I believe character development is the most important aspect of a novel. If I don't care about the character, I don't care what happens to them. I'm looking at you Divergent.
+NewYorican 2006 I have had multiple characters who went through many changes, but do you character can have character development without necessarily changing their personality?
there was a screenwriter who said even if you dont have a story it doesnt matter as long as your characters are great. i can watch heath ledgers joker do anything and it would have been so cool to see that character interact with jack sparrow
characterization character development or change and character progression are all different things and usually a character rarely does all three and usually always has characterization if they have some role in a story
Thank you for this awesome series!! I'm an aspiring fantasy writer, and these videos have help me to focus my creative energy in the proper directions. My somewhat rambling storybible is exactly 28 marble notebooks long and increasing, so these tutorials are very helpful in separating the song from the static. Keep 'em coming!!
I seem to have a natural talent for character development but your advice on passive and active writing and showing over telling was vital to my progression as a writer so thank you.
This definitely helped me understand my characters better, helped me in understanding them as well-rounded people, and in writing them into scenes, it helped me understand their motivations and how they would react and just helped the writing process a lot more. THANK YOU. This is my favorite playlist of all the playlists.
I appreciate what you do for people. I'm sure you're a great help to all writers out there, including myself. Character development wasn't something I was taking too seriously until watching your video. I focused heavily on the action and plotting, but I lacked in describing my characters appropriately. Thank you.
iv never written a book or had interest in writing a book. the closest iv done is writing creative stories for english class, and they were the english assignments i usually got better grades for in school! But recently iv had an idea for a story and a world and characters that i can't let go of, and i usually play out scenarios with them in my head before i go to sleep at night haha anyway these videos have made me think that maybe i could just try to write it into a book, and the way this video explains how characters are explored and developed are exactly what i do when I'm playing a character in a monologue or play, i didnt even think to apply that skill to writing! its very motivating to know!
You go girl! Writing is great! And I find building characters the best part! If you have an idea, make notes about the setting, the characters and generally plan out the plot, then get started.
Jenny Mawson thankyou!! and after watching a few of these videos thats exactly what i did! haha i have a couple pages of just notes and ideas and characters and plots and things, excited to start once i have some spare time!
Jenny Mawson oo i hope so! what sort of things have you written? i love getting lost in reading so will be interesting to see if the same thing happens with writing!
Thanks for this. I'm in the middle of writing a novel, and I've been stuck for a few weeks, and this has given me some great ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your other videos.
Hi Katytastic, this video is helpful, insightful, informative, and inspiring. I look forward to the prospects of watching more. I've been doing a lot of research on character development, and story outlining. Those are the two areas that I have in the past found to be my Achilles Heel, as it were. But like body building every day you do it you get better at it. I really love your idea about the Story Bible. It will really help me to not only log characteristics but it will organize and make easy the accessibility to my info that I'll use. i loved your reference to it being like the Wikipedia of my book. Thank you so very much, I look forward to watching more of your fun and informative ideas on writing. Warmest regards, Fredrick Fowler
Great video on designing characters, but I'm not sure if this is 'character development?' Character development is about the arc of the character as the story goes along, and how the character changes.
Character development is when your character changes- for the worse or better or any really or none- through hardships and trials. If a character is stubborn but when that character refuses to listen to their mother and they get hurt, eventually they learn. That's character development summarized, kind of... My favorite character development is Briony in Atonement by Ian McEwan. Just amazing and a great example!
That was a cool point about the character traits and how we should think about them in social situations. It is kind of like dnd where you might have a bad diplomacy roll because you have a low charisma score. Whenever you are in a situation where you have to talk to someone to get your way you are at a disadvantage and you have to think about how that is going to affect the outcome and what your character has to do to overcome their downfalls/shortcomings. It is kind of easy to think of my
Omg, I never thought of doing a story bible before! I keep having to scroll through 80,000 words to try and find something i need to reference from another part in the story XD best idea!
Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2016. These old vids are so helpful, and this channel is where I heard of NaNoWriMo in the first place! Will you do NaNoWriMo again Kat or are those days behind you?
This was definitely a great video and I love how you say things perfectly well to understand what you're saying. I know it's unlikely, but I would love to see one of your story bibles. They sound interesting and I've never seen/heard of one before. :)
I'd flee in the mug scene, because muggers would obviously be much bigger than me, but I would be faster considering weight. I would focus on GETTING OUT OF THAT ALLEY. If they have cornered me, I will try and slip between their legs. If that fails, I will fight. I tend to avoid fighting.
