Character Skills: #Preptober, Day 6

It’s day 6 of Preptober, and I’m here to talk about Skills.

What kinds of skills does your character have? As Napoleon Dynamite observes:

“Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bow-hunting skills, computer hacking skills.”

My MC, Ara, is a ninja. So she’s definitely got nunchuck skills covered.

She’s also pretty handy with a katana, and can throw shuriken with deadly accuracy. Her silent sneaking game is on point. She is an expert-level martial artist, and there’s a strong possibility that she can make you disintegrate just by directing a hard stare your way.

On the other hand, she’s never even heard of computers, so she’s definitely not a computer hacking expert. She’s never set foot inside a public school, and wouldn’t know what to do with a textbook.

She’s got street smarts, but not book smarts.

When thinking about skills for your character, remember that some skills are about technical mastery, while others are more about social engineering. Computer hacking, for instance, uses both. You might be able to guess someone’s password with a little bit of social engineering (particularly if their password is their birthday or middle name), or you can bust into their account using brute force by designing some code that puts together all possible password combos and runs through through the system.

What kinds of skills does your character have, and how will they come in handy in your story?

Want to prep with me?

Fill in the same info for one of YOUR main characters, post it on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!