Character Cats

Raymond Cattell’s Taxonomy identifies 16 different personality  factors that could be used for polarizing and dimensionalizing characters. Give them a try in your story! The following personality trait list describes some of the descriptive terms used for each of the 16 personality dimensions described by Cattell. 1. Abstractedness: Imaginative versus practical 2. Apprehension: Worried versus confident 3. Dominance: Forceful versus submissive 4. Emotional Stability: Calm versus …

Character Arcs

One of my favourite writer/educators is Craig Robotham. The endlessly inventive creator of Weird World Studios. Craig always has a fascinating take on the nuts and bolts of writing. Here’s his latest look at how to work on Character Arcs Made Easy: Character Arcs Made Easy microphone by Miyukiko © 2013 A SIMPLE WAY TO UNDERSTAND CHARACTER ARCS It’s been …

Dimensions in Stereo

Hate stereotypical characters? Don’t! They give a lot of great clues about humanity. Why do people use stereotypes? How do they get developed? Stereotypes tend to be cultural, religious, or sexual in nature, and they often develop through the need of human beings to order everything we perceive in the world. I remember the first time said, “People shouldn’t judge” …

Polarising Your Cast

What does it mean to polarise (polarize) your characters? I first heard this term in The Story Toolkit Podcast  episode #31 where they demonstrate excellent polarisation from Out of Gas one of the best teleplays from the amazing dead-before-its-time series  Firefly. Good writing polarises the cast allowing each character to react differently to a story event. Let’s consider the iconic characters of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy …