How To Write An Intelligent Character

On writing an intelligent character: Of course, to write someone smarter than you you need to exploit authorial privilege; if you could correctly model someone smarter than you in real time, you'd be that smart. On the other hand, you need to be careful with this. I liked the Artemis Fowl books, and even the character Artemis, but his portrayal as a 'genius' was...not great. I ended up with the strong impression that the author writing him wasn't even as 'smart'*

as me, let alone the super-genius Artemis is supposed to be.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

That is the real risk, I think - a badly written "smart" character not only doesn't appear intelligent, but also makes the author look unintelligent, too.

I think that some minds are better suited to particular kinds of thinking than others. Your stereotypical genius will tend to excel at activities that require the ability to understand, memorise and apply knowledge of complex systems, such as mathematics, quantum physics, anatomy, robotics or computer hacking. This doesn't imply quick-thinking so much as the ability to spot patterns and use them to solve problems.

In real life, this isn't actually a particularly uncommon talent, but it's far from a universal one. This same type of thinking enables some people to spot a well-foreshadowed-but-story-changing plot development a mile away, while other people will be surprised by the twist (and probably kicking themselves when they then register how much foreshadowing preceded it).

This is why, even given plenty of time to write the character, I think writing an intelligent character may require a much greater amount of care than writing a less intelligent one. I know that I, for one, am very capable of reading a long way into a story, or watching a long way into a series, and after hours or even weeks of thought and consideration, failing to predict developments that some people apparently spotted from the get-go. Having a lot of time is in no way a substitute for very careful, systematic thinking.

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Isn't that what the Random Questions Thread is for? Or one of the reasons.

edited 3rd Sep '11 6:49:02 PM by PsychoFreaX

Help?.. please...

How do you mean? Nobody can spot everything that the intelligent character would be able to spot and draw conclusions from without reading every scene in which that character is present. I don't think pasting entire novels into that thread would be a good idea.

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I mean doing the research. If a writer doesn't have enough knowledge on a certain science, they can ask someone else just to be sure.

Help?.. please...

I, being very much so a child of Everybody Hates Mathematics and Writers Cannot Do Maths, always had trouble writing a very technical-minded smart person.

Most of the time, I mostly left anybody with a science or math degree as an Informed Ability. They don't show up often as main characters, though, and I prefer using old-fashioned luck (or, more accurately, the ability to manipulate events in response to rapid change...) to show that a character was capable.

I am now known as Flyboy.

@ Psycho: But that has nothing to do with what I'm saying. Except, I suppose, insofar as if the character is stated to be an expert in a particular field which the author isn't actually an expert in, they might possess some knowledge that ought to enable them to infer something that the author can't, but in that case the author won't be able to ask because they won't know what specific piece of information they're lacking.

But no, that's not what I was talking about. I mean that a character who is sufficiently technically-minded to engage in such activities can normally be assumed to be good at spotting patterns in general and drawing conclusions from that - meaning that they should be able to make inferences from the events of the story that might not even cross the author's mind. If something like that doesn't cross your mind, you can't ask about it. (If it does cross your mind, you don't need to ask, obviously.)

It's not a question of knowledge. It's a question of intelligence.

edited 3rd Sep '11 7:06:13 PM by BobbyG

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Yes, intelligence =/= knowledge. I love to fuck with that. Writing characters that are hyper-competent at whatever it is they do and suck at other things is so fun...

I am now known as Flyboy.

Well I know that much. It's just an intelligent character is just expected to have some understanding in science. Of course you can write someone Book Dumb but Street Smart instead. With the latter case though, I have to admit I'm not sure. Maybe have smarter people proof read your work?

edited 3rd Sep '11 7:22:03 PM by PsychoFreaX

Help?.. please...

That does seem like it would be the best bet, yes.

I wasn't really talking about street smart so much as logical thinking, though. Street smart is somewhat easier, I think.

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