Original Characters

[Guest Adara]

Here's my question; (Make that questioNS )

How exactly do you come up with characters and their backgrounds?

Do you gather information or rather, inspiration from other author's characters?

Two very general questions. I figured asking anything else wouldn't allow for everyone to talk it out.

I start up by deciding what ethnicity I want to give them. After this, I figure out how old I want to make them and in what era they'll be born in. That will usually lead me to history, or what was going on in the world at the time of their birth and life.

As far as whether or not I gain inspiration from other authors. I'd say I do a little. Sometimes others can "voice" a characteristic far better than I could have thought it up.

[Guest Yhitzak]

Here's a little quotation that I am constantly reminding myself of every time I find myself with a case of writer's block: "Ideally, a moment of inspiration precedes the desire to write. When the order is reversed and the desire to write spawns a search for inspiration, the would-be author begins a painful process. It's a lot like trying to make food out of shit." Daniel Warner. Cocopiazo #1. Slave Labor Graphics. October 2004.

Let inspiration strike you. I know how cheesy and lame this sounds, but it's true. When you go searching for things to create without knowing how or why, you rarely come up with a story or characters that work.

It might also help to develop your plot, setting, or conflict, first. If you know what basic format your story is going to take, the characters tend to develop themselves. Or, as I often do with myself, you could give yourself a writing excersize. Take a character that has existed for a long time (I personally like Lucifer, just as an example) and just run with it. Give them a new origin, a new background, a new purpose for being. Take the traditional conflict and give it a spin. Then, when you're through, go back to the beginning and re-read it. Take note of how the character appears to you at the beginning of the piece versus the end of it. Take note of how you changed your idea as you were writing it out. Refine it. Edit it. Throw it away and start over.

A word of advice about using other authors as inspiration: if you do this, make sure that you are taking from a variety of sources. I don't want to slam authors of original, unpublished fiction, but I have noticed that most of them write stories about one character who happens to have five different faces. Read published writing, as well as unpublished. When one reads nothing but amateur writing, one tends to become an amateur writer. Draw not just on other writers for inspiration, but from real life experiences. Apply your own views, experiences, and choices to your characters' lives.

Watch movies. Seriously. Character development in a movie is a very difficult practice and not every movie succeeds. Watch "Rain Man" if for no other reason than to watch the transformation of the main character from hateful asshole to understanding human being. It's often easier to conceive of written characters when you've seen a live-action character being developed.

Somehow, I feel like I haven't really answered your question, but this is the best I can come up with at the moment. For whatever it's worth, I hope it helps at least a little.

[redsliver]

The first thing I do is set my character in motion. She has to do something. When I know how she'll complete her task it tells me an awful lot about how she looks and acts. Next comes my goal for her, what is the purpose of this character. Now that I know how she acts and what's she's going to do I'll start to fill in the blanks. This is when I define the rest of the details on how she looks, who she knows, why she acts as she does. Then I define her relation to all the characters I had created earlier. At this point she fits into the story quite well so then I have to think of a name for her, god do I hate naming characters. I have these simple little schemes for most of the names I come up with, four of my characters are named after beers, all of my nobles are named after scientists, all of my mercenaries are named after people I know and the street they live(d) on.

[Guest Adara]

Lol, thanks gents. I really like your naming technique Red. I personally end up coming up with names, depending on the character's origins and well, what was "popular" or "unpopular" when they were born.

[NightScribe]

A character's name can make all the difference in the world. On an old, original story, I had a male character that I was indifferent about, but I knew something didn't feel "right." It was his first name; it made him older than his age, but the common nickname made him too young. A simple name change and his character completely opened up to me. He went from being a dull, one dimensional, and least favorite character, to complex and one of, if not the most, favorite.

Names are essential to shaping my characters. For me, the hero or antagonist's name has to "fit," as it's an important part in adding layers to their personalities.

[Guest Adara]

A character's name can make all the difference in the world. On an old, original story, I had a male character that I was indifferent about, but I knew something didn't feel "right." It was his first name; it made him older than his age, but the common nickname made him too young. A simple name change and his character completely opened up to me. He went from being a dull, one dimensional, and least favorite character, to complex and one of, if not the most, favorite.

Names are essential to shaping my characters. For me, the hero or antagonist's name has to "fit," as it's an important part in adding layers to their personalities.

That is so true. I mean, personally, as a reader, if a character's name is, well, "Candy" I'll be less likely to take them seriously....

I tend to think about stuff like that whenever I'm developing a new character. Also, the manner in which they dress plays a key role in it. I have certain characters who are usually very "in control" of their emotions and it shows in the way they clothe themselves.

[redsliver]

I tried that with Gren, Elfriede and Odo. But then I realised I didn't care at all so long as the name wasn't horribly complex, fit their environment and I'd remember it. Hell I took Rosalie's name straight from the song I was listening to when I designed her. As I said, finding character names I like are a bitch.

