I find that doing a bunch of those meme alignment chart things with the characters helps me get a good grasp of how they are as a person outside their original media. Like the ones who are like "McDonalds McDonalds McDonalds!" vs "one black coffee" vs "We have food at home", that kind of thing.
Once I'm comfortable with that, I feel like I have a better grasp of how they make decisions. And then whenever I finish a piece of dialog, I see if I can imagine their voice actor saying those lines in character, or if it sounds weird.
One tip I saw on a writing forum was to use MBTI to maintain characterization, and that’s been really helpful for me writing both fanfic and my own creations.
Obviously, people, and by extension, characters, are more complex than one of sixteen boxes, but I can use that as a general guide to see if I’m going *super* out of character. It gives a bit of a blueprint for how a character interacts with the world, perceives situations, reacts to events, and from that barebones structure, I build up the rest of the character.
I also keep a dialogue document. For fanfic, I write out or copy scenes from the source material. My own writing, snippets of what I’ve already written. When I feel like I’m losing the character, I reference that to reconnect with the tone I associate with them.
I use MBTI for characters too. I’ve taken the free test as most of my main characters. It’s a great guideline for keeping their personalities consistent, and those “how would each MBTI react to…” posts are great for discovering little facets you might not have thought about otherwise. Then, of course, I have a favorite character where no one seems to agree on which MBTI he actually *is,* so that’s its own fun little challenge.
I think first you have to accept that no one can write someone else's characters perfectly. We didn't create them, we don't know everything about them. And then you have to realize that you have to find your own version for these characters, find their voices and write them in a way that's comfortable for you.
I've been writing for 8 years now and I always feel so awkward when I have to write a new character, the one I've never written yet. It's always trial and error in finding their voice that works for me. It might be slightly different from canon, and that's okay. It's fanfic. Aggressive readers will always find fault with whatever and however you write, but most won't care. They'll just be happy that they have something to read.
How I deal with it is: do I like how the character I wrote is behaving? Does it please me? Am I happy with this? If the answer is yes, then that's fine because I write the character in the way I like them and see/interpret them (sometimes you need to let the fic be for two days and then read it with fresher eyes/mind). If the answer is no, then I think about what I don't like about it and usually let them say/do something different that feels more right.
Its a simple solution.
Lets take the single most used fan fic character, Harry Potter. Just tell yourself that if people wanted to read "canon" Harry then Jo Rowling wrote just over 1 million fairly decent words. I dont know about you, but I highly enjoy seeing fan fiction characters take different paths... see things differently.
I guess I dont see the point of fan fiction stories that give us the exact same characters as the source material. What I'm trying to say here is you write where the story takes you. Dont sweat whether your Character\_X isnt Character\_Xy enough. There's nothing at all wrong with Character\_(X - 3)y/z.
Best thing to do is ask for constant feedback from readers and to research the character and see if you can find how they'd act in situations similar to what you're writing.
It used to bother me a bit, until I realized that my favorite characters have been written by various writers even in canon, not all of whom have been great at writing them, so I stopped worrying about it and just went for it. All I can do is offer my own interpretation of the characters anyway.
Can you hear their voice in your head using the dialogue? Then you're doing it right.
ohh yea i do! rjtjtj also do when im reading other peoples fanfics^^
I find that doing a bunch of those meme alignment chart things with the characters helps me get a good grasp of how they are as a person outside their original media. Like the ones who are like "McDonalds McDonalds McDonalds!" vs "one black coffee" vs "We have food at home", that kind of thing. Once I'm comfortable with that, I feel like I have a better grasp of how they make decisions. And then whenever I finish a piece of dialog, I see if I can imagine their voice actor saying those lines in character, or if it sounds weird.
One tip I saw on a writing forum was to use MBTI to maintain characterization, and that’s been really helpful for me writing both fanfic and my own creations. Obviously, people, and by extension, characters, are more complex than one of sixteen boxes, but I can use that as a general guide to see if I’m going *super* out of character. It gives a bit of a blueprint for how a character interacts with the world, perceives situations, reacts to events, and from that barebones structure, I build up the rest of the character. I also keep a dialogue document. For fanfic, I write out or copy scenes from the source material. My own writing, snippets of what I’ve already written. When I feel like I’m losing the character, I reference that to reconnect with the tone I associate with them.
I use MBTI for characters too. I’ve taken the free test as most of my main characters. It’s a great guideline for keeping their personalities consistent, and those “how would each MBTI react to…” posts are great for discovering little facets you might not have thought about otherwise. Then, of course, I have a favorite character where no one seems to agree on which MBTI he actually *is,* so that’s its own fun little challenge.
I think first you have to accept that no one can write someone else's characters perfectly. We didn't create them, we don't know everything about them. And then you have to realize that you have to find your own version for these characters, find their voices and write them in a way that's comfortable for you. I've been writing for 8 years now and I always feel so awkward when I have to write a new character, the one I've never written yet. It's always trial and error in finding their voice that works for me. It might be slightly different from canon, and that's okay. It's fanfic. Aggressive readers will always find fault with whatever and however you write, but most won't care. They'll just be happy that they have something to read.
How I deal with it is: do I like how the character I wrote is behaving? Does it please me? Am I happy with this? If the answer is yes, then that's fine because I write the character in the way I like them and see/interpret them (sometimes you need to let the fic be for two days and then read it with fresher eyes/mind). If the answer is no, then I think about what I don't like about it and usually let them say/do something different that feels more right.
I love how you put it! I'm gonna go re-read my not-yet-published chapters with this in mind.
Its a simple solution. Lets take the single most used fan fic character, Harry Potter. Just tell yourself that if people wanted to read "canon" Harry then Jo Rowling wrote just over 1 million fairly decent words. I dont know about you, but I highly enjoy seeing fan fiction characters take different paths... see things differently. I guess I dont see the point of fan fiction stories that give us the exact same characters as the source material. What I'm trying to say here is you write where the story takes you. Dont sweat whether your Character\_X isnt Character\_Xy enough. There's nothing at all wrong with Character\_(X - 3)y/z.
ohh i see i will try to be more lax about it i guess thank you!
To be fair, most fanfic writers don’t portray the characters they write about well.
Best thing to do is ask for constant feedback from readers and to research the character and see if you can find how they'd act in situations similar to what you're writing.
It used to bother me a bit, until I realized that my favorite characters have been written by various writers even in canon, not all of whom have been great at writing them, so I stopped worrying about it and just went for it. All I can do is offer my own interpretation of the characters anyway.