Free Writing Advice: How To Do A Character Study

[[deleted user]]

I am gonna show you how I developed a deep and fairly comprehensive understanding of my fiction characters, based on prior tips I have used and this cool article from Psyche. I’m gonna work on internalizing or implementing it into my existing analysis...
https://ptsphiltellsstories.home.blog...

[J.E.]

Thanks Phil!

If I could add a tip, I tend to base my characters on some of the more interesting people I've met in real life. It also helps me to write very realistic dialogue because in my head, I visualize these actual people talking and describe their fidgeting, conversational quirks, tics, nervous habits, etc. I find that this can help a reader connect to even the more unsavory characters in a work.

[[deleted user]]

Hmm good point. Sometimes I find myself inserting bits of my personality into my characters, or hobbies/interests.

[J.E.]

Phil wrote: "Hmm good point. Sometimes I find myself inserting bits of my personality into my characters, or hobbies/interests."

I think that's natural, especially with a protagonist. It becomes an issue when we start doing it to too many characters (my earliest writing did this in spades, it made everyone seem like the main character, just in different physical manifestations). And as writers, there is no world (not even a make-believe one) big enough for more than one person with all of our neuroses.

[[deleted user]]

Yes, repetition can be an issue.