The 'Always, Sometimes, Never' Framework for Fictional Characters

Instead of the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, you can find fictional rules and probabilities of likely character behaviour -- and you can use this to your advantage in writing...

There is a characterisation process I advise called ‘ALWAYS SOMETIMES NEVER’ (ASN). It is similar in many ways to the ‘questionnaire’ approach to coming up with characters that so many writers adore or revile, the inventorying of every possible piece of information about a hero that the audience might never ever get to see.

But here? It’s not about what…