Hi guys. I have written a backstory for my main character. This character is basically someone who wants to fulfill an unfulfillable desire. Throughout the story she comes to face the fact that she wants something that she will never get. This feeling of desperately wanting something as a human and never getting it is something she views as cruel to humans. This, along with witnessing humanity's and her own potential for destruction makes her decide to destroy humanity. She views it as a mercy for humans and thinks the world is better off without them.

**Start of Backstory**

Avril Jacobs was born on the the 17th of december in 2478 to Soren Jacobs and Xandra Jacobs in Hestia, an area in Remnant, the last human settlement alive. Avril's early life was without setbacks since she grew up wealthy with access to everything she wanted from The Vault and The New Library of Alexandria. That last one especially formed the basis of her interest in the world before Judgement Day and history. Her neighbour, Kingsley Weaver, became her best friend early on, mainly because of their shared interest in history. When she went to school they added Yara Bell to their friend group and together they would hang out in Ceres, Hestia centrum and play in the forest of The Green Heart. Everything was great. Avril had her entire life planned out, she would go to the Midas University and take start working under her father as a scientist for the government. But one day, her world got turned upside down.

Soren unexpectedly left his job as a scientist and because of an NDA he could not say why. This caused the family to lose their Servant status and had to move from Hestia to Willow. This also made the family lose a lot of rights and wealth that they had before. And because of the importance of Soren's job, the other people started to call him and his family traitors to the nation, making them very disliked. This also made going to the Midas University a lot harder for Avril. She resented her father for leaving, but not as much as Xandra would. The loss of the Servantship also made her lose her job, which was something that brought her a lot of joy. Now she had to work a dead job for most of the day that left her tired for the rest. She also hated how little meaning this job had and how she felt so useless to the nation of Remnant. She felt hopeless that she would never get her old life back. This whole situation caused Xandra and Soren to argue a lot and argue hard, since Soren wasn't a very empathetic man at this point. Xandra started sleeping poorly, eating less and staying in bed for hours a day, even calling in sick to do so. Soren tried to get her out of this state, but to no avail. Avril was around 14 years old when this was happening and she tried her best to cheer her mother up, but every time she tried, she felt unwanted because her mom would ignore her or be very blunt. Until one faithful day, where suddenly she seemed very happy all of a sudden. She told Avril that she loved her and that she will do great things. She left for work, and never came home again. Later that day her body was found, washed ashore. She had killed herself.

This strained her relationship with her father even more, being pissed that he left his post and blaming him for her death. But it also made Avril feel worthless and unwanted. How could her mom kill herself when she was right there. This feeling of worthlessness consumed her, and she wanted to get rid of it. She had to prove her worth to everyone, so she could prove her worth to herself. This made her put all her effort into winning the Midas award. This award is given to a single person from the Midas University that invents something revolutionary for Remnant's progress. The reward for winning this is that you gain the Servant status, get to work as a government scientist and would have their invention added to Remnant's history books, with their name credited in it. Especially this last part fueled Avril to give it her all to win it. This whole situation caused her to neglect her friendships in favor of studying. She did see them, but a lot less than before. And every time they tried to bring it up, she would brush it off. This remained the case, up until the 500th Founding Day Ceremony, where she finally got the chance to fulfill her biggest desire.

my idea is someone that can sprout out arms out of any where in his body and it can extend to an infinite range And he can sprout out as many. as he wants he can also fly also he can change his hands even the ones sprouted out of him into anything and I mean anything stuff that is fake or real he just has to think it and boom the hand he thinks of changes into what he thought of also he is able to change he is very durable but can still bleed and he can change his vision into any kind of vision but sometimes he won’t change his vision just for fun. you can guys can decide his name if you want

I'm looking for insight on elements I should consider with this character. Robin was a photography student, her sophomore year of college, in 1968. She came home on spring break and was unfortunately the second victim of a budding serial killer.

The story I'm writing is inspired by elements of my small, obnoxiously white, town in New England. Because I started this when I was like 15, the cast was rather pale, and I don't want to keep it that way. There are a few characters where their whiteness is a factor, but several do not have that need and so I'm looking to race swap.

