ALT

V.E. Schwab's advice for creating memorable characters - works for both protagonists and villains

source post: X

This is really good advice.

It also ties neatly into the simplest version of the formula for getting people emotionally engaged with your characters: or how to build the moment in which your character starts moving from their initial state to the state in which they'll start changing their own lives.

First, you figure out the one important thing the character believes that they're wrong about. There's usually a core misperception that they haven't examined. Once they're forced to engage with it, it'll start to change everything about their perception of the world they're inhabiting and/or the people in it.

Then, as V.E. says, you identify the character's great desire and their great fear: the thing that character wants more than anything, and the thing or situation that terrifies them, and that they'll go to any lengths to avoid.

And having identified these two objects or situations, you build a situation in which the two forces will be in close, direct opposition to one another... then drop the character down in between them, and squeeze. Those two opposing forces become the jaws of a vise... and you crank the vise more and more tightly closed until the character has no choice but to acknowledge those opposing forces, and start (even in a small way) to deal with the pressure being exerted and push their way through.

This does not have to be, initially, a great climactic moment. In fact, it works better if it's not. It's more effective if your character has a brief low-intensity brush with these conditions-in-conflict early on. That way, when your big resolution scene comes along about two-thirds or three-quarters of the way along through the story arc, you'll have set up a resonance between that earlier hint or intimation of what's to come, and the really big blowoff. Your readers will recognize the resonance—the throb of tension between the two occurrences, like the vibration of a plucked string—and will find satisfaction both in the true resolution having been partially telegraphed earlier, and in how it's now being experienced and resolved in full.

This approach also allows you to set up more minor resonances between the realization of the conflict and its final resolution. These can serve to bind the structure of the work more closely together: to make it look (and be) less like a series of loosely strung-together plot events, and more like a unified whole, in which ripples of story business flow backwards and forwards, interpenetrating and influencing one another, and hinting at the big one to come.

But none of this can happen until the paired and opposing what-do-they-most-desire, what-do-they-most-fear axes have been defined. So that's a subject it's smart to spend some while thinking about (and for all your characters, not just the major ones), to be sure you're getting it right.

It's not unusual to get the wrong answers, or merely superficial ones, while you're still working out what's actually going on with the characters. So take your time. Eventually you'll find a set of answers that feel unquestionably right... and you can then nail those down in your notes and get on with making the kind of "good trouble" for your characters that will see them made complete.

these are all the same sort of animal. do you understand.

these are all small skittish creatures that love to bite and are found in drawers of garages and classrooms. they’re all related and in the same small biter family. weird little kids who play with them while they’re distracted and have empathy for them can tame them and become these beasts companions

Beasts

They all have a distinctive call that's basically "Myeeeehhhh!"

ppl arguing that Rumi and Jinu don't make sense as narrative foils because "Jinu's shame is justified and Rumi's isn't"

.......yeah, that's like, actively the thing that the movie is trying to get you to contemplate by making the two of them narrative foils. like. they did that on Absolute Purpose. That's like. The Point.

You're introduced to Rumi, and she's so lovable and forgivable. Her shame is obviously not justified because she's "one of the good ones," a perfect victim who hasn't done anything wrong and has worked so so hard to make up for her so-called flaws.

Pretty much the entire audience finds it very easy to recognize that Rumi should not be ashamed of herself. From the moment it's revealed that Rumi's dad was a demon--you see this in reaction after reaction--the audience is on Rumi's side. Because that's not her fault. She didn't ask for that. She hasn't done anything bad, other than maybe lying, and even that is understandable given the circumstances. (Most audience members forgive her very quickly for lying, if they even consider it an issue in the first place.)

Rumi's arc is lovely, but not very transgressive in this way. It follows a pretty well-known message in stories nowadays, which is that you shouldn't feel shame for your identity, for who you are.

But Rumi doesn't see it that way. To Rumi's mind, she is wrong and bad in measurable ways that she needs to make up for, and no amount of "no, it's not your fault" will convince her otherwise. Such is the nature of shame: everyone who feels it believes that it's a justified feeling.

...So then we get introduced to Jinu.

Jinu is... not the perfect victim, although he is a victim. He starts out as the antagonist of the movie. Where Rumi overcompensates for her shame by trying to be as good as possible, Jinu's shame (and, you know, Gwi-Ma) makes it difficult for him to try and be a "good person," because to him that feels like an unattainable goal that will only hurt more to try and reach. He's "inherently bad." That's what his shame tells him.

