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SugarRos
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#1
Old 04-14-2010, 05:55 PM

Hello fellow writers. I'd like to chat a bit about characters. About the characters you create and the characters your friends create. What are you favorite characters like? How to you come up with them? How do you know if a character truely clicks with your story?

I've been working on my novel for a few years now, and it's something I truely believe will be published (and I'm not saying that from an ill-informed opinion, either ;) ), and I've fallen in love with all of my characters.

....except for one.

This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that I NEED him. He's the main character's love interest. One of two, yes, but for the first book he's the most important! And the horrible thing is he doesn't have a personality.

ARGH!

Anyway, I also have a very strong female lead character whom I think readers will absolutely fall in love with as I have, along with those she comes in contact with throughout the series. Especially the little girl in the book, who, thoughout four books, grows and grows and grows into a VERY kick-ass character.

I simply love creating new characters, AND developing them from the beginning stages to the completed project. It's very ceel to see how they grow over the years.

PrimroseDream
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#2
Old 04-17-2010, 08:00 AM

Characters are one of my favourite subjects, actually. I really love characters, all sorts.

I've got a lot of characters - like, hundreds. Because I never got rid of my old ones even with their mistakes; I just repaired them. So I'll never really run out, plus making new ones is always a thrill. To me, the way a character clicks is with A, the setting and B, the other characters. Beyond that, as long as they aren't forced, they make sense within the story.

My favourite characters have always been flawed ones.
They don't have to be evil with a heart of gold but ones that feel real. More specifically than that, I adore characters with lives! You know, it's like... your character should be able to live a life that's kind of fun to watch without the story taking place, I feel. But traits in characters I like to see... well I like responsible, sturdy and dependable characters. And friendly ones - nothing beats a good friendly character! One of my favourite characters is the main character of something I'm writing - she's always engrossed in her work and despite being quite pretty would much rather get things done than get married into riches which she could quite easily do. What I like about her is that she gives you the impression of someone quite meek and timid but is very strong in terms of opinion and personality.

There's no real way I come up with characters, though. They just kinda come to me. The most common ways I suppose would be by appearance and by anger - like, when you read or watched something and got disappointed. That's a great way to get new ideas, I find.

The greatest thing about characters is perspective!
If you look at the world from every characters' perspective, it's quite amazing. No one thinks that they're selfish or vain but they could very well be.

As for your love interest fellow... I've had that problem before too. Usually the reverse, though.xD There are many ways to go about making him interesting, though. I find the more specific you are (even about anal things) the more real they become and the more you know, the more you can make interesting. But for the personality, you should go and look at characters you like or hate and try to figure out why you like or hate them... going from there can yield some interesting results, I fidn.

Ahaha ... sorry I rambled. I love the subject of characters ...xD

Lathrine
theatre major from nurse school
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#3
Old 04-21-2010, 07:48 PM

I'm with Primrose there. Except for maybe... one character, I've never really gotten rid of any, despite their- sometimes cringe worthy- mistakes. Most of my favorite ones to work with just sort of evolved to who they are now through use and repair.

I have two favorites of my characters- A pirate captain who aaaalmost became a noble at the beginning of his story, and a priest who died and then was brought back to life. The priest was originally a fan character, and went through three or four reboots/repairs before he reached this point.

I don't think I really have a way to come up with characters. Sometimes I'll just be thinking and a character idea will float through my head or be spawned from what ever I'm thinking about and I'll go "OH THEY'RE NEAT," then next thing I know BAM new character. Sometimes they'll be results of general silliness, or from necessity. Like most of my pirate captain's crew- And I still stand by my friends' and Is' reasoning that angels make awesome pirates. And equally as often I'll have thought "Oh, I want a XXX character." and got to work on it.

As for if my characters click with my story, well, ah... I don't, right off. Normally I have to work and write about them for quite a while before I know if they'll work. And quite often they don't right off, but I'll like them enough that I keep shoving them at the story until they DO.

