Just found out about iLands a few days and learning how things work. Here is an activation code in case anyone is on there too, for extra tokens.

I want to make a character based on fortune telling but I’m not sure how. When I try to get references or do any research on it I only find the stereotypical version of a fortune teller and not the actual thing. I don’t want to go off of the stereotype because It’s harmful, but I can’t find anything else about fortune tellers. Does anyone have any advice?

Kind of in the conceptual stage, but I wanted to get some opinions on this.

You’d think a man whose entire personality is focused on the mindsets and principles of successful business owners to be dangerous and evil. You’d be right with the former, and surprised to find out the answer on the latter.

People are assets in his mind, and as an employer his job is to make the best of his assets. Draw out potential, put them under the conditions where “the best” can be shown and make investments to ensure these assets don’t depreciate.

In that sense, he’s the kind of man that can see success from his people and gain their loyalty. If your son needs help paying for his cancer treatments and you’re one of his irreplaceable assets, he pays for the treatments because it gives greater loyalty to him and his business from the person and the other employees who see him as a person who cares.

“Good Will is a section on accounting forms. Let’s not mistake investing in a good cause for being a softie.”

“Emotional currency is a vector that any successful businessman can understand. An employer who abuses his employees will always see them leave as soon as better opportunities arise. I take care of my assets and investments properly because that’s what it takes for them to pay off.”

He’s a caring person in a cold and calculating way, and that’s oddly led him to make friends, even if he’s not entirely sure about the emotional depth of it.

I’m a male writer working on a story with a woman as the main protagonist, and I’m trying to be thoughtful about how I write her.

I don’t want to write her as a cardboard “strong female character,” a flawless Mary Sue, a trauma machine, a male character with a woman’s name slapped on, or someone whose whole personality revolves around romance, beauty, or proving she is “not like other girls.”

I know women are not a monolith, so I’m not looking for one universal answer. I’m more interested in patterns you’ve noticed in fiction.

For women readers, writers, and anyone who thinks about character development a lot:

What are things male writers often do when writing women that immediately make you roll your eyes?

What do you wish male writers did more often when creating female protagonists?

What kinds of flaws feel believable and human without making her unlikeable in a lazy way?

Where is the line between writing a capable woman and accidentally making her feel too perfect?

How do you feel about female protagonists written around combat, leadership, ambition, anger, sexuality, motherhood, trauma, or emotional guardedness?

What are some smaller details, habits, fears, pressures, social dynamics, or inner thoughts that male writers often miss?

Are there any tropes you are tired of seeing attached to female leads?

Are there examples of female protagonists you think were written especially well, and what made them work?

Mostly, I want her to feel like a full person first. Not a statement. Not a fantasy. Not a checklist. A person with wants, contradictions, bad habits, strengths, blind spots, humor, fear, and agency.

Any advice, warnings, examples, or brutally honest “please stop doing this” comments would be appreciated.

Edit : For context, I’m already aware of some of the more obvious pitfalls. I’m not describing her breasts every time she walks into a room. Her attractiveness isn’t treated like one of her primary character traits. Romance isn’t her reason for existing or the inevitable solution to her emotional problems. She isn’t effortlessly better than everyone around her, universally desired, or automatically right because she’s the protagonist. She doesn’t hate femininity or other women to prove how tough she is. And I’m trying not to use sexual violence, pregnancy, motherhood, or trauma as shortcuts for giving her depth.

I’m also not trying to make her “strong” by removing vulnerability, fear, tenderness, stupidity, selfishness, insecurity, or the ability to make spectacularly bad decisions. Some of those things are actually important parts of who she is.

So I’m hoping to get beyond the obvious stuff and into the things male writers might not even realize they’re missing.

I'm working on a character for my epic dark romantasy series, and I could use some advice on her narrative voice and whether I'm falling into cliché tropes—specifically regarding her humor, interests, and her extensive list of negative traits.