And unlike Rumi, Jinu made choices. "Choices he had no choice in," like Ahn Hyo-Seop said, but still choices. Over the course of the movie, we see him hurt people. That's what he's ashamed of. Genuinely hurting people.

And suddenly, a large part of the audience is starting to hesitate. People who were preaching self-love and empathizing with Rumi are getting uncomfortable, because this isn't the standard shame arc. Jinu isn't a perfect victim. So like... maybe he shouldn't have self-love. Maybe he should be a little ashamed.

...That's what a lot of people start to say.

But, crucially, the movie does not say this. In fact, the movie says the opposite.

The reason why Jinu and Rumi's two shames are framed as parallels to each other isn't because they have the same source, it's because they have the same degrading effect on the characters involved, and the same solution.

The audience might not view Jinu and Rumi's shame as "the same," from the outside, but it is super critical that Rumi views Jinu's shame as the same as hers, and Jinu views Rumi's shame as the same as his--actually, they both view each others' shame as less justified than their own. Because, again, remember, everyone who's ashamed of themself thinks their shame is justified. But they're both able to recognize that they're having the same feeling, and that feeling is holding them back from so much in their life. It's trapping them in constraints and limits.

And the only good and useful way forward, for either of them, will have to be self-acceptance.

Yeah, Jinu's shame stems from his choices. The movie challenges you to think about that--it says, okay, so you sympathize with Rumi. Now what about someone whose shame comes from their actions? Will you extend him the same grace? He's suffering in the same way. Or is there a line you can cross, something you can become that degrades your inherent worth and makes you less deserving of help and support?

Because, you know, if there is a line, everyone who has shame is going to think that they've crossed it. No matter what. That's what Rumi thinks of herself.

Jinu, I think, is for all the people struggling with shame who looked at Rumi and went "okay, maybe her shame isn't justified, but mine is. I'm not like Rumi, I'm actually bad." Jinu is the movie's way of doubling down and saying, no, we mean it. Shame is never useful. Everyone deserves freedom from shame. Everyone. Yes, even you. There is no line you can cross where you don't deserve that anymore.

That's the point they're trying to make by making Rumi and Jinu narrative foils.

btw, before I get comments arguing about how shame can be a useful motivator: I use a very specific definition of shame and a very specific definition of guilt. Shame is when you feel that some part of you is inherently bad in an unchangeable, immutable way. Guilt is when you feel that you've done something bad, but that you yourself are not inherently bad. Guilt can be a useful motivator to change your behavior, shame can usually not. I learned in a sociology class I took in college that they've actually done studies on this--generally, shaming someone for what they've done or who they are is counterproductive. The person usually either learns to hide the behavior/trait they're being shamed for better (but continues it in private), or leans into it more as a way of lashing out. Guilt tends to be much, much more useful towards changing someone's behavior. I don't have the study cited anymore because it was in my textbook, but here's a psychology today article that echoes a similar sentiment to what I'm trying to explain.

To anyone who's been further down the Wikipedia linguistics rabbit hole than I, what is the name of the style of speech that companies use on laundry labels, instructional signs, etc., that is characterized by the omission of articles, pronouns, and contractions? For example, using the phrasing, "Do not iron label," instead of, "Don't iron the label." There's got to be a name for it. (A Wikipedia article about it would be even better!)

hi people it’s dember. but soon it will not be

Now Jary :)

it’s jary :)

Side characters show depth by disagreeing with your main character.

Allies can want the same goal for different reasons.

Friends can be supportive while still refusing to go along with the MCs bad ideas.

Lovers can beg the MC to stay home where it's safe instead of doing the heroic thing.

Don't surround your MC with yes-men. Agreements and arguments mixed together will make your side characters feel more real.

As a continuation of my "people are bad at writing training in books" saga, I think there's an impulse especially when writing low-technology fantasy to equate "can fight good as an individual" with "good at military stuff" or even "good at fighting alongside other people" and those are not really equivalent.

Even ignoring that many main characters end up in leadership roles as a result of their good fighting, and the fact that a strategic understanding of military or paramilitary tactics isn't really tied to how good you are with a sword, the goals and requirements for fighting in a military or paramilitary group are often fundamentally different than fighting as an individual.

If your character is really good with a sword, it doesn't necessarily mean that they know how to fight while in close proximity to allies, for example, or how to follow orders, or how to give orders, or how to hold or advance on a position, etc.

