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.
ESP (Clairvoyance)
Description: The ability to “see” a mental image or know information about a person, place or event through means outside of the senses. Some clairvoyants have visions, read auras, see colors, symbols or even spirits. This ability is commonly used to find lost things, discern information about specific individuals, places or things that one has no prior knowledge of, or to make prediction of the future. Clairvoyance often comes through Clairsentience…
Beneficial Strengths or Abilities: while many believe that any psychic ability is simply there or it is not, others feel it is a latent ability that any can access if willing to. Others still believe no such thing exists. For those who do believe in this discipline, having strong control…
Character Traits Suited for this Skill or Talent: focused, calm, intuitive, determined, unbiased…
Associated Stereotypes and (Mis)Perceptions:
Required Resources and Training: Learning to meditate and take in all the sensory information around oneself will increase mental clarity, acting on one’s gut will hone one’s intuition, practicing with different types of divination (tarot cards, crystals, etc.) to find one that resonates, and following hunches to see…
- That most people claiming psychic abilities are fakes who are actually using mentalism to discern information
- clairvoyants are shunned by small-minded individuals
- clairvoyants have a strong affinity for nature…
Scenarios Where this Skill Might be Useful:
- finding a missing person
- interpreting dangerous situations and people (either for one’s own interactions, or on behalf of others, such as working in a terrorist prevention task force)
- to prepare for what will come and warn others…
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!
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
I love all the descriptions on the different forms of clairvoyance. Very cool! Thanks for this one ladies.
Great information, and perfect timing for me. I am rounding out a character with this ability. Thanks!
I’ve had this ability to some degree but have not taken the time to exercise it. I’ve used it when people called me to report their dog is missing and wanted to know where the animal was and if it was alive and well. I’ve never been wrong.
Great talents to use!! Didn’t know about some of them.