posted
I've read the topics on the implications of gender differences in character development, and I think they're very essential in writing.
Here's the thing. I let one of my brothers read a recent story of mine and he was of the opinion that my character was written totally incorrectly because his astrology sign would have had him acting in a totally different fashion.
I had never actually considered that before. Does anyone think that astrological makeup would affect character development that strongly? Or is that even important?
posted
Personally, I would not pay any attention whatsoever to astrological signs. Doesn't that basically argue for astrological determinism? I know plenty of people who do not act as their 'sign' would suggest hey should.
Posts: 1043 | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
I know more than one set of twins. Each of them has their own personality. This seems to be a pretty good example that astrology can't be the ultimate determiner of personality. I can easily believe that someone would behave differently than their sign might indicate. There are more than 12 types of people in the world.
Posts: 67 | Registered: Feb 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
I can think of one or two things were birth date might affect personality, but in general, I haven't noticed much about month. I think there is something like people born in spring are more social, optimistic with the theory being that a child born spring spends the first few months around people, while one born in nov spends it bundled at home. But while that might be statistically true, it isn't going to apply to everyone. I think there was some studies looking at birth dates and things like playing hockey and those somehow line up to the seasons. Also, August 31 is a bad day to be born because it is the cutoff for school- born August 31, you will be the youngest kid in your class which is a disadvantage, but born Sept 1, you'll be oldest which is good. I think Outliers maybe talked about that.
Posts: 232 | Registered: Apr 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yes, Outliers - great book. The hockey trend is simply that kids, particularly when younger, are disadvantaged when playing against older kids due to their lower level of development. Since we put artificial dividing lines between different age-groups for team sports (and schools etc), some kids will stand out simply because they are older than their counterparts in the team (or class). As a result, they get chosen into representative teams, which gives them more practice, more exposure to better coaching and more confidence that they are excelling. As a consequence, they do become better players and that carries all the way through their sporting life.
On personality types, one thing I sometimes use is Myers-Briggs to determine a character. This is to counter a trend in my writing of having the characters sound and behave exactly like me.
posted
I thought I add my thoughts but some of them have been stated already.
It really depends on you the writer and how you want to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if there were writers who use that method to a character's personality. But in this case your the writer you get to decide.
Or one could say that it's you're universe and you're the stars or heavenly influence that sets the character's personality.
Just don't let it go to your head in this world and try to take the place of the real Heavenly Personality.
posted
I approve of the notion of casting horoscopes to resolve plot and character difficulties...in real life, I think it's silly.
Does anybody really know when a character of theirs was born? And, in SF circles, where the characters often walk on worlds far-far-away, what astrological influence does that have?
posted
I do have a woman in my writing group who uses Tarot cards as a device for character development. I think this is more acceptable because it allows for random confluence of traits.
Posts: 1043 | Registered: Jul 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
Here's an additional question to ask: what astrological signs? Western? Chinese? Hindu? If I were to match up my 'traits' as defined by where I fit in these three zodiac systems, would all three line up exactly? I already know they don't.
I will say that creating character traits using the Western zodiac as my guide did cross my mind at one time. Who knows...I might actually make a go of it one of these days.
posted
I was born under "No Trespassing" and "Danger: Hazardous Chemicals" signs. And they have no bearing whatsoever on my personality.
Posts: 840 | Registered: Aug 2008
| IP: Logged |
DRaney
unregistered
posted
Rich... when I was born my parents put a sign in the yard which read; "Don't feed the Doug!" (Graciously 'borrowed' from Glen Larson, Far Side)
Also on May 22, 1960, my birthday, the strongest earthquake ever recorded rocked Chile and sent a devastating tsunami across the Pacific to slam Japan 23 hours later. I believe the more recent BIG quake in Chile broke that old record. My family has always accused me of causing that quake and threatened to turn me over to the Chilean authorities if I didn't finish my green beans.
(apologies PB&J - a little off topic)
[This message has been edited by DRaney (edited September 17, 2010).]
posted
I cast the I Ching to work out the plot points at the end in a long-ago novel. (I lifted the idea from Philip K. Dick.) Worked out pretty good, too...maybe I should've tried it again...
"I was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas day, when the New York Times said God is dead and the war's begun..."
posted
Astrology, because it gives positive and negative aspects of personalities, and because it groups characteristics together that more or less go together, can be useful in developing characters.
Also, if you get something like Linda Goodman's LOVE SIGNS, which talks about how different personalities interact, you can use that to come up with different ways for your characters to be in conflict with (or, inversely, in support of) each other.
But as has been said, how do you know what sign any character was born under, after all?
Maybe your brother was saying that someone with, say, Leo characteristics would not respond to a situation with Capricorn behavior. If so, that may be something to think about.
The different sign characteristics really do tend to go together, and if your character seemed, most of the time to act like one sign, and then suddenly act like a different sign, that could be confusing. At the very least, you might want to consider making the character's motivation clearer.
posted
I think in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books some aliens came to earth and discovered astrology and perfected it as a science (I think it was a newtonian determinism kind of thing) so then they were able to predict everything from then on. With sexy consequences. (Sorry, I've heard it really punches up a pitch if you add that last line to every paragraph.)
If your audience cares about astrology then I say go for it, otherwise I don't really see the point. I do believe the movement of heavenly bodies affects our lives, but only because we are more likely to want to do things when it's light out than not. Plus the moon has something to do with surfing, so that affects the surfing population.
It's interesting to read different horoscopes and see how dramatically different they are. It's also interesting to see the difference in what the astrologers and astronomers say about the position of planets and whatnot.
posted
Well I can understand why my brother says my MC wouldn't act the way he does. The MC is a Taurus, according to the birthday I set up. My brother claims that a Taurean would hate to be in a constantly changing environment like I have in my story.
I looked up the Taurus explanations of their character and found that they tend toward being a 'lone wolf' type. That would fit my MC's character, I think. My bro says I still have it wrong.
I really don't care one way or the other. He is not writing this story.
posted
I will second the recommendation of using Meyers-Briggs to sort of out character personalities. Meyers-Briggs doesn't try to say where the personality types come from, like astrology. It just describes what the various personality types are. Very useful tool in making characters both individual and believable.
Posts: 67 | Registered: Feb 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
Near as I could figure, some, maybe most, of the popular astrology books have some info, but don't delve deep enough for some of the things a writer might want to do with a character or plot.
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Whether you "believe in" Astrology or not, I think the various associations and traits related to the signs can certainly make for interesting fodder as any such thing can..Tarot, the Jungian/Meyers-Briggs personality type models, whatever.
For what it's worth the biggest flaw in the concept of astrology is the simple fact that the stars and planets have shifted position since the concept was first explored...so naturally, the whole thing would have changed slightly. That being said, many people I know (myself included) do seem to fit the "profile" of their sign pretty well...I think Tameson is onto something with the seasons, which one could link to the Fixed, Mutable and Cardinal sign-types which are often associated with seasons or the times between them.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
