How to Write Characters Who Are NOT Like You 👀

these are the building blocks of their internal conflict and I guarantee you there is something about that character's conflict that you can relate to on a personal level and that's why you feel compelled to weave these struggles and these internal battles into this character because you can personally relate to it what's up my friend Abby here and welcome back to writer's life Wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dream come true are you struggling to write a character who is not like you at all but you really want them to feel believable and layered and relatable you want them to feel like a real person but you're having a hard time writing them because you end up just writing characters that feel a lot like you in this video I'm going to share with you my seven best tips and some of them are kind of weird but stay with me for sinking into a character's shoes and really embodying that character even if they're nothing like you even if their personality is vastly different their voice is vastly different these techniques will help you to step into the role of any of your characters and see the world through their eyes through their perspective and write their voice effortlessly a lot of writers ask me this question how do I write a character who's not like me because I think a lot of writers fall into the rut of writing a lot of characters that just sound like them a lot of writers don't even realize how much their own voice personality and beliefs influence the characters they write and we don't want all our characters to sound the same we don't want them all to sound like the author talking through these characters right we want them all to seem like individual real people who have different voices different personalities different opinions and tastes and hobbies and skills we want them to feel like real people so that is what we are exploring today how to step into the skin of your character and see the world through their eyes and effortlessly take on their voice why does your story matter good question what if I told you that there's a science behind every great story I don't just teach you how to write I teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true number one and the most important thing to do before before you even start building and developing your character is to figure out their personality and what their beliefs are so if you've already started diving into developing your characters you've probably already figured out their personalities but I want you to go even deeper into this character's personality and really figure out what are the differences between your personality and this character's personality one of my favorite tools for really honing in on a character's personality traits is the inogram which I've talked about a lot on my channel and in my podcast and I love the inogram so much because it's not just about how people behave it's about what we believe which can really help with building internal conflict for your characters so it's not just that they're an extrovert or an introvert or that they plan everything or they're spontaneous like those things matter yes but figuring out their inag type or even just a type that sounds similar to them it doesn't have to be the exact type it can be just a springboard for developing a more layered and complex personality around this character but figuring that out ahead of time will really help you a lot to eliminate other Alternatives and to keep your character's personality consistent we don't want any personality Whiplash okay that is very jarring and feels very immature when you read that in a story or you see it in a film when a character behaves one way and then they pivot and start behaving another way and you feel like this is so outside their personality why are they doing this they're doing this because the writer didn't take the time to stay consistent with their personality so take the time to figure this out and develop the different layers of this character's personality and while you're doing this you're going to find that you actually relate to some of it even if it's very different from your personality I've stumbled into this in my own writing as well with writing characters that I think this character is nothing like me but then as I think about it more I realize actually they are in a way below the surface their heart there's something in their core that is the same as me which leads me to number two find the part of their conflict that you can personally relate to so this doesn't have to do with personality as much as conflict what are they struggling with what do they want what will what do they think will make them happy and what are they afraid of what is their misbelief about the world what do they get wrong about life about themselves so even if their personality seems totally different from you there is something below the surface something in their beliefs in their internal deeper struggles that they don't share with anyone else that you can relate to okay number three this one is more of a hack I guess a way to hack your brain into feeling like your character which is to listen to music that they would listen to Or that reminds you of them but bonus points if it reminds you of them and it's something that they would actually listen to music as you guys know is something that really inspires me and influences me a lot in my writing and every time I create a new work in progress and I'm starting to develop ideas and characters I create lots of playlists for them I create playlists for each one of my my characters that are main characters in the story I create playlists for the story itself soundtracks like if it was a movie it would this is what the soundtrack would be but listening to music that reminds me of my characters really helps me to get in that zone and even if it doesn't match the mood of the specific scene I'm writing I do this all the time like I'll have a character that I'm writing who let's say they're more of an extroverted happy go-lucky sort of optimistic Daredevil rebellious character I will probably be found listening to very Lively rock music while writing this character even if I'm writing a scene where it's really not that hyper of a scene not much hype going on I'm still going to be listening to that hype rock music to Hype myself up into that energy of that character that's really what we're trying to accomplish here we're trying to accomplish the energy of the character trying to channel that main character energy which leads to number four and that is to dress like your character so when I was writing the other world one day I would be writing orca's point of view and she's a very soft gentle sweet flower child and she wears lots of Linens and skirts and blouses and soft sweaters and just like cozy soft