Fanfiction Character Personality Tips

Ah my faaaavorite character writing topic! What I'm going to share with you is my method for keeping characters in character as best as I am aware of.

1. Dialogue

If you're stumped with character styles of dialogue, what I find helpful to do is to read and/or listen carefully over and over the way a character speaks a line or lines.
Two examples: spoken dialogue and text dialogue. Spoken dialogue is found in shows, audio dramas, video games or in any instances you hear the selected character(s) voice speak while text dialogue is when you can only see text of their words scrolling across a screen. This format is usally found in video games, novels, manga, comics and any media that has to be read instead of heard.

Spoken Dialogue-

Let's take Death Note's L Lawliet (english dubbed version) for this example. The first thing you notice is the timbre, quality type of sound, of his speech.

His voice hardly sounds surprised or amazed and tends to sound rather momotone and flat. It sounds as if he's thinking out loud all the time because he mumbles so much. But because of the knowledge of his characteristics, if you know them, he does become surprised and shocked and experiences other emotions. He just hardly ever 'acts out' those emotions like a normal person would. So, when describing his words in a story, do make mention of his low tones with appropriate adjectives. (Like instead of writing 'L said.' after a line of dialogue, you can replace it with 'L nonchalantly replied, sounding rather uninterested and bored.' Or something that describes how he spoke something or acted out a gesture/motion)

Since L tends to speak rather politely, it would seem very out of character to have him say: "Yo Light! What it is?!" or "Hey Watari, hurry up and gimme some more of them cakes, will ya?"


 >_< that makes me cringe!


Instead, it would be better to utilize phrases such as; "Hello Light." And "Watari, may I have another round of strawberry shortcake and 3/4 as many blueberry cupcakes? Oh, and also a cup of tea, please."

For a text dialogue example, let's gooo wiiith Rouge the Bat and her role in Sonic Battle. Notice how she tends  to leave quite a few dots after her words, meaning her thoughts tend to change mid-sentence and that she contains her emotions, has a habit of trailing off, and sometimes not finishing a complete thought(a sentence, in this case).
Subjects dealing with spying, stealing, technical information or smooth talking, she speaks of them fluidly without hinderance.
But in the instance of dealing with another character she's sincere about, like Shadow the Hedgehog, her words lose that fluidity as her emotions get in the way. A great example would be when in Sonic '06 she declares to  Omega that Shadow is always there to help save the world. "And besides that..." She trails off.

Using both of these methods, observe the games, shows and any other types of media that exploit any parts of personality of the character, more than once.

During my younger years, I wrote  a TON of FF7 and Sonic-related stories and often played every Sonic game that had spoken and text dialogue over and over and over; I even recorded these games to a VHS tape to watch when I wasn't playing.
By doing so, I was able to pin-point the patterns of character speech, body language, mannerisms, and train of thought done by the characters.

Since I'm a born natural actress, I found myself drawing and playing out the character roles. I've even copied their gestures and animations(Aerith, Cloud and Tifa's most of all)!

I became the character, in a sense, then "stepped back" to see them "be themselves" and interact with each other. They "talk" to each other in my head when I think about scenarios to place them in.



I'll let you in on a little secret that I use that helps me get into a character's personality. Acting plays a huge part in this, but since I mostly observe the character and understand how they operate instead of acting like them and only acting like them, I become more like a reporter, asking them questions. Face to face.

The way I do this is by looking at an OFFICIAL picture or screenshot of the character and he/she will "respond" in the ways I've heard them react in a game or show. This even works towards characters I've never "met" or seen in action before, but it's best to know of the character first.





Let's take existing character Claire Redfeild for example, using a Degeneration screenshot. Her eyes and lips stick out the most to me and when she "responds", I can see them moving actively.

References that are good for Claire are Resident Evil: Code Veronica and the cg movie Degeneraion. In CV, there is very strong focus on her eyes. This can be because of the graphics and to show off the Dreamcast's polygon count power, and/or to just show the audience Claire's expressions in a clearer and better light than what could be shown in Resident Evil 2 (since she was a new character, her traits were still developing).

You see her concerned, scared, determined, hopeful, all these things and you can relate to them. We learn how wholesome and protective she can be while kicking butt within the same setting.

In Degeneration, we are able to see the way she moves and behaves when engaged in conversation. She is always moving and is very responsive with her head and features. A good example of this can be seen when the antagonist of the film, I forget his name, is telling her of the WillPharma building they're in and while he's talking, she's looking around fascinated by the location, but still glances to him every now and then and nods to show she's listening to what he's saying. She was not still at all.



So!!  Let's ask her something.


Hey Claire?

"Yeah?" she responds intently, her eyes glistening in such a way that enhances her welcoming smile.

Is it true you find Leon attractive?

Her eyes instantly dart elsewhere in embarrassment and she forces a laugh. Then she rolls her eyes. 
"Ha. Right. Well, sure, I mean, who doesn't? I'm sure he'd like to think he could have any chick he wanted just by giving them that... 'Leon look' of his" she gestures, playfully narrowing her eyes and raising her chin. "Hello. I'm Leon Kennedy. And you are?" she laughs, poorly mocking his voice and shakes her head dubiously. "Please. What kind of question is that?! Talk about your personal life getting snooped into!"

Well, how do you feel about Steve?

Almost immedietely her chipper features melt into a somber frown. In rememberance, she looks away sighing. Her attention aimlessly settled on a mass of nothingness before her. "Steve...was..." she trailed off, shaking her head slowly, "...you know, even to this day I still wish that I could have done something more to help him... But at least he doesn't have to deal with it anymore...yeah. Anyway, he was defintely a friend in a time of need."

That's enough for now!!! Although, one time I asked her, for oneshot purposes, if she'd ever want to roll in the hay with Leon and she responded with a loud "Oh GOD!" while rolling her eyes and explained in...uh... "colorful" words that the answer was yes. Lol

Anyway!

For those that remember the shutdown Shadowed Darkness site, the methods I mentioned were the methods I used to get the characters to, hopefully, sound as close to their displayed personalities as much as possible.

But keep in mind, that to my knowledge and unless without legal permission, there is no money in fan-fiction. Yet, to me it's still a favorite hobby/pastime.

If you run out of ideas with having the character sound written right, remember to at least look at a picture of them. Imagine what you may want them to say or do and them doing it. If it seems "right" then it should be tested.


In-depth character analysis will be done in the future! The first one just may be Rouge the Bat.


Mel Meiko Mei Ling