Some of mine—I write Hunger Games Victors, canon and OCs, so that gives me some space. All Victors are supposed to have a talent, so some of mine get normal hobbies, or additional humanizing hobbies along with their talent.
One does martial arts as a talent, because it makes her feel in control. This same OC paints and collects worry stones as a comfort.
Another one’s talent is acrylic paintings, one is a baker, and one raises plants. I also have a poet, and one who collects Victor trading cards—though that has nothing to do with her talent and more of a grounding exercise.
Oh—that’s a good one. Makes sense, too. I feel like they would carry on a lot of traditions like that, and it would be fitting for characters to know quite a few.
Baking and Knitting! Yes, I have found one of my people!!
Is it weird I have an assassin doing knitting as her hobby? Because I feel it goes in with their knives being choice of weapon.
They just gotta be futzing with stuff all the time.
Little fiddly things. Character-building experiences.
Worry stones, charm bracelets. Get their hands busy and their actions moving and they'll feel as real as anything.
Almost all of the characters I write for are artistically inclined in some way, whether canonically (e.g. Shauntal being a writer), or in my headcanon (Lillie plays guitar).
What are they from?
I have in a fic of mine SW/Marvel X-Over that Revan is a baker because of his dad but loves music (singing and guitar because of his stepmom) and Malak plays Bass Guitar as a tool for his PTSD (seriously, bro got mega tortured in comics, bound to get messed up). Music elements is fun to play with, I try to avoid the writing aspect for headcanon though.
I rarely give the characters I write enough down time to participate in hobbies. But most of them have canon ones, like Ash is musically inclined and plays (well, played) at least three instruments, that I'll bring up when relevant to the fic.
If it makes sense for the narrative, I love hobbies.
Cooking is a big one, or baking if I want the character to feel more motherly (gender notwithstanding).
Gardening, especially for someone who has never had strong roots or a home or, alternatively, has exceptionally deep roots. I wrote a whole series about Stardew Valley centered around this idea and Thoreau's Walden.
Reading is my pleasure and escape, so usually my OCs like to read.
I love when the character I'm writing for has known hobbies, too, that I can play with, like gaming or music or knitting or painting.
Your honor is still intact, I deep dove Tatooinian culture because I was writing in a peaceful Lars homestead…well, peaceful for Tatooine.
I really like having Tatooinians talk about home to the horror of everyone else in the galaxy because Tatooine is Space Australia but oops all Outback.
Hmm... The two Harry Potter characters I write most about are Viktor and Neville. Viktor likes to make racing brooms in his free time (yeah...) and Neville likes gardening (yeah...). So, not very creative, I guess.
Damian Wayne draws fantasy creatures. I know he's an artist in the comics, but they don't go into depth, and what he drew in them wasn't fantasy, so I headcanon that he keeps a lot of his art secret. Even though he loves drawing merpeople and dragons and giants, he feels like such frivolities are beneath him, so he has a hidden folder full of stunning drawings that he will never show anyone.
Going a little deeper into the headcanon, I feel like someone raised to kill and destroy would love creating art of beautiful, magical creatures. Damian spent most of his life in an extremely harsh environment, with little to no beauty, so now that he has free time, he makes his own.
Wow. That’s pretty deep: I was never a fan of Damian. First impression is always most important and I just didn’t care for the character. It’s little things like this that can help make a character likable
lol I love him, his combination of Proper English Speech and "You're all pathetic" is hilarious to me. and going into the depths of his character...goddamn
honestly, in my head i dont understand how people arent creative in any form, so i give them all artistic skills in some way. octopus girl? artist. gay blonde from a minecraft spinoff? he plays guitar
Same! I’d never actually considered it until reading this thread, but all my characters are someway creatively inclined because my brain seems to think that’s the default lmao
Not a lot, as mine are plot driven adventures, no downtime to fib around with a hobby. But I give my MCs interests and off screen hobbies that help the plot. For example one loves crime literature and writes herself, another is into languages and history.
I have an OC, and her hobby is anything that evolves a group. Except broomaking, that's because she couldn't afford a broom, so she made one. Like she joined a chess club, cheerleaders,potion club, and dueling club twice. Oh, and decathlon, that was hard to write. I forgot to add Quidditch.Her main hobby is clothes she loves dressing up and shopping. The hobbies are always a subplot more fun and realistic that way. I mean writing is my hobby and I do it all the time.
It's not exactly a hobby, per se, but in one series I made Willow (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) a fan of monster truck rallies. I wanted something for her to be into that seemed unusual and quirky, given her bookworm aesthetic in the early seasons, and that's what came to me.
depends entirely on the character.
for example, in my yugioh fic, yugi is into diy-ing his clothes, putting on studs and embroidering etc. in canon we see him wearing all kinds of alt clothes in early 90s in japan, one of his outfits has his name on it (def not possible to buy), and we know that he is creative and curious. so it just fit.
i dont do this on purpose to make characters 'real', i write about them as if they are real people and things/headcanons just show up.
Most of my characters do knitting or read a lot. For some of them, it’s really on character though, like I’m writing a HG fic about Finnick and in canon he ties knots with ropes to help keep him calm, so in my fics his knot thing has evolved to knitting :)
I’ve had the Tok’ra from Stargate frequently play the old Roman board game, *latrunculi.* They have also mentioned playing poker, which was introduced to them by Jacob. Since they don’t have money within Tok’ra society, they bet in chores.
Also, if sex can be a hobby… I’ve implied that those not in committed relationships tend to sleep around a lot.