feminine stuff and when I wrote her chapters I would dress like that because I first of all love that style but also I would feel more like her when I was wearing the kinds of clothes that she would wear and on the opposite end of that Spectrum when I was writing Jack's point of view I would wear more like jeans hoodie shorts t-shirt more casual clothing because that would feel more like okay I'm in this energy head space of Jack who is not not formal at all so it doesn't have to be anything like extreme but I find that this really helps to embody the energy of a character and that leads me to number five which is to try activities that your character would do this is another thing I do all the time and it really helps me to get in that frame of mind for instance let's say your character is like a tough badass spy or something and they are skilled in self-defense or martial arts or something like that maybe you should learn martialart Hearts seriously it's going to get you into their headp space into their energy to train self-defense to practice Shadow Boxing or boxing on a heavy bag it's going to first of all give you some interesting new Real World skills it's also going to put you into a different headp space and I find this all the time when I'm training martial arts I in a different head space and then when I come out of a practice session out of a training session I feel in the mood to write a character who has that same skill set and who brings that energy to the story but you can do this with anything say your character is a pastry chef well maybe you should spend some time like making croissants before you start writing I'm serious it sounds so weird but it's true it really seriously helps so much number six is a favorite hack of mine that I shared on my last live training about dialogue it works for dialogue it also works for just writing a character's internal narrative their point of view which is to spend time with characters who have a similar energy and attitude as this character you're trying to write so a similar personality attitude internal conflict they don't have to be exactly the same but they should have similarities I especially recommend this for characters and people in real life even that you can listen to and let their voice and their energy and their attitude sort of rub off on you okay this is a subliminal thing you are not actually going to be like copying their lines or their quirks don't do that that is not a good idea the point is not to copy anything from these characters you're just listening to them hanging out with them spending time with them and their energy and attitude is kind of getting stuck in your head like a song and once that energy is locked into your brain you can start to filter what you're going to write through that attitude bring that same energy to this character like I said this can even be somebody you know in real life I do this with people I know as well after I hang out with them I can more easily write characters that are similar to them in Attitude personality because I'm already thinking how would they say this and last but not least number seven what are their relationships by relationships I don't just mean with other characters I also mean with things in their life with their work with their free time their creative time what are all the things that make up their existence and what is their relationship with those things really all of life is built on relationships our relationships with people and different things and different aspects of our lives and somewhere in those relationships there is again like I said at the beginning of this video there's something you can personally relate to there's something that called you to write this character with all their unique layers to their life and their personality that you have personally experienced yourself there is something they are going through that you have experienced on a personal level whether it's their relationship with their spouse their mother their father their siblings their job their ambition and drive the goals that they're chasing after maybe what they're afraid of maybe it's something to do with their relationship with themselves these things are all these little Nuance layers of this character that you can get to know on a deeper level and relate to and I want you to relate to it I want you to weave your own experience into this character wherever you possibly can because even though they're different from you even though they might not share your personality weaving in those personal experiences and those little things that you can relate to is going to make your character feel so much more real and genuine and authentic so even if there's only one small thing about this character's relationships or conflict that you can relate to it's going to make them that much more Dynamic and jump off the page and feel like a real person because you're actually weaving your own life experience into this character's experience okay boom that's it those are my top seven tips for stepping into the shoes of a character who seemingly is not like you but finding those things to Rel relate to about them and also those little hacks I guess life hacks writing life hacks that you can do such as dressing like your character participating in activities that they would participate in listening to the music they would listen to also I didn't even mention this but building aesthetic boards for them is another great way to really embody their Vibe and their energy it's all about stepping into that main character energy so I hope this video has given you some helpful tips on how to do that if it did hit that like button and subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond writing videos and take storytelling to the next level the patreon community is not only the best way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube but it's also the only way to connect one-on-one with me and get better advice on your story plus get access access to exclusive monthly live trainings diving deep into topics on writing and Publishing all of that and more is available at patreon.com abens I hope to see you over there and until next time as always rock on today we are talking about the number one biggest mistake new writers make and it's something that Kate and I personally have not heard talked about before so we're bringing this to the table a interesting discussion to unpack and this mistake can destroy your entire story

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 76,039

Keywords: how to write characters, character profile, how to build a character, how to make your characters different, character tips, character building prompts, how to write character voice, character voice tips, character mistakes writing

Id: B7X_-GIL5hU

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023