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From skills-for-humanity
Develops psychologically compelling characters by mapping want vs. need, wound, defence mechanism, and defining contradiction. Triggers when a character feels flat or unconvincing.
npx claudepluginhub human-avatar/skills-for-humanityHow this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
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/skills-for-humanity:s4h-writing-character-developmentThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Flat characters come from describing traits rather than engineering contradictions. When a writer says "she's brave and determined," they have a label — not a person. Compelling characters feel real because they hold two things in tension simultaneously: they want something and need something different; they have a strength that doubles as a weakness; they act from a wound they can't fully see....
Writes structured dramatic character profiles covering psychology, backstory, want, need, flaw, wound, and voice for screenwriters developing characters across a full draft.
Generates standalone web novel character sheets: profiles, relationship networks, growth arcs (full novel), and per-25-chapter changes. Use for character sheets, diagrams, growth curves, antagonist design.
Creates and manages rich character profiles for story projects, including family trees, relationships, and cross-referencing. Useful when writing fiction with multiple characters.
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Flat characters come from describing traits rather than engineering contradictions. When a writer says "she's brave and determined," they have a label — not a person. Compelling characters feel real because they hold two things in tension simultaneously: they want something and need something different; they have a strength that doubles as a weakness; they act from a wound they can't fully see. These tensions generate unpredictable, specific behaviour that no list of adjectives could produce.
The key diagnostic is the want/need split. The want is what the character consciously pursues — their stated goal, their driving motivation as they'd describe it. The need is what would actually fulfil them — which is always different, often the opposite, and usually something they're avoiding. This gap between want and need is where character lives. It generates internal conflict, drives the arc, and makes every action simultaneously understandable and complicated.
Step 1: State the Core Want vs. Core Need Name what the character consciously wants (their goal as they understand it) and what they actually need (what would genuinely fulfil or redeem them). These should differ — the want is typically external, visible, and achievable; the need is internal, invisible to the character, and requires change. If want and need are identical, the character has no arc.
Framing check: Confirm the specific character before continuing. State what you've identified — the character's name or role, the story context, and the central tension as you've read it — in one sentence, then use AskUserQuestion:
Step 2: Map the Wound Identify the formative experience that created their worldview and defences. The wound is not a backstory fact — it's the event or pattern that taught them something about the world that now governs how they move through it. Name the belief the wound installed: "People leave if you show need," "Strength is the only thing others respect," "I am not enough." This belief is the character's operating system.
Step 3: Identify the Dominant Defence Mechanism The wound generates a defence. Name the character's primary defensive pattern:
The defence should be visible in the character's behaviour patterns — how they handle conflict, intimacy, failure, and threat.
Step 4: Map Their Relationship to the Story's Central Tension Is the character equipped or unequipped to handle the story's central challenge? The most powerful character-story alignment: the character's wound and defence are precisely the wrong tools for what the story requires. The story forces the character into exactly the territory their defence is designed to avoid.
Step 5: Define the Arc Endpoint What must change internally for the character to reach the story's resolution? Not what they achieve externally — what must shift in their belief, their defence, their relationship to their wound? The arc endpoint should be the direct answer to the wound: if the wound installed "I am not enough," the arc endpoint might be "I am enough without proof."
Step 6: Define the Contradiction Every compelling character holds two things in tension simultaneously — not one after the other, but at the same time. State the character's defining contradiction in one sentence. Examples: "Genuinely compassionate, uses that compassion as a weapon." "Desperate for connection, terrifies anyone who gets close." "The most honest person in the room, built on a foundational lie about themselves."
Before proceeding, use the AskUserQuestion tool. State your interpretation of the situation in 1–2 sentences — what is being analyzed and what the core question is — then ask:
Proceed based on their selection. If the user reframes, incorporate the correction before running any analysis.
Core Want: [What the character consciously pursues]
Core Need: [What would actually fulfil them — what they're avoiding]
The Wound: [The formative experience and the belief it installed]
Defence Mechanism: [Primary pattern + how it manifests behaviourally]
Story Relationship: [Equipped or unequipped to handle central tension, and why]
Arc Endpoint: [What must internally change for resolution]
Defining Contradiction: [The tension they hold simultaneously — one sentence]
Before narrowing: Show the complete set of candidate behavioural tells to the user first. Use AskUserQuestion:
Behavioural Tells: [3–5 specific, observable behaviours that express the above — concrete enough to write on the page]
/s4h-writing-arc-design when you need to map how this character's internal change aligns with the plot's external structure./s4h-writing-inconsistency-audit when a character is behaving in ways that violate their established psychology — often visible as "they would never do that" moments./s4h-writing-dialogue because voice flows from character: the wound and defence determine how a character speaks, evades, and misrepresents.After delivering this output, use AskUserQuestion to offer the next move:
/s4h-writing-dialogue — Write dialogue that brings the character to life/s4h-writing-arc-design — Fit the character's development into the arc/s4h-narrative-tension-mapping — Map tensions the character creates or resolves