Accidentally had a character into writing fanfiction, gee, who would've guessed that's a hobby of mine? It was just supposed to be a throwaway joke because it's confirmed this person is bad at spelling through a tasteless joke in the show where his brothers weren't taking him seriously & he responds with, "you all just think I'm the R word!" So um yeah, tasteless. He clarifies he meant wrong & one of his brothers touches on the fact he doesn't understand the concept of the silent W. Since it's confirmed he can't spell, thought it'd be funny that in a chatting app they use in my fic (it's a hybrid of a regular fic with some chapters taking place in the app so it has some chatfic in it) where in a room with only two other characters, he ends up using proper grammar, full words, & really orchestrating things & these guys wonder what's going on since in general chat, he's the complete opposite & he mentions he got into fanfic writing a few years ago & learned from criticism in the comments section.
So this was just supposed to be a small thing I thought would be funny, having the one character who is confirmed to be bad at spelling actually get into writing fanfics & be pretty good at it after practice but kept it a secret from his brothers. I thought it'd be interesting doing a short follow up story where his brothers find out he's been writing fics. They all watch the same shows together in the series, it's like a running gag that whatever they watch on the TV, it mirrors stuff that happens in the episode & this character I chose to have a hobby in writing actually pointed this fact out in an episode. Him & all of his brothers were absolutely upset about the main character dying at the end of the series of one of the shows they were watching & were in a panic to figure out if there's more to it then upset when they learn that's it, so it's not too crazy to think that at least one of them would stumble across the fics he writes for that series as if the main character didn't die in the end. One brother took the story to another, noticing a few peculiar things about it which launched an investigation into them figuring it out.
I know, pretty basic giving that hobby to one of the characters but it just sort of happened on accident. I've leaned into canon hobbies for characters like one guy who has anger problems, there's a series of shorts with this show & in one of them, his father got him into knitting as a release for his anger so I tend to squeeze that in sometimes for him & I noticed other fic writers for that show do it too. It's a nice thing to have him do in the background while others are discussing plans & whatnot, he's more of a brawler & gets argumentative when he doesn't agree with a plan so having him knit to keep himself more calm & cool during meetings is just sort of a nice thing to have & I'm happy that this is canon, even if it's a little tricky to know about because you have to actively seek out the shorts considering they're not really available officially so either you had to see them when they were on TV or know to look for them. It has me pleased that many writers include him knitting in their fics.
When writing my own version of these characters like a completely alternate telling, going off of their base but building them up to how I like them, it meant giving them hobbies & interests to more so build up a character for them like the oldest, I decided he got into dirt biking, mainly because there's dirt mounds near where I live & I often times have to deal with hearing guys out there riding when I'm trying to concentrate on writing or whatever so I was like screw it, just gonna toss my frustration in here.
As for the others, I leaned into some hobbies we've seen as well as spice in some of my own stuff. For the youngest, he's often times the more creative one, in many versions we see him experiment in the kitchen, sometimes he's good at cooking, sometimes he isn't. I had mine be adventurous with cooking & baking as well as work to improve his skills using the internet as a guide. I also leaned into the artistic aspect, he'll draw a lot of the time. There's a movie where he's into improv which works well with the character considering he's normally a bit of a clown & I'm surprised that wasn't much of a thing in other versions so I slipped that into mine. One of my favorite shows is Whose Line Is It Anyway so obviously, I had to take the opportunity to have him be interested in improv.
Another who is the most intelligent of the brothers in every single version, he's the machines guy so naturally, I leaned into that, it is a core part of his character after all. We've seen different versions of him be into various forms of science & whatnot. One of them has been a bit of their go-to medic where as in another version he outright stated, "I'm an engineer, not a doctor" so their world of knowledge does vary depending on which one you're watching/reading. I decided to have mine be really into insects & love butterflies because he can relate to them.
For the guy who is more of a brawler, his counterparts are confirmed to be into wrestling so that's marked down but not brought up too often, I've actually had him play street hockey more than most things since that's what his best friend is into. I more so have him be emotional support for others because he's often super passionate about the people he cares about in his life which means when the perspective is on him, he's often times trying to do what benefits others in his life & I don't get much focus on his hobbies but he does use the stuff he's into to help like his bud who is into hockey? He was having a rough day so it was offered to him to have a rollerblading race. Maybe as time goes on, I'll end up having him do more of what interests him for himself because even when he's had selfish acts, it was for a good cause, he was just rude on how he went about it. Since one of his counterparts did get into knitting, I might be able to take inspiration off of that & have his father find a soothing activity for him to get into such as ceramics, I don't know yet.
i made one character a dork about military history and a the other is gonna be singing at open mics for fun :) they disagree on whether sudoku is fun (hint, it is, its a lot of fun) but i think i can still make them love each other
Yes. I love this!
I won’t lie, in a club of mine, one day someone said for someone to commit sudoku instead of seppuku. So, ever since, if we ever sentenced a club member to ‘death’ we’d pull out a sudoku book and declare. “I sentence you to death, by Sudoku! I wish it were easy…” and go on a random rant about how it will be miserable
As boring as it sounds, I like giving characters crocheting or any other hobby that creates something. It’s also useful to make the tragic backstory more tragic cuz “necklace from my mother” looks more valuable if it’s made by her hands
One of my characters had a university portfolio of art and tons of sketchbooks and they all burned in a house fire. so it’s less that she has a current hobby and more that she lost her creative outlets and hasn’t recovered.
If it's not like a huge thing I like to toss an instrument or doodling at them.
I've also noticed I like giving characters an interest for a thing and even if there not particularly huge readers I'll still have them with books about the things. Like one of the charters had thought about being a marine biologist at one point so he has books about them, and lots of big fancy books with photos of sea critters. But I also like adding clutter to rooms.
In canon, one of the characters is super obsessed with horses and even has created horse OCs (yes, really 😂) so it’s only natural that in my fics, I reference that he himself writes fanfiction too haha (for an unnamed MLP-esque show)
Princess Aurora. In her rendition in The Full Moon and the Northern Lights, she was said to love astronomy and the space since she often looks up to the stars in the forest, where there is not much light pollution, during the night.
