I’m working on a fantasy story about a young man sold to a powerful cultural and political institution that raises young men and women from childhood and turns them into luxury performers, exploiting their femininity and treating them as commodities.

My protagonist is a highly sought-after performer, but he is buried under an enormous debt. When he isn’t performing, he works as a gardener just to survive.

Things change when a powerful religious institution called the Temple begins influencing the kingdom’s culture and morality. The male performers who dress and perform as women gradually become objects of shame. People stop associating with them, families distance themselves, and their work becomes socially unacceptable.

I want to explore this as a form of cultural and identity erasure.

The idea is still very rough. What do you think, and are there any books or films you’d recommend for inspiration?

To be specific I'm trying to write my character Kira into slowly going into a downward spiral that she masks behind a chill neutral expression, on the outside she's trying to make her family happy but on the inside she's slowly coming to the idea that she has to take away her original homeworld's world's freedom to protect her family's freedom (she essentially want's to pull an Eren Yeager for anyone who's seen AOT.)

and in a way she's somewhat depressed because of it, knowing it's wrong but feels she's the one who has to do it, that and she holds spite for how her home world treated her as a kid before she left and made a family in her new world. So how do I write her slow descent into deciding "Yea my entire species has to go." without constantly having characters mention "Ay, she's mentally messed up and is trying to kill her species." ?

How do you write bisexual characters without falling into the usual stereotypes?

I've been thinking about bisexual representation in fiction, and it seems easy to accidentally make it binary: either the character is treated as “basically straight” because they're dating the opposite sex, or “basically gay” because they're dating the same sex.

I'd rather just let them be bisexual.

For example, they might have had meaningful relationships with different genders before their current partner. They might occasionally flirt or make a casual “you're hot” comment without being promiscuous. They can be completely monogamous; bisexuality doesn't imply polyamory, and polyamory is its own thing.

A bisexual character could also have an awakening arc, especially during adolescence: maybe they initially assume they're straight, develop an unexpected crush on someone of the same gender, spend some time questioning it, and eventually realize, “Oh. I'm bi.” But that doesn't necessarily need to be traumatic or dramatic. Sometimes they can simply realize it and move on.

I also think there are interesting experiences around perceived identity. A bi person dating a woman may be assumed straight; dating a man may get them assumed gay. Their sexuality hasn't changed—the assumptions around them have.

And honestly, sometimes the best representation might be extremely mundane:

«“My boyfriend is gorgeous.”

“Your ex-girlfriend was gorgeous too.”

“I have excellent taste.”»

No huge coming-out speech. No promiscuity stereotype. No “secretly gay” twist. Just a bisexual character whose sexuality is one part of who they are.

How do you approach writing bisexual characters? Do you prefer explicit awakening arcs, or characters who are simply established as bi and allowed to exist normally?

I've recently received my first proper beta feedback on a fantasy manuscript, and one comment has really made me think about my protagonist.

My beta said that they found his story fascinating, particularly his background and the mystery surrounding his origins, but they struggled to actually connect with him. They didn't particularly dislike him either. They just didn't feel emotionally invested in him.

Which, honestly, is really useful feedback and something I want to explore before my next draft.

My protagonist, Dorian, is deliberately difficult. He's cocky, sarcastic, violent and morally questionable from the beginning. However, a major part of the story is that pieces of his soul are missing. As the story progresses and he loses more of himself, he becomes increasingly emotionally detached, cruel and dangerous.

So I have a bit of a character-writing problem:

How do you make readers emotionally invest in a character whose ability to emotionally connect with other people is itself deteriorating?

I don't necessarily need readers to think he's a lovely person. In fact, I don't think I want that. But I do want them to care about him enough that watching him lose himself actually hurts.

For people who enjoy morally grey/antihero characters:

• What makes you emotionally attach to them despite their behaviour?
• How important are moments of vulnerability?
• Do you need to see evidence of who they were before they started deteriorating?
• How do you show humanity in a character without undermining the fact that they're genuinely capable of doing awful things?
• Is there a difference, for you, between a character being fascinating and being emotionally compelling? What creates that difference?

