What’s Your Sign?

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The Use of Zodiac Signs to Help Build Strong Characters

 

When I was kid in the 80’s and 90’s every single one of my friends knew their astrological sign. We were always eager to check the lifestyles section of the paper to see what fortunes might be bestowed on us  that coming week or month. Whenever we came across a description of our given sign we would proudly announce the good qualities and either deny or ignore the bad. We would even check our current crush’s sign to see if they were “compatible” with ours. As a kid, knowing the attributes of my astrological moon sign was a lot of fun in a fortune teller kind of way. Now, as an adult I rarely think about it. That is, unless I have a new character to create.

Using Zodiac Signs to Help Build Strong Characters

I usually start a book/story with an idea. Then, I take that idea and start playing possible scenes or scenarios in my head. From there I follow my outlining method mentioned in How to Outline Your Novel With A Bulletin Board part 2. When it comes to creating a character profile I like to browse through the astrological signs and pick one that most represents who my character is in my head, thus far. After I pick one I use the descriptions as a guideline to answer all the personal in depth character questions on the chart.

The suggestions for each sign are not set in stone but I feel it helps to give me a solid jumping off point which in turn, helps in keeping the true personality of the character in mind.

My favorite astrological signs website to use is www.Zodiac-Signs-Astrology.com

In each Zodiac sign profile they have the following sections:

  • Keywords that describe the signs strengths and weaknesses
  • A description of how they are in Friendships and Business
  • How they handle/feel about Independence
  • What their temperament is like
  • Who they are deep inside
  • Who they are in a nut shell
  • What it is like to date a woman with that sign
  • What it is like to date a man with that sign 
  • How to attract someone with that sign 
  • Where their erogenous zones are
  • What sex would be like with a person of that sign

Take a few moments and check out the website. Start by looking up what your sign is and reading the descriptions in your profile. Now, imagine just how helpful these profiles can be when it comes to creating a character who has depth and feels like a real person.

Do you know your Astrological sign?

Do you feel it accurately represents you?

Have you ever used the signs as a guide to build better characters?

4 responses to “What’s Your Sign?”

  1. winterbayne Avatar

    I’m a psychology major. I use personality types 😉

  2. Harliqueen Avatar

    I used to love reading my star-sign in the paper 😀

    I’m a Sagittarius, and the profile was quite accurate, which was a surprise. Great post, and a great way to think about characters in a different light!

  3. Joanne Lessner Avatar

    When I played Juliet, I drew on the fact that she’s a Leo. Shakespeare goes to great pains to tell us when her birthday is (“Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen”/Lammas Eve = July 31) and of course, Romeo and Juliet are famously “star-crossed” lovers. I found a book that gave characteristics of Leo women, men and children, and amazingly the description of the Leo child was Juliet to a T. (Shakespeare was no fool!) However, I couldn’t find any indication in the play of what sign Romeo was. But after reading about all the love matches in the book, I determined that he must be a Pisces (disaster, apparently). Romeo’s tragedy is one of timing, and I can’t recall precisely why, but that fit in with the sign as well. Of course, Romeo’s sign didn’t matter to me as much as Juliet’s, but that description of the Leo child definitely informed my characterization! I approach every character differently, and that was the only time I used astrology. But it seemed very much called for–and very helpful!

    1. Darla G. Denton, Writer Avatar

      Hi Joanne. Shakespeare was the master at weaving depth and meaning into his stories so Im not surprised to see it confirmed that he used references to Astrology 🙂 However, I had never noticed that reference in Romeo and Juliet. Thanks so much for sharing that with us!

      I use the “in a nutshell description” on the zodiac website I provided as my starting off point when developing new characters and then when I’m working on an in-depth character profile sheet or I’m stuck in a chapter I delve into the other descriptive paragraphs provided. It really is a helpful tool.

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