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Depression has been hitting me hard lately, so no 50,000 words this year. I've decided to take the advice of one of my favorite writing YouTube channels and aim for 25,000 instead. It's a lot more manageable, but I'm feeling a little guilty about it, just like I felt guilty about quitting my job after one month even though it was too physically demanding. College is on hold until in-person classes come back, so I don't even have that to focus on.
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I don't like character profiles, either--the character you describe in the profile and the character you end up writing might turn out to have very little in common! I only included a list of questions in my Pirates of the Caribbean OC guide because I thought it was the thing to do.
I've found the Enneagram a useful starting point in giving characters distinct personalities. It's character voices and dialogue that trip me up, particularly when there are several different people having a conversation and I'm trying to make sure they don't all sound the same...
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A-ha!
(It's always wonderful when something beautifully dawns on you...)
Well, the classic thing to do -- for radio drama, for instance, where it's a real problem -- is to give each character a different accent. Not in a Hagrid-type way, but a slightly stereotyped speech pattern ('now this character, he will be sounding Welsh, just a little').
Although if you're talking about a group of friends from a similar background, they probably *will* all sound similar; I certainly couldn't differentiate Merry and Pippin from the way that they speak, for instance, although they end up with different life experiences.