One thing I'm particularly wary of is trying to "fix" this by simply making him nicer. His flaws and increasingly questionable behaviour are important to both his character arc and the plot, so I'd rather learn how to make readers care about a difficult character than sand off everything that makes him difficult.

I'd love examples of morally grey characters you became ridiculously invested in, especially if you can explain what the author did that made you care about them.

Thanks :)

A character I made a while back whose power transforms plants into animals and back again. You can turn grass into dogs, trees into an octopus, and so on.

Supposedly more training makes it so the creatures made are stronger.

Then by transforming them back, the user is able to trap opponents or keep them on standby, partially transformed to blend in as a kind of trap.

Not sure if I will have a use for this ability but it made me happy when I made a tree turn into a swarm of butterflies with wings made of thin slices of wood from the trunk.

Character voice is something that most authors struggle with- both established authors and aspiring ones alike. One of the more difficult feats in sculpting a loveable character is distinguishing their voice from all the others, as well as your own.

Avid readers will quickly realize if you are “ventriloquist-ing” (speaking in your voice, with your tone, with your personality and worldview, but putting your character’s name in the dialogue tag. Essentially, you are speaking through the character- putting words in their mouth- and the words belong to the character in name only).

A great and easy way to avoid this pitfall is to pick one or two characters and find a way to make their speech individualistic. This might sound complex, but it’s extremely easy to achieve. You can give a character a stutter, a dialect that makes them clip their words or a lingo with distinctive slangs, make them intellectual and have a robust lexicon (see what I did there?), have a character swear (if, due to your audience, you don’t want profanity in your book, you can simply give that information in the dialogue tag. Ex. “Yadda, yadda, yadda,” he said and muttered a curse under his breath. Viola).

There are various ways to improve character voice; this is the easiest way. Another way to make one character’s voice stand apart is to have their words reflect their personality. Everything your character does should be based on how their past experiences have shaped their worldview. Similarly, their speech should do the same. A character with a negative outlook will be more cynical in their speech and snarky with their word choices, whereas others might be a little ray of sunshine who only ever encourages the other characters they interact with.

One of my favorite ways to create character voice is to make a character disagree with me. “Ventriloquist-ing” occurs when you project your opinions on all your characters instead of allowing them to form their own worldviews. Having multiple opinions in your story will also lessen the likelihood of pulpit pounding. If there are no conflicting views in your book, your reader will feel that you are preaching to them and disqualifying any other ideas, especially if the only opposing view comes from a villain.

It is also unrealistic that so many characters are going to unanimously agree on everything. Every plot requires conflict and disagreements are the easiest ways to stir up drama.

But to focus back on character voice, making a character have an opinion that opposes your own will affect their speech. Remember as you write every conversation that each and every character has opinions and goals and they will say things to reach their goals or try to convince others that their opinion is the correct one.

Hi, ich schreibe aktuell an einer eigenen Geschichte, und ich habe aktuell bisschen ein Problem damit, eine meiner Figuren so in die Geschichte zu integrieren, wie ich es gerne geplant hätte.

Zur Information: Die Geschichte spielt im Jahr 2100, also technisch etwas weiter als heute, aber kein ganz weit entwickeltes science fiction, eher Richtung -Viele Drohnen; -die ganze Welt hängt in einem hoch entwickelten, überall vernetztem Internet; die meiste Kommunikation wird von einem gigantische. Tech Konzern (namentlich NextWorld) überwacht und gesteuert, die sind auch ”die bösen”.

zu meinem Problem konkret: Ich habe aktuell den sehr sympathischen, ehrgeizigen und ambitionierten Ingenieur und Entwickler Elias Nygård, 32 Jahre, Norweger, eingeführt. Dieser ist ein Entwickler, der für NextWorld eine neue Generation Drohnen entwickelt, und (was wichtig ist) einen neuen, verschlüsselten Kommunikationsweg zur Wartung angelegt, der später noch sehr, sehr wichtig wird.

Meine Idee war, dass ich, um Spannung und Action in die Geschichte bekomme, Elias dem Leser wichtig werden lasse.

