once felt bad because of that, but don't worry, you're not alone! Putting in these plot elements and little details from your own life can be relatable to readers, and it makes your story more realistic at the same time. You could also draw inspiration from people around you, it doesn't have to be yourself. You don't have to make everything exactly the same as your life- no, this is not an autobiography (unless you want to write one :0). Choose the ones that would best suit your story, for example, if I am writing a story about school life, maybe the main character, or protagonist, always gets excluded at school and has no friends. Then, from your experience, you can vividly describe how it happened, and remember, show, not tell!

2. Flaws
No one is perfect, and your character shouldn't be either. Any great character is a flawed one. It's not going to be fun reading about someone who can literally do anything and makes no mistakes, it will never be. When you are creating your characters, remember to incorporate flaws into them, but don't make them too flawed in a way that they are unrealistically flawed. Remember, you're trying to make the characters realistic! If you can't think of any flaws, use the tip above and incorporate some of your own flaws into your characters. Perhaps they somehow can't make friends no matter how hard they try, or they're arrogant and self-centered, maybe gullible. This could also help others relate to the story when they read about flawed characters they relate to, and see how they progress through the story, giving the readers motivation.

3. Character development
Developing your characters might sound hard to some, but really, it's not that challenging, and it can help greatly with the story development as a whole. To keep the story going, your characters will need to have to achieve something in the end, like learning something they didn't know before, or perhaps meeting a goal of theirs. Speaking of goals, your goal as a writer is to get your reader engaged in the story they're reading, and to do that, you will need to keep the plot moving. Yes, that means you will have to develop your characters, and a good way is by making your characters learn and grow throughout the story, which basically means they have to experience something new that could change their perspective on something. In reality, everyone changes and grows over time too, which adds to making your characters more realistic. Some examples could include someone who usually keeps to themselves, but starts opening up more when they find out that having friends makes them happier, or a person trying to find something that they desperately think they need, but during the search, finds something else that is priceless, and well, that original thing they were looking for seems useless. It was out of reach anyway. These are only a few examples, there are tons more you can come up with!

4. Supporting characters + dialogue
Last, but definitely not least, is something every story should have- supporting characters (also called secondary characters or side characters) and dialogue. Throughout a story, the protagonist would most likely have some kind of dialogue with supporting characters. Supporting characters can come in many forms, like the main character's family or friends, just a random stranger, or perhaps their enemy. Having these interactions will make them feel more realistic. When you are writing dialogue, the way your character speaks really affects how readers will depict them to be like. Realistic dialogue reveals a character's personality, and also shows a character's growth. When your characters talk to each other, make sure to avoid slang as much as possible and make them talk like real people. It's also much more effective to show your characters' personalities by dialogue than just plainly describe how they feel.

I hope this workshop has helped you make your characters more realistic, and that readers will find them relatable to.
Keep writing!
- Yume

~ 851 words whoo

Last edited by cs4438815 (July 16, 2023 02:11:42)

Starthorn

How to write a possessed character.

~Introduction

Hello! For this workshop, let's try to put ourselves in the head of a character who cannot control any of their movements. Imagine, unable to speak, to clench your fists, even to look around.

But you're still aware of what's happening, perhaps fighting to regain control. Perhaps sitting back and letting it happen.

Is it panic inducing? Is it calming in some strange, horrifying way? Or are you intrigued by what's going on and want to know more? Imagine those thoughts, because that's the only thing you'd really be able to do in this situation. And you'd better get really comfortable with it, because who's to say how long your author's going to keep you in this awkward, out-of-body position?

Now that you've envisioned that, consider if you could put it into words rather than feelings.

Once that's done too, you should be ready to take on this workshop.

~Part one: Context.

Really, like with any other story, you must first consider what the context to this arrangement is. Ask yourself some questions: WHY is the character not in control of themselves? Where is the story taking place? Will it be resolved? How COMPLETE is their inability to control themselves? Consider their personality. Would this upset them greatly or to a lesser degree? Would it get worse or better as they work through this experience? Will they fight their way out or let things happen around them? Can they and the other force communicate or not?

