Personality in writing

[writersliving]

how do make diffrent personailty in your writing. do you learn that as time go on. how do you make what you write good enough to make a tv show. make it the whole team that back you up. I think that what make a tv show good.

[preyer]

is english your second language? lol. just teasing. i seem to have 'capital' issues.

seeing as how this isn't a fiction forum, i assume you mean how do you instill personality into your characters. i think that comes best when the writer knows a lot of people that gives him a basic understanding of human psychology. and experience, which is a given. you have to actually step outside into the real world to know what people will say and do given the type of person they are. you won't find a good basis of human nature from fiction, t.v. or movies for the most part.

i've found that i can fairly accurately guage most people's reactions about two-thirds of the time (if i know them well), so in my dialogue i try to add something i *think* they'd say and change it every so often. i do this because conversations aren't perfect, people take jokes the wrong way, someone doesn't say what you want them to, whatever. the changes usually aren't something major, just, to me, it adds a little more spice because that one-third of what a character says is *not* me.

be a good listener when someone is talking, particularly people of a different generation. you'll have to listen a bit harder if that person is from a different section of the country. every single person has their own vernacular, but i try to tone that down as to not seem too obvious. people also speak at different beats, so by altering the speech pattern you can derive some personality out of that. i don't even need to say that a character's actions (or lack of, bear that in mind) are intregral to their personality, do i?

want to be a t.v. writer? me think write good stories, hell with grammar.