Character Help

This is the place to talk about and ask about character development. It's not always easy to get them right. (And almost impossible to get them to behave)

I think we all have our own way of going about it, but that doesn't mean we don't need someone to talk to sometimes.

Personally I tend to say that I don't make my characters. I meet them. Mostly when I need a character for something one will show up and at first I know absolutely nothing about him/her. Then I put them in a situation with other characters, and I find that fanfic characters can be useful for this even when I am working on an original story. I try to make the situation so the characters have time to talk or need to learn something about each other. That's when I start learning things. My new character starts interacting with the others and that helps me see some of what he/she is like. If I'm lucky he/she will start telling the others about background, history, likes and dislikes, etc.
I very rarely write anything down during this process.
After more than a few hours of mental playing like that I end up with a character I can start writing with. My characters are almost never fully developed when I start and also develop as the story progresses.

Well, that's roughly how I go about it. If this isn't how you go about it then that is by no means wrong. There are excellent character questionnaires out there that are very useful to a lot of writers. There is one posted here at Aarin by Ridiculess: http://aarinfantasy.com/forum/f178/t...s_updated.html

So, please share how you do it and ask anything you want about characters.

I start with background. Bold facts that may become important plot points later. Is there trauma, phobia or a life-turning event in the background? Any particular quirks or opinions, odd views, whatever private history it is that makes them different from everyone else. I make sure to note that stuff before I begin writing the character. Even if the fact doesn't get spoken of directly, it will influence the character in certain situations and he - as a person - will probably always have it lurking in the back of his mind all the time. I like to emote, imagine scenes from first person, determine how that person takes things in, what goes through his head, and *that* decides what actions/reactions I write for him. If I don't know the backstory, I can't get in his head. Winging it means any future "backstory" I add could cause continuity issues - I can't reveal a trauma I didn't have in mind from the start because that will change his reactions to everything (subtly, maybe, but the difference will still be there).

Maybe that's why I enjoy doing fanfiction. The characters are defined (my interpretations of them) and so all that's left is to wear his shoes to see how they'll act in a given situation. Even then, I make sure to add any additions to the backstory before I write, so it doesn't mess the interpretation up later on.

My biggest problem is fanfic characters who aren't at all defined in the series. Questionable motives, seemingly random actions - I don't know what backstory the creator was referencing, so I honestly can't get in those characters' heads without turning them into original OOC's with a familiar name.

I usually begin with a name, a face and a feeling to start a story and the MC will tell me the story on his own.
I rarely put something down because they 'live' in my head and allmost everything I know about them is in my head.
But with side characters... they usually appear when I think about an event, like one of my characters meets an old friend wich he also sortof dated for a while, nothing serious, but the looks he had came with him immedietly...

I could use some help with a character. I am planning a couple of webcomics for when I get better at drawing and one of them will be about a superhero. "Classic" reluctant hero kind of thing.
My problem is that I have no idea what his power should be.

A bit of info on him might help. His name is Alucard. (Don't blame me, blame his mother. She was hooked on the Castlevania games.) He's an artist; doing mostly painting.
He doesn't like his power and tries to avoid using it if he can. He's not interested in saving the world or anything like that, he just wants to paint.

So, anyone have any ideas what his power might be? Brainstorming and random ideas are very very welcome. I am hoping that if I see enough different kinds of superhero powers Alucard will nudge me in the shoulder and say "that's the one". *crossing fingers*

Thank you in advance if you want to help me out.

Do you want his talent to be connected to his painting hobby? Paint things and they become real (creating monsters to fight for him, or painting chains and having them become there in real life). Painting scenes of the future in a fugue state, really annoying when they come right in the middle of a difficult project, like having little clues littered all over a portrait, especially if they keep popping up until he addresses them. If he specializes in portraits, he could see into the person he paints, or if he does landscapes he could see events pertaining to that location (future, past, potential).

Or if this is a really x-men type world, he could have a very physical talent that's at odds with his preferred 'sedentary' life in front of a canvas. Abnormal strength, a physical transformation, walking through walls (I just like that one). If he's a well known public figure, famous painter, then he'd be forced to conceal his identity. A transformation or mask/costume would be an additional reason for him to resent his 'super hero' role. I prefer transformation because then it could activate when needed - regardless of what he's doing at the moment, making it even more inconvenient for him (but something he can't fight unless he's willing to keep on painting in his changed state).

