How exactly do I recognize a character's personality?

There's a bit of a problem I have with fiction in general. I really don't have a very developed sense of subtlety.

For example, I have a hard time recognizing or describing a character's personality if it's one that isn't exaggerated or otherwise one-dimensional.

Any character that has a personality more complex than just a stock character type for me is one that's constantly going through Character Derailment in order to further the story.

Hell, sometimes I have trouble recognizing or describing the personalities of real people.

Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

edited 14th Aug '11 6:48:58 PM by Zennistrad

Besides the cheap advice of "practice makes perfect," not really. You'll just have to write and show it to people who know to look for it, then deal with getting what you write taken apart until you get it done properly, I guess...

Try idenifing the character's role in the story, and then see how that character reacts in certain situations (like running him/her through the "What would your character do in the above situation" thread). Try to find how your chararacters works.

What's his motivation? His goals? His aspiration? How does he reach them? How does he approach blockage? How does he deal with people? How does his past affect his current state? Any quirks, obessions, or mannerisms that stand out?

You can write something that doesn't require a sense of subtlety.

You don't have to be able to describe someone to say you understand them; you have to be able to predict their behavior. I wouldn't pretend to offer accurate descriptions of most of my characters and most humans in general are complex and nuanced things, and attempts to describe them will always be generalities that cannot really convey everything.

But I can tell you what they'll do, which is what a writer really needs to know.

I think the best advice here would be "Show, don't tell". Don't say someone is kind, show them doing something kind. Don't say a person is nervous, have them act nervous. That kind of thing.

I can't remember who said it but: "Character is action." That is, people are what they do. In a written medium you have the advantage of eavesdropping on their thoughts but in an AV medium it is more of a hard rule. Sure, there is dialogue but that is merely a small aspect of what characters do. Their personality is revealed by how they behave.

In addition to what the others have said, read a lot, especially stuff that is commonly praised as high quality. (George Eliot is one of the best writers I know in terms of characterisation, though she sometimes tends to fail Show, Don't Tell from a modern point of view.) Experience other media (films, TV shows) as well. Again, go for the best. By looking at how good writers are doing it, you'll get the hang of how to craft a character.

There IS no such thing as personality.

Give me enough ressources, and cure me of all ethics, and I can engineer a situation that makes you do any one thing I want you to do. E.g. kill an innocent child.

People respond to situations. If I create a sufficiently extreme situation, you WILL pull the trigger.

Sorry if this is a double post. Connection trouble...

Peter 34 is right.

I fail to see how this

follows from this

Just because it's theoretically possible to make someone override their inclinations does not mean that those inclinations do not exist and, in the vast majority of situations, guide that person.

edited 15th Aug '11 7:18:13 PM by nrjxll

Chihuahua 0 and night have said most of what needs to be said, but sometimes you can get away with throwing subtlety out the window if the character (or work) is one where it would merely be a hindrance. Some people are just very pronounced, and will display a foul temper not with grumbling and subtle tics, but screaming and physical violence.

Oh, and this bears repeating: never tell about traits. What may seem kind to one person could come off as condescending to another, and people don't like having opinions forced into their heads. Some might even try and form an Alternate Character Interpretation just to spite you if you're too heavy handed.

nrjxll is right, and the situation Peter 34 was talking about engineering would have to be geared towards the specific person in question. The things that change the way it would be geared are personality.

If that makes sense.

I think it takes time. Well I guess in this context we could call it word count.

You need (I hesitate to say "need" because there's always some exception) to have one-dimensionalness to your characters so readers can form an opinion of the character themselves.

Then, once a one-dimensional idea of a character is formed, the possibilities of adding dimensions arise through further character actions and dialogue.

I'm sure there are characters who you immediately see as multi-faceted, but this is the method that I'm personally most comfortable with and, to the cymbal-clapping monkey in my head, makes the most sense.

He gets loud sometimes.

P.S. this was an interesting question

edited 15th Aug '11 9:20:10 PM by Jewbacabra

There is such thing as personality. Personality is like a loose set of programming that a person usually follows, but often diverge from depending on the situation, but there are still tendencies.

My own theory is that "personality" is the set of habits we develop to interact with other people. Some people don't have to change their essential nature much to make a good impression, while others do. Some people don't care if they make a good impression. Finding out what someone is really like can be a game, a bitter struggle, or a terrible shock.

Developing a character is something like designing a house. As part of your story, you give the reader a tour of the house, but you decide whether it's a castle or a cottage, how much light there is, where the tour begins and ends, which doors (and trap doors) will open, and how each room is decorated. During the story this house may change—a wall may come down, a window may open, or the whole place may be destroyed.