5 storytelling tips for beginners

[Mirrowdothack]

As KT say *and as I mean it* "believable does not mean realistic. If you're creating an unsocial character who truely hates people and is not just playing it, his character should be presentes that way. Of course he may change but those changes don't appear out of nowhere. It's a part of the story: some events, others characters, ... may be a part of changings his/her mind etc.

Q is believable because he has a lovely personality. Q is acting the way he is acting because he know about his powers. He knows exactely that humans etc are no match for him. He has power but but also his weakneses (weaknes does not mean a physical one, like strength etc): Your hero may be arrogant or act pretty childish. His weakness can be an object or a special person *like in Superman*. There are several ways to do this. There is another reason why Q is a memoriable character: as you said: it fun to watch him. The reason is quite easy to figure out:
- we adore his power
- we adore his pesonality
Q is no white page: He has something special but he is also potrayed as a human beeing. I'm not takling about him beeing a human, since he is not. But the way he acts and other people react to him makes him a pretty lovely character. Janeway for example does not treat him like a god but more like a little child, who is having superpowers but she doesn't really care. This fact is "earasing" his good status a bit and brings him closer to the audience, makes him more human-like.

Just as I mentioned/and KT before: Make your chara believale and memoriable includes a certain kind of consistency when presenting his personality. If you have an character who was presented as a heartles person, hurting some animals and his is shown petting them in the next seen without telling the reader why he changed all of the sudden, it may confuse the reader and lead to an unbelievable character. You think about yourself: People can change, yes, but they mostlikely won't if there is no reason for it. A person has a special personality: A shy girl probably won't do things like walking around naked if there is no good reason for it. *bty I tend to use those over-extrem examples to point out what I'm trying to say, don't take the to serious^^

Light was consitent. You always get to know why he was doing stuff. Maybe you don't agree with his action but that's not neccessary for a character to be believable. Light changes over the story. There are some other stories about how power can influces people, like The Experiment, The Wave, The War Between the Classes or you could also take GoT.

to sum it up: make you character believeable and memoriable
- believeable is not the same as realisitic
- memoriable give him/her something special, an attitude, a weakness, a strenght, a conviction, .... something that make the reader want to follow and to learn more about this person

[KiloTango]

Another point is, if you're writing horror or trillers, playing with expected characterisation can be very effective for the exact reason you don't have people break character in other genres: It feels wrong. When your cute and loveable childhood friend character suddenly gets a killing look in her eyes, if you've not presented them as 'this is a yandere waiting to happen' it'll be jarring in a way you might actually want.

Speaking of Yanderes, Tsunderes etc... a major on beginners trip up on: If you can describe your character, in their entirety, with a single trope archetype like that... you probably need to go in and give them more development. Empty personality fetishes are no fun to write or read compared to fully developed characters who happen to display some of those traits.

[Mirrowdothack]

yeah,
a character behaviour can depend on the story's genre. In Higurashi nice persons tend to become mad all of the sudden, but here again they have a reason for it. Your character may be simply a mad maniac who'a playing a nice person. Or maybe he/she doesn't not knwo about his/her other half. Or maybe it's like mr hyde or the hulk. there are several ways to imply contrast in your character which can be a very effective way to create a memoriable character.
Revealing the characters true intent, believes or personality is often use for villains but it also affects the hero, since his true self will be revealed the climax of your story most of the time. To quote Glassner: This is the moment the hero show who he truely is and what he believes in.

archetype are a good way to start with a character, to defines their role in the story. but as KT said those type need more development in order to become something special.
Let's say you want somekind of an mentor for your hero. Someone who guides him/her. First question yourself: Why need the hero guidiance? Why is this mentor the best for him? Maybe the mentor had to face a similiar problem in his youth he/she couldn't solve? Then think about other possibilities to implement this mentor-figure in the story. Let's take Star Wars as an example: Obi Wan was Darth Vaders Mentor but also he is Luke's. So Obi Wan had to face his former student through Luke again. Those three characters are connected and there is a good reson why it is Obi Wan who become Lukes mentor: He know his enemie and he know much ablut Luke that even Luke is not awared of.

This kind reminds me of something else:
We've already mention point of views, but when you "decide" through who's eye you're going to tell the story think about what the reader should know at each point of the story. Does he/she only knows stuff the hero know? Or maybe does he knows things the hero isn't awared of right now? This can be extremely effective. Hitchchock once described a good example: imagine you see some guys playing cards, having a nice chat etc. and then all of the sudden: Boom, an explosion. What would happend if you had seen that bomb right from the start: you see it while those guyse are talking and playing: You will probably feel the tension and say things like: Stop playing card, look below your table: There is a fucking bomb and it's going to kill you all in about 15 seconds!

To know stuff the hero did not know can be a good way to rise tension. But on the other side if you both have no idea what the hell is going on this can build up hight tension as well. After the 4 Epsidode of Umineko I was like:

WTF why are they all still allive. Everybody just died. So ... whatttttt?

After that I really wanted to keep on looking to find out what was going on.

Another option is that you may have a hero that knows stuff but is not revealing it. This can lead to the same feeling descript above.
So, if your going to write your stoty think about when you will give you reader a certain piece of information.

A way to prepare a special event without directly telling the reader: THIS is going to happen! is foreshadowing. This is often used in anime openings. If you have seen a season and then watch the opening again you may think: God damn it, they have already shown me what will happen in this op and I haven't noticed it until now.
The question is: why should you prepare things? This is compareable to the believeable character: Sometimes if things happen all of the sudden which did not fit the usual storyline etc. there is a chance that the reader maybe won't buy it. Not always but in some situations it is a good thing to prepare stuff this way. You can also use foreshadowing when your story starts. In the game Silent Hill 2 James will walk towards the city. There are several warning signs, you can hear crows and the fog become thicker. With this you don't have to tell the reader: This city in dangerous and somthing bad will happen. The reader will know about it by noticing those "symbols". So preparing stuff the reader is awared off can be very effective to rise the tension.