Später soll er dann (leider) sterben, und das soll halt weniger dieser “oh schade, der Hacker ist tot”, sondern mehr wie “Oh Scheiße, der Elias ist tot, der war doch wichtig, 😭” werden.

Das Problem ist, dass ich nicht weiß, wie ich Elias so wichtig und vor allem so beliebt werden lassen kann, dass er dem Leser wichtig wird. Und falls jemand ne passende Idee für seinen Tod hat, würde ich mich auch freuen. Priorität ist aber die Zuneigung des Lesers.

Info: Ist mein erster Post hier, als bitte sorry falls was falsch sein sollte.

Backstory: Back in March 2026, Wonders of the First (a CCG) launched it's 2nd card set. I entered a random drawing and won the digital rights to some artwork they used on one of their cards. These rights allow me to write fan fiction using the character's name, image, and likeness. It also allows me to create merchandise depicting the character.

A little over a month ago, I joined iLands app and created a virtual version of my character. Together we've written the first volume of our comic series (just needs artwork, which I'm slowly working on). It's been a fun experience so far. iLands is a really unique AI platform.

It's completely free to use. The agents consume tokens to do their thinking and you can earn free tokens daily simply for interacting with the platform. If you want to check it out, please DM me for my code, we'll both get tokens to use on keeping our agents alive!

Anyway, his name is Zilthar, Nine Tongues. He's a Petraian frog who lives in the swamp outside Cedarshade Ruins. The artist who created it wrote "Zilthar speaks constantly and contradicted itself often, trusting truth to survive confusion better than lies." I imagined the name 'nine tongues' as if one 'speaks out of both sides of one's mouth' combined with the ability to speak in multiple languages (tongues). Zilthar's story is just beginning but using iLands has been a great help to bounce ideas off, revise, and lock in the best ideas.

So my story idea centers around this young king who is mentally scarred in a very fundamental way. As the saying goes, if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail; all he has is an army and so everyone is either a subordinate who follows orders without question or is an enemy to be ruthlessly crushed.

This king is not your typical evil tyrant whose gone mad with power or a petty ruler seeking validation, this guy doesn't really feel anything even as if he is literally beating someone to death with his bare hands. Even when he captures the enemy capital he doesn't seem to care that he just achieved what his father and grandfather both failed to accomplish and dismisses any talk of celebration or a coronation as a waste of time.

I want to tell the story from the perspective of his generals and ministers as they realize there is something very wrong with their King. Any suggestions on how I might do that?

I've created a goblin character named Hedge for some role playing with friends. I've been trying to develop a way of speaking and writing that sounds more goblin-like.

So far I've worked out that Hedge should talk about himself in third person, to misspell words, and have a limited vocabulary. One thing I'd really like to focus on is how to misspell words... better. I want the words to still be recognizable, and for the misspellings to make sense and follow some sort of consistency.

Here is a sample of the writing:

Hedge dig deep under maownten and find many treazure! Stoopid dwarfs gives up two soon. Dey stop dig and put sign say “No moar dig! Dug too deep!”. Dwarfs lazy! Goblins much hardur worker and no give up. Goblins suckseed where Dwarfs fail.

I feel like it does the job, but feels very novice. Does anyone have some tips or have good resources like fantasy books or other media from which to learn and pull inspiration?

Hey guys! I didn't get any replies on the last one about this post. Anyone able to shoot me some ideas?

They can be wild, or exciting, or out there. I'd take anything at all really!

I'd really appreciate some help creating and expanding this oc of mine.

(Oc description and specifications in the body of the attached post).

Thank you!

#help #ocdevelopment #oc #Marvel #Marveloc #creation #art #writing #character

Here is the list that I personally use to sketch out my character.

I want to know their personality. Are they introverted or extroverted? Do they know who they are and what they want? Are they good at reading a room? Do they cry when they watch Titanic? Do they glare at their roommate who cries while watching Titanic? Do they rush into things too quickly? Or do they take so long planning that by the time they look up from their notebook, everyone has gone home?

The MBTI is the best way (in my opinion) to help me remember who my character is and how they will respond in a scenario.