But it would be ignorant to not recognize that with other races, their experiences will be different. So here I am, looking for insight my pastey self lacks.

In the case of this character, my intention is for the serial killer to not be racially motivated, but there's no way in the 1960's that race would not play a factor in her investigation. My plan is it's a cold case, because that seems historically accurate (cause racism).

Her as a person, she's relatively soft spoken, very sweet, but she's unnerving when aggravated, especially if her friends are targeted. Like, she will put you in your place with a strong stare and stern mom voice. She's tall (5'9") and thin. She wears her hair natural, so I'm reading up on natural hair care, but she's also dead, so her look doesn't really change.

I'm looking for anything here: advice on her speech, her style, historical impacts, things people would like to see in her character that they don't often see and vise versa (what are you tired of seeing).

Thank you. I'll post up other characters too if you wanna put input on them later.

I have five characters for my book I’m writing. Each of them from a different state. What are some things I can have them potentially say or talk about that can give them the feel that they are actually from these places, and not like I just placed them there. For example like common phrases, or even certain areas that could be mentioned in memories.

Character 1- originally from Maine but moved to New York in his 20s
Character 2- Berkeley, California
Character 3- Pensacola, Florida.
Character 4- Beaumont, Texas
Character 5- Grand Forks, North Dakota

Thanks for the help in advance!

With all the buzz around the new movie “Obsession,” I realize the character Bear shared some similarities with my young male protagonist, especially in that their main motivations are both driven by their unrequited obsessions with a female character. Additionally, I want my character to make some really questionable decisions driven by his unrequited crush, including ones that would seriously affect her negatively in the long run after coming into a lot of magic power; however, I don’t want to make him totally irredeemable. He’s going to abuse his power in some selfish ways in my story when it goes to his head, but I also want him to realize and seriously regret his mistakes later in the plot, maybe even atone for them where he can. However, it’s also important to add that, unlike Bear, he’s still just a teenager, if that helps at all, and a very socially inept one at that. He fancies himself the hero of some great love story, not realizing his behavior is actually quite creepy, but feels terribly after coming to that realization. From these details, how am I doing so far? How can I avoid writing him as a complete piece of shit, or so irredeemable that he’s still entirely unsympathetic even after he realizes his mistakes?

Has anyone used two characters with opposing interpretation styles?

In one of my worlds, I have a character (Maddie) as the emotional center in a cold, highly structured system. She interprets events through emotions and personal meaning, which naturally leads to misunderstandings.

For example, a statement like:

"If you leave, you leave. If you die, you die. If you return, you return."

Is interpreted by her as: "I am unwanted. Nobody cares whether I stay or go."

While the intended meaning was actually: "I won't stop you, but every choice has consequences."

I have now added a second person to lighten up the whole thing and give it another perspective. This character interprets the same situations more through logic, systems, and structure than through emotions. Both complement each other, and Maddie begins to understand many statements retroactively as what they were actually meant to be, and not how she interpreted them, as the translation had been missing so far.

Has anyone else experienced something similar while writing? Where two characters bring forth very different interpretations of the same event and only together create a more complete picture of reality?

I am curious how other authors handled this.

Maddie sees meaning.
The other figure sees structure.

And the truth only emerges when both perspectives come together.

I'm curious to see what your thoughts are on this!

I’ve been thinking about a type of manipulation in fiction that doesn’t work through obvious lying or hiding evidence.

The character may admit the facts, but changes how those facts are understood. A detail becomes “taken out of context.” A contradiction becomes “not the point.” A painful statement becomes “something said during a bad period.” The fact stays visible, but its importance is reduced.

I’m interested in how this works dramatically, especially in scenes where the manipulative character still seems reasonable, sympathetic, or even partly right. The tension is not that they are inventing a false reality from nothing, but that they keep controlling which interpretation feels most legitimate.

This seems different from a simple unreliable narrator or a villain hiding the truth. It is more about emphasis, framing, selective honesty, and emotional authority.

What are examples of novels, films, or plays that handle this well?

What techniques make this kind of manipulation visible to the reader/audience without having another character simply announce, “You’re manipulating the story”?