"Like, maybe your really prideful character has a shy and modest best friend. And you see how that dynamic plays together." Rainbowdash and Fluttershy! :P
+arttu jokela character development is when the reader starts to know the character and starts to relate to him/her (or not, in case the reader dislikes the character) and, also, can even expect some reaction or decision from the character as the story goes on. You can tell when there is no character development when you, as a reader, dont get interested by what is going on with the character as you read the story. If you want the character to die or not to die... Means it has development, you know him/her.
This is a really interesting topic. Character development is one of the many hardest aspects when writing, and I think it's quite challenging to create an interesting, different, and consistent character. Liked before I even finished watching it. ^.^ Thanks for sharing, as always. :D
I liked the vid, but maybe retitle? I was looking for how to give certain characters an interesting story that changes them over time. One was going to have a kind of catharsis within the setting and realize his own insignificance but comes to terms with it, while another would have a 'descent into darkness' where initially is a very upfront, warrior-disciplined character, but as certain things are revealed, becomes more questionable morally wise and gives the impression she may not be on the same side by the time the next story rolls around.
Very good video. You do a lot of the same stuff I do when writing for character development. I'm curious, how many main characters do you usually have that interact regularly, and do they have some traits in common, or do you try to make them very different from each other?
no matter what for who they are, not what they do. You know what is funny? I was working on a "story bible" of my own for my novel last February, coming up with character traits and descriptions, making maps, creating diagrams, researching, etc. But in the end, I wasn't actually writing anything and kind of gave up because it felt like I was wasting time or procrastinating! I guess I was doing something right, although, I should have had the draft first. I will find this incredibly useful when I
Wow I must be getting better at reading people. I had a gut feeling just by listening to the things you were talking about that you had probably showed interest in MBTI before. Actually most of the people interested in personality types are also curious about the makeup of people and exploring it, pretty similar to character traits. I'm ISFJ by the way. Great vid I just thought I'd randomly guess lol. I've done it in the past but I don't think people knew what I was talking about.
start the research portion of my novel. I want to make it as historically accurate to 1850 as I can (so that no one can point anything out as not being from that time period or plausible). The problem is that my story and the characters have changed so much over the year that I have been working on this that my wiki entry would be out of date and inaccurate by now! Silly me. I find it interesting that you chose proud as the character trait to talk about in this video as an example.
I'm a female And I just feel super weird if I try to make a girl the main character of my story I ALWAYS make it a Male Am I alone on this Btw. Thanks for the video!! You're an amazing help
+Sacha wilder I feel some kind of connection telling a story through the other gender I love to explore the other gender and understand it. I like the kind of "brotherhood" boys have For an example "the maze runner" or "Harry Potter" Guess I like male friendships more than a females.
This one comment made me want to make my protagonist a male lol I usually do a female because I can understand and relate to them :) I'm ready for a challenge
Here is a even more random question for Katy. Are you an INFP or maybe INFJ? Have you ever done the Myers Briggs test before? You have crazy good insight into what makes up a person.
This is a very good video. A lot of this I did already so its good to know I am on the right track. And I do the story bible thing, its very useful. I feel like I should have at least 1 composition book filled with histories and things like that.
4:27 uhh why did I think about City of Heavenly Fire when Jordan and Jace where talking? "So, what you're saying is that what brings you peace...is war?" 😂thanks for the tips Kat!
Currently, I have six unpublished novels and working on my seventh. And the style of "author" my style greatly resembled is Richard Castle. Yeah! Go figure!
First Time Watching Your VIdeo and I Fell in Love!! Thanks a lot for your Advices! You seem to be a very deep and intelligent woman! Greetings from Germany!!
haracters in a vacuum - or to see them as a means to an end in terms of plot. They are dynamic and sometimes prickly and unpredictable and the plot might have to bend around their will! (Ahem, DIAH! Lol) Thanks for the reminder. At the end of the day, all of my characters are damaged and insecure and a little worse-for-wear. They simply seek acceptance. That kind of unconditional love that is everlasting. Each of my characters will go to the ends of the earth to find someone that will love them
Just as you advised, I spent two hours figuring out the details of my first character - what he tends to eat for breakfast, cat or dog person?, name of childhood sweetheart, blood type, etc. He dies in the very first sentence, so what was the point of figuring out all that stuff?