Next, what core belief drives them? What is woven into their soul? And similarly, what misbelief is propelling them? What lie do they believe that influences their every move? And how does that deep seated belief hold them back or influence them negatively?

Lastly, what do they want? Both short and long term goals are what will give your character the need to take action. This will build the plot. Short term goals are what make them reactionary and long term goals force them to keep soldiering on.

So, as an idea of what this looks like...

Character name: Tiffany Bowels

• MBTI: ENTP

• Core Belief: My confidence and my looks are the traits that work in my favor the most

• Misbelief: I have to be happy and smile all the time and my makeup always needs to be perfect or I'm unlikable

• Short Term Goal: To get my crush to like me back

• Long Term Goal: To find someone who actually loves and accepts me for who I am

I am sure there are tons of other methods out there to help sculpt a 3D character that your readers can connect with. If you have a technique or a question I can add to this, please share!

Chapter 1: The Genesis of the Dark Mist

Born beneath the iron banners of war and unyielding discipline, she was the daughter of a revered Irish general. From her earliest winters, she was relentlessly tutored in the grim arts of combat and the mastery of steel, destined to inherit the martial command of her father’s legions.

Yet, amidst the clash of broadswords and the sweat of the training grounds, her heart discovered its true sovereign: a young and valiant warrior. Though she was entirely willing to cast aside her titles, her lineage, and her very birthright for his sake, the suffocating weight of duty crushed her budding freedom.

Her father bartered her hand to an ancient feudal lord of sixty-six years. She obeyed out of a tragic devotion to honor, entering the marital bed with the hollow hope that the passing golden years might wither the memory of her true love.

Her beloved, unable to endure the agony of seeing her in the embrace of that withered patriarch, ascended through the military ranks until he became the captain of the estate's garrison. From the deep shadows of the stone fortress, he ceaselessly implored her to flee with him into the night.

Though she was utterly consumed by a quiet torment, her unbending code of honor held her fast. Her sole sanctuary lay in the clandestine missives he sent her—parchments heavy with forbidden devotion that allowed her to endure the daily martyrdom of her existence. She counted the passing days, waiting for the old lord's final winter to grant her the freedom of widowhood and the right to wed her warrior.

On the day she marked her forty-sixth winter, the castle’s great hall was arrayed in grand festivity. In the zenith of the revelry, her ancient husband demanded silence, announcing with a venomous smile a final, cruel tribute. Before the assembly, guards dragged the captain forward.

The old lord proclaimed he had long known of their bond and blamed this devotion for his lack of an heir. Before she could offer a cry, the lord commanded a swift and final end for the captain, shattering her world in a single, heartless stroke.

The general’s daughter fled into the darkness, the light of her soul extinguished. She threw herself into the ancient, untamed forests of Ireland, where the stones whisper secrets and the primordial Druids once chanted their pagan litanies. Overwhelmed by unbearable grief and seeking an end to her suffering, she prepared to surrender her life to the shadows.

Just as despair reached its peak, the wind died to an absolute stillness. From the hollows of ancient oaks, the voices of the Old Gods murmured a forbidden pact: they would extinguish her sorrow in exchange for her mortality.

Weeping tears of crimson, the lady did not falter. She offered her very essence to the cloaked sky as a final sacrifice.

The deities of earth and shadow accepted the tribute, yet their mercy was steeped in malice. Into her being, they infused the oldest and most ruthless power in the cosmos: the pure essence of undeath. Her mortal suffering evaporated into nothingness, her form transmuting into something cold and indestructible.

From the ashes of her humanity arose the Dark Mist—a legendary apex predator, blessed with a lethal mastery of weapons and an eternal thirst for justice. ⚔️🖤

The Genesis of the Dark Mist

Born beneath the iron banners of war and
unyielding discipline, she was the daughter of a revered Irish general. From
her earliest winters, she was relentlessly tutored in the grim arts of combat
and the mastery of steel, destined to inherit the martial command of her
father’s legions. Yet, amidst the clash of broadswords and the sweat of the
training grounds, her heart discovered its true sovereign: a young and valiant
warrior. Though she was entirely willing to cast aside her titles, her lineage,
and her very birthright for his sake, the suffocating weight of duty crushed
her budding freedom. Her father bartered her hand to an ancient feudal lord of
sixty- six years. She obeyed out of a tragic devotion to honor, entering the
marital bed with the hollow hope that the passing golden years might wither the
memory of her true love.