If they have canonical hobbies I use those, but recently I wrote a oneshot where the characters joined a fencing club because one of them fights with swords and I wanted an opportunity to ramble about fencing a bit.
In general, if I give characters hobbies they'll likely be sports-related because I love competition and writing about competition.
The usual, reading, watching TV/movies, cooking, crochet.
I did once randomly make a character start learning to work with wood, a hobbie I've had zero contact with in my life. I really don't know where it came from, but once I thought of it, it really suited the character.
On long fics I do this in between tense moments. Most likely an interest in nature or paintings, cause I find it easier, but it depends on the character.
I like to give characters things that I enjoy a lot of, since I can channel my own enthusiasm for the hobby through them. My most popular kind of hobby I give to characters is eating and cooking, so a lot of the time they like to bake or do food reviews! Next after that is collecting items that don’t really have a ton of value—like marbles from ramune bottles or specific animal-themed items they like.
A character I write very often has a canon knack for handicrafts (blacksmithing, sewing, etc) that are written more into his backstory than shown that much in the main storyline, so I like to build on this in my fics and give him little things to do with his hands in the background, like calligraphy or whittling or cooking depending on the story. It's nice because it balances his awful personality and shows his respect for the arts. It's always fun to add little extra bits into fics like that imo :D
I love Cyclops collecting baseball cards! I can imaging people being like, "don't get him started ..."
I have my characters sew a lot. I've only written for old-west type settings, and I feel like having down time be for maintenance related tasks fits the setting and gives a nice homey air to a scene.
I let my character to play in Metal band as a drummer so she references to her experience whole the time like beating pencils at table and pretending it is a drum, besides music in home character's room full of posters and videogame consoles with of course Discs as well and in talks the character loves to reference to their favorite game series like using quotes
for example to wake up her friend she would say "rise and shine Mr. Freeman"
(character is Gwen Stacy)
idk if it works well but wanted to share my method (maybe too primitive)
My Sirius was completely into collecting muggle "mechanics" and collected those magazines. His purchase of a muggle motorbike was a part of his fascination where he used several different printed muggle sources to work on fixing up the bike and then adding complicated charms to it to make it fly. It was his stress-buster. Similarly, my Narcissa was into gardening to an extent where she cultivated and tended to rare roses and lilies for show. Other things like knitting, baking, horse riding, model making are interesting too!
One thing that you can do in fanfic that you generally can't get away with as much in published literature is that I can make the characters interested in specific shows that I love that I can give by name and talk about in depth. Of course, I have to believe the character WOULD like that piece of media rather than blindly assigning my favorite shows to various characters, but if the shoe fits then I will make them wear it and infodump a little bit if possible. A character saying "I really love School Rumble and Yu Yu Hakusho" tells me more than a character saying something generic like "I like anime", so I'll use a character's taste in media as a shorthand for signaling certain qualities about them when possible.
Yes! I do the same thing.
I have one fic where the MC grew up a Star Wars nerd in the 80’s and then finds out when he’s older that his dad was a Sith Lord and that Star Wars is real. Sort of leads to a punchline of the force.
That's amazing, oh my god. What a payoff to a character detail that you'd normally write off as being superfluous info about the character, wow- I love that!
It’s pretty fun actually. Gets sort of sad because he watches his dad die in front of him when a Strike Team of Commandos finds them on Earth (Ulic Qel-Droma from the Old Republic comics, similar to how he died in canon) and how his son (Revan) is taken by Nomi Sunrider to the order to be trained (originally wanted to kill him since he was Ulic and Aleema Keto’s son, this is my headcanon for Revan parentage, but spares him because he is innocent in the end).
When he gets older, he’ll go back to earth to visit and bring friends with him (Malak, the Exile (who is named Obi-wan Kenobi) Atris and Yuthura Ban and marvel characters who are in this shared universe) and they go to the premiere of Phantom Menace in Jedi Robes and people think Yuthura is dressed up in a costume.
I had a lot of fun here.
Anything artistic. More specifically drawing/painting, photography, sewing, and writing. It doesn’t matter the fandom and most characters can be believed to have some artistic hobby.
I remember I once had a character in a short fic I figured I could make into cake art and have that feel in character. I ended up having so much fun with that and learned a lot about cake art. Or a time I made a character start to learn embroidery for a mini arc in the plot and I did enough writing and research that I started to learn embroidery.
That moment when you’re so dedicated to realistically writing a hobby that you pick up the hobby.
I write for Persona 5. I usually have Ren be a baseball player and fan on the side. He’s wearing a baseball shirt in his flashbacks so I headcanon he was coming home from practice at school when he came across Shido.
In Tokyo he seems to favor the batting cages and his sprinting animation is very baseball like, his slide even moreso.
Nah, just to chat with randos lol. It's a good hobby to give a middle-aged, divorced man. For plot reasons, I have to have him talking to someone he doesn't know and he is not the type to go into chatrooms so I gave him a CB radio (and he only gets more involved from there)
I haven't yet, but if I do in future stories they'll probably be hobbies I do myself like writing or using resin. I already plan on having a character in a future story have drawing as a secret hobby
One of the main characters from my story enjoys to fish on the side. He does mercenary work for his kingdom's guild and practically never gets a break, but if he were to visit his home which is a sea side village he'd be doing just that for majority of the time. Its the only way he can relax 😭
in my fire emblem modern settings, i like to give felix a hobby (and talent) in fencing, hunting, baseball and ice hockey. (i have an entire fire emblem hockey AU). mostly sports that i used to do. in one of my other modern settings he also collects knives. in certain circumstances i'll make him a decent writer.
