How do you create a smart character when you yourself are not smart

[Akuma]

No, seriously.

It's neat to give Character X some sort of distinguished talent (computer skills, art, yaddah yaddha) or have other characters discuss how Character X is so cool because she got into Harvard with not challenge.
However, that doesn't make a the character believably smart. Mannerisms, the way she speaks and thinks, that's more important.

But, if you're like me, lending a character such envious attributes may seem a bit empty if you've never experienced them.

Then again, neither have many people experienced facing evil in epic battles or having superpowers, but those are managed fine.

So would a smart character be another case of writing wish fulfillment, or would you need some brains to pull it off?

[Shady Lane]

Okay, Akuma, I have a really really difficult time believing you're not smart. You're eighteen years old. You're immensely talented. So...shut up, basically.

I'd say it's all in the dialogue. If you have a character that can speak well and sound sophisticated (hmmm, kind of like you did up there....) then I think you'll have a character that's believably smart. The only problem, I think, is the fine line between a character who comes across as intelligent and one who comes across as condescending.

[Oddsocks]

I think this is an area where people often get some help from experts in whatever area their character is supposed to have a talent for. That may help more with the specifics of what they're talking about/doing than with the mannerisms, but then, everyone has different mannerisms regardless of how smart they are in whatever field, so I think that kind of thing you can probably use your imagination with.

[Don Allen]

John Wayne was once asked what made him a good actor and he replied that he didn't act, he reacted to what was going on around him. Same with smart, dumb, or anywhere in between charactors.

[Chasing the Horizon]

R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H
Frequently what defines a smart character is how quickly they can figure things out, and/or their vast knowledge of things relevant to the story. Luckily for us writers, we can take all the time we need to figure things out without having anyone ever know, and we can stop and research individual situations that arise in the book. Then, once we've gotten our own facts straight, we can make the character look really smart (since she didn't just spend five hours looking up the information).

The hardest research I've ever done for writing was for my completed MS, which features a sailing ship captain as the MC. I had never even been on a modern boat, much less a tall ship, and literally didn't know what a 'crows nest' was when I started writing. I ended up having to drive to Baltimore and pay to sail on a real tall ship before I could finally put all the book diagrams and terms into a working context. After hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars), I finally know enough to write the details realistically.

My new MS stars a cop and a computer hacker. I'll need to do some research on guns and computers, but at least those are both things I have some familiarity with, and have used in real life. Compared to those $#@% ships, it'll be a piece of cake.

Basically what I'm saying is that your character can't know anything you don't know, so you have to learn what they will need to know. Your character can be smarter than you, but not more knowledgeable.

I've actually never seen a real trend in mannerisms or speech or even ways of thinking with intelligent people. There are so many different ways to be smart, you really can't generalize.

[Chasing the Horizon]

I'd say it's all in the dialogue. If you have a character that can speak well and sound sophisticated (hmmm, kind of like you did up there....) then I think you'll have a character that's believably smart. The only problem, I think, is the fine line between a character who comes across as intelligent and one who comes across as condescending.
Not all intelligent people are well-spoken. You may have a brilliant mathematician with relatively poor verbal skills. Also, some smart people purposefully misuse words to make themselves sound dumber than they are.

How someone talks frequently reflects their education and economic level more than their problem-solving skills and raw intelligence.

[Shady Lane]

Character X is so cool because she got into Harvard with not challenge.


I was thinking intellectual/educational.

Yeah, I'd say it's more the ability to speak well. My Dad is very smart (and very well educated) but he talks like an idiot when he's being casual. But he can completely, uh, "smart it up" when necessary.

[Joe270]

Akuma, go interview people who are like the character you want to create. Make up some reason, a career guide for teens or something.

Then use your writer talents (which I know you have) to catch the way they speak(the jargon can be looked up later on the internet) the way they move, they way they live, the way their office/workspace/lab looks.

Take notes, they'll expect that, they just won't know what you're noting.

I've done this with police and political figures. They all are suckers for an interview. Get up close and personal, meet them. Study them.

Best of luck.

[dpaterso]

You ever watch Gilmore Girls? The transcripts are available on http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/gilmoregirls/ Worth a read if you like smart dialogue.

LORELAI: Oh, hi. You really like my table, don't you?

JOEY: I was just, uh. . .

LORELAI: Getting to know my daughter.

JOEY: Your. . .

RORY: Are you my new daddy?

JOEY: Wow. You do not look old enough to have a daughter. No, I mean it. And you do not look like a daughter.

