A mood board is a collage of images, text, colors, or materials. that are used to “to evoke or project a particular style or concept”. Basically, it helps set the “mood” for whatever you are working on. Mood boards are often used by interior decorators and artists but can also be used for writing. I love creating mood boards for each of my characters. It helps me get a a feel for the character I am writing. For example, one of my characters is an elven swordswoman. For her mood board I used images of trees, flowers, decorative swords, and artwork of elves. It really helps when I’m trying to write from her perspective.
To create a mood board, simply find images or text that remind you of your OC. I use google images or even pinterest to find images. Its easy and fun.
2. Take Quizzes for Your Characters
Okay, this may seem a little silly but it totally works. Take a quiz from your characters point of view. Select the answers you think your character would select. I personally like doing this with personality quizzes such as the Myers Briggs tests because I can use the results as a foundation for my characters personality. It’s fun, effective, and actually productive.
3. Create Playlists
I listen to music a lot because it gets my creative juices flowing. So, if I find myself stuck on a particular character, I make a playlist of songs that remind me of that character. I actually like doing this before I start working on a character so I can listen to it while working on them. It sets the mood and gives you better results. Give it a try.
4. Study Some of Your Favorite Characters
Sit down, take out a notebook, and start taking notes on some of your favorite characters from literature, TV, or movies. What made you attracted to this character? What made you hate this character? What is your favorite thing about this character? Answering these questions will help see why you feel that way towards your favorite or least favorite fictional characters. Use your notes as a guideline on how to make readers either hate or love your OCs.
5. People Watch
Yeah, this sounds creepy but it is very effective. Go to the park, take a walk, or simply sit at the window and observe the people you see. Take notes on the little things that they do. Do they walk a certain way? Do they stand up straight or do they slouch? What quirks do they have? Do they drum their fingers while sitting? Do they tap their foot while waiting in line? Write down what you observe and you can apply the results to your characters. It will give your original characters a more realistic touch.
I think the best piece of character design advice I ever received was actually from a band leadership camp I attended in june of 2017.
the speaker there gave lots of advice for leaders—obviously, it was a leadership camp—but his saying about personality flaws struck me as useful for writers too.
he said to us all “your curses are your blessings and your blessings are your curses” and went on to explain how because he was such a great speaker, it made him a terrible listener. he could give speeches for hours on end and inspire thousands of people, but as soon as someone wanted to talk to him one on one or vent to him, he struggled with it.
he had us write down our greatest weakness and relate it to our biggest strength (mine being that I am far too emotional, but I’m gentle with others because I can understand their emotions), and the whole time people are sharing theirs, my mind was running wild with all my characters and their flaws.
previously, I had added flaws as an after thought, as in “this character seems too perfect. how can I make them not-like-that?” but that’s not how people or personalities work. for every human alive, their flaws and their strengths are directly related to each other. you can’t have one without the other.
is your character strong-willed? that can easily turn into stubbornness. is your character compassionate? maybe they give too many chances. are they loyal? then they’ll destroy the world for the people they love.
it works the other way around too: maybe your villain only hates the protagonist’s people because they love their own and just have a twisted sense of how to protect them. maybe your antagonist is arrogant, but they’ll be confident in everything they do.
tl;dr “your curses are your blessings, and your blessings are your curses” there is no such thing as a character flaw, just a strength that has been stretched too far.
This is such a fabulous flip side of what I’ve always known about villians. That their biggest weakness is that they always assume their own motivations are the motives of others.
One thing I love about Judaism is that long involved conversations about things like “can a zombie attend shul?” or “can i use my pet dragon to light candles on shabbat?” or “is meat from a replicator kosher?” are seen as completely normal.
Yes, but it should avoid contact with a Cohen if it can, and if the dragon is a Gentile sure, why not, a pet dragon is an ideal Shabbos goy, since it probably lives with you, and will get a kick out of helping. If it’s a Jewish dragon, though, no, it’s better for you to do it yourself rather than cause another Jew to violate Shabbat.
Wait wait… if a jew owned the dragon as a pet wouldn’t using the beast’s labor to light candles be pretty explicitly prohibited?
Good point. Is the dragon property, or is it a roommate?
I think it was ruled that one may allow a dragon to ignite a fire if (a) the dragon is non-sapient, and preventing them from lighting the fire would be animal cruelty, or (b) the dragon is sapient, non-Jewish and not in indentured service.
And one cannot bring a dragon into a household for the express purpose of lighting candles at a later date, since the Jew would be directly benefiting from the dragon’s actions on Shabbat.
But if the dragon just happens to live there already and feels the urge to light candles, it should not be stopped from doing so – as the sages said: “the same candle that benefits one can be used to benefit one hundred.“ (Shulchan Aruch HaRav, 276:6)
This was a thrill from start to finish.
And for the last question:
Not only would it likely be kosher, it may even be parve (i.e., not considered “meat” and therefore able to be eaten with dairy without problems). I think this is supported by the discussions around בשר מן השמים (Sanhedrin 59b & 65b) are the closest we’ll find in the Gemara, what with the whole “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” bit and all.
Assuming this is the case, the biggest issue then is מראית עין: even if it is fully kosher and parve, there remains the concern that another Jew might see you eating this replicated bacon cheeseburger and be inadvertently lead to think that all bacon cheeseburgers are okay, leading them to future transgressions.
Not to worry! The Rama in his commentary of Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 87) ruled that one may eat meat cooked with almond milk, but for similar concerns, should have almonds on the table as a reminder to passersby that almond milk exists and is fully parve. Perhaps replicators can be programmed to give the burger a strange shape or on a type of tray that only replicator food is eaten from.
