How to Write Characters Who Are NOT Like You 👀

Summary

Dans cette vidéo, l'animateur partage sept conseils pour créer des personnages crédibles et profonds, même si ceux-ci sont très différents de l'auteur. Il s'agit de comprendre la personnalité et les croyances du personnage, de trouver des points de contact avec sa propre expérience, d'utiliser la musique, de s'habiller comme lui, de pratiquer ses activités, de passer du temps avec des personnes ayant une énergie similaire et d'explorer ses relations. Ces astuces aident à incarner la personnalité du personnage et à donner vie à son histoire.

Takeaways

• 😀 L'un des principaux conseils pour écrire un personnage différent de soi est de comprendre profondément sa personnalité et ses croyances.
• 🔍 Utilisez l'inogramme pour affiner les traits de personnalité du personnage et pour construire un conflit interne plus complexe.
• 🎶 Écoutez de la musique que le personnage écouterait ou qui vous rappelle le personnage pour vous mettre dans son état d'esprit.
• 👗 Portez des vêtements qui ressemblent à ceux que le personnage porterait pour vous immerger davantage dans son univers.
• 🏋️ Faites des activités que le personnage ferait pour vous mettre dans son état d'esprit et son énergie.
• 🤝 Passez du temps avec des personnes qui ont une énergie et une attitude similaires à celles de votre personnage pour vous inspirer.
• 💡 Trouvez des aspects du conflit du personnage avec lesquels vous pouvez vous identifier personnellement, même s'ils sont très différents de vous.
• 👥 Comprenez les relations du personnage avec les autres personnages, ainsi qu'avec les aspects de sa vie, pour enrichir sa profondeur.
• 🎨 Créez des tableaux d'esthéthique pour le personnage pour capturer son ambiance et son énergie.
• 📚 Les personnages doivent sembler des individus réels avec des voix, des personnalités et des goûts différents, pas seulement des reflets de l'auteur.
• 🔑 L'écriture de personnages diversifiés est essentielle pour éviter que tous les personnages ne semblent être la même personne ou ne ressemblent à l'auteur.

Q & A

Quel est le principal objectif de la vidéo 'Writer's Life Wednesdays'?

L'objectif principal de la vidéo est d'aider les auteurs à rendre leurs personnages crédibles, profonds et relatables, même si ces personnages sont très différents d'eux-mêmes.

Quels sont les sept meilleurs conseils donnés dans la vidéo pour écrire des personnages différents de soi-même?

Les conseils incluent comprendre la personnalité du personnage, trouver des points de conflit personnels avec lequel on peut se relate, écouter de la musique que le personnage aime, s'habiller comme le personnage, faire des activités que le personnage ferait, passer du temps avec des personnes ayant une énergie similaire et explorer les relations du personnage.

Pourquoi est-il important de comprendre la personnalité et les croyances d'un personnage avant de commencer à l'écrire?

C'est important pour éviter les changements de personnalité soudains et pour maintenir une cohérence dans le comportement du personnage tout au long de l'histoire.

Quel outil est recommandé pour approfondir la compréhension de la personnalité d'un personnage?

L'inogramme est un outil recommandé pour identifier les traits de personnalité et les croyances du personnage, ce qui aide à créer un conflit interne plus profond.

Comment la musique peut-elle aider à mieux comprendre et incarner un personnage?

Écouter la musique que le personnage aime ou qui évoque son énergie peut aider à se mettre dans l'ambiance et l'état d'esprit du personnage.

Pourquoi s'habiller comme le personnage peut-il être bénéfique pour l'écriture?

Porter des vêtements qui ressemblent à ceux que le personnage porterait peut aider à capturer son énergie et à se sentir plus proche de lui.

Quels types d'activités sont suggérés pour se mettre dans la peau d'un personnage?

Les activités suggérées sont celles que le personnage ferait dans l'histoire, comme apprendre des arts martiaux pour un personnage espion ou faire des pâtisseries pour un personnage pâtissier.

Pourquoi passer du temps avec des personnes ayant une énergie similaire au personnage peut-il être utile?

Cela permet de se familiariser avec l'énergie et l'attitude du personnage, ce qui facilite l'écriture de son point de vue et de son dialogue.

Quelle est l'importance des relations dans la création d'un personnage?

Les relations avec d'autres personnages, ainsi qu'avec les aspects de leur vie, sont essentielles pour construire une personnalité multidimensionnelle et authentique.

Comment les expériences personnelles peuvent-elles enrichir l'écriture des personnages?

En intégrant des expériences personnelles dans les relations et les conflits du personnage, on rend le personnage plus réaliste et authentique.

Quel est le lien vers la plateforme Patreon mentionnée dans la vidéo?

Le lien vers la plateforme Patreon est patreon.com/abens, où l'on peut se connecter avec l'auteur et obtenir des conseils exclusifs sur l'écriture et l'édition.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Développement de personnages relatables

Ce paragraphe introduit la difficulté de créer des personnages différents de soi-même tout en restant crédibles et profonds. L'auteur propose de découvrir sept conseils pour incarner un personnage et écrire son point de vue de manière naturelle, même si sa personnalité et ses croyances sont différentes des vôtres. L'accent est mis sur l'importance de la compréhension de la personnalité et des croyances du personnage, ainsi que la découverte de conflits internes avec lesquels on peut se retrouver personnellement.

