Character Creation by Tal Lingenua (best historical fiction books of all time .TXT) 📕

be able to know everything. It's impossible. But even if your character has an enhanced mind and an IQ of 1042 she is not going to be intelligent in all sense of the word.

There are many types of knowledge. Medical knowledge, survival knowledge, law enforcement, etc., etc., etc.

While a character may be logical she may not quite understand people's emotions. She may be able to calculate the square root of 1,269,639,849,201,492 in 14 seconds flat (it's 35,632,006 by the way) but she may not know how a plane works.

Intelligence does not mean wise. Wise does not mean intelligent. They are two separate things and should be treated as such.

Here's a list of a few types of intelligence.

Emotional intelligence.
Specific knowledge. (Math, law, medical, etc., etc., etc.)
Logic.
Comprehension.
Wisdom.
Reasoning.
Abstract thinking.
Problem solving.

The list goes on and on.

Here's a few tips on intelligence.

Where did you get this knowledge from? A common mistake in making intelligent characters is making them child prodigies who inexplicably have a working knowledge of the universe.

And why do you have it? Backstories are commonly used to explain things. But don't just make something up so character's can do things. Make it realistic.

Don't always make smart characters right. Simply because they aren't.

Don't make them wrong just to knock them down a peg. If the character would really know something but she screws up just because she has been intolerable lately and people want to see her fail.

A photographic memory is not an excuse for being smart. Just because you remember everything doesn't mean you understand it.

Reading, glasses and asthma are smart people stereotypes. Try to stray away from these because it's been done to death already.

Remember, characters have different types of intelligent. They can be geniuses in one and bimbos in another.

Last but not least. Don't make stupid people oblivious of everything. Far too often are they portrayed as having zero intelligence and they purposefully do stupid things. (something like sawing a branch while sitting on it. >,<)

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Text: Me
Publication Date: 05-16-2012

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