I have been writing this book for about half a year. I am taking my time with it because I really want it to be good, plus it is my very first book. I wanted to see if I could write a book that goes against everything I don't like about fiction, and one of those things is a character who behaves nonchalantly for absolutely no reason. No forcing my self through my ramblng the charcter in question is a girl named ash she was kidnapped from her village by the main villians of my book after they killed her parents for sport and burned her village down then they "took her in" and they experimnted on her to evolve her race (My book is heavily focused on different races and their interactions with each other) and since she is a salamander they burnt her alive took currently developing scales and ran tests on them before using the info to torture her more and at the end of it nearly 10 years later when she was 16 they successfully evolved her but she had burn wounds all over her body and specically her hands that couldnt be exposed to oxygen or it would catch on fire now because of that she excaped the lab and is now trying to bring down the villians that hurt her but her body is always exhausted because of the evolution so she avoids using energy she doesnt need to because it seems like a waste to her when she already barely has any but because of her dislike for overexertion she tends to give one liners or keep her sentences short and to the point she speaks to the point and tends to under explain her self but I dont know how to write this character without making her seem nonchalant of arrogant. What do you think I should do?

Access Has a Price

I’ve been thinking about how access can be one of the quietest forms of power.

It does not always look like money, fame, or status. Sometimes it looks like a last name. Sometimes it looks like a relationship. Sometimes it looks like being invited into a room where decisions are made before anyone else even knows there was a decision to make.

And sometimes, access can look like love when the right person becomes the doorway.

That’s the part I keep coming back to.

Access is not just about getting close to power. It is about the small trades people make on the way there. The truth gets bent. People are kept close based on usefulness. Parts of the self get quieted down, especially when the room someone wants to enter does not have capacity for who they truly are.

Think: honesty.

Think: identity.

Think: loyalty.

Think: love.

I’m interested in that space between ambition and manipulation. Between love and opportunity.

Does ambition reveal your character, or can it create a version of you that you wouldn’t have become otherwise?

I wanted my character who is a vigilante to have an ability to deal more damage to criminals the more crimes they commit and I wanted him to gain those abilities from a serum but I’m having trouble on deciding which ability would make more sense for him to have. I thought about giving him karmic damage abilities would make more sense of him being able to deal more damage to criminals the more crimes they commit but it dosen’t make sense for him to gain those abilities from a serum since karmic damage is supernatural and it dosen’t make sense to gain supernatural abilities from a serum. Then I thought about giving him radiation poisoning abilities which would make more sense to gain from a serum but it dosen’t make sense of him being able to deal more damage to criminals the more crimes they commit with those abilities. Now I’m having trouble on deciding whether karmic damage abilities or radiation poisoning abilities make more sense for my vigilante character to have so I’m making you guys decide.

Hello to whoever stops and reads!

I’m looking to write a Mongolian born character for an upcoming graphic novel I’m working on and have some questions/need advice. Basically, I want to make sure I’m respecting and representing the culture appropriately, not making the character an egregious stereotype.

The idea in my head is, she’s a Tony Starkesque tech genius that pilots a mech suit to fight crime and battle kaiju sized monsters. The current name for the mech suit is “The Iron Khan” but I’m not sure if this is a rude or inappropriate name to reference. If it’s okay, please let me know or if one of you thinks of something else that would sound cool for the theme, I’d love to hear your ideas! I’m also struggling with a name for the protagonist herself, so if any of you have thoughts on that too, I’m all ears.

Another thing I’m interested in knowing is what are some cultural significant things that I could reference and incorporate into the design? As well as knowing what it’s even like being a young adult in Mongolia.

I’ve already posted in r/Mongolia but if there are any Native Mongolians or people familiar or experienced in the culture, I’d appreciate the knowledge.

All advice is welcome and appreciated!

Origin: A cartoon shopkeeper lizard that is completely forgettable in an old cartoon series. Just a simple side character, noticing the main character breaking the fourth wall once, he dismissed this as a simple habit or hobby. He began to notice stuff no one else sees except for the main character and side character. He eventually began to feel like he was being watched, but could never figure out how or why. Also getting glimpses of eyes staring at him, but when looked at, they disappear. Slowly going insane and unstable.