If he paints because he likes being closed in, or because he prefers avoiding people, then his talent could be something that puts him into open spaces (flight) and surrounded by crowds. If he dislikes certain types of people because of his past, then he could be forced to help and interact with those exact types of people due to his super hero role.

You can tell I like reluctant heroes who have a very good reason to be reluctant. If they just don't want to be bothered (think Ichigo in the beginning of Bleach) then they'll probably cave in and start doing it because they want to before long. The ones who really are inconvenienced get to keep griping throughout (and justifiably so).

I can't quite pinpoint the power yet, but I really feel like I've gotten a huge step closer after reading your post. So many great ideas! I really like the x-men type ideas. You're good at this!

I like the reluctant heroes too. I tend to favor the ones who don't want to do it, but get put into situations where they have to anyway. And griping can be so fun! Specially sarcastic comments muttered only half to themselves.

I've been putting anime characters into a mutanty x-men type world for a while now, so I like brainstorming on how to translate a given character's personality quirks into a talent. The biggest problem I have is that I'm rooted in reality. I'm more likely to lean toward telepathy/telekinesis, things that could fit (and be hidden) in normal people. I have trouble with talents that involve a big green man or guys in spandex outfits flying across the sky of a modern day city. I keep seeing them being discussed on a talk show, or made fun of in Times magazine, and it ruins the spell. I like very powerful but understated, easy to hide, talents. If they feed off or oppose the character's personality quirks, then they're even easier to believe in. I don't think Clark Kent would work in the modern day. The x-men team only works because the entire world has changed - mutant outbreak shocks people to the point where they'll believe anything - and they have that seemingly normal mentor to speak for them when they're under pressure from the 'normal' people. Heck, if you get enough mutants in a world it's the normal people who are bizarre. In that case you can have guys who transform into godzilla type monsters and no one would think twice about it.

the one thing about character development is to build a "believable character." you dont want to give too much info about your character in the begining, well kind of obvious after all its called character developement. I dont feel like typing what has already been mentioned. i believe arigatomina did a good job explaining

so glad i found this group

i need some serious help with my own character in my original story. she's basically the main 'reluctant-yet willing type' of character.
the way the story starts is sort of her 'beginnings', now i sort of have the part where all this is thrust onto her unexpectedly, but the follow up part of how she's supposed to deal with this whole 'i have to save the world and in the process give up everything i know, but at the same time hold on to the things that make the world worth saving...' it sort of goes quiet in my head at this point and i draw a blank.
Now i already know how she's gonna turn out, as the way i write my stories isn't exactly start - middle - end, but rather 'whatever ideas link up; so i have her basic personality 'after' the change, but the problem is building to that change, you know 'the process' of how she becomes the reluctant-brooding-can't leave her alone-don't involve anyone else kind of character and i know its these stages of development that make her and ultimately the book make sense.

Sorry if this all sounds like rambling, i'm not very good at translating my thoughts to actual words

I've been trying to figure out what to write in reply to you, but as you've said yourself it can be quite hard to figure out what might cause a personality change. I think it depends on who she was to begin with as much as who she ends up as.

For example, losing someone they love might make some people feel like giving up and never want to love again, but it might make others feel even more determined to go on and live life to the fullest. You can have ten people experience the same thing and get fifteen different responses.

I think that without the details I can only tell you what I usually do when trying to figure out characters. I let them experience lots of different things and see how they react to them. In end up using few to none of the experiences in the story itself, but it really helps me to understand how the characters work and how they react to things. Through that I get a fairly good idea of what they need to experience to turn out the way I want them. Mind you, they still surprise me sometimes, but I've learned to be flexible about where my stories end up.

Then again, I am a start-to-finish kind of writer so this might not help you at all. Because I can't seem to make the characters do exactly (or even something that closely resembles) what I tell them to do I can't skip to a later scene when writing, because when writing my way up to that scene everything might change and the scene I already wrote doesn't fit anymore. (I have no idea if that sentence even made sense.)

I hope I may have helped a little, and I wish you the best of luck in trying to figure her, and her story, out.