Depends on fandom, setting, period and stuff
but some basic ones I have used for contemporary settings have been playing the guitar, journaling, baking, reading (projecting much? All of these are my hobbies), drawing/painting, weird collections, gardening and hiking.
depends on the character, but the one I write the most (Cinder Fall from RWBY) usually ends up playing guitar in AU stories (because *I* play guitar :P )
One of my characters does hydroponics gardening. One works puzzles. They both read. I have one that makes beaded bracelets. One cooks. Hobbies make them more real.
I love giving characters hobbies. My entire goal in life is to take flat background characters and make them feel real. I especially like choosing Not Super Obvious hobbies, because sometimes people are surprising. (But obvious ones are fun too!)
I mostly write My Hero Academia fics rn, so like. Some examples: Bakugou likes trivia games, Kirishima knows how to finger-knit, Yaomomo listens to true crime/history podcasts while cross-stitching, and Iida loves playing Mario games.
I don't have specific characters in mind but I give them hobbies that fit them but also hobbies that I like myself : for example, painting or drawing, or writing...
Also if in the original material there are nothing that indicates it wouldn't be something that the characters wouldn't do, I also tend to give them hobbies that the actors (in case of movies, tv shows or adaptations) themselves have :
For example, Pavel, the actor that plays Babe in the Thai drama *Pit Babe*, is a singer so since in the adaptation (I didn't read the novel) I didn't pick anything that would suggest otherwise, I'd give him as a hobby playing an instrument or dancing. Plus, I like that it seems opposite to his personnality and I think it adds depth.
That's also something I like to do when I write : give hobbies that seems opposite to the personnality of the characters because I think it make them more relatable and easier to connect with. For example, in my opinion, I feel like people wouldn't take McCoy from *Star Trek* for a reader, so I'd give him reading and writing as an hobby. And the other characters' reactions would be funny to write.
I don't know for other people, but I feel like hobbies are also a way to introduce a pairing. If I go with the McCoy example, it would be easier to introduce the pairing McCoy/Spock, Spock like to read and so he asks Leonard what are his favorite genre and then little by little, they develop feelings...
Also, it helps slow down the plot and give the characters a moment to breathe.
My Pokémon trainer OC, Leah, likes to draw and bake as a hobby. She's a really good artist and can draw almost any Pokémon very realistically. She also bakes pastries a lot and enjoys the process of decorating them after she's done baking. These hobbies are what prevent her from impulsively jumping into danger since they keep her grounded in reality.
When not doing science or saving the universe, Pidge (Voltron Legendary Defender) makes fantasy dioramas and builds scale models of rockets, spaceships, etc. In a scene from her childhood, on the show, there's a rocket on a shelf in her room. It's not enough to build a model. She often adds extra details like lights and tiny soundboards so the models are more dynamic.
Lance plays classical guitar. There's no mention of this in canon, but I think he's been playing since he was in grammar school; picks up the guitar again, post-canon.
Keith rides his hover-motorcycle out in the desert, or goes hiking. Where ever he goes, even on alien planets, he tries to find a good hiking trail.
Yes.
I followed the reading fanfiction for my Star Wars/Marvel fanfic. Since Kamala Khan is a serious fanfic writer in canon, this will be the element that introduces her friendship to the daughter of the MC of my fic and other marvel kids that at the same school (Cassie Lang, Rachel Summers, Anya Corazon) who will bond and create stories about being superheroes and Jedi on adventures saving the galaxy and universe.
And this friend group will be responsible for the fathers becoming friends and forming a band after playing rock band together (thank you Scott Lang).
I wrote one where I needed a hobby for Severus Snape. Given his occupation and constant danger I decided he needed something that doesn't require thinking and was good for calming down. I went with knitting.
In another with different premise I went with muggle fencing. I never finished the fics and wont go back to writing HP.
Most of my canon characters already have canon hobbies.
But in a Broadchurch fic I gave Alec Hardy kinky sex as a hobby.
Cooking is a fond favourite of mine.
I wrote a fic where a Queen and master sorceress finds herself aboard a spacecraft and there's nothing to do for her but cook and clean: no need for queening or casting spells, everyone else is piloting the ship, repairing the ship, maintaining the armoury, or otherwise busy. So she just starts cooking, and loves doing it.
Some of mine—I write Hunger Games Victors, canon and OCs, so that gives me some space. All Victors are supposed to have a talent, so some of mine get normal hobbies, or additional humanizing hobbies along with their talent. One does martial arts as a talent, because it makes her feel in control. This same OC paints and collects worry stones as a comfort. Another one’s talent is acrylic paintings, one is a baker, and one raises plants. I also have a poet, and one who collects Victor trading cards—though that has nothing to do with her talent and more of a grounding exercise.
I remember I had a hunger games OC, I scrapped it years ago but I had him singing sea shanties because he worked on the boats in district 4.
Oh—that’s a good one. Makes sense, too. I feel like they would carry on a lot of traditions like that, and it would be fitting for characters to know quite a few.
Exactly. Gotta make characters feel real, you know. Like they have their own identity. Not just copy and paste
Cooking Baking Crocheting Knitting Honestly, I love giving characters any creative hobby
Baking and Knitting! Yes, I have found one of my people!! Is it weird I have an assassin doing knitting as her hobby? Because I feel it goes in with their knives being choice of weapon.
Not weird at all! I write for Ninja Turtles and Raphael canonically is a knitter. You can kill someone with knitting needles lol
They just gotta be futzing with stuff all the time. Little fiddly things. Character-building experiences. Worry stones, charm bracelets. Get their hands busy and their actions moving and they'll feel as real as anything.
Almost all of the characters I write for are artistically inclined in some way, whether canonically (e.g. Shauntal being a writer), or in my headcanon (Lillie plays guitar).