[cu-kid9]

My characters tend to spawn from people in my life; not necessarily my protagonists, but definitely the characters that surround them. Recently, and this sounds a little crazy, but I've been starting characters by thinking about the way they would speak. Would they have an accent? How would they say certain words? Would they have phrases that they tend to say all the time? Which leads to questions about where they are from, how they were raised, what kind of personality they have. I think I started doing this because I'm a huge fan of exceedingly well written or clever dialogue.

Which leads into the next question about other writers inspire me. Definitely. One good section of dialogue by someone always makes me wish that I could do the same...which inspires me to write more.

As for the naming of my characters...I tend to do that while I'm thinking about dialogue. If I'm writing something that is set in current times, sometimes I'll go through a list of names and their meanings to see what would fit. Sometimes a definition will fit, but I don't want their name to start with an E, or I don't like the way it's spelled, or something equally silly, so I'll change it. In one of my stories, it was essential to the plot that the meaning of the character's name fit everything about her.

[Kyouryoku Senshi]

A lot of characters in my work are usually associated with different people I've met in my life and the different personalities I've dealt with. I do not take ideas from other people's work or character's, that would be pretty unoriginal.

[kiix]

This is probably going to sound bizarre but thinking about the stories I have posted on AFF, they are all started from dreams. It was as if my subconscious had been mulling stuff over and when it had figured out the beginning, I get a nice little techno-color movie in my head. Then I stumble over to the computer and try to write it down.

I usually get the main characters names with the dream.

For example: In CAKE the first person narrator is Sigmund Edward Xavier (SEX) -- there is no way in hell I would ever come up with name like that while awake.

All my other characters come out of necessity as the story moves along. Once I get to that point of needed a new character, I pick their general usefulness -- good or bad, the best/worst thing they could do and....then I go searching baby names on the Internet. I search by sex, nationality, meaning and in some cases, by century.

Kiix

[Entrisic]

I sigh in saying this, but the characters really just make themselves. Generally I start writing on a blank document without having any real idea of what I'm doing and suddenly I've written three thousand words and I have a character.

In a way it's really just spacing out and letting the character develop. Some characters I spend two-three hours putting together so carefully I know entirely TMI about them to be healthy. Then I end up hating the characters and feeling that they're flat despite the attention I lavished upon their creation.

Then I'll create one in five seconds and end up falling in love with it.

[madlodger]

The characters just appear from nowhere. I can be driving a car or walking my dog or whatever and it happens. Like when I had a mental block on a third chapter of my story and finally quit agonizing and started on prepping food. Well, this completely unrelated character popped into my head, I could see that guy driving his car in the thunderstorm and knew his name, what he looks like, where he was going from and what is going to happen. So, now there is an outline for a new story sitting on a back burner. This sort of thing happens all the time.

Some characters appear with names, some don't. The Phone Book has weirdest names in it, some of them are too funny to be true - but they are

[thepeace]

Well my favorite character is me, iv putten myself in a few stories.

Other characters are frinds or people i know, maybe some song i heard, or some movie i saw, or another story i read somewere. I just paint out a random but typical look, and add flaws and virtues to the characters character. Like Faith, drugadiction, cowardice, honesty. And move out.

[Young Sage]

Wow...um, this is going to be reviving a dead forum. Sorry for anyone who wished for it to remain dead. The way I name characters is weird indeed. For example, in my one slash I have a character named Tyler. Why Tyler? Well, at the time, looking at another written erotica site, Tyler was the more popular name. Another character is named Gary. Why? Take out the "r" in "Gary" and what do you get? Other characters in that story are named directly after real people I knew (the ones I didn't like became antagonists).

In another slash I'm writing, I have the main characters Shawn and Anthony *fangirls cheer here*. I wracked my brain around how to name these characters. I wanted a name that somebody could visualize belonging to a whiny SOB street kid (without the living on the street part). Thus came Shawn. I also wanted a name that someone could visualize belonging to a bully, who was semi-attractive, and had the capabilities of becoming a caring, somewhat nurturing soul. Thus came Anthony. It didn't hurt that I knew a guy named Anthony that I had a strong suspicion was gay.

In non-slash work, I either steal someone I know's name, but not their personality, or I come up with a name on the spot (last names are always like this). Do you know how hard it is to come up with a Hebrew last name? It's friggin' difficult! That's my two cents.

[TheBlackadder]

Well, my experience creating characters comes from my years of acting classes in college and high school. Trying on the character mentally after you’ve built them physically in your mind. It just seems to make it easier to write things from their point of view, or things they might be feeling (Not to mention helps me out in my acting classes sooner or later!)

I’m like a lot of these writers, I’ll start out with an idea of a persona in my head and just start writing out a scenario and how they would react to it. Now they say that putting yourself into a story makes you a Mary Sue sort of writer, but people who say that can bite me. (No offense anyone, just trying to make a point. When I first started out writing I had ‘Mary Sue’ tattooed across my forehead by some really mean MEAN people and boy did they just flame on me all over the place. So . . . yeah touchy subject.)

