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Hi, everyone!
I’m looking for input on character consistency. In every story (long or short) that I write, I like to have a character who’s generally optimistic and lighthearted, and who sometimes even provides the comic relief. However, a lot of my story plots tend to get more and more intense as they go. Does anybody have any advice for keeping the aforementioned character’s personality consistent as the story around him/her gets darker? I don’t want to create an unrealistic comic relief who’s always being goofy at the worst possible moments, but I don’t want to turn the once-lighthearted character into someone who’s grave and serious all the time, either.
Any advice?
@dragon-snapper @sam-kowal @catwing @allison-grace @princessfoo @daeus @aislinn-mollisong @theacornman @daughteroftheking @anyoneelse*Swirls cape menacingly while the Imperial March plays in the background*
@gabbyj Well, I have to admit I’ve never really tried to add humour in my writing. Makes me sound a bit depressing.
Maybe it could be interesting to see that character mature as the plot intensifies. Unless of course you really want humour to remain throughout your story.
I know I haven’t really answered the original question. Just a bit of food for thought.😀
That one English guy.
I Have a character who while I don’t consider her to be comic relief is extremely optimistic.
I think a good question to ask would be, why is this character optimistic?
For my character she grew up in a very healthy family around very kind people. So she always sees the best in people and (wrongly, as this causes her troubles at some point) believes that people are inherently good.
Maybe this isn’t helpful for you, and that’s okay 🙂 Just thought id dump my thoughts on this.
and I was so confused
@gabbyj I don’t know if you have read this already, but I think you might find this helpful.
How to Write Comic Relief Characters without Annoying Your Audience
I can see what you are trying to accomplish. I once watched a tv series with a character who was really funny and light-hearted in the first season, but serious in season two. I know why she stopped joking around, she realized how serious the situation was in general, and how she needed take things more seriously, but that made the show a lot less fun and entertaining.
My suggestion is to pinpoint why she is so optimistic, and make sure that is consistent. If, like @notawriter character, she believes the best of people, than have her continue to believe the best in people. Maybe, she could start realizing that events don’t always work out the way you want them too, but continues to believe that the average person is good. (They aren’t, by the way.) I would suggest that you don’t draw attention to the fact that this is what she believes, unless it is part of your theme, or she is going to have a character arch. Making an issue out of it will make the readers think she is going to change, or come out believing all the more that people are good. (And, as I linked above, they aren’t.)
But these are just my thoughts. If someone more knowledgeable than me disagrees, I would go with them.
Not sure if that last part was directed at me or gabbyj but I do agree with what you said! 🙂 The character I was referring to is one from a story/project I’ve dropped at the moment (Might pick it up again later .. probably will?) so that I can focus on other none writing stuff. Such as drawing, (A hobby I care about more then writing) school, etc. I hadn’t gotten far enough into it to get into theme, and where character arcs would take my characters etc. But I do appreciate the thoughts you had related to it! 😀
and I was so confused
@gabbyj I agree with @princessfoo and @notawriter. But.
I have an addition. So, she believes the best about people. Is very cheerful and optimistic. But then something happens. Someone betrays her, or she leaves her safe, happy home and finds out just how scary a place the world is. Her worldview is entirely flipped. She now trusts no one, and can only see the evil in the world. She loses her bounce and her sunnyness.
Until she learns to keep looking for the best in people, because through the darkness, she can see the lights of people she can trust. She realizes that the world isn’t the place she once thought it to be, but she also realizes that it isn’t as bad as it seems, either. She is wiser, but still the amazing, sunny, bouncy person you need her to be.
Does that help?
ENTP, Aether-borg Hero with cape obsession and fascination with swords.
https://forums.theaetherli@gabbyJ I like this character. Anyway, to build on what everyone else said, if she is optimistic because she doesn’t know how bad things can be, then she’ll grow out of that. But, if she’s naturally a hopeful, cheery person, she might use humor and optimism to keep herself and everyone else encouraged, even when things are hard.
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@gabbyj Hmm
Well, being optimistic doesn’t always mean being extremely lighthearted, but it does mean looking at the best sides of situations and seeing the best in people. That doesn’t have to change, even if the story gets more intense and more challenges come as it progresses. The character’s optimism will just have to shine out through the darkness, and it will become all the more noticeable.
Say, for instance, Stan was a lighthearted character in a book. He starts off laughing, a happy, lighthearted person. But then tragedy strikes. He loses his job, and there’s a plague, or something. And everyone around him is thrown into despair and gives up hope, because all kinds of bad things are happening. But not Stan. Sure, he’s sad (and optimistic people don’t always need to look on the good side of things. That’s not really realistic- I don’t know any human who does that. They just need to at their core be optimistic), but he forces himself to get out of it. He stands back up, and encourages the people around him to stand back up as well. He always holds onto hope, even in dark situations, and that lets him be happier. It’s his nature to be hopeful about the future, even in hardships, and that lets him hold onto happiness.
