Choosing a talent or skill that fits with your character’s personality, lifestyle, and values can go a long way to helping them break free of the common stereotypes seen so often in fiction. This thesaurus will help you find the perfect quality or two that will show readers your character’s uniqueness while also acting as an asset when it comes to goal achievement.
When choosing a talent or skill, think about the personality of your character, his range of experiences and who his role models might have been. Some talents might be genetically imparted while others are created through exposure (such as a character talented at fixing watches from growing up in his father’s watch shop) or grow out of interest (archery, wakeboarding, or magic). Don’t be afraid to be creative and make sure the skill or talent is something that works with the scope of the story.
Archery
Description: the ability to hit a target at long range using a bow and arrow. Some archers work solely with stationary targets, while others practice on both stationary and moving objects. Archers…
Beneficial Strengths or Abilities: concentration, strength, strong eyesight, flexibility, being a skilled tracker, having knowledge…
Character Traits Suited for this Skill or Talent: focus, perfectionism, self-controlled, studious, disciplined…
Required Resources and Training: contemporary archers can practice at indoor ranges or outdoor (either stationary and 3D) ranges, as well as one’s own property with either a natural barrier (such as hillside) or man-made barrier (foam blocks, special nets or hay bales) to catch any stray arrows. Understanding how…
Associated Stereotypes and Perceptions:
- That archers are loners who prefer nature to people
- That archers are reckless (shooting close enough to scare someone, but not wound used as a plot device to show incredible skill and/or a bad temper)
TIP: Choose a talent or skill that makes your character memorable and helps them achieve their goals.
If this is something you’d like to learn more about, you might find these resources helpful. You can also see the full collection of talent and skill entries in their entirety at One Stop For Writers, where all our thesauruses are cross-referenced and linked for easy navigation. If you’re interested in seeing a free sampling of the Talent and Skill Thesaurus and our other descriptive collections, head on over and register at One Stop!
15 Comments.
Thank you for your useful subjects.Would you please tell us about characteristics of a talent in archery ?
What are the characteristics of physical and mental and other special profile of an
successful archery?
Best regards
Bagheri
Hi there, Bagheri. Our thesaurus entries here are just a snapshot of what each entry has to offer. Our thesauruses can be seen in full at One Stop For Writers (along with entries that can’t be found here at our blog). Best of luck!
I love this part of creating a character. It takes me a while to come up with that special talent, but when I do, it’s integral to the story and focuses me on how the plot will go. Thanks again for the information you share.
I am right there with you, Lee. I love brainstorming and giving the character & his or her attributes, talents and skills as much meaning as possible.
This gives me some ideas for a couple of my stories that are kind of flat. Thank you.
Perfect! That’s what we’re all about here. Glad this thesaurus helps. 🙂
I did archery all through high school, and I recently got back into it. Love this topic! 🙂
I would love to take it up. There is a range not too far away, so who knows?
This is the skill of my Akara people. Thanks for the links!!
Great post about archery! My hubby and sons set up a hay bale in our valley and used to shoot arrows all the time. Thanks for the reminder to give our characters unique skills. I’m going to check out your list.
Thanks for the Talent and Skilled post on Archery!
I’ve recently decided that one of my female characters will be skilled in this area. I appreciate it!
Hi.Thank you for this insightful and inspiring post. I have enjoyed it very much.I have built a Mission for Non-Violence with the theme of archery. Using my song, ” Arrow In the Wind”,I created videos and web galleries with the theme of “Let Love Be Your Target.” Stop the Violence.Choosing to look at a spiritual parallel of archery and the perfect Target for humanity being Love has been quite a journey and still going! Self control and Patience are some of the spiritual character traits required for non-violence that reach deep into the roots of the perfect Target for humanity to
stop the violence.The spiritual archer must also put hundreds of hours into practice and study of virtue’s that will strengthen their spirit to be able to become efficient peacemakers in this world.The skilled Spiritual Archer must also learn how to stand on the various grounds of working for non-violence and becoming more and more peaceful themselves.Learning from others who have achieved peace also will help to “speed the learning curve” of the practice of Peace.The parallels of archery to the spiritual life are quite significant.Those who strive to attain peace must not be reckless because the arrow is meant to target Love. So, a reckless
archer can cause grave harm if the arrow is used for harm and without careful consideration.Choosing Archery as a theme for non-violence has taught me to search and practice even more.But,Your insights into all of this have been excellent.I appreciate what you have done here! It has opened my mind as well. Many wishes for great success as a writer! Peace be with you!
That is very cool So glad you found your way to this post, Maryann! Wishing you all the best as well 🙂
This is really neat. Thanks for posting it!
Sure thing! Peace!!