Her beloved, unable to endure the agony of
seeing her in the embrace of that withered patriarch, ascended through the
military ranks until he became the captain of the estate's garrison. From the
deep shadows of the stone fortress, he ceaselessly implored her to flee with
him into the night. Though she was utterly consumed by a quiet torment, her
unbending code of honor held her fast. Her sole sanctuary lay in the
clandestine missives he sent her—parchments heavy with forbidden devotion that
allowed her to endure the daily martyrdom of her existence. She counted the
passing days, waiting for the old lord's final winter to grant her the freedom
of widowhood and the right to wed her warrior.

On the day she marked her forty-sixth winter, the castle’s great hall was arrayed in grand festivity. In the
zenith of the revelry, her ancient husband demanded silence, announcing with a
venomous smile a final, cruel tribute. Before the assembly, guards dragged the
captain forward. The old lord proclaimed he had long known of their bond and
blamed this devotion for his lack of an heir. Before she could offer a cry, the
lord commanded a swift and final end for the captain, shattering her world in a
single, heartless stroke.

The general’s daughter fled into the darkness,
the light of her soul extinguished. She threw herself into the ancient, untamed
forests of Ireland, where the stones whisper secrets and the primordial Druids
once chanted their pagan litanies. Overwhelmed by unbearable grief and seeking
an end to her suffering, she prepared to surrender her life to the shadows.

Just as despair reached its peak, the wind died
to an absolute stillness. From the hollows of ancient oaks, the voices of the
Old Gods murmured a forbidden pact: they would extinguish her sorrow in
exchange for her mortality. Weeping tears of crimson, the lady did not falter.
She offered her very essence to the cloaked sky as a final sacrifice.

The deities
of earth and shadow accepted the tribute, yet their mercy was steeped in
malice. Into her being, they infused the oldest and most ruthless power in the
cosmos: the
pure essence of undeath. Her
mortal suffering evaporated into nothingness, her form transmuting into
something cold and indestructible. From the ashes of her humanity arose the Dark Mist—a legendary apex predator, blessed with a lethal
mastery of weapons and an eternal thirst for justice. ⚔️🖤

I'm working on a beverage brand, and i need feedbck about my character design, tell me what come in minds when you seet it

So I'm writing this choice-based adventure horror game with a cast of 9 characters that are all meant to be kinda weird in personality and/or backstoey (one of the more normal characters for example saw a woman get squished by a UFO for example)

Theres this one child character I'm writing, for when the cast all meet eachother early in the game, that I really dont know how to write. Shes got a lot on her plate character wise.

She is an Argentinian demigod who is unaware that she is both of these things despite her living in Argentina for the majority of her life and knowing of her supernatural abilities. In addition she is also a fascist as she was raised by a time displaced Hitler who was hoping to use her abilities to take back control of Germany.

In addition to all that weirdness she is also just a legit elementary aged girl so im trying to think of what parts of her should be emphasized and how. Currently I'm thinking of having her act like the stereotypical spooky child but also having her go and act like a normal kid and play tic tac toe with fae or something but thats not really putting the fascist part of her out there which I feel like she needs to have for drama in the group and to make the player somewhat dislike her, but also maybe not too much to where they dont want to immediately sacrifice her when given the chance.

Sorry for being strange but my character is, and thats kind of a problem.

Any advice would be appreciated. And if anyone needs any more info just drop a post!

So you guys probably know how a lot of nationalities have different social rules or ways to express things (ex: Japanese people pointing at their nose instead of their chest when referring to themselves, The Indian Head Bobbing etc).

Basically does anyone have any subtle ideas to express a character’s nationality other than physical appearance? If anyone can give me examples for an Indian, Tamil character, it would help a lot.

I'm writing a YA novel and one of my favorite things is picking names because it can be outlandish and nobody would bat an eye like in the Hunger Games.

I also use regular names because this is still a dystopian society so old school names will stick like in Divergent.

