Personality opposites

[Oddball]

I'm trying to flesh out the conflicts between my characters and want to know what personality traits are opposites like:

Pessimism vs optimism

Prudence vs abandon

Confidence vs carefulness

Stuff like that

 

[Ms Littlefish]

The Thesaurus is my favorite thing ever. I find it a lot more helpful than a dictionary, actually. Because I can take the words I do know, find similar words, and their antonyms as well. Look one up online. That way you won't have to worry about not knowing a word yet. 

 

[mlogan]

Hmmm, personality traits:

Extrovert v. introvert

Organized v. messy

"Artsy" v. logical thinking (not always mutually exclusive)

Talkative v. quiet

Hyper v. calm

Spontaneous v. cautious

Rude v. considerate

 

[Oddball]

Hmmm, personality traits:

Extrovert v. introvert

Organized v. messy

"Artsy" v. logical thinking (not always mutually exclusive)

Talkative v. quiet

Hyper v. calm

Spontaneous v. cautious

Rude v. considerate

doesnt talkative vs quiet go hand in hand with extrovert vs introvert? I think rude vs considerate is one part of abandon vs prudence as well

 

[Ms Littlefish]

doesnt talkative vs quiet go hand in hand with extrovert vs introvert? I think rude vs considerate is one part of abandon vs prudence as well

Not necessarily. I'm an introvert but I think a number of my friends would vouch that I don't shut up very often.

 

[mlogan]

I'm like Meg. Definitely an introvert (you might google, there have been some good articles lately on what an introvert is), which means that primarily I can't deal well with being around a bunch of people at once, it's very draining. However, when I'm with a few close friends, it's hard to shut me up.

 

[Matseb2611]

You know, you don't always need characters with opposite personality traits in order to create conflict between them. A lot of the time conflict can be done between characters of very similar personalities. It's all about how you set up the plot and the scenes. Some conflicts can even result from very small misunderstandings.

 

[mlogan]

Some conflicts can even result from very small misunderstandings.

Oh heck yes! Some of the craziest arguments my husband and I have had ended up with us realizing that we were both stating the exact same point, just in wildly different ways.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Right, people are very complex and rarely completely different in personality so I would avoid black and white scenarios. Also, conflict can be created by a violation of trust. Misunderstanding, as stated previously. Even being too similar! Likewise, it's interesting to see two people who have butting personalities work together well in the end. Your character's personality will influence their interactions with each other and how they respond, but the conflict itself would likely be driven by the events themselves. 

 

[mlogan]

For the record - I don't think you're wrong for wanting to have conflict occur because of conflicting personality traits. It can definitely happen. In fact, I've had this issue with a friend recently.

But just keep in mind, opposite personalities doesn't have to mean conflict. There's the old saying "opposites attract" for a reason. And in fact, as introverted as I am my husband is extroverted. There are occasions when it causes conflict, but most of the time it compliments - I'd be a big old recluse that never left the house if it weren't for him.

 

[whitesphere]

I think the most interesting character conflicts are when the people are similar but just have different assumptions or priorities.  I have a novel where the villains are aliens who just want their home back --- too bad they want to genocide the entire human race to get it (!)

All introvert means is "gets energy from being alone," while all extrovert means is "gets energy from the outside world."  MRI scans show introverts brains have a cascade of reaction from the smallest sensory input, while extroverts brains, when deprived of input, tend to more-or-less shut down.

My best friend is a social introvert, and needs her down time, but she can easily go to a noisy group gathering of her family and be totally fine, while I'd be running for the door.  And she is far more likely than I to reach out to talk to a friend, family member, whatever.

I'm an extrovert and very chatty to my close friends, but get overwhelmed quickly in group gatherings (that could be the Aspergers --- a fun combination that --- extroverted Aspergers ).  In real life, I reach out to specific people I'm close to, but anyone else I'll be polite and friendly but won't initiate anything, really.

Psychology is a fascinating subject, because it's so complex.

 

[Oddball]

I understand that opposite personality traits sent the only way to cause conflict, and I have other ways in my game. It isn't the only reason I want to know opposite personality traits

I also want to better define my characters personalities, and during serious times, two of my characters feel almost exactly the same...

Also, my game is very charecter centric, and I need to better define who they are

 

[TheRiotInside]

Don't be afraid to use what you know too. When fleshing out characters, I try to assign one character to be like myself as much as reasonably possible. That way, when doing up dialogue and cutscenes, instead of saying, "How would this person talk to this person?" or, "How would this person react to this situation?" I can ask, "What would I do?" and "How does this make me feel?"

Throwing myself into the story like that seems to help me make connections and draw from personal experience more effectively, even when "my" character isn't in the scene at all!

You can apply this "what you know" thing to other characters too. Basing a character off of someone you've worked with, or a schoolmate or family member makes it a lot easier to make consistent, believable characters I find. It's a lot easier to imagine a conversation between you and your friends than one between Archetype A, Archetype B, etc.

 

[Oddball]

I'm not using archetypes, that creates flat charecters. I showed the dialogue to a very critical friend and she said they were believable charecters

this is simply to create conversations between the charecters rather then throw this against the backdrop of a conversation/situation