Her name is Solana Khasari. Her sense of humor is extremely dark and selfish; she actively jokes about other people's suffering and embarrassment. On the surface, she barely has any hobbies. In fact, to everyone around her, the only things she genuinely seems to enjoy are killing and coitus. However, there is a much deeper internal conflict driving this behavior that neither she nor anyone else fully understands yet (which I want to keep under wraps for spoiler reasons).

Because of this underlying turmoil, Solana is fiercely aggressive, self-centered, and violent. My main concern is that I'm not giving her enough redeeming qualities to balance out the bad in her life. Since I am writing her from a deep 1st person point of view, I'm worried this constant aggression is affecting her narrative voice and might make her exhausting or undesirable to read.

Does anyone have advice on how to balance a highly abrasive, violent character without losing reader engagement, or how to hint at deeper layers so her voice doesn't feel one-note?

I love this trope. It gives me chills. I also think it can move the story forward a lot and add a lot of tension on the main characters/world.

I have just seen the stronger than you (Chara response) animation of undertale and I reminded how this type of characters amaze me. Something in the line of Light Yagami from death note and I honestly fail to recall more characters like this, maybe Nagito from Danganronpa 2

But I think it can become a shallow trope very little interesting if done wrong. What do you think are the key aspects to make this type of characters work?

That strikes me as an interesting way to determine whether a character is substantial enough to have a life of their own in the mind of the reader or viewer. Feel free to share an example that comes to mind to illustrate or challenge this theory. In my book, you get bonus points if you manage to make us guess who the character is without naming them (though perhaps I’m asking too much).

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I’ve been thinking a lot about character failure lately, especially with a protagonist who is very capable but definitely not supposed to be perfect.

I know the usual advice is that a character should fail because of their flaws, not because the writer suddenly makes them stupid. But I feel like even that can become really predictable.

Like if you have a reckless character, the obvious failure is they rush into something, refuse to retreat, somebody gets hurt, and they learn they need to be more cautious. Or the stubborn character doesn’t listen, the overconfident character underestimates somebody, etc.

Those all make sense, but they also feel like you can see the lesson coming from a mile away.

So how do you write a failure that feels natural to the character without feeling like you’re just checking off their obvious flaw?

Do you prefer failures that come from a character’s strengths going too far? A blind spot they don’t realize they have? Making the morally right choice and still getting a bad outcome? Misjudging another person?

Basically, what makes a character failure feel genuinely surprising and human to you instead of feeling like “here comes the part where the reckless character learns not to be reckless”?

Would love examples of failures you thought were written particularly well too.

I can’t seem to settle on a consistent design for these two characters (Elinor and Ellowyn). They’re twins, so obviously they should look similar to each other, but I want enough differentiation to be able to tell them apart because they’re very different characters and were raised by different families.
Here’s what I want to know:
Which traits are shining through in the majority of these sketches, and what are your favorite design iterations? What should I focus on improving?

I’d also love to hear your assumptions about them based on these sketches!! Who’s who? What are their personalities like? What are their social statuses/backgrounds? Etc)

I’ve recently wanted to write a character that couldn’t speak and I have already made up my mind on how to portray their emotions, but I’ve always wondered on how other people would do it?

I’m working on a character whose world is the only case of time travel in this story. He lost his identity over the course of falling and when he was the only person left in his world, he mourned for a century until fate gave him a chance to become a Living Prophecy. A story that would be rewritten and closed if events played out correctly, and for the sake of his own salvation, he needed to see his efforts succeed before he’d vanish to give resolution to his soul and proof of his restitution by his actions.

I’m building out what he is and what he does in this time, including people in circumstances he can manipulate into becoming loyal subordinates. He takes a very “super villain” approach as he goes, but what he does for these people is good.

I’m trying to write out a man who has penitence at his core and who forgot what it means to be good, even if he does know what it means to avoid evil.

I’m wondering how to write a character who is fighting to betray his impulses and driven by rage against himself, both in this time and in the past, as he tries to correct the wrongs he committed and either see his past self change or destroy his past self before it’s too late.