I would never tell a beginning writer to give a character contradicting qualities. It is one of my biggest pet peeves in OCs. A more experienced writer might be able to get away with it if done properly but these characteristics may be the difference between Mary Sues and actually well thought out characters.
what does N stand for? I am ISFJ - Ooh does that make me bad? Some of those questions were really hard? If I took this test in 6 months the answers would b different. I am a social person. I don't mean to be, I love my own company, but right now I am so social with events that I crave alone time. Winter is here, in three months I will be at the other end of the spectrum. At least I can give the characters in my story traits that are solid. Maybe I can do a Myers Briggs test on them?
i have been so idiotic in writing my book.... i keep going off and developing other characters and never gone indepth with the main character at all, and i kinda just use her for a different camera angle.... how am i gonna fix dis * face palms and deletes story ( not really ) *
+Kerry kerrylouisepowell@yahoo.com.au Maybe, try writing in second person, so that the point of the main character is not to be too interesting at all, but, rather to be merely be a vehicle for telling the stories of the other characters, who are more developed. The second person perspective tends to be thought of as the most difficult of perspectives from which to write, but, personally, I've found it interestingly easy, because: A) You are writing from the perspective of someone who is observing, but, not really participating too much, and is therefore not actually too important to the plot, but, who is still able to give a realistically human-like account of events, in a very natural way, without sounding too overly-stylistic or robotic. In other words, you can write it in a more natural sounding way, but don't have to go through all the trouble of purposfully developing the character, because not only is the character not too important, but at the same time, enough character development of the narrator will simply come out naturally, based on the style of the writing itself. ( In other words, since the story is written in the narrators style, the style of the writing itself will, by it's very own nature, serve to naturally convey what kind of person the narrator is, which means you, the author, are basically developing that character enough, without really even trying. ) B) At the same time, because the second-person perspective gives you the chance to be a little more subjective and human, you can now decide just how present you want to be in a given scene. For instance, unlike the first-person perspective, which forces you to be constantly and consistantly present and alert in every situation, the second-person perspective allows you to be present when nessessary, but, also to trail off and move around to other places, both mentally and physically, within the reality of the story. In other words, your narrator doesn't have to follow the protagonist around the entire time, but, can if he (or she) needs to, for whatever sake nessessary. C) Since the second-person narrative is told by someone who is present, but not a main character, the narrator can be as knowledgable or as unknowlegible as nessessary for presenting information to, or keeping information from the reader, depending on whatever the story's requirements are, and since the narrator is someone who can have a close or not-so-close relationship with the protagonist, or any other character for that matter, the narrator can give as much or as little information about the protagonist or any other character as he (or she) needs to, for the sake of developing that character.
MoonlitDevil_ Princess wow you can type alot... how long did it take you? And no spelling mistakes, your better than me! :3 And also thanks for your advìce but the kinda book i have the character needs to have depth and personality, but i have plenty more ideas for books which i will apply your advice to, thank you! :3
+Kerry kerrylouisepowell@yahoo.com.au That's the spirit. I went back on reflecting on a story I thought was crap...until I went back and said "You know what? This is some damn fine writing I cooked up"! It's funny how things look different in retrospect sometimes.
Interestingly synchronicitous, you look in this video a lot like the main character of the current novel I'm working on, AND her name is Katherine. Hmmm. ;) But this really is my first time coming here, I swear. Oh yeah, and that "Kate" is English. VERY English, stiff upper lip included. :)
as mentioned in another of Ms Katys videos the phrase 'Interesingly synchronicitous' is wanky and stupid and could easily be replaced with a stronger word like coincidently. Whilst I'm here, in England Catherine shortens to Cath/ Cathy and Kathryn shortens to Kate/ Katie if your going for that whole American 'stiff upper lip' bull shit I suggest the one starting with a K as its totes old school what what.