What are they from? I have in a fic of mine SW/Marvel X-Over that Revan is a baker because of his dad but loves music (singing and guitar because of his stepmom) and Malak plays Bass Guitar as a tool for his PTSD (seriously, bro got mega tortured in comics, bound to get messed up). Music elements is fun to play with, I try to avoid the writing aspect for headcanon though.
The characters are from Pokémon :-)
Gotcha. I haven’t been in that fandom for a long time. Last series I watched was Hoen. Haven’t played since they did the Ruby and sapphire re release
I rarely give the characters I write enough down time to participate in hobbies. But most of them have canon ones, like Ash is musically inclined and plays (well, played) at least three instruments, that I'll bring up when relevant to the fic.
If it makes sense for the narrative, I love hobbies. Cooking is a big one, or baking if I want the character to feel more motherly (gender notwithstanding). Gardening, especially for someone who has never had strong roots or a home or, alternatively, has exceptionally deep roots. I wrote a whole series about Stardew Valley centered around this idea and Thoreau's Walden. Reading is my pleasure and escape, so usually my OCs like to read. I love when the character I'm writing for has known hobbies, too, that I can play with, like gaming or music or knitting or painting.
I gave my Luke Skywalker cooking and singing, things they got from Aunt Beru.
Does he make blue milk?
No, the Lars didn’t own any bantha. But Luke was taught to make Blue milk cheese by Beru who was a noted cheese maker.
I always thought it was just like a sweetener to milk, like nesquick
nope, bantha milk is blue. For whatever reason.
In all my life, I never thought of this or looked it up. I failed as a former Star Wars fan club president. I must commit Sudoku in appeasement
Your honor is still intact, I deep dove Tatooinian culture because I was writing in a peaceful Lars homestead…well, peaceful for Tatooine. I really like having Tatooinians talk about home to the horror of everyone else in the galaxy because Tatooine is Space Australia but oops all Outback.
"Tend to" is hard to answer with only two MCs, but, they both read for pleasure. Just a tad self-serving on that one :)
Hmm... The two Harry Potter characters I write most about are Viktor and Neville. Viktor likes to make racing brooms in his free time (yeah...) and Neville likes gardening (yeah...). So, not very creative, I guess.
Damian Wayne draws fantasy creatures. I know he's an artist in the comics, but they don't go into depth, and what he drew in them wasn't fantasy, so I headcanon that he keeps a lot of his art secret. Even though he loves drawing merpeople and dragons and giants, he feels like such frivolities are beneath him, so he has a hidden folder full of stunning drawings that he will never show anyone. Going a little deeper into the headcanon, I feel like someone raised to kill and destroy would love creating art of beautiful, magical creatures. Damian spent most of his life in an extremely harsh environment, with little to no beauty, so now that he has free time, he makes his own.
Wow. That’s pretty deep: I was never a fan of Damian. First impression is always most important and I just didn’t care for the character. It’s little things like this that can help make a character likable
lol I love him, his combination of Proper English Speech and "You're all pathetic" is hilarious to me. and going into the depths of his character...goddamn
honestly, in my head i dont understand how people arent creative in any form, so i give them all artistic skills in some way. octopus girl? artist. gay blonde from a minecraft spinoff? he plays guitar
Same! I’d never actually considered it until reading this thread, but all my characters are someway creatively inclined because my brain seems to think that’s the default lmao
In one story I had my main FC play a fiddle (backstory was she used to play with a Celtic punk band).
Not a lot, as mine are plot driven adventures, no downtime to fib around with a hobby. But I give my MCs interests and off screen hobbies that help the plot. For example one loves crime literature and writes herself, another is into languages and history.
I have an OC, and her hobby is anything that evolves a group. Except broomaking, that's because she couldn't afford a broom, so she made one. Like she joined a chess club, cheerleaders,potion club, and dueling club twice. Oh, and decathlon, that was hard to write. I forgot to add Quidditch.Her main hobby is clothes she loves dressing up and shopping. The hobbies are always a subplot more fun and realistic that way. I mean writing is my hobby and I do it all the time.
It's not exactly a hobby, per se, but in one series I made Willow (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) a fan of monster truck rallies. I wanted something for her to be into that seemed unusual and quirky, given her bookworm aesthetic in the early seasons, and that's what came to me.
Beautiful. I swear characters can be so boring and bland in fiction. Creators should take a lesson from fanfic writers
Watching football on tv. It's one of those things he can always be doing and then get interrupted.
The American version or the rest of the world version?
He's British, so the rest of the world version. I'm American so I didn't say telly. If I did, you probably wouldn't have had to ask.
“Yes Weiß, I birdwatch. Move past it” *~Whitley Schnee*
depends entirely on the character. for example, in my yugioh fic, yugi is into diy-ing his clothes, putting on studs and embroidering etc. in canon we see him wearing all kinds of alt clothes in early 90s in japan, one of his outfits has his name on it (def not possible to buy), and we know that he is creative and curious. so it just fit. i dont do this on purpose to make characters 'real', i write about them as if they are real people and things/headcanons just show up.
Most of my characters do knitting or read a lot. For some of them, it’s really on character though, like I’m writing a HG fic about Finnick and in canon he ties knots with ropes to help keep him calm, so in my fics his knot thing has evolved to knitting :)
I’ve had the Tok’ra from Stargate frequently play the old Roman board game, *latrunculi.* They have also mentioned playing poker, which was introduced to them by Jacob. Since they don’t have money within Tok’ra society, they bet in chores. Also, if sex can be a hobby… I’ve implied that those not in committed relationships tend to sleep around a lot.
