I like to do the world building first. As I'm writing the history of races/groups of people ideas for stories and characters in that world usually come to me and I jot them down in a separate file. Then once I think I've done enough (or one story grabs me and won’t let me go) I go to the file and see which stories/characters still seem interesting and develop them from there.
Creating Characters
- Thread starter Selati
- Start date
Generally it depends. If I know I want a certain character to do a certain thing (like be a king, leader, set out on a task, be a villian) it is easier since then I am just drawing up someone with an idea of how they will be already. Which, it seems that is how most of my characters start out so far. Yeah, its not a very difficult transition once you know what you want the character to do in a story, but it has worked for me.
All of the above. Some of them come out of nowhere, without stories attached, and only later (possibly) find a story in which to belong. Others appear as I need them, either fully-formed, or more often, half-formed, like a seed that grows and develops.
I work both top-down and bottom-up. Which can be a nightmare for consistency, when you lose track of your changes...
I work both top-down and bottom-up. Which can be a nightmare for consistency, when you lose track of your changes...
ushumgal
Juggled Gosling
My characters usually come from either the plot or scene I have in mind. In general, I tend to have a very plot-driven (or plot-directed) was of writing, and I do wish I could get away from that somewhat, do more in the way of character sketches.
One of my main problems is that I usually write in my own scifi universe, which has its own languages, so I have to make up all the names. And I find I'm *terrible* at coming up with a name that really suits a character as well as the fictional language that is supposed to have produced it. I often end up just writing PN1 and PN2 and so on (PN=personal name), but that's prettly clumsy. I've been thinking I should just use normal, current names until I can replace them with something better.
One of my main problems is that I usually write in my own scifi universe, which has its own languages, so I have to make up all the names. And I find I'm *terrible* at coming up with a name that really suits a character as well as the fictional language that is supposed to have produced it. I often end up just writing PN1 and PN2 and so on (PN=personal name), but that's prettly clumsy. I've been thinking I should just use normal, current names until I can replace them with something better.
TheWeeper
Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2008
- Messages
- 10
To make a charecter I just take somthing the story needs, such as a mage, give him a basic persenality, such as selfish, smart, gready, cruel, and then I give him a flaw, such as he loses stuff all the time, give him a name, for exemple Nernehar, then i use him in the plot, and find out new things about him as the plot goes on.
Malloriel
Creative Mastermind
Being greedy, cruel, and selfish aren't flaws?
I agree that any character needs flaws to add depth. I also think that any antagonist needs virtues to keep them realistic as well.
As for naming characters, the first thing I do is think of words that define the personality: strength, wisdom, gentle, beautiful. Something that could sum up one or more of the most prominent traits. Then I'll start looking up names on baby naming sites. My personal favourite is 27,000 Baby Names, Meanings and Origins at Baby Names World because of the versatility of the search engine. Using the advanced search you can choose the gender, country/language of origin, the letters you want it to start or end with, etc. You can pick the number of countries you want to look at as well, to get a good spread. Or you can look it up by meaning. So if you want it to sound like it's from a particular kind of region, or be a particular meaning, this is one handy-dandy site to have. From there, I either use the name as is, or more likely I modify what I find into something completely unique for my world, but which still sounds comfortable to pronounce because of the similarity to names that already exist without necessarily defaulting on actual common names.
I think it's also a neat idea, if you're really world building on top of everything (and I'll now have to do as well), to develop what names would be common in your world, even region by region. The "John Smiths" and "Michael Elis"s of whatever land you're creating.
I certainly don't disagree with any of the methods above, including deciding that the story revolves around, for example, a mage. Then maybe set up a conflict for him: The head of the Mages Council is corrupt and planning to unleash a great evil over the land for reasons related to greed and personal weakness. Knowing what he's going to go up against eventually, determine basic traits, like curiosity, a sharp mind that can put together pieces of a puzzle that look unrelated, a quirky sense of humour, and for a couple of flaws he's a womanizing drunkard who has never stopped to grieve over the death of his younger brother. Then pick what magic he uses. Let's say elementals, he's a Fire mage (I'd usually go for Darkness or Water myself, but Fire's nice and easy and pulls me out of my own comfort zone). Aspects of Fire can be added to his personality now. A voletile emotional base -quick to anger, quick to cool, quick to judge-, passionate, possibly forceful, a little inconsiderate, but generally warm and friendly. Now we can pick a name. We want something that sounds unusual, but which is easy to pronounce. We don't want to make up a language for this because he's human and distant from any other unusual race, so we're going to use my previous method of naming. Let's go off of names that include "fire" somewhere in their meanings:
---
Aedus - Fire (Gaelic)
Agnimitra - Friend of the fire (Sandskrit)
Atash - Fire (Afgan)
Fintan - White-haired; white fire (Gaelic)
Lyulf - Fire wolf (English)
Resheph - Fire (Hebrew)
Tanguy - Fire warrior (Breton)
Uddhava - Sacrificial fire (Sanskrit).
