As writers, we want to make our characters as unique and interesting as possible. One way to do this is to give your character a special skill or talent that sets him apart from other people. This might be something small, like having a green thumb or being good with animals, to a larger and more competitive talent like stock car racing or being an award-winning film producer.
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.
Description: exploring the study of the placement of stars, planets and constellations, to determine how astrological structure can affect personality and influence life events. A character who has studied astrology extensively can chart an individual’s celestial path by using the date and hour of their birth. This information can …
Beneficial Strengths or Abilities: Strong reading skills, a background in psychology or working knowledge of the personality basics, being a people-person, having an investigative…
Character Traits Suited for this Skill or Talent: open-mindedness, studious, intelligence, pensive…
Required Resources and Training: A character would have to dedicate significant amounts of time to the study of the stars, constellations (birth signs), cultural mythology (pertaining to astrological beliefs), and spiritual beliefs. Having a mentor or attending…
Associated Stereotypes and Perceptions:
Many believe that astrology is not a valid discipline, while others place weight on what celestial influences are interacting with their star/sun sign at different points of their lives. Most see astrology as being no more than computer generated horoscopes that…
Scenarios Where This Skill Could be Useful:
- Choosing the right time to have a family, take financial risks or make bigger changes in one’s life by seeing if the influences in the stars are currently favorable or not
- Understanding the traits that pair with Zodiac signs to determine if a friendship or other relationship will be a strong match, and if not, how best to work with a specific sign based on the traits that present typically with someone of that group
- Increase awareness of upcoming planetary shifts that may present challenges, so one can work towards minimizing them before they occur…
Talents and skills not only make our characters stand out, they often help them attain their goals. So choosing them strategically can greatly enhance both the character and the story.
If this is something you’d like to learn more about, you can find the 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!
Image: Kaz @ Pixabay
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.
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I’ve been studying astrology since I was about 15 (a very long time ago). I’ve been considering drawing up a chart for my characters for some time but then I got caught up in the writing. I may do it for revisions to sharpen them up, I’ll see how it goes!
I don’t think that I would write a major character who is an astrologer, unless the practice itself wasn’t included in the story but then that wouldn’t make sense! It’s incredibly complex with a lot of terminology that would just be gobbledygook to your average reader. The problem is, explaining those terms in every day language is lengthy and would murder the pace of a story.
Someone would definitely need to do a lot (and I mean A LOT) of research. I’ve seen astrology being used (or rather misused) in television and it’s always a facepalming moment because they’ve used terminology that they don’t really understand. In the episode of Buffy when they were bringing her back from the dead, Tara mentioned that the time was right because Mercury was in retrograde. That’s not something I would recommend unless you were actually angling for it to go wrong!
Astrology is a practice that needs a lot of commitment in order to be adept at. The character would have to be a very dedicated, have an excellent memory with an analytic mind and a streak of intuition. They would also need to have some heavy duty book shelves, there is mountains of material!
I’m just a dabbler, the real pros are awe inspiring. When I say pros, I don’t mean the people who write horoscopes for each sign. That’s utter nonsense!
Yes, I agree–a writer would need to do research, and probably consult someone who is knowledgeable in this area to use as a beta reader to make sure facts are right. But I find though that most experts are always enthusiastic to share their passion, and usually willing to look something over to help!
I have an abandoned novel-in-progress where I intended to to have the main character be really into astrology – it turned out to be much more complex than I anticipated! Thanks for the reminder – I should take another look at the manuscript…
I hadn’t thought about using astrological signs in my writing.
I recently had a session with an astrologer, and thought it was a really interesting discipline. This is where real life and fiction help intersect, lol.
Marvelous post I use astrology for all my characters, though I don’t actually believe in astrology. I do believe there is something to it. Thanks for sharing such an insightful post.
Regards,
S.J. Francis
Glad it helps, S.J.!
This is interesting and right along my line! I am re-blogging this at my site with a link to you. Thanks!
Thanks so much, Elizabeth!
Another great one!!
Thanks Traci. I think this one has a lot of interesting possibilities, and it’s unique–a skill we don’t often see in books.
I’ve never given much credence to writing a character like this before, but you make me curious to look for an opportunity to use one! *files the information away for later*
Ha, glad it helps, Heather! Hope it sparks a few ideas for you.
Plus this seems like a cool character trait to research! Thanks…
What a novel idea (no pun intended). I used to have an aunt that was heavily involved in the astrological arts, and when I was a child I loved visiting her because she would always “read my chart” and profess my future. Of course, later on, I tended to make a wide berth of her as I soon realized that she wore a cape, mixed elixirs, and created her own religions. But it sure was a magical delight as a kid.
Great post.
Wow, sounds like she had quite the personality. Still, it was a memorable time for you, and creating memorable characters is what we want to achieve. This is why I am really enjoying profiling all of these talents and skills. It’s nice to see ones that aren’t used very often, because we give readers something new. Happy writing!