So, I had an idea for a story during math class... Many children in the middle school ages are very dramatic. They think they have depression immediately when things in life goes wrong. Most of these "depressed emo kids" do not suffer clinical depression, in fact, about 60% of them fake it for attention. Most of those "cuts" are for no reason. ((NOTICE: THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE OFFENSIVE TO ANYBODY)) Now, most of these emos get bullied, right? That got me thinking, "What if those emos WERE the bullies?" I go to a school where I am occasionally bullied, and those bullies always use their "depression" as an excuse. I've observed every thing I could about their situations, and each have better conditions of me. I've talked to parents about what these kids have. I have come to the conclusion that they are not depressed, but just spoiled and are upset over suddenly not getting everything they want instantly anymore. Most cut for attention, which they didn't get at school, and then proceed to do it more. Then, I thought "What if...instead of the normal kids tormenting the emos, there is a school overun, with many of the students being emos and a perfectly normal and happy child goes there and they torment him?" Why? Because that's my situation right now in school. Marshal is eleven years old. He is a blond with messy hair, has many freckles on both cheeks, black rectangular glasses and sky-like, blue eyes. He's about 4"10 in terms of height. He loves to socialize, and hang out in large groups of people, at least five at once. He's a bit short-tempered and doesn't like to be teased at all, and is overall very hyper and active when excited, which is fairly rare. (For example: He can hardly stand still when on a field trip but won't care for a game of football.) Otherwise, he's mostly lazy and enjoys to play video games or just talk with his sister (who I don't have a name for yet, but her name will probably be Erin), who is a year younger than him, but they are in the same classes due to her starting school early. They both go to the park often, but only to chat. They usually get along well, rarely getting into serious arguing. However, Marshal finds himself becoming a bit annoyed with her at least once a week, due to her sometimes playfully teasing him. Marshal's interests (in games) are anything Nintendo, Undertale, or most of all: Little Big Planet 2. He stays up late at night but always finds himself awake early in the morning. His favorite subject in school is Science, due to the many experiments. I'm not done developing this character yet, but this is just everything at the top of my head. I just thought of this today, so...
I'm not sure about this, it seems like if you write it you will sound like you're saying people with depression are bullies. Besides, how do you know they don't have depression?
Hey Im writing this book Im calling it LOST and im on the third chapter.I am writing it on Wattpad and I was wondering if Im doing this right?I usually just describe them in appearance throughout the book revealing things as u go along?Is that thr right way??
I don't know why, but when it comes to the history of the character, i usually create them with a messed up past (sexual, physical abuse as a child mostly). I need to get off that trend DX
![World Building [Factors of a Great Novel #2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uQOhRbSDEik/mqdefault.jpg)
![World Building [Factors of a Great Novel #2]](/img/tr.png)
I believe character development is the most important aspect of a novel. If I don't care about the character, I don't care what happens to them. I'm looking at you Divergent.
+NewYorican 2006 I have had multiple characters who went through many changes, but do you character can have character development without necessarily changing their personality?
there was a screenwriter who said even if you dont have a story it doesnt matter as long as your characters are great. i can watch heath ledgers joker do anything and it would have been so cool to see that character interact with jack sparrow
characterization character development or change and character progression are all different things and usually a character rarely does all three and usually always has characterization if they have some role in a story
She blinks....
I'M CURED!
Thank you for this awesome series!! I'm an aspiring fantasy writer, and these videos have help me to focus my creative energy in the proper directions. My somewhat rambling storybible is exactly 28 marble notebooks long and increasing, so these tutorials are very helpful in separating the song from the static. Keep 'em coming!!
I seem to have a natural talent for character development but your advice on passive and active writing and showing over telling was vital to my progression as a writer so thank you.
This definitely helped me understand my characters better, helped me in understanding them as well-rounded people, and in writing them into scenes, it helped me understand their motivations and how they would react and just helped the writing process a lot more. THANK YOU. This is my favorite playlist of all the playlists.
Awesome advice. I need you to be my teacher. You should write a book about How To Write A Novel. You're good:)
This needs to be all the way at the top of the 'Top Comments' so Kat can see this :)
Delon Naidu agree, this is also the first time im seeing her videos and it is very helpful
I appreciate what you do for people. I'm sure you're a great help to all writers out there, including myself. Character development wasn't something I was taking too seriously until watching your video. I focused heavily on the action and plotting, but I lacked in describing my characters appropriately. Thank you.
Hahaha "Don't hurt my car" that sounds like my main character in the book I'm writing! She loves her Volkswagen Bug
Does it have a name too?
Like Herbie
Ive been writing for years. Ive never found someone who explains this so well. Fantastic video. Lots to think about!
iv never written a book or had interest in writing a book. the closest iv done is writing creative stories for english class, and they were the english assignments i usually got better grades for in school! But recently iv had an idea for a story and a world and characters that i can't let go of, and i usually play out scenarios with them in my head before i go to sleep at night haha anyway these videos have made me think that maybe i could just try to write it into a book, and the way this video explains how characters are explored and developed are exactly what i do when I'm playing a character in a monologue or play, i didnt even think to apply that skill to writing! its very motivating to know!
You go girl! Writing is great! And I find building characters the best part! If you have an idea, make notes about the setting, the characters and generally plan out the plot, then get started.