What ends up happening with some books is people have their character learn what may be very impressive martial arts such that they can match with any other character--and then drop them in some sort of military or paramilitary setting and just sort of pretend that the character either doesn't need any other skill involved in fighting in a group or gleaned them magically via osmosis.

If you are writing a character who ends up fighting as part of a group, I recommend doing research on things like basic training, law enforcement training, etc. and seeing how people train or have historically trained for different types of fighting.

Your character doesn't need to get that training, necessarily, but it does often read as a little silly when a book pretends that Spars Good is a functional equivalent for it.

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I've been spending the past 2 months working on my latest project, my sparkle text generator! You have lots of features to play with, such as:

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Very customizable as well. Go check it out.

I know I haven't posted regularly on this blog in years but I'm not seeing a whole lot of posts on this site about what's happening in Minneapolis right now. And the posts I am seeing are not covering the scope of it. I'm genuinely surprised because tumblr is usually where I find out about things organically through my feed. So I'm making a post about it.

A brief summary of events, from someone who pays attention and also lives here, best taken with a grain of salt and some fact checking:

2020: George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police. There are weeks of protests about it. It makes national news. Protests happen in DC. The infamous Trump and his bible photo shoot happens.

2024: Gov. Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' running mate in the presidential election. He starts the "they're just weird" thing. Is folksy, Trump personally hates him.

November 2025: ICE starts showing up to "crack down" on "illegal immigrants" in our Somali community. I may remember the numbers wrong, but something like 90% of our Somali neighbors are either naturalized or were born here. People distribute ICE whistles and are on high alert. Localized to the twin cities.

December 2025: Nick Shirley is paid by a bunch of MN Republicans to do an exposé on daycare fraud. I didn't hear much about this. All I really know is this was an ongoing investigation that MN officials were already taking care of and some of the guilty parties have already gone to court from a COVID era food assistance program. Mostly, if not all, legal US citizens. He did a really bad job at doing journalism and just showed up to day cares with a camera crew and went "YUP nobody's here" as if they weren't in lock-down procedure because some fuck ass white men showed up with camera equipment that could easily be mistaken for guns. I believe. I will fact check all of this and will correct myself in a reblog if necessary. (source but not all the details that I remember hearing about but they said there was no recorded evidence of fraud)

Conservative internet explodes. Kristi Noem sends a mess of agents. I know it's more than a thousand more. They call it Operation Metro Surge. They are going everywhere. There are protests. People try to interrupt the arrests. It's a lot.

1/7/2026: Renee Nicole Good is shot by an ICE agent in the middle of a protest. A few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. Broad daylight. In front of a crowd. While she was following instructions to turn her vehicle around. Jonathan Ross, the piece of shit Nazi who did it, was recording on his phone the whole time, switched his phone to his non dominant hand so he could more effectively shoot her in the face from 2 feet away. Claims self defense, several angles immediately disprove him. He releases his video, he calls her a "fucking bitch" as her corpse drives away. Does not help him at all. (source) He has not been seen since. Some photos/reports exist of a bunch of agents showing up to his house and taking some tubs and art away. His wife is an immigrant. (source but it's the daily mail so grain of salt.)

Not hours later they go raid a school and tear gas a bunch of kids. (source). Minneapolis has switched to distance learning. I'm not sure about St. Paul.

The last week: There are up to 3,000 ICE agents here. Keep in mind Minneapolis and St. Paul only have 600 or fewer police officers each. So these dudes are roaming in packs. It's 2-4 dudes to a car and 2-5 cars per pack. People are "commuting with" ICE agents to honk and alert people that they're there. People are going on patrols with their neighbors.

ICE is no longer asking "are you a citizen." They are simply walking up to you and taking you into custody. They are going door to door. They have started just breaking the door down if you don't comply. They are driving recklessly to just grab pedestrians and drivers alike (source). People are afraid to go get groceries. It's all over the state. I am learning names of cities in places I thought were just factory farm land and I've lived here my whole life because they're doing raids there. I had to text my family in the suburbs because I saw reports of my small little hometown an hour away getting door knocks today.

It's insane and I am not doing it justice. There are thousands of masked federal agents roaming around all of Minnesota with no warrant or specific goal. They are just trolling around looking for people. They are detaining anyone and everyone. They are beating people. They are pepper spraying people. They are kidnapping people. They are acting unconstitutionally, aggressively, and unpredictably. They are creating situations that are dangerous so that they can try to justify beating or shooting their way out. I will run an errand and then get fed a tiktok that was shot from the Cub Foods that I just left and there's 20+ ICE vehicles parked there now. They're taking people from work, from day care, from schools, from shopping centers.