LORELAI: That's possibly very sweet of you. Thanks.

JOEY: So. . .daughter. You know, I am traveling with a friend.

LORELAI: She's sixteen.

JOEY: Bye.

LORELAI: Drive safe.

-Derek

[Atlantis]

It all comes down to reseach. If your character is a cop, there are books on cop code works and slang, to help flesh out your character (for example, the things they say over the radio in a car, like 10-4) there are even books on "pirate" langauge, I saw one on the writers.digest website and am considering purchasing it. If your caracter is a detective, there are books on crime scene investigations, posions, and all sorts of things to make the character realistic. If your character is a hacker or computer technician, I am sure there would be some websites on the internet that would explain some of the details of what is involved. Also, have you considered interviewing people? When Janet Evanovich began researching her Stephanie Plum character, she interviewed cops and bounty hunters and even went for rides around in cop cars.

[EriRae]

Do you think they'd let me off for my next speeding ticket, if I ride around with them and ask them lots of questions about guns?

JK

Akuma, I agree w/ Shady that you sound smart enough to pull off a smart character.

And I agree w/ the postings that say it's all in the research.

If you want intellectual (or pseudo-intellectual) speech, hang out in college lecture halls, if there's a college near you. Just pretend to be a student and slip in the door, and maybe ask someone if the class is full, because you might put a paying student out of a seat.

As for smart, have the character know things about the other characters that they think they're hiding. I don't mean make her omniscient, but make her see things that other people miss, like Sherlock Holmes.

[johnzakour]

Okay, this my not seem it but it actually is a serious answer. It was triggered by the last word of the previous post.

Go get yourself a few Fantastic Four comic books and read them. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) is probably one of the smartest two or three people on Earth. You can be pretty certain the writers writing him over the decades, while talented were not super brilliant scientists. They pulled it off with a bit of techno babble, one or two facts, hand waving and other characters going, "gee whiz you are so smart..." Star Trek also used the same technique.

Even Gilmore Girls would do it from time to time with Rory, she'd blurt on some fact or piece of trivia that most young teens (except for posters on this board of course) wouldn't be aware of, such as "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." Other characters were always reinforcing how smart (and pretty) she was. (Other favorite Rory oneliners: "Well I hear Squeaky Fromme is up for parole soon. You should keep a good thought." "Wow. Biblical insults. This is an advanced school. "

[maestrowork]

How do I write about prostitutes if I'm not one? How do I write about autistic kids if I'm not one? How do I...

Research, observation, interviews...

You may be a writer, and you may have a vivid imagination, but it doesn't mean you have to make everything up from thin air.

[cletus]

there are even books on "pirate" langauge,
Shiver me timbers! I will order one smartly. Arrrr!

[James D. Macdonald]

Have the other characters react to him as if he were smart.

[My-Immortal]

How do I write about prostitutes if I'm not one?

So...what exactly were you charging those ladies for....???

;)

Atlantis: I think I saw the Pirate book you were talking about. Was it: The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues?

As for officer ride-alongs...just go to your local police department and explain what you're writing and ask if they allow ride-alongs. I used to work for a police department and on occasion they would allow them. Not all the lingo is simply 10-code.

Good luck with your research.

[job]

You got two separate considerations here.

--- One is making a character knowledgeable.
You do your research on nuclear physics or fly fishing or Greek drama or whatever it is he's good at and your character now knows about it.

This is not terribly hard.
But I think this is not what you're striving to do.


--- The other is making him smart.
Deep intelligence is going to be expressed by word, thoughts and actions.

Words -- Your intelligent man will speak carefully. He will have a large vocabulary and use words with precision. Read Nero Wolfe for this one.

Actions -- As other folks said above, you see his brilliance in the way other folks react to him.
This character is the one other folks follow. When a question comes up, everybody turns to him. When he gives his opinion, nobody else has more to say. Look at the character 'Giles' in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Thoughts -- The intelligent man is the one who sees aspects to a situation that no one else sees.

You will have some central problem in the story. Does it have a philosophical aspect? A political aspect? Historical? Social?

The intelligent man is going to look at the buried treasure map and go beyond the question of 'how do we find it?" or 'how did it get buried there?' He asks larger questions -- 'Why do we need this much money?' 'Is the money bloody with the history of death that surrounds it?' "Is there somebody else who has an ethical right to this money?"

It's not just that the intelligent man knows more than everyone else, he sees connections and aspects other folks don't.