05:01

🎶 Utilisation de la musique pour ressentir l'énergie du personnage

Le second paragraphe suggère d'utiliser la musique préférée du personnage ou qui le rappelle pour se mettre dans l'ambiance émotionnelle et énergétique de celui-ci. L'auteur partage son expérience personnelle en créant des playlists pour chaque personnage et souligne comment cela influence son écriture, même si la musique ne correspond pas toujours au contexte de la scène en cours d'écriture.

10:03

👗 Se vêtir et se comporter comme le personnage

Dans ce paragraphe, l'auteur recommande de s'habiller et de se comporter comme le personnage pour adopter son énergie et son style de vie. Cela inclut de participer à des activités que le personnage aimerait faire, ce qui permet de mieux comprendre son point de vue et son mode de vie. L'auteur insiste sur l'importance de cette approche pour ressentir la personnalité et les préférences du personnage.

🤝 Comprendre les relations du personnage

Le dernier paragraphe traite de la compréhension des relations du personnage, non seulement avec d'autres personnages mais aussi avec les aspects de sa vie telle que son travail, ses loisirs et son temps créatif. L'auteur encourage à explorer ces relations pour trouver des points de contact personnels avec le personnage, ce qui permettra de donner plus de profondeur et d'authenticité à son personnage.

Keywords

💡personnage

Le terme 'personnage' fait référence aux individus fictifs créés par un auteur pour une histoire. Dans le script, l'accent est mis sur la création de personnages qui, bien que différents de l'auteur, doivent être crédibles, profonds et réactifs. L'exemple donné est de personnages qui, malgré leurs différences, contiennent des éléments de conflit internes avec lesquels l'auteur peut identifier.

💡conflit interne

Le 'conflit interne' est une lutte ou une tension qui se déroule à l'intérieur d'un personnage, influençant ses actions et ses décisions. Le script insiste sur l'importance de comprendre et de relier le conflit interne des personnages à des expériences personnelles de l'auteur pour rendre ces personnages plus authentiques.

💡créativité

La 'créativité' est le processus par lequel un auteur imagine et développe des histoires et des personnages originaux. Le script propose plusieurs astuces pour stimuler la créativité, notamment en se plaçant dans la peau du personnage et en explorant ses croyances et ses conflits.

💡personnalité

La 'personnalité' d'un personnage est un ensemble de traits qui définissent son comportement et ses réactions. Le script suggère d'explorer en profondeur la personnalité des personnages pour éviter les personnages qui semblent tous être écrits par la même voix.

💡inogram

L' 'inogram' est un outil mentionné dans le script pour analyser les croyances et les comportements des personnages. Il aide à construire des conflits internes et à développer des personnalités complexes et cohérentes.

💡écriture

L' 'écriture' est l'acte de composer du texte, ici spécifiquement lié à la création de personnages et d'histoires. Le script offre des conseils pour écrire des personnages distincts de l'auteur, en utilisant des techniques telles que l'écoute de musique, la participation à des activités et l'observation d'individus de la vie réelle.

💡relation

La 'relation' fait référence aux liens que les personnages entretiennent avec d'autres individus ou des aspects de leur vie. Le script souligne que comprendre et explorer ces relations est essentiel pour rendre les personnages plus réels et que les auteurs peuvent trouver des points de contact personnels avec ces relations.

💡vie réelle

La 'vie réelle' est mentionnée comme source d'inspiration pour les personnages et les conflits. Le script suggère d'observer les personnes et les situations de la vie quotidienne pour mieux comprendre et écrire des personnages crédibles.

💡identité

L' 'identité' d'un personnage inclut son histoire, ses croyances et sa personnalité. Le script met en évidence l'importance de comprendre l'identité d'un personnage pour qu'il soit perçu comme un individu unique et distinct de l'auteur.

💡émotion

Les 'émotions' sont essentielles pour la création de personnages relatable et engagés. Le script indique que comprendre et exprimer les émotions des personnages est un moyen de les rendre plus authentiques et de les connecter aux expériences personnelles de l'auteur.

Highlights

The importance of understanding a character's internal conflict and personal relatability for effective character development.

Seven tips for writers to create believable, layered, and relatable characters that are different from themselves.

The use of the inogram for identifying a character's personality traits and beliefs.

The necessity of maintaining consistency in a character's personality to avoid 'personality whiplash'.

Finding common ground in a character's conflict to make them relatable despite differences in personality.

Using music that a character would listen to as a creative tool to channel their energy.

Dressing in a manner that reflects a character's style to better embody their energy.

Engaging in activities that a character would do to understand their mindset and behavior.

Spending time with people who have a similar energy to the character you're writing.

Exploring a character's relationships with various aspects of their life to find personal relatability.

The value of personal experience in creating authentic and genuine characters.

The impact of aesthetic boards in capturing a character's vibe and energy.

The significance of the character's voice and perspective in storytelling.

The challenge of avoiding the 'author voice' and creating distinct individual characters.

The role of character development in making a story matter and achieving author dreams.

The potential pitfalls of not differentiating between characters leading to a monotonous narrative.

The importance of understanding the character's internal struggles for deeper character development.

Transcripts

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

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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