The more questions the better, until you have a proper picture of your character, their reaction to this experience, and what is causing this possession.

(Note: If you are taking inspiration from a religion or a mythology, be sure to do research and be as accurate as you can within the bounds of your story so that your writing may still respect the people who follow the beliefs you are using as fiction.)

~Part two: Different approaches.

Depending on what is inspiring you for your piece, your character may be different degrees of ‘in control’.

It is possible that they may be able to control, for example, their expressions or their eyes, but nothing else. It's also possible that they only can't control, say, their voice. (This could be played upon as a game of truth between the two forces controlling their body, communicating with the other characters.) It's also possible that they can only control their thoughts, or, in fact, not even their thoughts. Perhaps they are only barely conscious of what's happening with their movements and words, even with their thoughts. Maybe it's simply a bit of their soul left, and they are only aware of their continuing existence in darkness.

All of these cases are perfectly valid ways to take your story and, of course, you can always shift from one to another as your story continues. Perhaps there is a power-struggle for control of the body between the character and whatever other force is present. A character might fight to regain control or slowly lose it, depending on where you want to take your story.

And in all of these cases, you must consider that much of the story will be told without words from the character directly (unless one of the only things they can control is their voice). In this way, you will need to focus greatly on an ‘internal’ perspective.

~Part three (a): A fully internal approach.

This is an approach simply for a story where a character has very little control. Tell the story fully from their perspective, looking out into the world as they are unable to personally influence it.

You might want to use sensory words like “cold” or “dark”, and other descriptors like “uncomfortable” as they describe their situation, looking out into a regular world that they cannot influence. Paint a picture of how they feel about their situation, and what they think of the actions they are forced to perform without their own control.

This will be an emotion focused story, with no dialogue from the main character themselves (unless they can communicate with the force blocking them from control).

If you need help with emotions, I'm sure there are other workshops that you can check that will be able to describe writing them very well!

~Part three (b): A ‘split’ approach.

(This is one of many general approaches for pretty much all of the ‘levels’ of a character being in control.) You may also consider writing your story in alternating chunks.

The two chunks may discuss the same events or events chronologically, from and outside and an inside perspective. This way, you as an author can be in full control of what your supporting characters see and think of what is happening. Is it disturbing to them? Are they the ones who set the curse/possession/whatever upon the main character? Are they fighting desperately to return a friend back to them? Do they even notice?

Remember, in this way of working through your story you will need to master the different emotions of different characters, especially if the supporting characters and the main character have different opinions on the situation.

~Part three ©: An middle-ground approach.

Perhaps you don't want to focus on the character that has been possessed. Perhaps, instead, the other perspective fascinates you. Not the viewers watching the possession, but the force possessing the character.

Ask yourself more questions. Why are they doing this? How? Are they even a being? What if it's a force instead, one with no soul? Can THEY communicate with the character who is possessed? Is this difficult or easy? And so on.

This perspective will be very different from that of the possessed character, but still with an internal focus in a way, because they are not the owner of the body. They may be controlling it, but you may not want them to see the body as their own in the same way any other person will.

~Part four (d): Blends.

Remember that there are many other perspectives you can deal with this in! Perhaps you want to blend the possessor and the possessed in a different sort of split story, or focus only on outsiders who can only watch as these events occur. Perhaps you're more interested in a simple emotion story, split by fights to regain control. Perhaps it's something I haven't mentioned yet.

There are many, many ways to write this sort of story and I think they're all worthy of being explored! I think the key is just to really ask yourself what you want of this sort of plot in order to write it well, and to research if need be. Always put yourself in the shoes of the perspective holder, especially if you're switching perspectives. This will help you to ground the character's voice and what descriptive words you should use to paint your picture.

You've got this. <3

~Disclaimer:

There are TONS of ways to take this idea! Just think through what might work best for your story in particular and write what you think feels best with your character and your plot.