The way to find these connections and discursions and enrichments (so you can put them into his mouth,) is to consider the basic aspects of your story thinkthinkthinkthink and then decide what would be wise and discerning to say about them.

You have lots of time, fortunately.

[anodyne]

It depends on the kind of "smart" character you're creating. There are several "kinds" of intelligence, and they are all expressed in various ways.

A large vocabulary will always indicate a well-read character, but there are other kinds of intelligence. Remembering facts that occurred on the periphery and most people wouldn't. The mythos surrounding Tesla and his inventions. The atomic weight of Selenium. The wind-velocity of a laden African Swallow.

An easy way to achieve the illusion of book smarts is an allusion to literature. It doesn't matter if your reader gets it, the more your character makes witty jokes about literature, or idle connections, the smarter your character will seem.

This is a little flat, but you might try answering this test as if your character were answering it. Not very useful on it's own, but once you figure out what kind of intelligence you'd like her to have, a few quick internet searches should help you get a stronger feel for how to portray that to the reader.

http://www.quizilla.com/users/shrimpysteph/quizzes/7%20Types%20of%20Intelligence%20-%20Which%20is%20yours?/

[javili]

Stupid people write about smart characters all the time. Especially in the cinema.

One way is to show somebody beating the World's Greatest Genius in a chess game. Hijole, are they ever SMART.

Or somebody says something and they immediately know some obscure fact because they just looked it up.

But those smart characters keep saying and doing stupid things.

[Kristiina]

One thing that tends to irritate me a bit is the fact that usually people seem to confuse intelligence with education and good memory. Of course well educated people usually are above average in intelligence, but if you are talking about intelligence in the sense of having a high IQ that basically means a person who can see patterns better than most, even if he is somebody who never learned how to read.

So if you want to show somebody is intelligent, write scenes where she connects the dots while others are still straching their heads. It has a lot to do with speed, somebody who reaches the conclusion, even if it is a fairly obvious conclusion once it's been pointed out, way ahead of other people, does sound smart. If the person can also express his thoughs well even better. Even if that isn't necessarily true in real life, people in Mensa can sound every bit as dumb as your average man or woman of the street, even if they can finish a block test in a record time. And high IQ individuals don't necessarily have better than average memory, but for a fictionary smart character that would probably be a good trait.

[FennelGiraffe]

It depends on the kind of "smart" character you're creating. There are several "kinds" of intelligence, and they are all expressed in various ways.
...
This is a little flat, but you might try answering this test as if your character were answering it. Not very useful on it's own, but once you figure out what kind of intelligence you'd like her to have, a few quick internet searches should help you get a stronger feel for how to portray that to the reader.

I believe it's more useful to think of an individual as having varying strengths in each of the seven types rather than identifying them as being only one. For example, I would describe myself as high on Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical, medium-high on Spatial and Intrapersonal, somewhat low on Interpersonal and Musical, and extremely low on Bodily-Kinesthetic.

However, I strongly agree with the advice to look at the types of intelligence and figure out what you mean by "smart" for this particular character. Here (http://www.professorlamp.com/ed/TAG/7_Intelligences.html) and here (http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm#Multiple%20Intelligences%20E xplained) are some descriptions.

[Haphazard]

When I think 'smart,' I automatically think deduction skills. A sharp eye to things that most people skim over, noticing small changes, etc...

If they're supposed to be a genius in a particular area, well, research that area.

Another way to fake smart is to make them really dumb in everything else. This is the way that most people do it in movies, as in completely socially inept, unable to dress themselves, but of course they're brilliant at math. Of course, this makes the character seem like a Aspie, but if that's the risk you're willing to take, go ahead, be my guest.

One other thing is 'quirks.' Other people will think they're 'quirky,' while really they've just found something that works for them when everyone else hasn't tried it that way yet. XP If that makes any sense.

[maddythemad]

I'm totally sure you're a smart person, Akuma, but I would recommend making Character X intelligent in a way you are. As in, have her be a great writer, and not a xyz (whatever-- math genius, etc.) It'll just be more convincing. Write what you know and all that. :D

[Izunya]

Well, when I wrote a superintelligent character, I basically cheated.

Actually, I cheated in several different ways. First, this character was not my viewpoint character, so I didn't have to show how she reached her conclusions. If there wasn't time to explain, she would just react based on clues that no-one else had picked up.

