User:Birdpaw/Birdpaw's Guide to All Things Characterization

This is a guide for all things character, characterization, and naming your character! This seems to be my strong point, so I'll do this first!

What is a character?
Yes, I'm asking you, what is a character (I had to do this in English "Explain what a character is!")

Well, I'm Bird, and I make things more complicated then they need be, so I'll explain to you what a character is in the Birdy way.

A character is a person/thing/animal in a story, it may be a protagonist, a deuteragonist, or an Antagonist, or anything in between!

Now!

A protagonist CAN be the main character, but if you want to twist it up a bit, your main character can be their friend and help them save the world from mass peril.

Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean XD.

A deuteragonist is a "Neutral" character, meaning, they can switch sides depending on their OWN plot/story, so it makes things interesting!.

The ol' Antagonist, is usually the evil character of the story (And if you want to have fun, the main character of the story!)

So a character could be really anything, if you have imagination XD.

Making A Character!
I usually use characters that come from my mind, be it sudden or not, and making an epic/amazing/good character is key to any awesome sauce story!

First, the personality, are they mean and cruel? Calculating and sly? Quiet and calm? Hyper and adventurous?

Well, with imagination, they really can be anything, the quiet and calm can be purely evil, while the calculating and sly can be good!

Mix up personalties a bit! Don't make it too obvious on who's evil or not! Make your story full of twists and turns that will probably keep the reader reading!

But don't make it too confusing, keep it on a path! No one likes confusing (Unless they can register what is going on before the next thing XD)

Then, what they look like.

It's actually surprisingly crucial at what they look like.

For example, if they look really evil and mean, they maybe are, but MAYBE they aren't, all characters have a soft side (Unless you're going for no heart characters, those are a bit easy though!)

And then... The NAME

The name can do with their looks, personality, anything!

But certain names.... They just can't be used, unless you're making a spoof! Then go crazy with names, heh, use any names if you want (Just don't go overboard!)

More to come later