Prompting for Your Character

It's a bot, until you add character.

You've created your bot. Now let's explore more prompting tools.

You've created your bot. You've worked through Prompting 101 for the foundations. You may have borrowed a few templates from the Starter Prompt Library.

This article helps you add more depth to your character. You'll find tools for adding layers, writing strong well-rounded prompts, bringing a flat bot to life, and directing the action when your bot makes videos.

We'll work through it in two parts. Part 1 sharpens the personality. Part 2 directs the action.

Start with an archetype

A named archetype gives you a strong starting silhouette. Before you write a single line of prompt, outline what type of character you're making. Borrow from known tropes or archetypes, or create your own. A few from the Starter Prompt Library:

• Roast Bot — sharp, observational, doesn't soften the burn.
• Mentor Bot — warm, patient, structured.
• Disappointed Dad — emotionally restrained, devastating with a single sigh.

Each archetype implies a voice, a posture, a comedic or emotional register.

Add layers to your bot

A bot becomes a character when you give it dimensions beyond a single label. Bot Building Basics covers the three pillars — appearance, voice, and personality. This article gets specific about how to add depth to personality.

Layer a few lines in your prompt:

Identity — who they are, what they want, what they're for.

You are a retired stand-up comic turned line cook. You write recipes the way you used to write jokes.

Voice — how they speak. Rhythm, vocabulary, signature phrases.

You speak in short, punchy sentences. You drop articles like "the" when you're irritated. You say "listen" before making a point.

Quirks — specific tics, hangups, recurring themes.

You bring up your ex-wife unprompted. You hate cilantro and will say so. You always end recipes with "don't overthink it."

Constraints — what they refuse to do or never say.

You never apologize for being blunt. You don't soften criticism.

Escape hatches — what they fall back to when they don't know.

If asked about something outside cooking, deflect with a one-liner and steer back to food.

Once you define each line, you can stack these as the bot's identity.

Tell them what not to do

Negative prompts are as powerful as positive ones. Telling a Roast Bot don't soften the burn is more useful than just describing the burn. Telling a Mentor Bot never use sarcasm keeps their tone encouraging and light, instead of condescending or unkind.

A strong prompt isn't all negative. Use a few well-placed don'ts to keep your character within the boundaries you've set.

Examples that shape a character's voice and behavior:

• You never laugh at your own jokes.
• Don't apologize.
• Never raise your voice.
• Never use sarcasm.
• Never give compliments.
• Never ask questions.

A few rules of thumb:

• Be specific. Don't be boring is too vague. Don't ask questions is actionable.
• Watch for over-correction. If your bot starts feeling brittle or hostile, you've layered too many constraints. Pull one or two.

Fix a flat bot

Does your bot seem flat? Is it too positive or too agreeable? Is it too bland?

• Too positive or too agreeable. Add stronger opinions. Give them things they hate.
• Bland speech. Add example phrases, signature openers, words they reach for. Specifics like they call french fries chips or they end every text with "k".
• Repeats themselves. Add a vary your phrasing instruction to the prompt.

Worked example: Roast Bot

Let's walk Roast Bot from a flat starting prompt to a layered, distinctive bot.

Pass 1 — flat:

You roast people.

This is a starting point. Your bot will roast, but with whatever default sense of humor the model brings. Adding more detail helps it become the bot you imagine.

Pass 2 — layered:

You are a Roast Bot. You roast creators with sharp, observational humor. You speak in short, punchy sentences. You don't soften the burn. You don't apologize.

Better. The voice has shape. The constraints are doing some work. Still missing: signature moves, a fallback for off-topic moments, specific personality hooks.

Pass 3 — layered prompt:

You are a Roast Bot. Your specialty is taking small details people share and turning them into devastating one-liners. You insult through observation.

You speak in short, punchy sentences like a comic who knows the room is hostile. You sometimes start with "okay so" or "let me get this straight."

You reference 90s sitcoms unprompted. You always have a theory about why someone is the way they are.

You never laugh at your own jokes. You don't soften the burn. Don't apologize.

If someone asks something that isn't roastable, deflect with "that's a yes-and-no situation" and pivot to something you can roast.

This is how you grow from a bot to a character. You create a specific identity by layering:

• The rhythm of their voice
• Their signature phrases
• The quirks that make them special
• The constraints they're locked into
• Their fallback when they're stuck

Direct the action

An Action Prompt creates the action of a scene. Where a standard Imagine prompt describes a result — a woman walking on a runway — an Action Prompt directs what happens — she walks, pauses, glares, and the camera follows.

It works through the same layering technique as a personality prompt. Stack the action, the transitions, the camera moves, and the setting together.

Example:

The pale alien woman struts, glares, and transforms into a cloud of bats that fly toward camera. This is a high fashion show. The camera tracks forward, focusing on her.

What's working in this prompt:

• Sequencing. "struts, glares, then transforms" tells the model the order of actions.
• Transformation verbs. "transforms into," "shifts into," "morphs" trigger a scene change.
• Camera direction. "the camera tracks forward," "cut to," "zoom on" shape the cinematography.
• Setting anchor. "This is a high fashion show" frames the whole scene with a single line.

A few more examples in different registers:

Character action:

She enters the diner, scans the room, then locks eyes with the man at the counter. The camera holds on her face.

Transformation:

The forest shifts at dusk. The trees fold into shadows. A figure emerges from the dark, walking toward camera.

Mood:

He sips coffee at the window. Slow zoom. The cup trembles. Cut to a phone vibrating on the table.

A few moves to try in your own Action Prompts:

• Chain three actions in order, separated by commas.
• End with a transformation or a camera move so the video resolves on a strong beat.
• Anchor the setting in one sentence near the start so the model doesn't drift.
• Use sensory cues — slow zoom, cut to, the cup trembles — to add texture beyond the literal action.

Keep going

• Prompting 101 — the foundations.
• Starter Prompt Library — copy-and-remix templates.
• Bot Building Basics — craft companion for the Bot Builder.
• How to Create a Bot — step-by-step walkthrough.