Jenny Mawson thankyou!! and after watching a few of these videos thats exactly what i did! haha i have a couple pages of just notes and ideas and characters and plots and things, excited to start once i have some spare time!
Yeah! Glad to hear it! Once you start writing, it will be all you think about! Thats what happened to me!
Jenny Mawson oo i hope so! what sort of things have you written? i love getting lost in reading so will be interesting to see if the same thing happens with writing!
This was beyond helpful! It's always good to remind oneself of these type of tips.
Thanks for this. I'm in the middle of writing a novel, and I've been stuck for a few weeks, and this has given me some great ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your other videos.
Hi Katytastic, this video is helpful, insightful, informative, and inspiring. I look forward to the prospects of watching more. I've been doing a lot of research on character development, and story outlining. Those are the two areas that I have in the past found to be my Achilles Heel, as it were. But like body building every day you do it you get better at it. I really love your idea about the Story Bible. It will really help me to not only log characteristics but it will organize and make easy the accessibility to my info that I'll use. i loved your reference to it being like the Wikipedia of my book.
Thank you so very much,
I look forward to watching more of your fun and informative ideas on writing.
Warmest regards,
Fredrick Fowler
With the prideful character and shy best friend all I could think of was Jace and Alec
Ey, you read The Mortal Instruments?
Great video on designing characters, but I'm not sure if this is 'character development?' Character development is about the arc of the character as the story goes along, and how the character changes.
Well, she's talking about creating the character before the story is written. You're talking about how the character develops over time.
Thanks so much Kat! I'm a young aspiring writer and your videos are SOOO helpful.
Your tips are more concise than most bestselling authors or writing coaches give out.
Thank you for this great information. I have subscribed.
Character development is when your character changes- for the worse or better or any really or none- through hardships and trials.
If a character is stubborn but when that character refuses to listen to their mother and they get hurt, eventually they learn. That's character development summarized, kind of...
My favorite character development is Briony in Atonement by Ian McEwan. Just amazing and a great example!
That was a cool point about the character traits and how we should think about them in social situations. It is kind of like dnd where you might have a bad diplomacy roll because you have a low charisma score. Whenever you are in a situation where you have to talk to someone to get your way you are at a disadvantage and you have to think about how that is going to affect the outcome and what your character has to do to overcome their downfalls/shortcomings. It is kind of easy to think of my
Oh! Story bible? I've been calling mine the book's "Key"! ^o^
Omg, I never thought of doing a story bible before! I keep having to scroll through 80,000 words to try and find something i need to reference from another part in the story XD best idea!
Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2016. These old vids are so helpful, and this channel is where I heard of NaNoWriMo in the first place! Will you do NaNoWriMo again Kat or are those days behind you?
Thanks for this I am starting to write a story and that story bible would great with because I was never good at explaining characters.
I always use a story bible, detailing some things, but I need to write more describing things to portray them. This really helped.
This was definitely a great video and I love how you say things perfectly well to understand what you're saying. I know it's unlikely, but I would love to see one of your story bibles. They sound interesting and I've never seen/heard of one before. :)
I'd flee in the mug scene, because muggers would obviously be much bigger than me, but I would be faster considering weight. I would focus on GETTING OUT OF THAT ALLEY. If they have cornered me, I will try and slip between their legs. If that fails, I will fight. I tend to avoid fighting.
"Like, maybe your really prideful character has a shy and modest best friend. And you see how that dynamic plays together." Rainbowdash and Fluttershy! :P
Jeremiah Bok ew
Luiza Vazquez Hey I'm not wrong.
The first 'proud' description fitted one of my characters perfectly!!
+arttu jokela character development is when the reader starts to know the character and starts to relate to him/her (or not, in case the reader dislikes the character) and, also, can even expect some reaction or decision from the character as the story goes on. You can tell when there is no character development when you, as a reader, dont get interested by what is going on with the character as you read the story. If you want the character to die or not to die... Means it has development, you know him/her.
This is a really interesting topic. Character development is one of the many hardest aspects when writing, and I think it's quite challenging to create an interesting, different, and consistent character. Liked before I even finished watching it. ^.^ Thanks for sharing, as always. :D
I liked the vid, but maybe retitle? I was looking for how to give certain characters an interesting story that changes them over time. One was going to have a kind of catharsis within the setting and realize his own insignificance but comes to terms with it, while another would have a 'descent into darkness' where initially is a very upfront, warrior-disciplined character, but as certain things are revealed, becomes more questionable morally wise and gives the impression she may not be on the same side by the time the next story rolls around.