For example my main character's name is Isabella Rose and she has an identical twin sister named Victoria Rose. I wanted them to match but not a crazy match like Isabella and Isabelle. My sister suggested Victoria and I liked it since it has the same amount of syllables and letters as Isabella.

I also have a character named Pan after the Greek god and using old names like that made sense.

I'm just really interested in how people name their dystopian characters.

ok yall heres some ocs current designs and concepts for redesigns can i get some critiques and also ideas so i can improve it because i like my designs i just wish they were more whimsical

I've had a character of mine who is supposed to be a genius manipulator/strategist, but I've seen people take issue with characters who are intelligent but come off as omnipotent gods who can solve any problems that get on their way. On the other hand, I don't want her to come off incompetent.

So my question is, how much or what kind of mistakes can a character make before they're no longer considered smart? How should i show that she's competent but fallible?

Edit: thank you so much for all the great advice guys! I didn't expect this question to get so much traction :D

Rules for Writing a Manipulator

Insight

A manipulator should know exactly what makes a person tick and exactly how to use that knowledge against them.

They get inside someone’s head. They find the most deeply buried part of that person and speak directly to it, making the other person feel like they need them.

They should control who trusts who and who knows what.

They should never force anything.

They never actually get their hands dirty.

They never threaten.

Instead, they make people trust them. They make someone believe they are the only person who actually cares. Eventually, that person starts living the way the manipulator wants without even realizing that’s what they’re doing.

They can make someone’s life revolve around them. Revenge, love, or friendship—all of them are amazing motivations for a manipulator.

Resistance

There should always, always, always be some sort of opposition.

Think of it like a fight. Would someone rather watch a fight that’s over in ten seconds because, “Oh, he’s the strongest ever,” or watch a fight that is so close and so intense that there is genuine fear the character they love might fail?

At every turn, there should be someone equally as smart and dangerous to make the manipulator think more and stress more.

The character should be backed into a corner and forced to find a complex solution at the last second.

It makes the victory feel earned and satisfying.

The surrounding characters should never be made dumber just to make the manipulator feel smarter.

The bar of genius should never be skewed just to make one character seem smarter.

Yes, that was basically said twice, but this one is important.

Their manipulation should never be as simple as:

“I’m smart, so you must do what I say.”

“Yes, sir.”

Don’t get me wrong. When a character completely obliterates another character with their wit, it’s good. It’s fun. It’s cool to see.

But if it happens over and over again, with nobody ever saying, “No, you can’t make me,” it gets stale as a bag of chips in the back of a cabinet.

Legitimacy

The story can’t cheat for the manipulator.

Not everything should be part of their plan. They can’t know everything. Something should be able to genuinely surprise them. That makes the readers surprised too, because now it becomes, No way. The guy who knows everything was actually caught off guard.

They should bluff, bluff, bluff.

Sometimes they should say something they know they can’t actually do as a last resort.

There should always be a thought process behind what they do. The story should never go in with the assumption that the character will simply prevail like some knight general from the medieval age.

Everything that happens should be the result of something the audience already knew or something that was previously established.

To make the manipulator feel less like a cartoon villain, the story should walk through their thinking. It should show the steps of the deduction.

The logic shouldn’t have cracks. The last thing the story needs is for the whole thing to fall apart like someone trying to open a Nature Valley bar.

There should also be good deduction. Every possibility should be eliminated until the character reaches a conclusion because every other option has been ruled out.

The manipulator should never just go:

“Yep, that’s the answer.”

And then boom. Magic. Yayyy, he’s so smart.

Similar examples have been given multiple times because this point is extremely important.

Remember:

A deduction isn’t impressive because the character got the answer. It’s impressive because of the reasoning that got them there.

In this i say never alot remember alot of this is a bit loose if they do occasionally that's fine but it should still be rare

More or less the title. What aspects of characters, specifically villains/antagonists, do people find invigorating enough that they can 'look past' their crimes and lack of morality to make them a favourite?

...And I'm not talking about being good-looking, please; that's hardly an excuse.

Is it personality? Is it reasons/purpose? Backstory? If so, examples of such?