I didn't want this workshop to be rigid just because there's so much you can do with this idea. In the end, write what makes you happy and helps you to improve! I hope this was helpful. <3

Inspired by @luna724

Also here in my personal thread.

-SimplyWatermelon-

Many would say that the first few pages, even the first line, of a book, is the key to its success. A strong opening convinces readers to immerse themselves in a story’s world, and leads them into its depths. However, it is difficult for many writers to know where to start! There are many options for this, and combining them leads to near endless possibilities. A good way to start is by asking yourself a few questions.

Question 1: When?

This may seem simple at first. You begin at the beginning, don’t you? Wrong! There are lots of different places in a story where you could introduce the reader, but they all fall under one of these three categories: beginning, middle, and end.
If you choose to begin your story at the beginning, this usually means slightly before the action begins. Perhaps your character’s life is peaceful, perhaps they are longing for it to change. This is a good way to establish strong characters and setting. Now we get to the exciting options.
Although you may not know what I mean by “begin in the middle” chances are you’ve watched a movie or read a book where this is exactly how it starts! In medias res is a Latin phrase meaning “in the midst of things.” You could begin literally in the middle of an action scene, or in a more slow-paced scene that still requires a lot of backstory later. For example, say your characters are hiding in a bunker below their house. Maybe the first line would be something like “It was dad’s idea to build the bunker, but he never got to see it.” Already that raises a lot of questions, and we can tell that we’ve been dropped in the middle of the action.
Finally, we have “beginning at the end.” Trust me, this sounds way more difficult than it is! Let’s have an example so that you can see what I mean.
“Karina walked slowly into the old blue house. She had lived here for twenty years. Why was nothing familiar now? Everything had changed, even her own name. Nothing would ever be the same. Suddenly, she heard a scuffling outside the house. She looked out the front door and saw a scared young child crouching at her feet. He looked up. ‘Are you a ghost? No body lives here.’ Karina nearly smiled. There had been a time when she loved children. Perhaps she could be here old self again just this once. ‘I can tell you why I am here, but it is a very long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?’ The little boy’s eyes widened. He nodded. ‘Alright then.’ Karina began. ‘It all started in this old blue house, 100 years ago.’”
Do you see how this story began at the end? Usually when a story begins at the end, the reader finds out what happened through retellings or flashbacks.

Question 2: How?

How will your story be introduced? There are a few ways that I’d like to spotlight for you.

Mystery
Begin your story with a scene that leaves readers asking questions they need answered. For example, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), by Gabriel García Márquez, focuses the first lines on the main character, who is about to face a firing squad but is remembered afternoons spent with his father. Some questions this might raise are “Why is he facing a firing squad?” and “Why is he thinking of his father? How will this be significant later?”

Set the tone
What is the tone of this story? Is it a comedy, a tragedy, or something different altogether? Our example from before “It was dad’s idea to build the bunker, but he never got to see it,” could help set the tone for a dystopian story. If you are writing an action novel, you might choose to begin your book in the middle of a fight.

Begin with voice
Give us a look into a character’s mind. It can be a gripping way to start your story! Think of “Call me Ishmael.” From Moby Dick. We’ll be spending the whole book learning about this character, so why not let them introduce your story themselves! Here’s another example. “You could spend your life looking for me and you’d never find me.”

Question 3: What?

Now that you’ve decided how and when you’re going to start your book, you need to know what you’re going to say. The best advice I can give you is trial, error, and input! Try out different starting sentences and see how you like them. Show them to your friends, and if they say they would read the rest of the book, then maybe you’ve found a good one! Remember, word choice is super important. Just a few well-placed words can say volumes. The last thing I’d like to say is that no matter how you choose to start your story right now, you can always go back and change it later. Don’t be afraid to “make mistakes!” I hope this workshop was helpful. Now what are you waiting for! Get writing!

Bibliography
This masterclass
And the book “Spilling Ink” by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter

Piper_Camps

writing a workshop: a workshop
by piper

table of contents:
01. introduction
02. picking a topic
03. planning your workshop
04. creating the workshop
05. Closing

introduction:
hello everybody! welcome to my workshop on how to write a workshop for the 2nd swc july ‘23 weekly. today we’ll be talking about four main things:
01. picking a topic
02. planning your workshop
03. creating your workshop
within each of those topic will be subtopics that will help you understand each of them even better!

