Character trait exchange

MelodyO · Jul 26, 2007

You know how you're always looking for unusual and interesting character traits for your characters, and you can't use the best ones from your family and friends because they'd kill you if they ever found out? I thought it would be fun to have a character trait exchange (using real people that we know and love/like/endure) to share , because at least then all those excellent real life eccentricities won't go to waste.

I'll start if anyone wants to play...still not naming any names though.

-- She picked leaves off the trees in the fall so she wouldn't have to rake them.

-- He brought his accordion to every family gathering so he could play it whether anyone wanted him to or not.

-- She licked her plate clean even in restaurants.

-- She'd tear off the part of photos that contained people she was mad at and mail it to them.

-- He loved sardine and onion sandwiches.

-- She wouldn't leave her mean husband for her kind lover because she didn't want to prove her relatives right that the marriage was doomed from the start.

-- He kept a pig's head from a luau sitting on his back porch for weeks just to watch it decompose. (OMG I KNOW!!)

-- The baby wouldn't stop crying unless they played The Mavericks and danced with her.

Feel free to use any of these in your writing and do add one of your own!

JoNightshade · Jul 26, 2007

-- Their three-year-old could explain the mechanics of the solar system and used words I had to look up in the dictionary.

-- She asked "Do you think I'm fat for a six year old?" (Hopefully I don't have to explain the absurdity of this statement to anyone.)

-- He stripped down to his underwear whenever he was at home alone. (Guys, I KNOW you do this...)

-- Every time she made a mistake on the piano she interrupted herself with "No!"

-- She was so self conscious that she kept her legs crossed in the proper "lady like" position, toes pointed, for the entire party... never mind that everyone else was crosslegged on the floor playing pictionary.

-- He wouldn't ever just come out and say he thought you were wrong... he would just ask the same leading questions OVER AND OVER until you either quit talking or conceded that he was right.

Okay, more later. Whew, it's good to get these off of my chest.

MelodyO · Jul 26, 2007

JoNightshade said:
Okay, more later. Whew, it's good to get these off of my chest.

Oh, those were great! I have a feeling that everyone always thinks everyone else's family is normal. Let's put a rest to that theory PDQ.

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

I think you guys know more interesting people than I do.

--If you tell him he's pissing you off, he shrugs his shoulders and says, "You like it."

--He eats his pancakes in concentric circles.

--She combs her hair specially to cover her very very small ears.

--He tries to work lines he reads in books into his everyday life.

Zoombie · Jul 26, 2007

He always lets her through first.

She lets him do the garbage trawling every single time and "helps" by talking about things that she's thinking about.

He always tries to take the bullet from her, even though she's the one with subcutaneous armor and a computer for a brain.

She likes instant messengering you with her brain. When you're right next to her.

He loves her.

She loves him.

He can stare into her eyes for hours.

She can stare into his eyes for three point one micro seconds before memorizing them down to the microscopic scale...but she still likes looking for an extra couple of hours.

He can shoot really really good, but hates guns

She is a genetically engineered cyborg who snores.

He is the son of a high ranking ambassador, who picks through broken down trash compactors for fun.

They both have very odd friends.

I have odd parents

JoNightshade · Jul 26, 2007

-- Her biggest ambition in life was to become an accountant for the Beastie Boys.

-- Having never shown much talent for anything else, one day she started to fool around with a keyboard and discovered that she could play the piano.

-- Although he didn't quite walk on tip-toe, his heels never touched the ground.

-- She couldn't go to sleep unless she was holding something metal. Once they got rid of her iron bed, she slept with a pipe.

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

He can shoot really really good, but hates guns

What's wrong with this sentence, Zoom?

WordGypsy · Jul 26, 2007

He cuts down everything and when she makes it he says he was trying to encourage her because he knows she hates it when he's right

She will slap the SH#$ out of you if you mention clowns

They open doors for eachother...not to be nice but because the person that walks through the open door is "weak"

Zoombie · Jul 26, 2007

I'm guessing something obvious and grammatical, but for the life of me, I can't see it.

I'll just blame the fact that I've only gotten 20 hours of sleep this week.

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

Okay. Quick lesson.

Let's say you'd written this.

"He is really really good."

In this sentence, good is an adjective describing parents., which is your noun.

In this sentence:

"He can shoot really really good"

good is still an adjective, but it's not describing him anymore. It's describing shoot.

Adjectives cannot modify verbs. They're for nouns only.

That's why God invented adverbs.

He can shoot really really well.

Zoombie · Jul 26, 2007

So that makes the joke from Land of the Dead wrong in a grammatical sense:

CHARILY: Wow, that was nice shootin, Riley
RILEY: It's good shooting, Charily. No such thing as 'nice' shooting.