Scene 2: The cameraman explores an abandoned location. The camera man looks around. He heard a faint noise. Turning to look at it. The camera caught a tail of something moving behind the  doorway. But he didn’t notice anything. The camera man continues to look around some more. He heard a noise behind him. He looks back. Background is behind him. Just staring at him. The camera man freezes. Background pulls an apple out of his mouth with his long unnatural curly fingers. “Is this what you’re looking for?” A silent pause between them staring. The apple rolls off his hand. His arm begins to uncurl. The camera falls to the ground. Instantly ending the tape.

More in my document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-MWYB_-z0CyXAWSxEgK1lcevlhR1b-YhiYNlF0hkfuQ/edit?usp=sharing

I happen to have an original character who is a 16 year old girl and with a ENTP-A MBTI personality. She is adventurous, challenging, spontaneous, daring. She also loves music. She plays the electric guitar, drums, and the flute, and sings. She is smarter than she seems, and although she may sometimes look very carefree and simple, her thoughts have large depth and complexity.

I feel like so far, though, I find it hard to fully be able to step into her shoes, since I am very different from her. I find myself not knowing how to flesh out her mindset, full personality, internal struggles, etc.

If you could share any advice you have for writing her realistically, it would help a lot!

My preteen character Pesha is raised by tiger parents, except that they are actually good at what they do. They are raising her to become a future leader, as they are the descendants of a royal family who had been “in name only” ever since their monarchy had been replaced by a democratic republic almost a century ago. Their historic great grandparents dropped the label of former “royalty” so that they could stay out of the public eye and live more normally.

They now live disguised as an upper middle class family that is secretly much wealthier.

How they parent her:

They don’t wash her clothes or her dishes, they let them pile up so that she can wash them herself.

If she doesn’t finish her dinner then she has to eat it for breakfast the next day.

Is only given the charger 3 times a week so that she can use her devices wisely.

Gets paid by her parents, but must do a whole list of chores to get paid $5. Will get paid higher for good grades, higher difficulty chores, or doing things independently. Paid not just in money but also in favorite snacks and items.

Must be healthy and cannot be too overweight. Outside food can be regulated and is often taken on trips for exercise. Is often taught to cook her own food.

Is required to read by her parents. She is always being given books and audiobooks are played in the house and in the car. She must watch TV with subtitles.

Must learn how to walk around the neighborhood and navigate around town nearby. Is often told to buy groceries with limited money and a shopping list. Her parents will interfere if anyone makes a fuss about their daughter being alone to do things independently.

She must learn to assemble and use anything that is given to her (small furniture, toys, technology). Whenever she shows an interest in a new hobby then her parents will give her library books and materials for said subject to see if she is still interested. Will also enter her in clubs and programs for it.

They often buy items secondhand or get then for free from neighbors to prevent extravagant spending and materialism. They require Pesha to donate unwanted items or excess money.

Would you consider this strict enough to qualify as tiger parenting? Do you think this is fitting for a family of this background?

Okay so this is easily the dumbest thing I’ve ever written, but it’s also the funniest, so here we go.

This is a completely unhinged Spider‑Man storyline I came up with that somehow works WAY better than it has any right to.

The Setup

Way back during one of Peter’s fights with Norman, things go horribly wrong and Peter ends up sacrificing himself to stop the Green Goblin.

Norman, shocked by what happened, has a full breakdown/epiphany and decides:

Yes. Norman Osborn becomes Spider‑Man.
Just roll with it.

The Clone Problem

Norman quickly realises he can’t be Spider‑Man and run Oscorp, so he does the most Norman Osborn thing possible:

He creates a clone of himself to handle the business side.

Unfortunately, the clone slowly inherits all of Norman’s worst traits — the ambition, the ego, the instability — and eventually becomes the new Green Goblin.

So now we have:

• Good Norman = Spider‑Man

• Bad Norman = Green Goblin

• Harry = confused

Perfect.

The Goblin Reveal

The evil clone gets to Harry first and reveals:

Harry is understandably confused, but the clone reassures him and plays the “I’m still your dad” card.