01. picking a topic:
so why don't we start with the biggest thing you have to figure out about your workshop, something you have to do before you can ever start planning! you have to pick a topic! i know you're probably thinking “well duh piper, of course i do” but maybe you don't know what kind of workshop you want to write, or don't know what you should cover. that's what we're going to talk about in this section. so let's get into it!

knowledge
the first thing you want to consider when picking a topic for your workshop, you'll want to think about how much you know about the topic. you want to pick something that you feel fairly knowledgeable in it. you don't have to be an expert, but you should at least have a bit of background info before starting. then you have some idea on what you should research

audience/do people need it?
the second thing you want to consider when you are picking a workshop topic is whether or not people (your audience) will benefit from reading your workshop. you don't want to pick something that everybody probably already knows, such as “how to put on pants” instead you should pick something that some people might not know as well/in depth so that they can learn from your workshop! so, instead of the previous example, you could do something else related to clothes such as “how to coordinate outfits” something that more people could benefit from reading! of course if you’re gearing your workshop towards people with little to no experience in your topic, please feel free to start with the basics! <3

enjoyment
the last thing you should consider is whether or not you enjoy the topic that you picked, if you decide to write a workshop on something then obviously you want to enjoy it, otherwise you'll be miserable and that will be no fun. so make sure it's something you enjoy! it could be something that you’re passionate about and would like to share with other people, or it could be something that you’re interested in and would like to know more about yourself as well as share that newfound knowledge with others!

section recap
so to recap what we went over in this section. when considering what you will write your workshop on:
01. pick something you have at least some knowledge on beforehand
02. make sure that it's something people can benefit and learn from reading through
03. make sure that the topic is something that interests you so you have a good time making the workshop!

02. planning your workshop
now, you should have picked a topic that you enjoy and will help your audience learn something! so now let's move on to how you should plan your workshop! planning is a very important step as it makes sure that you're not just writing all willy-nilly (i say as i'm writing this entire workshop without planning it; do as i write, not as i do xD) and makes sure that you cover all the things that you want to and don't leave anything out.

outline
the first thing you should do when planning your workshop is outline the (sub)topics that you want to cover. for example, if you're writing about points of view you might outline that you want to cover “first person, second person, third person limited and third person omniscient”

bullet points
after you determine what (sub)topics you want to cover, you should go through each one and write out some bullet points or information that you have to cover so you have more specific things to research. for example; for a workshop on character and your topic is “personality” some of your bullet points might be “negative vs. positive traits, fears, likes, dislikes, etc.”

research
now that you've picked all of your (sub)topics and have determined what you want to cover in each (sub)topic (bullet points) then you can get ready to move onto researching! you can use google or books to research things; make sure that you're taking notes so that you remember all the information that you're learning! once you feel like you have enough information, you can move onto writing your workshop!

section recap
let's recap what we've gone over in this session, just to make sure you remember everything!
01. make sure that you outline the topics and subtopics you would like to cover in your workshop!
02. once you’ve done that, create bullet points for the specific information you’ll cover in each topic and subtopic
03. once you’ve determined the specific information as well as broader outline and bullet points, do research on all of it so that you can make sure you give your readers the best information that you can!

