A question for the fiction writters...

In developing a character, where does one find an inspiration? Do you just people watch or is there another way?

 

For me, you can't just peg a method. I got an idea for one character while studying the muscular systems of the body and the different types of tissue... others develop around a plot, some around a name. People watching is always helpful, and pulling from one's own experience is also a common and useful method. You'll have to find your own path on that one, really.

Hope that helps,

~Aanix

 

It helps. Thanks. Now I got another question........when describing a character for the first time, what is too much and what is good? Attributes...and stuff..

 

My O/C's come kicking and screaming out of my consciousness and onto the page

Generally it's harder to just blindly start writing a character w/o having an idea of their personalities or motivations to begin with... you have to be really good at your craft to do that.

I think doing some initial planning always helps. How will the O/C affect the story? Will the O/C play a major or minor part in the tale? If you tend to be longwinded in your writing (like me ) you have plenty of time to develop and nurture your characters, allowing them to grow and evolve throughout the story. If your story is shorter- you better plan out the character well ahead of time and be willing to lay out a lot of details soon to the readers.

I generally get inspiration from the characters in both SW sagas of films. The O/C's I write are ones of whom I would expect would survive and live and breathe alongside the characters established by GL or the EU. Then I use my own lifetime of experience spent of people watching to add in layers to make the character richer and more interesting.

when describing a character for the first time, what is too much and what is good? Attributes...and stuff..

It depends on the character. If the character is going to play a huge role in the fic- I believe you should be willing to sit down and give a good, full on description to give the readers, height, eye-color, hair-color, age, kinds of clothes, etc. I tend to try not be vague if the character is going to be important. Give the readers a good head-on view of the person initially, then you can lighten up on the physical presence details as you go along.

 

Thanks Padme. I'll take that under consideration. I agree with the main character discription limit, but don't know how to go about doing so without making it monotonous or sounding like america's most wanted.

 

LOL!

Here's how I introduced my O/C Brukos Olissian in my current fic TCAQ for an example:

From the shadows of the doorframe a man approximately six-foot in height entered the room. Bald, with almond colored complexion, sporting a black goatee, a crooked hooked nose, and sparkling hazel eyes, the man bowed deeply to the Queen. Nobody would call the man handsome, but his smile lit up his eyes, brightening his otherwise plain appearance. He wore a comfortable outfit with the shirt made of a durable tan tweed fabric, covered by a dark brown cape, brown leather pants, and high laced up leather boots that completed his rugged ensemble. He stood apart from all of the overpriced fops who paraded through the hall earlier in the day with his relatively ordinary apparel. His smile stretched from ear to ear as he said, ?Greetings, Queen Mother Tenel Ka.?

 

I often get inspiration from feelings, situations, and thinking about it.

 

Wow. thats good Padme. Where can I read more of your work? Its good.

 

You think you can get something published and you've never written before? Connection's ain't everything.

 

Hmm - dose Ornen know something we don't - Anyway, you bring up an interesting point. I suppose I have a lot of OCs and I usually try to not only tell the reader about physical atributes, but the 'feel' of the character as well by using the environment to compliment them, lol. I don't know if that made any sense

Here's how I introduced an OC in one of my stories.

The haunting cries were carried to the ears of a young boy who took shelter from the icy winds behind a stone pillar. With a shiver he pulled the thick fabric of his cloak closer. Looking up the child silently searched the empty ramparts and courtyard below - often he had been told of stories of Sith Lords and Ladies who would return from the grave to haunt the castle. Satisfied that no spirits were wandering the castle grounds he leaned against the stone with a sigh. He hated waiting. A sudden burst of wind effortlessly pulled the hood of the head of the boy - who quickly pulled it back over top of his mop of black hair. As he finished replacing his hood he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

-Dia

 

i get ideas from almost everything; depending on what the thing i got the idea from is good or not. (like that makes sense lol)

 

Original characters etc come from the rage/passion that I contain within me, so they all turn out as evil, angry villains.

 

In my OCs I usually plot ahead of time what role they are going to play in the fic. That role will determine what they look and act like. Also, I don't describe them very much, leaving much to the imagination of my readers. I find that the actions and words the OCs use do more to solidify how they are perceived than actual description. Here's one of my OCs.

A feminine voice rang out, troubled and angry. "Kenobi's here!?" The sounds turned sarcastic. "Well, about damn time. Ten years of ignoring you and he just waltzes in here without a word."

"Le', please. Can't you just let it be, just for a little while? I've missed him. Now, he's here. Let's at least pretend he's here to see me."