Oh well.

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

*sigh*

Shooting is a gerund in that example, Zoom.

Gerund = verb form ending in ing, used as a noun.

So both those sentences are correct.

Does "That was some well shooting" sound good to you?
Nope.
Cause it's wrong.

JoNightshade · Jul 26, 2007

Shady knows GRAMMAR too? Oh, man, she's SMARTER than me! Crap!

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

JoNightshade said:
Shady knows GRAMMAR too? Oh, man, she's SMARTER than me! Crap!

Actually, I don't know grammar too. I just flat-out know grammar.

I know how to write TOO.

Haha.

I'm a grammar beast. And I actually love it.

JoNightshade · Jul 26, 2007

To me, grammar is like... the Force. You just have to close your eyes and FEEL it. Start trying to explain it and it crumbles like dirt between your fingers.

I AM A GRAMMAR JEDI!

Shady Lane · Jul 26, 2007

NICE! I WILL BE GRAMMAR BEAST AND YOU CAN BE GRAMMAR JEDI!

[/hijack]

Danger Jane · Jul 26, 2007

Poor Zoombie.

Basically he just got crapped on by a grammar sandwich

I don't know why sandwich

anodyne · Jul 26, 2007

Closer to high school, which was the last time I think I used the word gerund. Know what it is, but haven't had an occasion to use it.

Traits:
- He can't do anything in the morning before he takes a shower.
- Always hangs his clothes facing the same direction on the hanger, and east.
- Will eat all of the things he doesn't like first to save the very best bite for last.
- She must always eat the very last bite of any meal they share, or else she gets moody. She doesn't know how he eats things.
- She taps the first letter of everything she does on her thigh. Two taps for brushing her teeth, five taps for eating, four taps for drinking.
- Refuses to drink the last fifth of any drink in a bottle.

JoNightshade · Jul 26, 2007

anodyne said:
- He can't do anything in the morning before he takes a shower.
- Always hangs his clothes facing the same direction on the hanger, and east.
- Will eat all of the things he doesn't like first to save the very best bite for last.

Um... do you know me?

anodyne · Jul 26, 2007

Probably not. But that's okay. I'm psychic.

Lady Esther · Jul 26, 2007

He shouts "Oh crud!" when he's losing on the video game.

She says "mm hm... yeah" at the end of every sentence.

She says "excuse me" even though no one hears or smells her fart.

She'd rather squint instead of putting on her glasses because she says she doesn't look good wearing glasses.

She laughs and says "remember when ___ happened" when it just happened a couple of hours ago.

Danger Jane · Jul 26, 2007

She brushes her teeth for ten minutes every night because she has to make up for them being skew.

He writes sonnets when he's not drinking and doing illegal things With The Guys.

She has to touch her nails and cuticles an equal number of times if she ever touches one once.

Britchik · Jul 26, 2007

-- She only puts nail polish on the nails of her left hand.

Zoombie · Jul 27, 2007

Danger Jane said:
Poor Zoombie.

Basically he just got crapped on by a grammar sandwich

I don't know why sandwich

Woe is me... at least I control a military capable of devastating a small planet by itself. That has to count for something.

Like an eccentricity. Has to destroy an eco-system before breakfast...

julief · Jul 27, 2007

--he is obsessed with trying to catch a squirrel, solely so he can throw it on a roof.
--40 years after her husband died, she still had his razor and shaving cream in the bathroom.
--she was so entranced with the windows, she failed to notice the apartment she agreed to rent lacked an oven and you couldn't open the fridge all the way.
--his idea of watching tv meant continuously flipping through channels for 2 hours, stopping no more than 30 seconds on a channel
--everytime he went manic, he bought a new car
--he said 'oh boy, this is exciting' if he went to a new place to eat, but disliked doing anything more 'exciting' than this.
--she tears the crust off her pizza first, eats this, and then may or may not eat the rest of the pizza
--she gets giggly and silly when she has Dr. Pepper
--he trains his 9-month-old daughter to use a cell phone, remote control, and a computer keyboard
--he covers his mouth when he laughs at his own jokes

Character trait exchange

Waiting for love on the web

has finally arrived

Waiting for love on the web

my name is hannah

Dragon of the Multiverse

has finally arrived

my name is hannah

Dragon of the Multiverse

my name is hannah

Dragon of the Multiverse

my name is hannah

has finally arrived

my name is hannah

has finally arrived

my name is hannah

has finally arrived

I can say the alphabet backwards!

Dragon of the Multiverse

Hardly here