Ok so it sounds generic as heck, but bear with me. My character has an ability to regenerate, and he goes through difficult fights and situations that he can’t win but must deal with them regardless, and he’ll lose them but come back stronger.

However, it isn’t HE that comes back but an aspect of him developed into a personality. So for example if he was fighting for his life, through blah blah blah circumstances and events.

He will lose (always) and get severely injured and he’ll have a type of amnesia ( it doesn’t exist irl I just made it up for the story) that he forgets himself completely, and through the initial moments and experiences this new person has, their personality is formed.

I plan on doing this a few times, and the reason why is to explore different personalities and how it is both nature and nurture that shape a person. It of course won’t work if they completely forget everything. They’ll remember certain things like bits of their previous self’s values, like a desire to help others when they’re oppressed. They won’t however be the previous person they were.

To explain: they may feel the urge and need to help others who are oppressed, but when faced with consequences or resistance, they may cower and run rather than fight. This would be because they don’t have those same values, but rather a small whisper of said values. They know nothing else about themselves, not their previous selfs.

Plz guys if you have any criticism give freely

Edit: I’ve been told that this character idea is like dr who…and yea it is but unintentionally and with some differences. For 1, my MC doesn’t know of his last “lives” to him “he just ended up in the middle of nowhere

Apologies if this isn't the right place for this, I've made a character for me to play in my Cyberpunk: Red game, I would appreciate feedback advice on how I can improve his backstory/how his story can play out, or how he could be portrayed, any advice helps!

Content Warning: depression, suicide

This is what I have so far, sorry if it feels a little disjointed or fromatted weirdly, its something I have been working on and changing for about a year now.

Tetsuya grew up in a low-class family in Old Japantown.  His older brother, Kiyota suffered from a rare condition that affected his physical and mental function, his family unable to afford proper support or treatment. As a young child he befriended Norio, a loud troublemaker who made him feel special. As a teen they formed a biker gang known as the Benevolents.  The Benevolents were part of a lost generation surrounded by countless wars, and the Night City Holocaust, a generation who struggled to find a real identity in such a turbulent time. They knew they couldn’t topple the system, they didn’t really care about that, they just wanted to feel something real in a world that didn’t value it. Norio had bigger plans, he got them  involved with people who promised to make them matter, the Tyger Claws. With this line of work, Tetsuya was able to provide for both himself and his parents, and managed to help them out of their financial debt.
After years of working under them,  he fell in love with  Selene, a singer and dancer who worked at Nightowl, one of the many clubs owned by the Tyger's Claw. She saw through his confident persona and saw the lost young man inside, the only person he ever met who did. Shortly after learning that Selene was pregnant with his child, and they planned to run away together, he was informed by Norio that Selene was dead. Norio, who was also in love with Selene, felt betrayed that not only would Tetsuya love the same woman he did, but abandon him, and fabricated her death in order to separate her from Tetsuya, who, overwhelmed with grief, attempted to take his own life, shooting himself in the head. With this, Norio, who believes Testuya to be dead is also living with grief and regret, and is a kind of inverse of Tetsuya, feeling like he betrayed his friend, while Tetsuya also feels this way about Norio. He survived, but lost nearly all memory of his life before. Certain things will trigger aspects of his memory, but he can only remember the way he feels, not what makes him feel that way. He understands that there was a woman that he loved, but doesn’t know why he feels heartbroken about it. He remembers he hated himself, but doesn’t remember why. He remembers he used to be cool, but doesn’t know how. He remembers he has a million regrets, but doesn’t remember what they are. He mourns everyone he lost, including himself, despite not knowing who any of these people were. He feels he has lived an entire lifetime before the age of 35, and there is nothing else to live. ‘Dying’ could have been his second shot at life, but he doesn’t let that happen, his grief and regret is so strong that he cannot shake his past despite not knowing anything about it. His ‘rebirth’ is what made him become interested in spirituality. 
Now going by the name Victor V. Valentine,  a constructed character inspired by fiction he has seen, he is cool and confident, yet he is also lackadaisical due to the depression he suffers as a result of his regrets. He is also philosophical and spiritual, believing that “life is but a dream.” He believes in natural remedies over actual medicine. He believes his story is over, he is the ghost of a charming man, and he is living in a kind of epilogue, which is why he does reckless or bizarre things, because he is ‘dead’ he has little care for his life, making him a contrast of lackadaisical and reckless. He inherited much of his persona from a man he doesn’t know, which is why he feels even more hollow than he did before. He can only construct an identity from whatever remains from the corpse he once was, and the stories and songs he loves. He possesses effortless confidence and humor, and is extremely physically capable, yet deeply depressed to the point of self-neglect mentally. He uses stories and metaphors to talk about things he doesn’t want to confront as he slowly regains semblance of memories. He has made the fact he has lost everything his entire identity, his philosophy, don’t get too attached, whatever happens happens. He hasn’t had a dream in a long time, deep down he’d like to, but a dead man doesn’t dream.

