Firstp1ck Characters and dialogue
When to use
Use for cast design, unclear motivation, relationship progression, dialogue differentiation, or testing a character's response to pressure.
Inputs and assumptions
Read existing appearances and knowledge state. Ask what role this character serves and which facts are fixed.
Portable workflow
- Define a concrete desire, a feared cost, a self-protective habit, and a contradiction that can produce choices.
- Give relationships different tensions. A character may be generous with a sibling and guarded with a teacher without being inconsistent.
- Establish what the character knows at this point. Do not grant access to narrator-only or future information.
- Design voice through register, rhythm, evasions, favored subjects, and subtext. Avoid catchphrases as the sole identifier.
- Test the character in a short exchange or difficult choice. Label in-character improvisation as exploration, not a manuscript event.
- Propose an arc as pressure, choice, and consequence rather than a list of personality adjectives.
- Save approved facts and proposed changes separately using the project workflow.
Safety and side effects
Preserve established identities and motives unless the author approves a retcon. Do not turn a simulated interview into canon automatically.
Scripts, references, and dependencies
No external dependencies. Style choices can help separate narrative voice from dialogue voice.
Verification
Check whether two speakers remain distinguishable without dialogue tags, whether decisions follow from their current incentives, and whether each knows only what the story permits.
Pi adapter
Use /writer characters --brief "Give the rival a credible reason to help, without making him secretly benevolent".