Life is crazy sometimes. Here it is, less than a week away from us launching a book people are very, very excited about, and we’re about to share something else that is, in our humble opinion, even bigger and better: One Stop for Writers’ new tool, the Character Builder.
Becca, Lee, Abhishek, and I have been working on the Character Builder for almost a year and a half. It’s been a massive undertaking, the only tool of its kind, and one that we hope will utterly transform how you build characters.
Many of you use our description thesauruses, not only those in book form but all the additional ones we have at One Stop. Along with our unique Idea Generator, they have helped you brainstorm your story’s cast time and again.
The hyper-intelligent Character Builder is integrated with our description database, generators, and behavioral lists. This means as you work on your character, the tool will prompt you with specific options and choices that will be the best fit for them, helping you to build your seedling ideas into a full-blooded, three-dimensional character.
For example, let’s say you know your character’s unresolved emotional wound, chosen from our database. The Character Builder will show you what sort of personality traits, fears, misbeliefs, behaviors, and dysfunctional emotional shielding might result in your character, based on this exact wound. It will also show you how to uncover your character’s Fatal Flaw that, in this case, is the one thing they must overcome if they are to achieve their goal.
If you can’t find a database wound that fits, you can add your own (and the tool will still offer up helpful ideas on what to brainstorm!)
Or maybe you know your character’s goal (outer motivation). The Character Builder will help you distill exactly what this will look like for your character, offer ideas on what skills and talents would be beneficial to help them achieve it, and what the stakes could be. It will then lead you through the process of uncovering your character’s inner motivation: the WHY behind the goal they are pursuing.
There are dozens of places to start when it comes to building a character, and these are only two. You can choose what area to plan first, whether to use our suggestions or add your own ideas, and plan as much or as little as you like!
The most incredible aspect of this tool?
Once you’re finished planning, the Character Builder will create a blueprint of the character’s arc based on the information you gathered.
Yes, read that again:
You’ll have a map of the character’s inner journey, in hand, as you write.
This Character Arc Blueprint also allows you to switch between arc types, so you can see what the story looks like if the character is on a Change arc, Static, or Failed. It works for all characters: protagonists, antagonists, villains, antiheroes, love interests…even minor characters. If they have an arc in the story, you can decide if it leads to failure or success.
(Did I mention you can export a PDF of your character to you favorite writing program, like Scrivener?)
Okay, I’ve babbled enough. It’s time for you to see a tiny slice of what this tool will do. Join Becca as she takes you on a tour of the new Character Builder:
Want to test drive this incredible tool? Here’s a 75% discount to get you started.
We’re ridiculously giddy over the release of the Character Builder and want everyone to try it. So, we’re offering a massive sale: until the end of February, you can get 75% off our 1-month plan. Just use this code at One Stop for Writers:
CHARACTER
To redeem:
- Register and then click on the confirmation link that we’ll email to you. (If you’ve previously registered, just sign in.)
- Go to My Subscription (under the ACCOUNT tab)
- Enter the code: CHARACTER (no spaces) into the coupon code box and activate it, following the prompts
- Attach a credit card
- Select the 1-month plan
The 75% discount will be applied to your first invoice only. Cancel any time. Our pricing plans are here.
Know someone who might like the Character Builder? Please share this post. And we’ll see you at One Stop. 🙂
Pingback: Five Links Friday 2/22/19 | Write Good Books
Pingback: Fast Track Tool for Great Characters | Writers In The Storm
How long is the 70% off coupon code good for?
Diane, you can add the coupon to your account any time through the end of February. Even if your current plan doesn’t roll over before then, as long as you add the coupon to the coupon box on the My Subscription page before 3/1, the discount will be added to your next invoice. Please note, though, that particular coupon can only be used for the 1-month plan.
I’m test driving the Character Builder. Already I can see I can’t live without now. 🙂
I have a subscription to One Stop (which I just renewed) and want to make sure the Character Builder is included.
Thanks for all your wonderful resources!
I am so glad you are loving the tool. We really feel this is something new for writers, allowing you to go into more character detail much faster. 🙂
I watched Becca’s tutorial and this tool looks aMAZing!
I’m so glad, Donna! Truly, we are all so excited about it because we’ve used it ourselves and we can honestly say that it works. It just streamlined the whole character creation process and made it much more intuitive. If you give it a try, let us know what you think!
Ah, I get it–I thought the character builder was separate. Thank you, that’s brilliant. xxm
Oh yes, it’s all part of One stop for Writers. It’s good to be a member! 🙂
I signed up for the Character Builder, choosing the one month subscription and entering all the required information.
I am unsure how to now access the Character Builder. Where to I go to find it?
Hi Donna. 🙂 Did you watch the video on the home page? It is quite helpful for navigating to the Character Builder if you have not yet done so.
Once you log in, go to “My Workspace” (top yellow tab). The My Workspace is like yoru creative desk, and all your tools, worksheets and items can be found there. To the right you’ll see a brown tab that says “New” so just scroll down to the Character Builder. It will prompt you for the character’s name, and then you’re off to the races. 🙂 have fun!:)
Hi there, Angela. This looks fabulous! I’ve looked but can’t find the cost of the one month plan for the character builder–would like to know this before I make a decision. Thanks
Absolutely you should investigate that. There’s a link in the bottom of the page, but i’ll add it here to make it easy for you to find: https://onestopforwriters.com/plans
Happy to answer any questions you have. Happy Valentine’s. 🙂