03. creating your workshop
now we’re going to move onto actually creating your workshop! this is one of the most important parts i suppose, considering that this is the part that people will actually see xD all of your planning doesn't mean much if the information cannot be well/easily read or received by your audience! so, let's move into that now, shall we?

how to present?
first thing that you want to think about when beginning to create your workshop is in what way you want to present the information that you’ve compiled. of course first you’ll write it out and format it into sections, however from there you have two options as to how you can present it to your audience; you could either present it in a forum (such as this one is), OR you could present it in a project (as many swc workshops are presented), making it on canva or another platform, then upload it into a scratch project and share it for people to view.

forum version
the first option is through a forum, how this one as well as the others from this weekly, are presented. you can format it similar to something like this where you bold your headings and subheadings, and add your writing underneath them in regular fonts so that they are easily distinguished from one another. this is easier as it only requires you to copy and paste from wherever you write your workshop and maybe add a couple of formatting things, however it can often be quite a lot of writing crammed into one area, so if that’s a concern for you, a project might be the better choice for you.

project version
the other option, if you don’t want to put everything into a forum, it to create your workshop in a project! for this option, you can create your workshop in canva or another program including your writing as well as graphics and other media if you’d like and then upload those images/created slides into a scratch project, which you can then share for your audience to view! this option often looks cleaner than the forum version, however it is also more time consuming, so if that’s not something you’d like to do, forum version is probably better for you.

section recap
let's recap what we've gone over in this session, just to make sure you remember everything!
01. if you'd like to do a little bit less work and don't mind your workshop having a lot of text in one place, the forum option is the best for you!
02. if you don't mind doing a bit more work and would like your workshop to look more *sparkles* aesthetic and pretty *sparkles*

closing
alright everybody! that’s all for this workshop, i hope that you learned some more things from my workshop and that it can assist you in writing your own workshop! if you have any questions please feel free to ask me and i will do my very best to answer them <3

Last edited by Piper_Camps (July 16, 2023 05:33:09)

Drawing_Dragons28

AU writing
Alternate Universes ( or “AU”) are popular in fanfiction communities. Over two million are tagged on the Archive of Our Own writing platform! In this workshop, you will be learning about some of the most prevalent ones and how to incorporate them.

Modern Universe. You will normally see this in two communities, Historical works, and Fantasy works. This is often used in the Hamilton fandom and combined with the College AU or Coffee Shop AU (which we’ll get to later). To write this properly, you need to consider a few things. 1. How much modern do you want? Making it completely modern is a viable option, but may be slightly more difficult than just incorporating modern elements (such as cell phones and T.V.) into the work. 2. Once you’ve decided how modern you want it, you need to update the characters. This includes giving them jobs and updating everything. You can obviously have a character from the 1800s who is updated but still wears outfits from that time period, but it might come across as odd, especially if that doesn’t fit with their personality. 3. Jobs. This can be easy or difficult, depending on the fandom. Using the Hamilton fandom as an example, it is easy. Most of the characters are politicians, which obviously exist today. This requires minimum changes. Another example is the Tangled media collection. This is fantasy. Modern AUs can have princesses, but it’s not as common. Often Rapunzel becomes an artist in this AU. But what about other characters, like Varian or Cassandra? (Yes we are including Tangled the series.) Well, Varian can become a science prodigy who often causes problems at his high school. Cassandra is often a biker or law enforcement. The key is to take parts of your character’s personality and turn them into a job. 3. Life. Your characters need hobbies. What social media do they have? What do they post/ use it for? This is similar to the process of finding a job for them.

Next, let’s talk about the College AU. This is popular for its shipping possibilities and just general shenanigans/ randomness. You often need the Modern AU elements for this, like phones and jobs. You also must decide what college (real? fake?) the characters go to and what they major in. What characters are teachers? What’s the drama? These AUs can have anything, from serial killers to underground revolutions. It’s really up to you.

The Coffee Shop AU. This is quite popular with ship writers. Two characters meet at a coffee shop. It’s simple. All you have to do is decide who’s working there. Is it our main character who serves love interest every day and has their order memorized? Is it our love interest instead? Perhaps it’s the main character’s best friend, who tips them off about how much the love interest likes them. Why are our characters at this coffee shop? Do they work there? Do they study there? Do they plot stuff there (and if so, what?)?

*inhales deeply) Time for Crossover AU. This AU is often complete chaos. Anything can go. Sometimes it may be one of the previously mentioned AUs as well, but sometimes not. You may have characters from five different fandoms all going to school together or from rival gangs. You may have a bunch of fandoms dumped in a locked room or a building and have to battle their way out. Seriously you can do literally anything with this AU.