Very good video. You do a lot of the same stuff I do when writing for character development. I'm curious, how many main characters do you usually have that interact regularly, and do they have some traits in common, or do you try to make them very different from each other?
I liked that video, then a couple of minutes later, I scrolled down to like it again.
She looks like lily from himym
yaaaah
+Kane Domican yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
in almost every of her vids, someone will prolly say that
Be nice everyone
I know, right.
You should make a video on how you organize/layout your story bible
no matter what for who they are, not what they do. You know what is funny? I was working on a "story bible" of my own for my novel last February, coming up with character traits and descriptions, making maps, creating diagrams, researching, etc. But in the end, I wasn't actually writing anything and kind of gave up because it felt like I was wasting time or procrastinating! I guess I was doing something right, although, I should have had the draft first. I will find this incredibly useful when I
Wow I must be getting better at reading people. I had a gut feeling just by listening to the things you were talking about that you had probably showed interest in MBTI before. Actually most of the people interested in personality types are also curious about the makeup of people and exploring it, pretty similar to character traits. I'm ISFJ by the way. Great vid I just thought I'd randomly guess lol. I've done it in the past but I don't think people knew what I was talking about.
All of your advice is sooooooo helpful and you ought to be so successful!!! GOOD LUCK!xxx
start the research portion of my novel. I want to make it as historically accurate to 1850 as I can (so that no one can point anything out as not being from that time period or plausible). The problem is that my story and the characters have changed so much over the year that I have been working on this that my wiki entry would be out of date and inaccurate by now! Silly me. I find it interesting that you chose proud as the character trait to talk about in this video as an example.
Wow, Thanks for the story Bible idea it sounds very helpful, I'm going to try it. And Keep up the good work your videos and ideas are Great.
I love how you sing your words :) subbed!
So glad I found your channel. Great advice.
You should continue with this series!
I actually have a powerpoint as my "story bible" so that way I can easily find the exact place a piece of information is.
Thank you for the advice! It's really helping me a lot already and I've only really started the character development stage! :D
I have several story bibles. So many that I have a seperate box full of notebooks stacked in my room...
I'm a female
And I just feel super weird if I try to make a girl the main character of my story
I ALWAYS make it a Male
Am I alone on this
Btw. Thanks for the video!! You're an amazing help
+GrungeChild101 Hum .. i can't see why you feel like you have to make a male main character? Can you explain ? Mine is female :)
+Sacha wilder I feel some kind of connection telling a story through the other gender
I love to explore the other gender and understand it.
I like the kind of "brotherhood" boys have
For an example "the maze runner" or "Harry Potter"
Guess I like male friendships more than a females.
Yeah i agree :) less drama haha
+Sacha wilder hahah yea
This one comment made me want to make my protagonist a male lol I usually do a female because I can understand and relate to them :) I'm ready for a challenge
Here is a even more random question for Katy. Are you an INFP or maybe INFJ? Have you ever done the Myers Briggs test before? You have crazy good insight into what makes up a person.
A very good video on character development!
This is a very good video. A lot of this I did already so its good to know I am on the right track. And I do the story bible thing, its very useful. I feel like I should have at least 1 composition book filled with histories and things like that.
You look like Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also, I appreciate the tips!!
I'm using your channel to help me plan for NaNoWriMo, I love how exciting the end of October is for that. SQUEEE!
This is an excellent video, but I want to know about plot and sub-plot in detail!
Inform me when your novel reaches Bangladesh. I`m gonna be the first in line to buy it. You have my word
Omg!! I see Sisters Red and Sweetly on her shelf in the background!!
Oh and Fathomless!!! I love those books!!!
This is great! VERY helpful as well as simple.
The only problem I'm having with my Novel is the dialogue. How am I going to write dialogue that sounds real and appealing, specially with children?
4:27 uhh why did I think about City of Heavenly Fire when Jordan and Jace where talking?
"So, what you're saying is that what brings you peace...is war?"
😂thanks for the tips Kat!
Currently, I have six unpublished novels and working on my seventh. And the style of "author" my style greatly resembled is Richard Castle. Yeah! Go figure!
First Time Watching Your VIdeo and I Fell in Love!! Thanks a lot for your Advices! You seem to be a very deep and intelligent woman! Greetings from Germany!!
Hi there, your video was very informative. I'm teaching English to grade 3. I would really appreciate if u suggest me something for this level.