"So, now, it comes down to pretense. Qui, love, he's hurt you every day. I could see it in your eyes, hear it in your voice. I won't let him hurt you again." The sound of water stopped. "All right, all right, for your sake, I'll be civil." Soft noises and a heavy sigh. "Why is he here anyway? A mission?"

"Not a visit, not after all this time. Look, I've left him out there. Go and be polite while I change... Polite, mind."

Another sarcastic "Yes, oh wise Master."

The sound of footsteps coming his way galvanized Obi-Wan to step back into the center of the common room. The woman who entered was about forty years old, tall, with braided waist-length red hair and piercing green eyes, relatively thin, although her waistline had begun to thicken with pregnancy. Le'orath Jinn was not beautiful, but striking in the classic sense, so much so that, after a moment's reflection, mere beauty would seem unimportant. She filled the space with her presence, her emerald eyes staring straight into the soul.

Sorry it's so long but I think that the character is much more established with her words than her appearance.

 

True, I kind of like to "space" the character description throughout the story. I might do something sketchy with a character, then flesh out fuller details (height, weight, eyecolor) as I go along. I generally don't get into clothing unless it's significant, because it reminds me too much of those old "Nancy Drew" stories where the author goes into two paragraphs of what outfit she's wearing when she crawls through the window of the abandoned mine...

"Nancy brushed a lock of Titian-blonde hair out of her eyes, and sighed, thinking ruefully of her apple-green linen skirt with the new ruffled silk blouse of soft ivory. Her ivory pumps weren't very practical, but the old gypsy woman's stories of lights from the abandoned mine were too suspicious to ignore!"

My friends and I finally had to ask our moms just what "pumps" were!!!

 

I have to say I don't agree that it's always a good idea to fully describe your main characters. If their physical description's not important to the plot, it can be better to leave it out. This also helps people identify better with the character, as they can imagine someone who looks a bit like them if you don't tell them otherwise.
I'm writing a novel, for instance, where all you know about what the character looks like is that she's small and has dark hair. The rest really isn't important- she could be pretty, ugly, black, white, curvey, flat... whatever the reader needs her to look like. Even if it's important to your character or your story that he/she be attractive, you can just say that they're attractive, and let your reader decide what that means.

This obviously isn't always true-- there are times when listing off a character's vitals is necessary, useful, or contributes to the story. But it can be tricky to describe a character without over-describing them or interrupting the flow of the story (the mirror trick's been done to death and back).

Clothing is another kettle of fish entirely, as it can tell you a lot about a character's culture, outlook, etc..., as well as letting people know what orginizations they belong to (Jedi, storm troopers, handmaidens, etc). But again, it's about sharing only what's important.

So ask yourself: is this necessary? is the fact that my character has grey eyes important to the story?

Having a paragraph-long description of what a character looks like is difficult to do without distracting readers from the story. This is one of the key differences between writing and film: in a movie, you get your physical description across in less than a second. You see the character, you see what they look like, and you see what they're wearing without ever having to stop and pay attention. When writing, you have to remember that time is passing even though you aren't going with it.
Unless you've got a narrator who's seeing a character for the first time and is describing to the reader what they see because they're actually noticing it, chances are, you're going to have to pause from the story to look at the character, which is tricky and difficult to pull off.

 

I must admit, I'm not imaginative enough to come up with original ideas. I normally pull inspiration from other novels I've read, movies I've seen, and sometimes even television shows. For example, one of my OC's now is loosely based on a character from "Casino Royal," a James Bond novel.

~Inyri

 

I watch the world around me in quite a different way of others I know - very datail-oriented.

I just take feelings, impressions, thoughts, and work on them.

That's mostly what I do.

 

I'm an incorrigible people-watcher. My idea of a great time is sitting in a mall, airport, restaurant, or any area where a lot of people have gathered and just observing. (Naturally, the security guards think I'm a bit odd. ) One thing I've learned is that you can tell a lot about a person from his or her gestures and expressions. Humans can experience an incredible range of emotions, and the expression of these feelings is necessary for us to communicate effectively. One of the most disconcerting people I've ever met almost never showed any emotion. You couldn't tell if she was happy or angry or just contemplative without asking her, and the times she did smile or frown or grimace there was always a lurking question of Is she actually feeling something or is this just for the benefit of the audience? It made me step back for a moment and analyze everything I do in connection with communication, with some interesting results.

Many of my characters are also drawn from real life. At least, certain aspects of them are. I don't think I've ever consciously lifted someone from my life and put him on paper, but some of the personality traits that I've encountered definitely make their way into my OC's.