Apocalypse AU. This is a good AU in my opinion. You often have the love interests being on opposite sides of the battle or having to lose one another because of the apocalypse. Some options include Zombie, Nuclear Fallout, Aliens (although this may just be an Alien AU), Armageddon, Virus, and Super Volcano eruption. These often take place post the initial event and consist of the characters trying to survive in the suddenly changed world. Things to take into consideration with this AU are where is the food source, do they have a base camp, how does the thing that caused the apocalypse spread (Zombie = Bite, Alien = Getting captured, Virus = Interacting with dead bodies or coming into contact with an infected person.), and do you want a character getting infected (if you choose that kind of apocalypse) or just them surviving?

Thanks for reading all this and I hope these are helpful. There are a lot more (Band AU, Fantasy AU, Historical AU, etc.) but that’s too many to write about.

smalltoe

apologies for how messy this is i am running on 2 hours of sleep

I’m sure we’ve all read stories where the main villain’s only reason for opposing the protagonist and causing problems for them is just because - they’re evil. They’re just evil, and they delight in others’ pain, and they hate the protagonist and their friends for some mysterious reason that’s not really explained properly.
Or they have a motive - and it’s world domination, and it’s never explained why they want to take over the world. They just want power.
And sure, these qualities make terrifying villains. But they make terrible antagonists.
Why? Because they’re not complex.
But how do you write a complex villain?
It’s all about making them human, and giving them the right motive.

1) Make them human
To be complex, they first need to be believable - they need to be a real person, not just a tool you throw into your story to raise the stakes. You need to give their character as much detail as you give your protagonist’s character! What are their flaws? What made them the way they are - what’s their backstory?
No-one is purely evil, either - giving your villain humane or kind qualities makes them so much more complex, and so much more real. Make them do good actions every once in a while - or make their motives for the greater good, or what they think is the greater good. This actually works the other way, too - make your protagonist do something selfish, make bad choices, and lose the trust of someone (or multiple people) close to them. This makes both your protagonist and your antagonist more complex, human and relatable - and it makes them similar to each other, too.
Making the villain similar to your main character in some way complicates the struggle for the protagonist to do what’s right by blurring the line between good and evil - sometimes leaving them both in the grey area - and it creates lots of opportunities for conflict and dynamic, too. You can show similarities in multiple different ways - but some you could use are by making them fight towards the same goal, just with different ways of getting there; sharing the same strengths; thinking in similar ways, etc.
Make them follow a character arc, too - just like your protagonist. Do they have a redemption arc, or do they descend further and further into evil - or do they swing between both?
Show their emotions - what are they feeling, and what do they want to stop feeling?
Having them make mistakes, flip stereotypes, display vulnerability, show glimpses of their ‘ordinary’ life at home, and giving them an internal conflict are other super important ways to make villains more complex.

2) Give them a believable, relatable motive
In a villain’s head, they’re the hero of their story. Make them think they’re doing the right thing! And ask yourself: Why are they doing what they’re doing? What are their goals, what are they working towards?
Villains motives are super important - they’re what makes the reader understand the villain. Make their motivations stem from real-life problems, desires, or emotions that readers can relate to and recognise. And the best villain motives are ones that can be used for protagonists or ‘good guys’ too. Some ideas could be -
- They’re scared of losing their loved ones, and would do anything to protect them
- They want vengeance - against a particular person, or a whole corrupt system
- They want acceptance
- They want to take down a corrupt system or start a rebellion
- They want to save the world
- They just want to survive
- They feel they need to fulfil a prophecy - or escape one

The main thing to remember when creating a complex villain is giving them humanity, making them understandable and relatable, showing their emotions, making their motives make sense, and showing the readers what’s going on inside their heads - why they think what they’re doing is the right thing.
I hope you enjoyed reading this workshop, and that you found some new tips to help you character build more complex antagonists and villains :>

Last edited by smalltoe (July 17, 2023 04:41:36)

Xx_Hermione_xX

How to Defeat Writer's Block
written by @xx_hermione_xx - prompt by @smalltoe

Sadly, all writers experience this dreadful feeling called writer's block, if you don't all know what this means it is a creative slowdown that can slow down your writing process or stop you from writing altogether. Fortunately, there are ways to help you move out of this tough spot, in this workshop, I will list each and explain how to do them.

