McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Hark! (Characters)
Jack_of_Names:
--- Quote from: terioncalling on December 05, 2006, 03:02:40 AM ---Posting because I find this amusing...I'm slowly forming a character who's spawning from a poem that was inspired solely by the word snickersnack. And he has a mentor/trainer guy who's dead but not dead. Beyond that, I've got nothing.
But it was all spawned by the word snickersnack. And I felt I should share.
--- End quote ---
Does the main character weild a vorpal sword? And more importantly, was it brillig? Did the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe? Were the borogoves all mimsy? And did the mome raths outgrabe? Questions that needed asking, I feel.
terioncalling:
--- Quote from: Jack_of_Names on December 12, 2006, 01:33:30 AM ---
--- Quote from: terioncalling on December 05, 2006, 03:02:40 AM ---Posting because I find this amusing...I'm slowly forming a character who's spawning from a poem that was inspired solely by the word snickersnack. And he has a mentor/trainer guy who's dead but not dead. Beyond that, I've got nothing.
But it was all spawned by the word snickersnack. And I felt I should share.
--- End quote ---
Does the main character weild a vorpal sword? And more importantly, was it brillig? Did the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe? Were the borogoves all mimsy? And did the mome raths outgrabe? Questions that needed asking, I feel.
--- End quote ---
Heh, I don't even know the main character's name yet...need to work on that, I do.
Wolfeyes:
--- Quote ---The character just shows up inside my head one day and says, "HEY! Oy! *Waves arms* Listen to me!"
--- End quote ---
That pretty much fits most of my characters ;). My heroine for the story I'm working on came from some random character I was working on for an RP but then she kind of put into a lot of ideas that fit her story to explain why she is the person she is. Then before I know it other characters (like the main one responsible for setting her down the road of crap she has to trudge through) end up appearing in my head and on the paper usually the way they want. It's kind of odd. Usually I have an idea of a character I want and try to plan it out with said character including giving them back stories, appearances, names that could or could not be tentative based on what they originally came to me as but when I actually start to write them they change a lot than what I intended. However, usually I like the change because it feels more natural but if they go too far I can pull them back a bit.
My favorite example of this is one of my primary characters, Hilliard. Originally, though he was a charismatic leader his problem was he was going to be a shameless, beat up upon, funny flirt. But because he ended up being noble born he ended up having a certain air that gave him class and when he flirted it was usually done as a gentleman. And he never got hit like I wanted him too, shame, because the character I got from writing ended up having traits and characteristics that made Hilliard himself that didn't match up with some of his original traits.
etoiline:
I haven't had very many characters leap out at me, but once I've created them, they usually take off and do whatever they want to do. In my 2006 NaNo novel, the main character decided that he absolutely could notbe 13, and had to be 16, and I said, okay. He also decided that he was going on a quest to find his dragon, which I did not expect at all. And the entire story changed when my writers meetup group started talking about cultural mores and how some cultures didn't think it was a bad thing to leave unwanted babies to die of exposure. Guess what happened to my kid?
I will say one thing, though...nearly all of my characters demand that they get to learn magic, at least in some form. How they go about it is different in each story, for which I'm thankful.
Sometimes I do find it helpful to write down a few facets of the character, just for reference. I try to find a picture that resembles my mental image (or forms it), or failing that, I draw him or her. Sometimes that's better, or at least it was this year...
~Cal
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