Iceout.org tracks ice sightings. This is a screen shot with the date set to 12/1/2025.

And from today.

They have cut off SNAP and WIC benefits. Just for us. Not any other state, just Minnesota. They're saying it's because of fraud but I think it's because they hate that we use federal funds to give free breakfast and lunch to every public school student.

And this is breaking just now, 1/13/2026: the DOJ is trying to investigate Renee Good's widow. 4 people have resigned about it. (source). I don't even want to read the article to see what they're saying.

So that's a brief history.

Unicorn Riot is doing a lot of good reporting and they don't seem to have the spin that a lot of local news stations will have where they downplay everything. This article specifically goes into a lot of the specific instances of brutality.

It's also a rumor on TikTok that all of the videos of ICE and protests and the such and the like are being geo locked. So my feed is all footage of people being detained and talking about the "commuting" they're doing and what they're seeing but people outside of the state are not seeing it. So if you're also on that infernal app, try searching for Minneapolis or Minnesota and see what you see. I'm kind of curious if this is true. Because I've been living and breathing ICE and doomsday prepping content for a week. I'm sure those two topics aren't connected.

I don't really know what my goal with this post is. I'm tired. I'm in the first ring of suburbs, so it's been pretty quiet. But I have friends in south Minneapolis. And I'm worried for them. And I know it's a matter of time before my quiet pocket is affected. Because they're coming door to door.

Pay attention to Minnesota, I think an example is being made of us.

I've been monitoring this closely because I have friends in the area, and because I think every city in the country is at risk of having the feds come to do what they're doing in Minnesota, and we all need to get ready.

There are some Twin Cities activists who have been very clearly laying out what they're doing, and why it's effective at slowing down ICE. It sounds like all you really need, is neighborhood group chats where people can let one another know when and where ICE is present, and then people show up, start recording, and blowing whistles, and then ICE will leave again more often than not. This VERY SHORT thread by a Twin Cities activist outlines what to do and how it works.

Also: Minnesota Public Radio has been doing great coverage of what's happening, and the local NBC affiliate has some excellent interviews with activists who were arrested and detained for hours.

And finally, some good news: the courts restored SNAP funding.

the gooners

they’re everywhere

Dat's right boss. Now just tell us what ya need and we'll get it done boss.

who needs ta sleep with da fishes boss

sorry bawss, I was too busy searchin up da anime girls boss. real pretty.

Forget dem anime goils. Dere only temporary. But da boss is forever. Right boss?

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Closest match: Oeneis jutta genome assembly, chromosome: 18
Common name: Jutta Arctic

(image source)

Da boss got turned into a butterfly!!

Wadda bea-utiful transformation, boss. goes to show youse gotta preciate the lil things in life

ay boss congrats on da metamoiphosis

things that made me stop wanting to die that require no effort whatsoever

• change the color used to highlight text on your laptop
• move the pictures on your wall
• stack whatever clutter is in your room into piles even if you don’t have time to clean it all
• slightly vary your commute, even just by one street
• change where you sit and scroll aimlessly on your phone even if it’s only to the chair in your room instead of your bed
• drink water or juice out of a wine glass in the morning because nothing is real
• shower with the lights off, without music
• buy $3 flowers at trader joe’s—they look bad next to the more expensive ones but they look so good in your room
• start typing things you don’t post into your notes. your thoughts can be worth documenting even if you don’t deem them worth sharing
• wake up super early just once. you don’t have to make it a habit it’s just extra satisfying to go to bed that night
• listen to the entirety of your favorite album from 2015

Almost all of these are about variety. Humans need stimulation! We need enrichment! We literally cannot do the same thing every day!

The other day I was feeling miserable, so I hopped on a bus and rode it all the way back to where I’d started, and my brain, which had finally had some proper stimulation via new environments, was suddenly ready to go again!

This is why taking walks/drives and trying new hobbies are good for you! Don’t turn yourself into a sad zoo animal! You need some pumpkins to roll around in your enclosure!

ITS BACK!!!!!

god i fucking love the quote “dont turn yourself into a sad zoo animal” it has really inspired me!

Too much movement makes your joints hurt and too little movement also makes your joints hurt. This would imply that there's an optimal amount of movement that allows your joints to not hurt. This is a lie.