About your character, though; Eek. D: That's never a fun position to be in. Hopefully you'll find a personality for him soon. I... I have no suggestions for his personality, sadly.

funnybunny
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#4
Old 05-01-2010, 09:02 PM

Hey. I'm not really a professional or anything; I've only just finished my very first short story. I'm working on a few more, but I really need a strong personality for one of them. My main character's a guy, but to me, his current personality kinda leads towards more feminine. I'll have to work on him. xD

I love making up characters. It's my favorite part of writing. :) Usually, I make up the characters before the plot, and I always seem to have to add descriptions about the specifics: what they're wearing, their exact hair color, skin tone, voice pitch, etc. It's a little difficult to be more general.

Names are so much fun to make up. I try not to use really common names like Jennifer or Bob or something to make it more original, but here and there I find it okay to use a semi-common name. Although, I think half of the character's personality comes from the name. Usually, I sculpt the characters in my mind and then start with something. By the second or third sentence, I've usually got a plot. xD

I have got to get my ideas onto paper!!! I'm full of them, but if I don't write it down, then I'm lost.

It was fun talking about characters! They have so much to give to the story.

Goblin Maiden
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#5
Old 05-04-2010, 04:33 PM

For me, creating characters and expanding on their lives and personalities is one of the BEST parts of creating a story! Not to mention one of the most important, but it helps that, for me, it is also extremely fun and creative. 8D

I'll list an example! For one story of mine, I had characters that I liked, but... there was just something OFF about them. I could not figure out what... So I left them alone for a little while (not like they were going anywhere, right?). Then I just recently came back, and I realized what the problem was:

They were ALL Mary-Sues.

I was horrified, and quickly went about making changes that would make them less Mary-Sue-ish, but still keep their original character-ness at least SOMEWHAT intact. Even if it was a little. And after talking with someone I know and thinking about it myself, the solutions came to me! Now they are fleshed out and real and not Mary-Sues! Rejoicing ensued!

What I've found has really helped me is going through a character bio checklist thing. Such as:

-What was this character's childhood like?
-What are his parents like? Does he not have parents? Is he an orphan? Does he have a guardian, or is he self-reliant?
-What was this character's ambition for his life growing up?
-What is this character's favorite food? Least favorite?
-What is her favorite time of day? Why?

And stuff like that. Even the littlest details, such as their favorite color, are important in the long run, because I feel they help flesh out the character and make them more real. 8D This character bio thing is something that I really only discovered recently; before I would just hash out their characters on my own. That worked for the overall grand scheme of things, but not really for the finer details of their personas. I really want to get more into this, because I personally find it very helpful. 8D Not to mention that it is fun.

purplewaterbottle
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#6
Old 05-18-2010, 02:16 AM

I create my characters based on the personality and life I wish I had, and they tend to be more dark. I like to give a vague shape to them and as I write the story I let the name I pick for them fill in the blanks for me. If I over plan I ruin them and they don't even seem likeaible. Character to me take more time for me to make beacause the characters in the books I read are so amazing I try to create that in my writing.

Milady Purity
Watch for me as the sky turns go...
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#7
Old 05-24-2010, 12:00 PM

Oh jeez. I have so many characters, it's not even funny. I mean really, in my novel, there have to be at least seventy five named ones. I could list them all off here, but that would be dumb. ;o;
I feel like I love all of my characters, despite the fact that they can be really hard to write sometimes... Like Daemyen. I can't write him well, because he's my first insane character. And Emrys, he's such a gentleman, I can't even fathom it... Emmuska's the easiest, cause she's got a personality like mine... >o>

nero123
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#8
Old 06-12-2010, 04:12 AM

I have one character that has been re-made so many times he can fit into nearly any story...I call him my multipurpose character since I can edit his details easily.

Most of my main characters are swordsman or weild a blade weapon.

Writer_Poet
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#9
Old 06-13-2010, 06:00 PM

My characters aren't your average ones. My main character is pretty much insane. Not that this is a bad thing. It's her part of the story. She was the jock of the school until somethings in her past came back making her crazy. Out of all of my characters she is my favorite. Why? She's the most down to Earth. Her protector as I call him is so mysterious sometimes I wonder if I have even given him any personality. Although I have apparently.

I agree with Goblin Maiden. Dig deeper into his past. Dig deeper into his thoughts. Keep going. I am sure you will find something you can go with.

Writing can be challenging at times but I know it's worth it. At least for me anyway.

Good luck finding his personality! xD

 


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