Also, two side notes:
Showing a lot of other people in the story as downcast, but the optimistic character as hopeful, will help to highlight what’s different about that character.
The example I just gave you assumes that you want to portray optimism and hope as something life-giving, something that helps lift characters out of the darkest days and keeps them going for the better. If you want your theme to portray optimism as foolish and naive- and have everything this character does fail- you’d want to go about it in a completely different way.
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Perhaps this character could try something and fail. For example, Jill is our “comic relief.” She has this brilliant idea to try to fix the flat tire by herself. She knows the others who were in the car are irritated by her constant comments of, “Well, we still have three tires.” So, she decides to do something about it. She tries to change the tire, but drops the lug nuts, breaks the jack, and scratches Jim’s new paint job. This might make her more serious…
If that made any sense whatsoever, it will be amazing.
Long story short, if someone gets angry at the character, this might sober them a bit. If she’s been making comments (sarcastic, witty, dumb, actually kinda funny, etc.) that get on a serious character’s nerves, make that serious character snap. They just can’t take it anymore. So, they lash out.
Or you could take something from the “comic relief.” Kill her brother. Have dragons eat her horse. Give her nightmares. Attack her weaknesses. This could make her sober up a bit.
Basically, if you want the comic to be a bit more serious, I would say to take something or hurt her. Just like if you were not serious about driving, then you accidentally ran over a stray cat, you probably would get serious, right? (I hope you would. :))
Hope this helps!
~Allison
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Thought I’d join the ranks of great advice here (or try to). It may have been said already, but here it is in my words.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>One of my favorite characters I’ve written is a boy who uses humor to hide how alone and scared he feels. Only when he becomes comfortable with his friends does he allow them to see how smart and loyal he truly is. That’s when his teammates realize what a great friend and asset he is to their team.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>The point I’m trying to make is, make sure whatever comic relief you write has a purpose beyond comedy. I personally don’t like to read books that are always depressing, but at the same time, useless feel-good characters do tend to get on my nerves.</p>A Very Tookish Hobbit (a.k.a. Fool of a Took)
@gabbyj I have this one character. He’s a sweet guy, he’s always been a sweet guy. He’s kind, he’s cheerful, and at times somewhat of a klutz. However, he can become very serious in the blink of an eye if the situation calls for it. He’s the medieval version of special forces, but he would prefer to be with his birds trying to catch bugs down by the river. He is a cheerful, kindhearted person by nature, but time has made it where he can become someone different for certain situations. Maybe you can do something like that?
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
@gabbyj Like some other people mentioned, I think it would be important to understand why your character is the way s/he is. And as the story intensifies, this would affect your character. the question is, how does it affect your character? Tension often equals growth as the character is trying to cope or handle the situation. How they handle it depends on who your character really is, beneath the witty remarks.
I have an example, but to avoid spoilers as this is a somewhat popular project I will be generic.
In a story there is a group of young hereos forced to work together, with the help of a mature leader.
One of the characters is quite silly and does give comedy relief frequently. However, this character, I’ll call him Bob, is still a person. Though he can be very silly early on in the show it displays something he is sad/more serious about, in this case he misses home. It shows us him being sad and not just cracking jokes and suddenly we realize this is a person. The story goes on and he continues to be quite quirky in all things. Later, the leader gets separated from the group, and one of the people in the group becomes the new leader, though he is NOT good at it. Bob can see that and he notices the issues around him. So even though he is usually more lighthearted he tries to resolve those issues if he can. Noone likes conflict or pain. The issues should affect your character and make him look for resolution to his problems in some way or another.wow, that was really long. Hopefully it didn’t waste your time haha :>
I can't believe it's not butter!
@gabbyj In my first novel I had a character who was for the first few chapters really sweet and good-natured, and always thinking of others before herself. Later, as bad things started happening, she started having trouble keeping up her good-naturedness, but she hid it pretty well so that her brother didn’t notice she was much upset. Finally, she was getting pretty stressed out, and a little past the 3/4 mark she burst, and her brother realized that though she was always sweet, she did have stress underneath it all. He had been so accustomed to her being happy or thinking of others besides herself, that he didn’t consider what she might be actually feeling underneath it. Of course once he found out, he changed, but that was how I portrayed my “optimistic” character. If people are used to someone being continually “happy”, they might not ever consider that persons feelings.
I hope this helps a little bit… 🙂
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@theacornman @notawriter @princessfoo @aislinn-mollisong @daughteroftheking @sam-kowal @allison-grace @charisetter @skredder @itisastarrynight @rochellaine
Wow! Thank you, everyone, this is all extremely helpful! You’ve really shown me a huge amount of possibilities for my previously one-dimensional characters. I’m so excited now! 😀Thanks again, you’re all awesome! 😀
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