Description, at least for me, is not much of a concern. I try to establish the very basics--eye color, hair color, relative height--right away, but most of it is left to the reader to imagine. Sometimes I have a clear idea of what my characters look like and sometimes I don't. I do, however, usually have a pretty good idea of how each character sounds and speaks. The voices of my characters are more important to me than their appearances. I also usually have a good feel for the character's backstory. I don't necessarily know everything that's happened in the character's life, but I have a general idea of what motivates him and what caused him to lead the life he currently lives.

 

"Write what you know." That's always the first note of advice uttered by a successful author, editor, or teacher/professor. It's a mantra I use when creating my characters and situations.

Of course, I've never piloted an X-wing or struck down a Sith Lord, so I can't say I "know" what those characters would go through or be "about". But I don't think that's exactly what the advice means.

As an example, my story "Exile of the Haunted Knight" was about a Jedi who fell from grace, overcome with the grief and guilt he felt for not saving a doomed society, despite his best efforts. To develop the character, I tapped into my personal experiences dealing with the tragedy of a plane accident. From that experience, I incorporated into the character everything I had felt, and took him down a road of emotional evolution that I could see as plausible.

When creating a character for a story who does not have an emotional link to your own experiences, seek out friends or family who may. They can be a great source of reference!

 

Interesting thoughts, Xaara. It's very like I do watch and observe people, too.

 

Find your inspiration wherever it finds you. I find it in news stories, in sleepless nights, in watching movies, in reading books, especially among my friends.

 

Also, remember that you dont have to completly describe an OC in the first post she/he/it appears in, take time to devolp your OC throughout the story. I think the best example of this would be Narundi Jedi's OC Brodey, she has numerous fics with that OC, and even in the latter ones she still is adding new layers to the characther.

The only problem with this is that some might percive your OC as a mary sue if you dont mix in some faults as well. Just blend your OC and visulise she/he/it as a real person, and if it seems to unrealistic, change it so it is acceptable.





________________________________
"Beware laughter, of the PrankSide it is"
PsychoSniper

 

Great advise, 3MD. Think of it as meeting and befriending a real person. You won't learn everything about him/her in your first introductions. As you talk and become more acquainted, more about the character emerges. Heck, there are elements about my best friend of twenty years that I am only now discovering.

 

I draw stuff from other people, although it seems that a lot of my characters draw from me as well. What's weird is that I've sometimes depicted things with characters and their feelings before it happened to me, but it still happened to me. Now, that's weird.

Describing characters.... Well, I'm still new at this writing thing, and I'm only now learning to build characters. I make questions and answer them. You see, I got to wondering what would happen in such and such situation and I wanted to know my character better that I had to know.

Hope it helps. If I've repeated stuff, it's because it's really late where I am.

~Laine

 

My O/Cs are oddities... they pop up out of everything.

Actually, when I started writing my "Shadows of Conflict" fanfic series, I started by coming up with characters by peopling my universe with archetypes... One of the characters was originally the ultimate Marty Stu, I have have your basic evil bad guys, I started with the idea of having a character based on Lara Croft, but her character was severely warped based on fanfic written by a friend of mine, and the Tomb Raider mantle has been taken by another character (which, when I reveal who that character is, will be REALLY WEIRD). I have yet to introduce my "Buffy" and "Angel" inspired characters, but they're coming. I also have your basic gangsters, longsuffering friends, and stoic Jedi.

The same thing is currently happening with the handmaidens in my "The Cost of Honor." I'm just plugging in backstories to create a diverse group, and the readers are absolutely loving them... I'm pulling them out of the air, but they're taking on real lives of their own.

I've found also that creating a people-group just to fill a spot will lead to massive inspiration. Back when freak-pudding was doing her challenges, I created what I called the Kameer, a race of aliens that I imagine sort of as sentient meerkats from Russia. I created them just so I could have a non-human Jedi Master to break up the monotony (I have humans all over the place), but the Kameer have wormed their way into my greater story like nothing I've ever seem. They've become allies to my conference of powers in the Shadows of Conflict, as well as thrown into the backstories of two influential characters. They've been thrown into the mix, though only in passing, in the Cost of Honor. They've shown up in references I make in round robins, and I'm even thinking of doing a "Master Rostov" vignette series.

To that end, I'll also throw in a note about the "Ghastly Fiction Challenge" we had on this board a month ago... I posted "A Planet Forgotten," and, needing a scary group of people, based a race of women on the old Halloween cliche of Banshees. The Baan'shi, however, have overstepped their vignette and worked their way into my plans for "The Shadows of Conflict - Parts 5: Advancing the Fronts." In the meantime, they'll be kept alive by references, by a few short glimpses, and, quite possibly, by their involvement in yet another story about a character whose recent round-robin debut has thrown another plot bunny into the mix.

Phew! Relax. Characters will come.