You're not alone. I do that too.
haracters in a vacuum - or to see them as a means to an end in terms of plot. They are dynamic and sometimes prickly and unpredictable and the plot might have to bend around their will! (Ahem, DIAH! Lol) Thanks for the reminder. At the end of the day, all of my characters are damaged and insecure and a little worse-for-wear. They simply seek acceptance. That kind of unconditional love that is everlasting. Each of my characters will go to the ends of the earth to find someone that will love them
thanks you helped a lot :)
Great video! :D The advice is really helpful, and I can't wait to apply it to my own novel :)
Your videos are awesome! Thanks for the tips and links.
Do you do this before or after you have written your rough first draft? :) Great videos!
Just as you advised, I spent two hours figuring out the details of my first character - what he tends to eat for breakfast, cat or dog person?, name of childhood sweetheart, blood type, etc. He dies in the very first sentence, so what was the point of figuring out all that stuff?
I would never tell a beginning writer to give a character contradicting qualities. It is one of my biggest pet peeves in OCs. A more experienced writer might be able to get away with it if done properly but these characteristics may be the difference between Mary Sues and actually well thought out characters.
what does N stand for? I am ISFJ - Ooh does that make me bad? Some of those questions were really hard? If I took this test in 6 months the answers would b different. I am a social person. I don't mean to be, I love my own company, but right now I am so social with events that I crave alone time. Winter is here, in three months I will be at the other end of the spectrum. At least I can give the characters in my story traits that are solid. Maybe I can do a Myers Briggs test on them?
This was very beneficial for me! Thank you for this.
What POV do you prefer when you're writing?
what i want to know is what is a plot and sub-plot as against a story...
I SO love your videos!!
Thanks so much for this, Kat!
I want that library
I keep thinking about what my characters are like but I can't for words to describe them. Anybody else have this problem?
simplify them and then go into more detail
Need tips on descriptive writing plz want to be awesome description writer
this is pretty useful stuff nicu
i have been so idiotic in writing my book.... i keep going off and developing other characters and never gone indepth with the main character at all, and i kinda just use her for a different camera angle.... how am i gonna fix dis * face palms and deletes story ( not really ) *
***** i read back my story, it wasnt as bad as i thought, im currently trying to grow on the personality i gave her, thanks for the tip though :3
***** thank you, i will take your advice :3
+Kerry kerrylouisepowell@yahoo.com.au Maybe, try writing in second person, so that the point of the main character is not to be too interesting at all, but, rather to be merely be a vehicle for telling the stories of the other characters, who are more developed.
The second person perspective tends to be thought of as the most difficult of perspectives from which to write, but, personally, I've found it interestingly easy, because:
A) You are writing from the perspective of someone who is observing, but, not really participating too much, and is therefore not actually too important to the plot, but, who is still able to give a realistically human-like account of events, in a very natural way, without sounding too overly-stylistic or robotic. In other words, you can write it in a more natural sounding way, but don't have to go through all the trouble of purposfully developing the character, because not only is the character not too important, but at the same time, enough character development of the narrator will simply come out naturally, based on the style of the writing itself. ( In other words, since the story is written in the narrators style, the style of the writing itself will, by it's very own nature, serve to naturally convey what kind of person the narrator is, which means you, the author, are basically developing that character enough, without really even trying. )
B) At the same time, because the second-person perspective gives you the chance to be a little more subjective and human, you can now decide just how present you want to be in a given scene. For instance, unlike the first-person perspective, which forces you to be constantly and consistantly present and alert in every situation, the second-person perspective allows you to be present when nessessary, but, also to trail off and move around to other places, both mentally and physically, within the reality of the story. In other words, your narrator doesn't have to follow the protagonist around the entire time, but, can if he (or she) needs to, for whatever sake nessessary.
C) Since the second-person narrative is told by someone who is present, but not a main character, the narrator can be as knowledgable or as unknowlegible as nessessary for presenting information to, or keeping information from the reader, depending on whatever the story's requirements are, and since the narrator is someone who can have a close or not-so-close relationship with the protagonist, or any other character for that matter, the narrator can give as much or as little information about the protagonist or any other character as he (or she) needs to, for the sake of developing that character.