Second, I made her eccentric. If you work with gifted students, you start to notice that some of them are a little weird. Gifted ed is classified under special ed in my state, mostly because we can get money out of it, but partly because gifted kids do tend to run into trouble in the schools. Some are screaming perfectionists, some are absent-minded, dreamy types, and some are easily bored. Some, heaven help us, are all of the above. I reasoned that the sort of person I was writing about, a sort of prototype superhuman, would have Issues both from the buggy process she went through and from coping with a world that usually didn't connect the dots in the same order she did.

What that added up to, of course, was another reason to not explain her reasoning when I didn't feel like it.

(My recommendation for an expertly done eccentric genius, by the way? The Doctor, of Doctor Who. On the SciFi channel come Friday, if you get cable.)

Third, and most conventional, I gave her an impressive vocabulary. Other people have already pointed out that vocabulary is more about education than intelligence, and that's true---but the people who we see as true geniuses are often both educated and intelligent.

Other posters have already pointed this out, but the author has a lot more time than the characters do. A clever solution that takes you eight hours to mull over might occur to your character in seconds. And you can research something online that they might have to work out from scratch. And, last but not least, you can just make stuff up.

Izunya

[Kentuk]

Assuming you really aren't smart and that you admire and look up to smart people then look at your perceptions. Do you credit people with smarts because you can't follow what they say? Do you admire how the express themselves. Are you impressed with technical or arcane speach? People who claim to be smart are rarely trusted to make that judgement, it is a status imposed from below. So by not being smart you are uniquely qualified to describe the quality. Perhaps your preceptions don't measure up, i.e. what you think is smart really isn't. You can use this to help define the character who renders the judgement. Can you follow this? Yes? Then grasshopper is progressing.

[job]

(My recommendation for an expertly done eccentric genius, by the way? The Doctor, of Doctor Who. On the SciFi channel come Friday, if you get cable.)Izunya

Yes! The leaps of logic. The testiness with foks who don't see the obvious. The impatience with convention. The delight in his own cleverness.

The immaturity.

(Folks who are too smart to buy into the dominant paradigmn are never quite at home with convention. This lack of convention means they share some aspects of children. They 'look' immature, because neither they nor children follow the conventions.
What I mean -- Imagine Darwin crouching down on the pavement after a rain to look at a worm. He's doing it because he's had a sudden insight about annelids. But what he looks like is a fascinated four-year-old.)

I'd recommend the Tom Baker Dr., of course.

[ccarver30]

I agree that it is all about research AND that not all smart people are well-spoken. Just try working with engineers. They can't spell to save their lives!!

[C.bronco]

I never saw the Gilmore Girls, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer series had very witty dialogue.
Smart people figure out stuff that doesn't occur to other people. I've heard genius described as the ability to make connections that other people don't. I think that pretty much sums it up.

[Haphazard]

Yes! The leaps of logic. The testiness with foks who don't see the obvious. The impatience with convention. The delight in his own cleverness.

The immaturity.

(Folks who are too smart to buy into the dominant paradigmn are never quite at home with convention. This lack of convention means they share some aspects of children. They 'look' immature, because neither they nor children follow the conventions.
What I mean -- Imagine Darwin crouching down on the pavement after a rain to look at a worm. He's doing it because he's had a sudden insight about annelids. But what he looks like is a fascinated four-year-old.)

I'd recommend the Tom Baker Dr., of course.

Yes, immaturity! part of maturity is accepting things the way they are... a lot of intelligence doesn't allow for that. Trust me, I'd know this by living with two very intelligent people... both of them, a lot of the times, act like children. (Then again, they are male, so that might explain something, but hell, I'm pretty smart too, and I still act like a little kid.)

[jordijoy]

R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H
Frequently what defines a smart character is how quickly they can figure things out, and/or their vast knowledge of things relevant to the story. Luckily for us writers, we can take all the time we need to figure things out without having anyone ever know, and we can stop and research individual situations that arise in the book. Then, once we've gotten our own facts straight, we can make the character look really smart (since she didn't just spend five hours looking up the information).

The hardest research I've ever done for writing was for my completed MS, which features a sailing ship captain as the MC. I had never even been on a modern boat, much less a tall ship, and literally didn't know what a 'crows nest' was when I started writing. I ended up having to drive to Baltimore and pay to sail on a real tall ship before I could finally put all the book diagrams and terms into a working context. After hundreds of hours (and hundreds of dollars), I finally know enough to write the details realistically.