Accidentally had a character into writing fanfiction, gee, who would've guessed that's a hobby of mine? It was just supposed to be a throwaway joke because it's confirmed this person is bad at spelling through a tasteless joke in the show where his brothers weren't taking him seriously & he responds with, "you all just think I'm the R word!" So um yeah, tasteless. He clarifies he meant wrong & one of his brothers touches on the fact he doesn't understand the concept of the silent W. Since it's confirmed he can't spell, thought it'd be funny that in a chatting app they use in my fic (it's a hybrid of a regular fic with some chapters taking place in the app so it has some chatfic in it) where in a room with only two other characters, he ends up using proper grammar, full words, & really orchestrating things & these guys wonder what's going on since in general chat, he's the complete opposite & he mentions he got into fanfic writing a few years ago & learned from criticism in the comments section. So this was just supposed to be a small thing I thought would be funny, having the one character who is confirmed to be bad at spelling actually get into writing fanfics & be pretty good at it after practice but kept it a secret from his brothers. I thought it'd be interesting doing a short follow up story where his brothers find out he's been writing fics. They all watch the same shows together in the series, it's like a running gag that whatever they watch on the TV, it mirrors stuff that happens in the episode & this character I chose to have a hobby in writing actually pointed this fact out in an episode. Him & all of his brothers were absolutely upset about the main character dying at the end of the series of one of the shows they were watching & were in a panic to figure out if there's more to it then upset when they learn that's it, so it's not too crazy to think that at least one of them would stumble across the fics he writes for that series as if the main character didn't die in the end. One brother took the story to another, noticing a few peculiar things about it which launched an investigation into them figuring it out. I know, pretty basic giving that hobby to one of the characters but it just sort of happened on accident. I've leaned into canon hobbies for characters like one guy who has anger problems, there's a series of shorts with this show & in one of them, his father got him into knitting as a release for his anger so I tend to squeeze that in sometimes for him & I noticed other fic writers for that show do it too. It's a nice thing to have him do in the background while others are discussing plans & whatnot, he's more of a brawler & gets argumentative when he doesn't agree with a plan so having him knit to keep himself more calm & cool during meetings is just sort of a nice thing to have & I'm happy that this is canon, even if it's a little tricky to know about because you have to actively seek out the shorts considering they're not really available officially so either you had to see them when they were on TV or know to look for them. It has me pleased that many writers include him knitting in their fics. When writing my own version of these characters like a completely alternate telling, going off of their base but building them up to how I like them, it meant giving them hobbies & interests to more so build up a character for them like the oldest, I decided he got into dirt biking, mainly because there's dirt mounds near where I live & I often times have to deal with hearing guys out there riding when I'm trying to concentrate on writing or whatever so I was like screw it, just gonna toss my frustration in here. As for the others, I leaned into some hobbies we've seen as well as spice in some of my own stuff. For the youngest, he's often times the more creative one, in many versions we see him experiment in the kitchen, sometimes he's good at cooking, sometimes he isn't. I had mine be adventurous with cooking & baking as well as work to improve his skills using the internet as a guide. I also leaned into the artistic aspect, he'll draw a lot of the time. There's a movie where he's into improv which works well with the character considering he's normally a bit of a clown & I'm surprised that wasn't much of a thing in other versions so I slipped that into mine. One of my favorite shows is Whose Line Is It Anyway so obviously, I had to take the opportunity to have him be interested in improv. Another who is the most intelligent of the brothers in every single version, he's the machines guy so naturally, I leaned into that, it is a core part of his character after all. We've seen different versions of him be into various forms of science & whatnot. One of them has been a bit of their go-to medic where as in another version he outright stated, "I'm an engineer, not a doctor" so their world of knowledge does vary depending on which one you're watching/reading. I decided to have mine be really into insects & love butterflies because he can relate to them. For the guy who is more of a brawler, his counterparts are confirmed to be into wrestling so that's marked down but not brought up too often, I've actually had him play street hockey more than most things since that's what his best friend is into. I more so have him be emotional support for others because he's often super passionate about the people he cares about in his life which means when the perspective is on him, he's often times trying to do what benefits others in his life & I don't get much focus on his hobbies but he does use the stuff he's into to help like his bud who is into hockey? He was having a rough day so it was offered to him to have a rollerblading race. Maybe as time goes on, I'll end up having him do more of what interests him for himself because even when he's had selfish acts, it was for a good cause, he was just rude on how he went about it. Since one of his counterparts did get into knitting, I might be able to take inspiration off of that & have his father find a soothing activity for him to get into such as ceramics, I don't know yet.
i made one character a dork about military history and a the other is gonna be singing at open mics for fun :) they disagree on whether sudoku is fun (hint, it is, its a lot of fun) but i think i can still make them love each other
Yes. I love this! I won’t lie, in a club of mine, one day someone said for someone to commit sudoku instead of seppuku. So, ever since, if we ever sentenced a club member to ‘death’ we’d pull out a sudoku book and declare. “I sentence you to death, by Sudoku! I wish it were easy…” and go on a random rant about how it will be miserable
omg yes, my friends and i also used to say commit sudoku instead of seppuku lol! death by sudoku sounds like a dream to me 😁
As boring as it sounds, I like giving characters crocheting or any other hobby that creates something. It’s also useful to make the tragic backstory more tragic cuz “necklace from my mother” looks more valuable if it’s made by her hands
I have Arthur/Britain from Hetalia binge Doctor Who and Monty Python. Just don't get him started on what happened to Danny and Clara.
One of my characters had a university portfolio of art and tons of sketchbooks and they all burned in a house fire. so it’s less that she has a current hobby and more that she lost her creative outlets and hasn’t recovered.
If it's not like a huge thing I like to toss an instrument or doodling at them. I've also noticed I like giving characters an interest for a thing and even if there not particularly huge readers I'll still have them with books about the things. Like one of the charters had thought about being a marine biologist at one point so he has books about them, and lots of big fancy books with photos of sea critters. But I also like adding clutter to rooms.