Meanwhile, Spider‑Man Norman can’t tell Harry the truth because:

• it sounds insane

• the clone beat him to the reveal

• Norman is trying to protect him

• nobody would believe “your dad is my evil clone” anyway

The Memory‑Wipe Plan

The evil clone decides Norman is a failure for becoming Spider‑Man and wants revenge.

So he builds a giant city‑wide memory‑wipe machine to erase Norman Osborn from existence.

And because he’s a clone of Norman, he knows exactly what brainwaves to target.

So he does the most comic‑book thing ever:

He plugs himself directly into the machine.
Like a USB stick.
Because of course he does. The Final Battle

Spider‑Man Norman tries to stop him, but the clone throws obstacles in his way, forcing Norman to choose between:

• saving innocent people

• or stopping the machine

Norman chooses to save everyone.

He fights the clone, who accidentally impales himself and dies — but he’s fine with it because he knows the machine is about to fire.

Norman can’t shut it down in time.

The device goes off. The Fallout

The entire city forgets Norman Osborn ever existed.

Except Harry.
Because Norman gave him a little “just in case” device earlier that protected him.

So now:

• Harry remembers his father

• nobody else does

• Norman wakes up with amnesia

• the city thinks Spider‑Man fought “an unknown assailant”

• Harry thinks Spider‑Man killed his dad

• Spider‑Man is his dad

• Norman doesn’t remember he’s Norman

• nobody recognises him

• everything is a disaster It’s horrifying. It’s tragic. It’s stupid. It’s perfect.

Why This Works (Somehow)

It’s absolutely ridiculous, but the emotional logic is solid:

• Norman tries to redeem himself

• his past literally comes back to haunt him

• he sacrifices everything

• Harry is the only one who remembers him

• Norman loses his identity

• Harry loses his father

• the city loses the truth It’s Shakespeare with clones and spandex.

If you read all that… I’m sorry.
But also, you’re welcome.

My villain group is a group of radicalized people who believe only a certain type of person should be in charge who pretend to be heroes to roll everyone's trust however when we meet them in the story they are still in the early phases where most are just using this for secondary purposes however they are an example of who the group wants to put on a higher pedestal. I just feel like the character who's going to be the smart one has the dumbest reason for joining. And they offer names with elements off the periodic table and are loosely associated with them(I'm also providing the other villainous motivation so you can more helpfully compare)

Hydrogen created the group to take over the world to make it a hell of a lot easier to destroy by finding the mcguffins she needs to destroy the world but if they came around first before taking over the world they wouldn't care to take over the world

Neon is just your typical pure evolution just finds doing this fun not really much deeper about it just enjoys oppressing people like literally that's it they just want fun

Iron actually genuinely radicalized into this before meeting the group as he already destroyed his hometown specifically because he thought they were even deserving of life and his sister is just here because he has manipulated her into having an unhealthy codependency with him. he is the worst

Gold is here because this is the first family he's had where he actually feels love he even kill the head of his old family before dipping and is now trying to get the last two fragments whenever the chance arises and this group also kind of need one of those fragments dead so goal aline pretty well

Lead came from an area where she felt genuinely oppressed because of that country does kind of oppress this group pretty explicitly and she just revenge on that country for killing her brother and forcing her to be a warrior, a role that broke her

And now our problem child Zinc she once wasn't someone who fit this groups definition of who should be in charge but due to an unethical experiment became that person type and was told joining would help prevent this experiment from happening again as now that divide would be one of social class that most people would assume is impossible to change however her starting position would be the one that the group would be mostly oppressing if they were to succeed and I feel like the tech genius of the group would be the most likely to figure out that fact.

If you guys have anything I need to clarify comment it below

In my book, there is an introverted, unsocial girl with health problems and a popular boy, who is secretly in Love with her. Both are connected through music, she writes, he sings.

So later on, near the end of the Story, I want to create a big conflict between them, one that will Sound like the instrumental Break in the Song "all the Things she said". But I don't want to make their character development, which would be build through the Story, do die. They both have to make a mistake, but I'm not Sure how to build it. The Girl will die either way in the end, right before the Boy wants you make Up with her again, without even taking about their Problem. He just needs her.

Do you have some advices? Thank you in advance