My new MS stars a cop and a computer hacker. I'll need to do some research on guns and computers, but at least those are both things I have some familiarity with, and have used in real life. Compared to those $#@% ships, it'll be a piece of cake.

Basically what I'm saying is that your character can't know anything you don't know, so you have to learn what they will need to know. Your character can be smarter than you, but not more knowledgeable.

I've actually never seen a real trend in mannerisms or speech or even ways of thinking with intelligent people. There are so many different ways to be smart, you really can't generalize.

You nailed it!!!!

[deathwizard]

R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H.

Unless you're an Updike-like genius, I'm afraid that's the only answer even worth mentioning.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

I'm totally sure you're a smart person, Akuma, but I would recommend making Character X intelligent in a way you are. As in, have her be a great writer, and not a xyz (whatever-- math genius, etc.) It'll just be more convincing. Write what you know and all that. :D



I would say something similar to what Maddy is saying here.

Akuma, if you want to write a smart character, but you don't have the education the character has, use what you do know of intelligent people.

I have used the illustration of Gene Roddenberry in the past, having never been aboard a Federation Starship before writing Star Trek. However, on the same token I believe he might have had some military experience. From this, it is said he built the idea for how the Enterprise would work militarily. He might not have had experience flying through space at Warp Six, but he did have experience in the basic operations and protocols of military life.

In the same way, I would suggest you use what experience you do have of the individual's characteristics, to build the character up.

And combine the experience you do have with research. For example, if you don't know the internal workings of an external combustion (steam) engine, you probably would not be qualified to describe those internal workings on your own. But if you research the subject, like others have pointed out, then you are no longer creating something out of thin air but are creating a smart individual using a basic working knowledge of what the character knows.

You don't have to be as "smart" as the character to write him or her in a realistic manner. You simply need to use what experience you already have, mixed with basic research.


Best wishes with the character creation.

[Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX]

Xx|This has been a really helpful thread for me, as well.

I have a very smart character (Aelfric, actually; the one pictured in my signature right now), and he's hard to portray as such. He was a scholar to begin with, way back in 1305 or so, so now, over 700 years later, he's a history buff. He has a very basic-fact mind, as a vampyr (I won't go into detail about what I mean by that...too long for here >.>), but he's quick/sharp minded as well. Well read, intuitive, sees the big picture, knows tons of history and random facts that he picked up... and, I think, it's a little impractical to research everything that happened over the course of those 700 years. Or read almost every book that came out. Or learn all of the 7+ languages he knows.

So it's hard to portray him "intelligently". Strangely though, my biggest problem with passing him off as super-intelligent has been the lack of opportunity to do so. :Shrug: Lol.

but, anyway, this thread has been pretty helpful. :)|xX

[Spiny Norman]

I have this same issue with my project. It's finished now and I'm editing, but it's about a burned-out mathematical child prodigy who comes home for the first time in a decade. He graduated high school early and went to Princeton for Physics before dropping out after only a few months.

Thank God. It would really suck if he had gotten a complete college education on theoretical physics. Because although I am interested in physics and math I have never shown the slightest skill at it.

Honestly, I don't like having an area inside my head I'd like to go to but just can't. But that seems to be the way things are.

Regardless, I've made him "smart" by having him reference a wide variety of subjects and meditate on them in very objective and bizarre fashions, many times humorously. His father also taught him to recognize patterns very early by teaching him the piano and showing him the intervals between notes in arpeggios and chord progressions. He's very well read, has one of those instant-mathematical heads, and can do crossword puzzles entirely verbally. And when I really needed something mathematical sounding, I came on here and just asked.

Example - Here's a section from Richard Feynman's Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman! about how he figured out how to do very complex math by knowledge and approximation:

I memorized a few logs, and began to notice things. For instance, if somebody says, "What is 28 squared?" you notice that the square root of 2 is 1.4, and 28 is 20 times 1.4, so the square of 28 must be around 400 times 2, or 800.

If somedy comes along and wants to divide 1 by 1.73, you can tell them immediately that it's .577, because you notice that 1.73 is nearly the square root of 3, so 1/1.73 must be one-third of the square root of 3. And if it's 1/1.75, that's equal to the inverse of 7/4, and you've memorized the repeating decimals for sevenths: .571428...

I don't understand a damn word of that. At all. My character probably does, but I don't. However, no one wants to actually sit down and read that stuff and try and see if the MC has done his work right. Just use your examples sparingly, shrewdly, and correctly, and that'll be all you need. One or two in a whole book is fine. No one wants to read a fictional novel that is 70% logic puzzles and riddles.