One, take a break. This may seem like the worst thing to do when you have writer's block, but taking a break and occupying yourself with something else could be the solution for you. Many writers tend to read a book in this break as it may help with the block, others resort to other creative art forms, such as art or music. Art and music work better for more creative people or writers who don't want to get ideas from other books.

Two, remove distractions. Go and write in a quiet place where no one can disturb you. Or if you are listening to music that can distract you turn it off, or try listening to wordless music such as classical music. Many studies have proven that classical music is best for studying and writing. You may find it hard to find a quiet spot, but even writing in an outdoor area with nature surrounding you can help to loosen writer's block.

Three, write anything. This one is more to do with writing, opening a new document or grab a piece of paper. Now with everything you have stored in your mind, it doesn't have to relate to your story, write it all down on the paper or type it. You may like to create a mind map of sorts for this if you enjoy taking notes in that format. This is also known as an idea or word spew, it helps many people. Remember what you write down should be anything and totally random! You could try setting a time limit for yourself if you prefer those.

Four, try writing exercises or prompts. Writing exercises can help kickstart your creativity and get your writing muscles warmed up. You can find numerous writing exercises or prompts online or in writing books. These exercises can range from character development exercises to writing short stories based on given prompts. There are many websites of the sort, and free to use for this! Engaging in these exercises can help you bypass the block and get your creative juices flowing again. This is perfect if you have no idea on what to write so give it a shot!

Five, establish a writing routine. Having a consistent writing routine can help train your brain to be in a creative mode during specific times. Set aside dedicated time for writing each day, whether it's in the morning, afternoon, or evening. Treat it as a commitment to your craft, just like any other important task. Over time, your brain will become accustomed to the routine, and it will become easier to tap into your creativity during those designated writing sessions.

Six, find a writing buddy or join a writing group. Sometimes, sharing your struggles with fellow writers can be immensely helpful. Look for a writing buddy or join a writing group where you can share your experiences, exchange ideas, and receive feedback on your work. Being part of a supportive community can provide motivation, encouragement, and fresh perspectives, which can be invaluable in overcoming writer's block. Another tip is try and not to make it one of your friends because friends tend to shy away from pointing out the flaw, be courageous and find a random person or a person you don't generally consider one of your closest friends.

Seven, revise and edit previous work. If you're feeling stuck with your current project, try revisiting and editing your previous work. This can help you get back into the flow of writing and re-engage with your storytelling abilities. By revising and editing, you may discover new ideas or directions for your writing, reigniting your passion and breaking through the block.

Eight, practice self-care. Taking care of your physical and mental well-being is crucial for maintaining your creative energy. Ensure you get enough sleep, eat nutritious meals, and engage in regular exercise. Additionally, incorporate activities that relax and inspire you, such as meditation, journaling, or spending time in nature. Taking care of yourself holistically can have a positive impact on your writing and help overcome writer's block. Remember to keep up with self-care! Life before SWC!!

Remember, writer's block is a temporary hurdle that can be conquered with patience, perseverance, and a variety of strategies. Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. Be gentle with yourself during this process and celebrate every small step forward. Ultimately, by incorporating these strategies and remaining dedicated to your craft, you can defeat writer's block and continue on your creative journey. I hope these helped clear the dreadful writer's block you may be suffering from!

Caesious

Morally Gray Characters: A Workshop
By Cae :)
Idea credit to @Rlove10

The never-ending fight between good and evil gets to be so boring sometimes, doesn’t it? Characters who only see in black and white can be so one dimensional. Enter the morally gray character! In this workshop, I will be explaining exactly what a morally gray character is and how to write one! Let’s begin!

Part 1: What is a morally gray character?