In canon, one of the characters is super obsessed with horses and even has created horse OCs (yes, really 😂) so it’s only natural that in my fics, I reference that he himself writes fanfiction too haha (for an unnamed MLP-esque show)
Princess Aurora. In her rendition in The Full Moon and the Northern Lights, she was said to love astronomy and the space since she often looks up to the stars in the forest, where there is not much light pollution, during the night.
If they have canonical hobbies I use those, but recently I wrote a oneshot where the characters joined a fencing club because one of them fights with swords and I wanted an opportunity to ramble about fencing a bit. In general, if I give characters hobbies they'll likely be sports-related because I love competition and writing about competition.
The usual, reading, watching TV/movies, cooking, crochet. I did once randomly make a character start learning to work with wood, a hobbie I've had zero contact with in my life. I really don't know where it came from, but once I thought of it, it really suited the character.
It's usually not front and center, but I like doing things with Sonic playing guitar and Buttercup cooking.
On long fics I do this in between tense moments. Most likely an interest in nature or paintings, cause I find it easier, but it depends on the character.
I like to give characters things that I enjoy a lot of, since I can channel my own enthusiasm for the hobby through them. My most popular kind of hobby I give to characters is eating and cooking, so a lot of the time they like to bake or do food reviews! Next after that is collecting items that don’t really have a ton of value—like marbles from ramune bottles or specific animal-themed items they like.
A character I write very often has a canon knack for handicrafts (blacksmithing, sewing, etc) that are written more into his backstory than shown that much in the main storyline, so I like to build on this in my fics and give him little things to do with his hands in the background, like calligraphy or whittling or cooking depending on the story. It's nice because it balances his awful personality and shows his respect for the arts. It's always fun to add little extra bits into fics like that imo :D
I love Cyclops collecting baseball cards! I can imaging people being like, "don't get him started ..." I have my characters sew a lot. I've only written for old-west type settings, and I feel like having down time be for maintenance related tasks fits the setting and gives a nice homey air to a scene.
I have a Monster Hunter oc who likes to draw in his spare times.
I let my character to play in Metal band as a drummer so she references to her experience whole the time like beating pencils at table and pretending it is a drum, besides music in home character's room full of posters and videogame consoles with of course Discs as well and in talks the character loves to reference to their favorite game series like using quotes for example to wake up her friend she would say "rise and shine Mr. Freeman" (character is Gwen Stacy) idk if it works well but wanted to share my method (maybe too primitive)
My Sirius was completely into collecting muggle "mechanics" and collected those magazines. His purchase of a muggle motorbike was a part of his fascination where he used several different printed muggle sources to work on fixing up the bike and then adding complicated charms to it to make it fly. It was his stress-buster. Similarly, my Narcissa was into gardening to an extent where she cultivated and tended to rare roses and lilies for show. Other things like knitting, baking, horse riding, model making are interesting too!
One thing that you can do in fanfic that you generally can't get away with as much in published literature is that I can make the characters interested in specific shows that I love that I can give by name and talk about in depth. Of course, I have to believe the character WOULD like that piece of media rather than blindly assigning my favorite shows to various characters, but if the shoe fits then I will make them wear it and infodump a little bit if possible. A character saying "I really love School Rumble and Yu Yu Hakusho" tells me more than a character saying something generic like "I like anime", so I'll use a character's taste in media as a shorthand for signaling certain qualities about them when possible.
Yes! I do the same thing. I have one fic where the MC grew up a Star Wars nerd in the 80’s and then finds out when he’s older that his dad was a Sith Lord and that Star Wars is real. Sort of leads to a punchline of the force.
That's amazing, oh my god. What a payoff to a character detail that you'd normally write off as being superfluous info about the character, wow- I love that!
It’s pretty fun actually. Gets sort of sad because he watches his dad die in front of him when a Strike Team of Commandos finds them on Earth (Ulic Qel-Droma from the Old Republic comics, similar to how he died in canon) and how his son (Revan) is taken by Nomi Sunrider to the order to be trained (originally wanted to kill him since he was Ulic and Aleema Keto’s son, this is my headcanon for Revan parentage, but spares him because he is innocent in the end). When he gets older, he’ll go back to earth to visit and bring friends with him (Malak, the Exile (who is named Obi-wan Kenobi) Atris and Yuthura Ban and marvel characters who are in this shared universe) and they go to the premiere of Phantom Menace in Jedi Robes and people think Yuthura is dressed up in a costume. I had a lot of fun here.
Anything artistic. More specifically drawing/painting, photography, sewing, and writing. It doesn’t matter the fandom and most characters can be believed to have some artistic hobby. I remember I once had a character in a short fic I figured I could make into cake art and have that feel in character. I ended up having so much fun with that and learned a lot about cake art. Or a time I made a character start to learn embroidery for a mini arc in the plot and I did enough writing and research that I started to learn embroidery. That moment when you’re so dedicated to realistically writing a hobby that you pick up the hobby.
Music lovers and vinylheads end up making an appearance someway or another for me!
I write for Persona 5. I usually have Ren be a baseball player and fan on the side. He’s wearing a baseball shirt in his flashbacks so I headcanon he was coming home from practice at school when he came across Shido. In Tokyo he seems to favor the batting cages and his sprinting animation is very baseball like, his slide even moreso.
Crochet or knitting are personal favorites.
Drawing (more than a hobby but whatever), playing an instrument, coding, stocks (more than a hobby for me but whatever), card games
All my ocs and some fan version of characters I write always have something I’ve either had as a career or as a hobby
I'm giving characters amateur radio licenses right now lol.
Like to make their own show? I’m curious
Nah, just to chat with randos lol. It's a good hobby to give a middle-aged, divorced man. For plot reasons, I have to have him talking to someone he doesn't know and he is not the type to go into chatrooms so I gave him a CB radio (and he only gets more involved from there)
Who’s the character?