[sassandgroove]

Hang out with people you think are smart and note their mannerisms, habits, mode of hygiene, likes, dislikes, etc. BTW, I think you are smart.

[badducky]

what takes you and i months, years, and maybe more just to puzzle together and ponder will be read in a week.

you're condensing a large amount of research and experience into a small space.

thus, your characters will seem smarter than you think they will.

food for thought.

[blacbird]

Damn if I know.

caw

[gp101]

[QUOTE=maestrowork;1449153]How do I write about prostitutes if I'm not one? QUOTE]

You mean... you're not?

[Bartholomew]

So would a smart character be another case of writing wish fulfillment, or would you need some brains to pull it off?

First off, I can tell from your written English that you are, at least moderately bright. Significantly smarter than the average teenager, in any case.

Second, take heart. Sherlock Holmes, one of the most intelligent detectives of all time, was the invention of a man who believed in fairies to his dying day.

Also, keep in mind that the intelligence of your character is determined mostly by what you have him do. You've got as much time as you want to brew over something your character will do over five minutes, or in a snap decision. Thus, your month and a half of research into Rocketry and the expensive class you took to better understand chemical propulsion will equate into two witty remarks that make your character seem brilliant. Plus, if you're doing research and actually soliciting people to interview, you'll be able to take certain quirks (everyone has them) and incorporate them into your characters.

[imagegod]

Intelligence measures the speed an individual moves from problem to solution...faking that in a novel is fairly easy...create difficult problems that are fairly easy to research answers for.

'Smart' is a broader notion...it's possible to be very smart (ie intellectually capable/filled with wisdom) without being very intellegent. It's also possible to see Life's broader issues, to have a wider perspective and then be smart enough to act on that vision.

Faking that in a novel without actually possessing it would be quite a trick...but still possible, in a small way.

[newmod]

Make all the other characters as thick as two short ones.

[deathwizard]

I mean this in a good-natured way, but I crack up every time I read the title of this thread.

[Prawn]

Best example I ever found of how to write a smart character was in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Even if you just read twenty pages, if would help you out.

[narselon]

This made me reflect on my characters. Almost all of my important characters have well above average intelligence, except I didn't do research to let them spew about subjects of expertise that will go over a readers head. Instead I varied how they think.

I know this may seem like a bunch of bios but I think it establishes how each one has a different type of intelligence without relying on technobabble or making the other characters dumb in comparison.

My main character is the typical smart guy. He received good grades in school and knows how to handle everyday life. In college he honed his skills towards a specific career and became incredibly successful because of his desire for knowledge and understanding of trends. But none of that matters when he is taken out of his element and put into a role where knowledge about economics is completely worthless. This allows the reader to see a contrast between his classical education and the other characters' "streeet smarts." Also because of his obedience to societal norms he keeps part of his intelligence suppressed, which only comes out during dream where he is confronted by his subconcious as a separate entity leading him to pick up on things he didn't notice before. He also has a bad case of paranoia caused by over thinking about the people around him instead of himself.

Another character was initially thought to be a prophet at a young age because he could see the future. He later explains his soothsaying was in actuality predictions based upon logical patterns he noticed in the world. He approaches the world like solving a math problem and later recites his findings like writing an essay or mathematical proof. He has a very advanced understanding of the world for anyone but it is helped by the fact he's still fifteen. The downside of his logic based intelligence is he has limited creativity. He has some very grand and broad ideas to fix the world's problems but is unable to figure out the details to implement his ideas.


I have a third character who never received a proper education beyond reading. Because of his lack of integration into societal norms he looks at things other take for granted with an eye of skepticism. He is always plotting and planning ways to accomplish his goals , often through unconventional and often controversial means. He is very confident and often makes things up to create the appearance he is an expert on a subject. While not an expert orator he will often create arguments that cannot be refuted with an immediate response, often stumping the main character who desperately wants to prove him wrong. He is limited by his inability to think on a larger scale than himself. He doesn't seem to notice his actions have an affect on other people or society as a whole. Sometimes he gets philosophical and is often frustrated by the lack of a clear answer.

[Nyna]

You can write characters who are prettier than you, stronger than you, meaner than you, kinder than you, wittier than you, tougher than you, weaker than you, dumber than you -- but you can never really, truly, write a character that is smarter than you.

But, as has been noted above, there are an awful lot of very good and commonly accepted ways of faking it.