"I'm not choosing one of your paths. I'm making my own."

They may have given Olaf a burial, but that doesn’t man they had to be happy about it.

Drawing Meme, Inbox Open

Day 24095 They are siblings. They are loud. Always singing and talking and stomping. As if they must be louder than anything else.

Day 24106 There are bolts on the door now. Bolts and hideous, gaudy new locks. How dare they-

Night 24112 I was going to fill the night with terrors. But he woke up screaming before I began. She came running from the other room. They sleep right across the hall from each other, with the doors on a crack. …they are young, are they not, to be living on their own. Was I ever so young?

Day 24129 She has fixed the squeak in the door at the top of the stairs. It never squeaked when I still lived.

Day 24121 The noise of the doorbell scares them. But they get so many deliveries. It is a good bell. It has worked all these years- I can see one of the men coming now with his packages, trudging up to the door. …perhaps if I knock before he is here, they will come and look before he can sound the bell.

Day 24114 He is planting flowers in boxes on my windowsills. I always wished I could have some flowers.

Night 24137 She is afraid of the dark. I could see it in her eyes when she got out of bed. …I lit the lamps for her.

Day 24142 They have moved the couch to the sun spot a little to the right of the window. That is where I used to have my armchair. It is the only sensible place for it.

Day 24163 Sometimes the noises of the world are suddenly too much for him. He winces and tries not to sway his head. This is my house. …I can keep it calm and quiet for a while.

Day 24178 She just got a phone call and now they are both laughing. Laughter is a good sound, isn’t it. They said this house has been good luck…

Night 24205 They are singing in our kitchen. He found my cookbook in the gap at the back of the kitchen cabinet and now they are trying to cook. They wanted to start with the soufflé. They don’t even know how to make béchamel! I turned the page to the casserole instead.

i’m not going to preface this much, seeing as how this will be helpful for anyone who is a) having trouble understanding the characters they’ve set out to write, or b) struggling with an intense case of writers’ block. in any event, these are resources that i have found exceedingly helpful in the process of creating and envisioning my characters.

personality types

myers-briggs personality type indicator; take the test yourself or learn more about each type

howtofascinate’s forty nine personality types; see here for the chart

keirsey temperament sorter; take the test yourself or learn more about each type

cattell’s sixteen personality factors; take the test yourself or learn more about each factor

narcissistic personality quiz; learn more and take it yourself here

find more at this source

archetypes

the twelve common archetypes give a title, a motto, goals/desires, strengths/weaknesses, and fears/strategies for each archetype

this list of character archetypes gives a title, explanation, and example for each archetype

this wikipedia page on stock characters lists archetypes present throughout literature, fiction, and the media

things to write about

their name; its origin, its meaning. how it feels coming off the tip of their tongue. who were they named after? what do they go by?

LEO VALDEZ BEING CUTE IN A SCRAWNY WAY — and yes, his goggles are prada sorry I make the rules

percy | annabeth