The reason I say that, is because you kinda do have to put yourself into any original character you write a little bit. To speak for that person and see things from their point of view you’ll end up speaking from your own feelings or your own experience IF you were facing that specific scenario yourself were you that person. Does that make sense?

It’s very close to being an actress/actor only your writing down how you would react so people can read it instead of getting up on stage in a costume and make-up showing everyone your story. There is still a little bit of you in that original character weather it’s male or female regardless of your own sex.

Make sense?

As for names, there are sites on the web where you can go (Usually baby name sites, cause . . . obviously if your looking for names for people they were probley just born) that I visit and I pick out a good name that I feel fits the story and the character after I’ve developed my character. There are 100,000’s names on these sites, you can even narrow your search if you want a specific origin or meaning. Love those sites.

~Marian The Blackadder~

[Melrick]

Well, my experience creating characters comes from my years of acting classes in college and high school. Trying on the character mentally after you’ve built them physically in your mind. It just seems to make it easier to write things from their point of view, or things they might be feeling (Not to mention helps me out in my acting classes sooner or later!)

I’m like a lot of these writers, I’ll start out with an idea of a persona in my head and just start writing out a scenario and how they would react to it. Now they say that putting yourself into a story makes you a Mary Sue sort of writer, but people who say that can bite me. (No offense anyone, just trying to make a point. When I first started out writing I had ‘Mary Sue’ tattooed across my forehead by some really mean MEAN people and boy did they just flame on me all over the place. So . . . yeah touchy subject.)

The reason I say that, is because you kinda do have to put yourself into any original character you write a little bit. To speak for that person and see things from their point of view you’ll end up speaking from your own feelings or your own experience IF you were facing that specific scenario yourself were you that person. Does that make sense?

It’s very close to being an actress/actor only your writing down how you would react so people can read it instead of getting up on stage in a costume and make-up showing everyone your story. There is still a little bit of you in that original character weather it’s male or female regardless of your own sex.

Make sense?

As for names, there are sites on the web where you can go (Usually baby name sites, cause . . . obviously if your looking for names for people they were probley just born) that I visit and I pick out a good name that I feel fits the story and the character after I’ve developed my character. There are 100,000’s names on these sites, you can even narrow your search if you want a specific origin or meaning. Love those sites.

~Marian The Blackadder~

I TOTALLY agree with you regarding the Mary Sue stuff. There are so many so-called writers that go absolutely rabid at the mere mention of Mary Sue. It's clearly because these people just don't understand the real art of writing. To avoid writing a character simply because they may sound a little like ourselves is utterly ludicrous! Why hamstring ourselves like that? If we're writers of original fiction then we should be able to create ANY character, whether they're like us or totally opposite. Nor does it mean you have to agree with, or even like, the character. If you talk to just about any professional, published author then they'll tell you that most of them include at least a little of themselves in their characters. I'm reading "King Solomon's Mines" by H. Rider Haggard, and the author freely and happily admitted that the Allan Quartermain character was exactly him. Does that mean it's a lousy book because of that? Of course not.

And as far as coming up with names, I started a topic in the "Resources" forum that has links to various sites. Hopefully others will add their own bookmarked sites to it over time.

[Young Sage]

Here's something unique. Just recently I made a new character for one of my stories. The main character (who's POV the story is told through) didn't know what the guy's name was, but thought that it was either Darryl or Darren. So, I had him refer to the guy as "Darryl/Darren" whenever mentioning that particular character. The next chapter, we find out that the guy's name is really Wes. I found it to be utterly hilarious and unique, especially since I came up with it. So technically, I had to come up with three names for just one character. That's 3x harder than just coming up with one name.

[Guest MPS SHADOWMASTER]

I start out simple. A generic description, and a name. I generally make up a name that sounds right. I give them some power, or what ever. Then I think why. I try to make them as well rounded as possable.

[CloverReef]

Here's my question; (Make that questioNS )

How exactly do you come up with characters and their backgrounds?

Do you gather information or rather, inspiration from other author's characters?

Two very general questions. I figured asking anything else wouldn't allow for everyone to talk it out.

I start up by deciding what ethnicity I want to give them. After this, I figure out how old I want to make them and in what era they'll be born in. That will usually lead me to history, or what was going on in the world at the time of their birth and life.

As far as whether or not I gain inspiration from other authors. I'd say I do a little. Sometimes others can "voice" a characteristic far better than I could have thought it up.

I usually get inspiration for character types/roles from music or some random trigger on TV or something. And I really just build off that. Once I start writing the personality kinda forms on its own. Beforehand I just plan the appearance, name, and sometimes part of the history. When I plan the characters traits first, they usually just end up being different once the character's put into practice anyway.

Edited January 29, 2010 by CloverReef