AgentPurpleLearning to Write a Child
#1
Playing a child is a lot different from being a child, let's make that clear now. As a child character, you should not OOCly act as a child as well. Remember to handle criticism and opinions like an adult. Even if people find you annoying, try to make sure that it's from an IC standpoint- and if it's OOC, then turn it down a little bit.


There's a few ways to play a child, and usually it involves being immature, reckless, or even a bit dumb. Children are almost always curious people barring certain kids- and it is always a good idea to take in the backstory of that child to base your main 'personality trait' off of. When I say 'Main Personality Trait', I mean something you want to build the rest of your ideas off of.

For now, I'll take the character I'm currently using as an example for this. Dianna. She's a streetrat who is without parents or any type of family. Her main 'Personality Trait' is 'Rude'. Thus, when she first started out, she was very angry and irritating, but not to the point of being annoying. She was rude, but not without reason. She hated Nobles, she had reasons for being like this. She's even gotten better as time has gone on, becoming a nicer person generally.

See, the other idea here is that you also have to let them change. Children are extremely malleable, very easy to influence in both good and bad ways. Sociology has taught me that in the childhood of 1-10 years old, the family of a child is the most important to them. Around 11 is when they start to view their peers as more larger influences as a child starts to try to stick in.

Another thing you should know about playing a kid is that- well, they're a kid. They don't know a lot of things. They might mimic someone, but they're still in-experienced. They wouldn't know a lot about wars, wouldn't really be that great at fighting until someone taught them, and they're also not especially good at handling stressful situations on their own. It's why we are taken care of by parents when we were kids, or are kids. This of course has certain circumstances that can change- such as if they're Noble born, or part of Royalty, but the average child wouldn't know a whole lot.

There's one more thing I want to add to this post, however. It's that a child character is definitely different from a real child. A lot of people dislike children- and for good reason. They're very easy to set off, they have temper tantrums, they do dumb things, and they're a huge investment. A Child Character should NOT be played exactly as a child. At least, in my opinion. People on this game have limits, and if your child character goes around causing problems all the time, they come off as an annoyance more than endearing.

Let your child be free-formed, but don't overdo it on the childish antics. Especially if you're playing someone else's child, you should be careful and think through what and why you're doing things! This goes for all characters, but especially a child, since they're just starting out, and they have so much potential just lying in wait. I know some people dislike playing children, so this guide may not pertain to them, but it also lets you see how some children might act in character, and why they might act this way.


So the main tl;dr is...!

- A child character is not the same as being a real child
- Development is large, they're very malleable
- Take criticism if/when people get annoyed OOCly
- Growing up should be natural!

Thanks for coming to my Hoot Hoot Talk, take care!
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