Wednesday's Writer's Tip -- More on Character's Traits #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Last week I covered three of these General Trait categories. Today I'll do some more.

Group General Traits- This looks at traits found among groups of people like doctors, nurses, teachers criminals and more. As a writer I look at these and take and discard some because if I made a doctor fit all the traits we think of about this group, I'd be creating a stereotype and I don't want my doctor character to be such a thing. I may use some of the traits and I have in some stories. Doctor's are notorious for having horrible handwriting. In one of my stories a doctor does but now with the advent of computers this may not matter any more. This gave me problems when revising an old book and I hd to find a way around the problem since here the handwriting was essential to the plot. So when you're creating a character who is part of a group think of how they fit the group traits and also how they differ from this norm.

Physical traits - hair, physique, eyes and all that goes into a person. This is where you can play a bit. Are all heroes tall and good-looking. Could they be ordinary? Could the heroine iwth red hair not have a temper but be a mild and gentle sort. These are some way to look at physical traits to make your hero, heroine or villain different from the norm.

Personal traits - here we have what differs one person or character from the others. Is he or she brave, cowardly, cold or loving. here is where the writer must choose what other characters or even the character sees about a characters nature. I use Astrology to find these kind of traits, looking at a character's Sun, and Rising signs to discover how the character reacts.

Emotional traits - How does the character react under stress, in danger, in a relationship. Here again I look at Astrology and give the character a Moon sign. Gives me insight into the character's emotionsl self.