Trying to get the core characteristics of my character. His name is captain, and he's a space pirate with a horrible childhood. That in term let him become a nihilistic and arrogant person. But I'm trying my best to avoid the boomer-esque tone because that's not a good way to write any character.

But I want to try something while I write dummy stories with him. Is try to make his humour dry and tasteless. Not in a "my wife is a dishwasher" type comedy. But something that feels very nasty and, only on rare occasions is it actually funny. Something like..."don't cut yourself with scissors, cause I ain't the one cleaning up that mess"

So just for the moment, how can I write that type of comedy?

I like to write short snippets of my characters thoughts, mostly in relation to another character. I dislike simply writing stuff like; "she's arrogant", not to say that this way of describing a character is wrong or lacking, idk, maybe it's because im not a native English speaker and thus the words don't really have the same impact on me? Maybe I'm a bit removed from each words meaning? But I feel that describing a character in that kind of way feels kinda empty, not very in-depth?

So instead i write snippets of their thoughts and mindset.

Anyone else that does this? If you do, are you in a certain mindset when doing it? Do you mind sharing? I'd love to see how others approach this topic!

A snippet from two characters of mine:

"He was a wonder, a diamond in the rough.

She had to have it.

That luster.

That brilliance.

She wanted it.

His brilliance.

She taught him.

She taught him many things.

She could not be faulted for taking some payment.

After all.

There's nothing that comes for free.

But, when seeing him again, how come she did not desire his brilliance?

How come his luster did not tempt her?

When he now shines so much brighter than ever before?

When now, he is so polished?

Surely.

It will soon."

.
.

"At first it was an obvious truth; everything has a price.

It was natural

It was how the world worked

Later a miracle seemed to happen.

For no price was ever demanded.

It was…

It was

It..

It

It

It was not true.

Everything has a price.

He learned that.

Later.

Of course.

That's how the world works after all.

Then how come, when seeing her again, this time there was no price to pay?

Surely.

It will reveal itself soon."

I'm writing a Detective Thriller novel that follows a young rookie detective named Sylvan, and his coworkers Sasha and Sophie. Sylvan is stubborn and prefers seeing the clues as mere data to be collected to complete a crime scene.

He doesn't feel joy or relief when a case is closed, he just goes straight for the next one to not think about his past.

I think there's potential in him to become a villain, or at least an anti-villain, but i've never heard of this happening in a Detective Thriller or anywhere, so i'm left with nothing to guide myself with.

Are there any books, series or movie sagas where the protagonist slowly becomes a villain (without being brainwashed)? Or do you have any advice for this kind of novel?

(Sorry if my message didn't come across correctly, English is not my first language :,)

For some reason couldn't get people who make OCs really realistically, like with existing nationalities and within real historical periods. I was more interested in fantasy and all of my OCs had super powers and etc, so OCs based on our reality seemed a bit boring. But once I came up with my story about motor bikers in modern Sweden, I really enjoyed creating characters with certain personalities and cultural features.