MoonlitDevil_ Princess wow you can type alot... how long did it take you? And no spelling mistakes, your better than me! :3
And also thanks for your advìce but the kinda book i have the character needs to have depth and personality, but i have plenty more ideas for books which i will apply your advice to, thank you! :3
+Kerry kerrylouisepowell@yahoo.com.au That's the spirit. I went back on reflecting on a story I thought was crap...until I went back and said "You know what? This is some damn fine writing I cooked up"! It's funny how things look different in retrospect sometimes.
Interestingly synchronicitous, you look in this video a lot like the main character of the current novel I'm working on, AND her name is Katherine. Hmmm. ;) But this really is my first time coming here, I swear. Oh yeah, and that "Kate" is English. VERY English, stiff upper lip included. :)
as mentioned in another of Ms Katys videos the phrase 'Interesingly synchronicitous' is wanky and stupid and could easily be replaced with a stronger word like coincidently. Whilst I'm here, in England Catherine shortens to Cath/ Cathy and Kathryn shortens to Kate/ Katie if your going for that whole American 'stiff upper lip' bull shit I suggest the one starting with a K as its totes old school what what.
Coincidentally isn't a stronger word, it's a common word. Much like comment-trolling, hence why you suggested it. Take my meaning there, son? Buh-bye.
thank you for making this video!! very helpful!
Super helpful and great!!💕🙌🏻✨
I love your tips! Has anyone ever told you , you look like the woman from How I Met Your Mother??
I was just thinking that myself. Her speech style is similar as well.
This is amazing!!! Thank you so much!!
Hope you get published!! Btw great advice
"and they strive for, like, greatness
brilliant stuff, thanks.
Your link to the thing about character qualities doesn't work.
I just love your videos! Help me so much!!
Thank you very much! such a big help
what is character development? like when in a movie/book review the reviewer says "there was no character development."
Rules for magic, check. A map, check. General plot, check. Characters, 50%.
So, I had an idea for a story during math class...
Many children in the middle school ages are very dramatic. They think they have depression immediately when things in life goes wrong. Most of these "depressed emo kids" do not suffer clinical depression, in fact, about 60% of them fake it for attention. Most of those "cuts" are for no reason.
((NOTICE: THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE OFFENSIVE TO ANYBODY))
Now, most of these emos get bullied, right? That got me thinking,
"What if those emos WERE the bullies?"
I go to a school where I am occasionally bullied, and those bullies always use their "depression" as an excuse. I've observed every thing I could about their situations, and each have better conditions of me. I've talked to parents about what these kids have. I have come to the conclusion that they are not depressed, but just spoiled and are upset over suddenly not getting everything they want instantly anymore. Most cut for attention, which they didn't get at school, and then proceed to do it more.
Then, I thought "What if...instead of the normal kids tormenting the emos, there is a school overun, with many of the students being emos and a perfectly normal and happy child goes there and they torment him?"
Why? Because that's my situation right now in school.
Marshal is eleven years old. He is a blond with messy hair, has many freckles on both cheeks, black rectangular glasses and sky-like, blue eyes. He's about 4"10 in terms of height. He loves to socialize, and hang out in large groups of people, at least five at once. He's a bit short-tempered and doesn't like to be teased at all, and is overall very hyper and active when excited, which is fairly rare. (For example: He can hardly stand still when on a field trip but won't care for a game of football.)
Otherwise, he's mostly lazy and enjoys to play video games or just talk with his sister (who I don't have a name for yet, but her name will probably be Erin), who is a year younger than him, but they are in the same classes due to her starting school early. They both go to the park often, but only to chat. They usually get along well, rarely getting into serious arguing. However, Marshal finds himself becoming a bit annoyed with her at least once a week, due to her sometimes playfully teasing him.
Marshal's interests (in games) are anything Nintendo, Undertale, or most of all: Little Big Planet 2.
He stays up late at night but always finds himself awake early in the morning. His favorite subject in school is Science, due to the many experiments.
I'm not done developing this character yet, but this is just everything at the top of my head. I just thought of this today, so...
It's pretty good. I would definitely read a story like this.
I'm not sure about this, it seems like if you write it you will sound like you're saying people with depression are bullies. Besides, how do you know they don't have depression?
Hey Im writing this book Im calling it LOST and im on the third chapter.I am writing it on Wattpad and I was wondering if Im doing this right?I usually just describe them in appearance throughout the book revealing things as u go along?Is that thr right way??
You so remind me of Lily from How I met your mother
Thank you
I don't know why, but when it comes to the history of the character, i usually create them with a messed up past (sexual, physical abuse as a child mostly). I need to get off that trend DX
Amazing advices! Thanks! :D
this was an amazing help to me thank