Most characters you encounter in media are either good or evil. Characters that are inherently good will spend their time trying to save the world or other heroic pursuits. These heroes are often selfless do-gooders who abide by strict moral codes. On the other hand, you have evil characters. These villains are often the reason the world needs saving in the first place. These archetypes are fine, but real people are a lot more complicated than that. Some people aren’t motivated by good or evil. Instead, they act however they see fit, sometimes good, sometimes not. In literature and film we call these characters morally gray.
For a better understanding of this, let’s take a look at the origin of the term. Morals refer to a person’s standards for behavior and beliefs. Your own personal morals tell you what you should and should not do. I imagine everyone reading this believes it’s wrong to kill an innocent person. That’s a moral! The word gray refers to an inbetween state. The color gray is neither black nor white in the same way that a morally gray character is neither good nor bad.
Despite this, a lot of morally gray characters gain a reputation for being evil and self-serving. The way I like to combat this stereotype is actually with a Harry Potter analogy! Hogwarts students sorted into Slytherin are often considered evil. However, the trait used for sorting students into Slytherin isn’t evil, it’s ambitious. Slytherins are highly goal oriented, meaning they will achieve their desires by any means necessary. If their goal is to take over the world you can see how this can be problematic. However, this isn’t the only goal a person can have! Characters can have goals like protecting someone else or learning an ancient secret. Slytherins, like morally gray characters, aren’t defined by what their goals are. They’re defined by the lengths they are willing to go to achieve them.
To finish out this section I’m going to include some examples of morally gray characters you might recognize in order to get a better idea of what they are. Sticking with the Harry Potter theme, Snape is a morally gray character. He flickers across the boundary of good and evil because the interests he’s really serving are his own. He may turn out to be a good guy in the end but that doesn’t mean he didn’t terrorize some children on the way. An example of a morally gray main character would be Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean. Being morally gray is almost an inherent part of being a pirate. Throughout the movies, viewers will see Jack do things that are both compassionate and caring, as well as conniving and devilish, depending on his own interests at the time. Finally, no list of morally gray characters would be complete without everyone’s favorite vigilante crimefighter, Batman. Sure, he has a very strict personal moral code but he also breaks countless laws including, but not limited to, assault, breaking and entering, and property damage.

Part 2: Writing Morally Gray Characters

Okay, now that we’re clear on what morally gray characters are, let’s get into writing them! The most important part of writing a morally gray character is giving them a reason to be morally gray. One of the main problems writers run into is making their characters morally gray for the sake of being morally gray. To overcome this, you need to give your character a reason for the way they are. Perhaps your character has a traumatic past that left them jaded and cynical. Maybe your character is a villain but they actually have a pretty good point. Whatever the reason may be, your character has to have a source for their morally gray nature. This may also require you to shed a layer of mystery in order to reveal your character's motives.
Another important aspect to consider is your character's flaws. Morally gray characters are often heavily flawed but there is a way to take this too far. You don’t want to take the flaws so far that your character is irredeemable but you also don’t want them to seem like just another good guy. When your character does make a morally questionable decision make sure you explore the implications of that. How does the character feel about what they did? How do the other characters around them react?
A great way to showcase your character’s morally gray nature is through a moral dilemma. Force your character to make an important and difficult moral decision. Morally gray characters are often able to make the decisions that other characters aren’t strong enough to make. A typical hero might not be able to justify sacrificing one life for the greater good but your morally gray character might. It’s okay to let your morally gray characters wrestle with their decisions. They don’t have to be unquestioning in their morals in order to be morally gray.
You can also consider giving your character a story arc. This isn’t required but it certainly adds an interesting dimension to your story. A lot of writers have the tendency to make morally gray side characters stagnant. This is fine, but often a waste of a great side plot. Don’t shy away from giving your morally gray characters conflict and character development.

That’s about all I have to say on writing morally gray characters. I hope you found this workshop helpful and feel inspired to create a morally gray character of your own. Morally gray characters are a great way to add an extra dimension to your story and raise important moral questions.

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