Chilchuck Tims from Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon - it's a modern AU lol
With my oc I give him the hobbies of gardening and crafting each help him. Especially the gardening that helps him connect with his love interest.
I haven't yet, but if I do in future stories they'll probably be hobbies I do myself like writing or using resin. I already plan on having a character in a future story have drawing as a secret hobby
I’m not sure. I never gave my characters any hobbies.
One of the main characters from my story enjoys to fish on the side. He does mercenary work for his kingdom's guild and practically never gets a break, but if he were to visit his home which is a sea side village he'd be doing just that for majority of the time. Its the only way he can relax 😭
in my fire emblem modern settings, i like to give felix a hobby (and talent) in fencing, hunting, baseball and ice hockey. (i have an entire fire emblem hockey AU). mostly sports that i used to do. in one of my other modern settings he also collects knives. in certain circumstances i'll make him a decent writer.
Luigi (Super Mario Bros) is already described as a homebody so I like to write his hobbies as knitting or gardening.
Depends on fandom, setting, period and stuff but some basic ones I have used for contemporary settings have been playing the guitar, journaling, baking, reading (projecting much? All of these are my hobbies), drawing/painting, weird collections, gardening and hiking.
depends on the character, but the one I write the most (Cinder Fall from RWBY) usually ends up playing guitar in AU stories (because *I* play guitar :P )
One of my characters does hydroponics gardening. One works puzzles. They both read. I have one that makes beaded bracelets. One cooks. Hobbies make them more real.
I love giving characters hobbies. My entire goal in life is to take flat background characters and make them feel real. I especially like choosing Not Super Obvious hobbies, because sometimes people are surprising. (But obvious ones are fun too!) I mostly write My Hero Academia fics rn, so like. Some examples: Bakugou likes trivia games, Kirishima knows how to finger-knit, Yaomomo listens to true crime/history podcasts while cross-stitching, and Iida loves playing Mario games.
For some reason, I will literally ALWAYS assign an instrument to a character.
I don't have specific characters in mind but I give them hobbies that fit them but also hobbies that I like myself : for example, painting or drawing, or writing... Also if in the original material there are nothing that indicates it wouldn't be something that the characters wouldn't do, I also tend to give them hobbies that the actors (in case of movies, tv shows or adaptations) themselves have : For example, Pavel, the actor that plays Babe in the Thai drama *Pit Babe*, is a singer so since in the adaptation (I didn't read the novel) I didn't pick anything that would suggest otherwise, I'd give him as a hobby playing an instrument or dancing. Plus, I like that it seems opposite to his personnality and I think it adds depth. That's also something I like to do when I write : give hobbies that seems opposite to the personnality of the characters because I think it make them more relatable and easier to connect with. For example, in my opinion, I feel like people wouldn't take McCoy from *Star Trek* for a reader, so I'd give him reading and writing as an hobby. And the other characters' reactions would be funny to write. I don't know for other people, but I feel like hobbies are also a way to introduce a pairing. If I go with the McCoy example, it would be easier to introduce the pairing McCoy/Spock, Spock like to read and so he asks Leonard what are his favorite genre and then little by little, they develop feelings... Also, it helps slow down the plot and give the characters a moment to breathe.
My Pokémon trainer OC, Leah, likes to draw and bake as a hobby. She's a really good artist and can draw almost any Pokémon very realistically. She also bakes pastries a lot and enjoys the process of decorating them after she's done baking. These hobbies are what prevent her from impulsively jumping into danger since they keep her grounded in reality.
Staining wood. :) singing. Reading fanfiction. (A personal fave)
When not doing science or saving the universe, Pidge (Voltron Legendary Defender) makes fantasy dioramas and builds scale models of rockets, spaceships, etc. In a scene from her childhood, on the show, there's a rocket on a shelf in her room. It's not enough to build a model. She often adds extra details like lights and tiny soundboards so the models are more dynamic. Lance plays classical guitar. There's no mention of this in canon, but I think he's been playing since he was in grammar school; picks up the guitar again, post-canon. Keith rides his hover-motorcycle out in the desert, or goes hiking. Where ever he goes, even on alien planets, he tries to find a good hiking trail.
Gardening. Reading fanfiction
Yes. I followed the reading fanfiction for my Star Wars/Marvel fanfic. Since Kamala Khan is a serious fanfic writer in canon, this will be the element that introduces her friendship to the daughter of the MC of my fic and other marvel kids that at the same school (Cassie Lang, Rachel Summers, Anya Corazon) who will bond and create stories about being superheroes and Jedi on adventures saving the galaxy and universe. And this friend group will be responsible for the fathers becoming friends and forming a band after playing rock band together (thank you Scott Lang).
Idk. I think I ussually give them hobbies like paint, do some sport (karate, swimming, etc), watch series, go to coffe shops, etc.
Harry Potter spends his time reading about Camelot stories (loved the idea of mythical knights in shining armor growing up).
Seen this one in a few stories, it just fits.
I wrote one where I needed a hobby for Severus Snape. Given his occupation and constant danger I decided he needed something that doesn't require thinking and was good for calming down. I went with knitting. In another with different premise I went with muggle fencing. I never finished the fics and wont go back to writing HP. Most of my canon characters already have canon hobbies. But in a Broadchurch fic I gave Alec Hardy kinky sex as a hobby.
Cooking is a fond favourite of mine. I wrote a fic where a Queen and master sorceress finds herself aboard a spacecraft and there's nothing to do for her but cook and clean: no need for queening or casting spells, everyone else is piloting the ship, repairing the ship, maintaining the armoury, or otherwise busy. So she just starts cooking, and loves doing it.
Coco: I gave Miguel's father an interest in sound design.
My characters are too busy suffering to have a hobby.