As a basic list. Then you can sit back and look at the meanings. Personally, I like Sacrificial Fire, Fire Wolf, and Fire Warrior. Looking at the names themselves, I like Fintan, Lyulf, and Atash the most as they are. So, if I pick one of them, I now have an idea of what kind of flavour I can give his home land. Seeing the names there, there's very little that needs to be done to make them fit a fantasy setting, so lets go with Lyulf, not only because it sounds cool, but aspects of the wolf can now be worked into his personality. That sense of innate power, a quiet reserved confidence, a strong sense of loyalty and kinship with those closest to him, and a fierocity that well matches fire itself, but with a honed, vicious edge that may not have been there before. A righteous vengeance.
It's an English name, so surnames shouldn't be hard to fabricate for him. I definitely suggest not using actual surnames so often in fantasy because it begins (in my opinion) to eat away at that foundation of fantasy that we're building, so let's call him Lyulf Greatwater, for further character development. He's the only member of his family to use fire within a long line of mages with greatest strength in water, so notably that their surname became synonymous with their element.
So merely in deciding what he is, what he uses, basic traits and flaws, and what his name is, we have very securely developed what sort of person he is. From there you can delicately insert him in his new world and see what reactions you get by throwing situations at him, thus discovering who you have created as you navigate him from point A to point Z, your ultimate conflict and climax.
Not my usual method, in fact it's really the first time I've done that, but he gives much, much more than a basic framework or skeleton to work from, and even I find myself impressed by the depth you can gain just from those pieces of information. I'd be interested in seeing what he does and where he goes, the kinds of experiences he wracks up with quirks like womanizing and drinking and suppressed grief mixed with an unusually sharp mind and, we can surmise, an attention to detail which allows him to make connections between seemingly unrelated facts despite his vices. He is his own personal dichotomy. If anyone would like to use him, feel free. I'd love to see what you come up with. ^_^
But I've already expressed one of my own personal methods on the first page of this post, and that's really more of what I do. Little vignets of scenes that come to me, inspired by this or that - a movie, a game, a cloud, a conversation- and build from there. I like how organic it can be, how within the complexity of my stories connections crop up on their own, taking loose ends of other stories and tying them into the new ideas as if they'd always been there to begin with, or always meant to be and had just been waiting around for the true connections to pop up.
A lot of the characters came from personas created for the S.C.A (Society for Creative Anachronism, look it up. ^_^) and the stories for why one persona would know another, and then how they could fit in the world I'd already been working on. Many (many, many) others came from online role playing. For example, the Dorosai (yes, I know it's similar in appearance to Dorsai), or head of the human kingdoms, is the very first role playing character I ever created, though more like Fionna 3.2/Phae'ana 1.2 as she's undergone not only revisions, but at least one complete overhaul.
I've taken many situations I really enjoyed from role playing experiences and reworked them to remain part of the characters I'd created, but to be my own work specific to Eleasia. And in some ways, the world building itself lends itself to stories and characters. With an Age of Legends, for example, there was a huge, huge battle and bloodlines from some of the most notable warriors still floating around that play key roles in "current" events. The vague ideas of these ancient warriors became more solid of necessity to me as an author, because knowing what happened allows me to use it to colour the "present".
So, I think there are just too many ways to approach character creation. Try some things out, experiment and just see what feels right and gives you the most to work with comfortably. But most of all, have fun with it, because it's not worth the effort, if you ask me, if you can't enjoy what you're doing.
*NOTE* Any and all mistakes grammatical or otherwise are the official mistakes of this post and will remain due mostly to the laziness of the author. Thank you.
. . . The End.
I agree that any character needs flaws to add depth. I also think that any antagonist needs virtues to keep them realistic as well.
As for naming characters, the first thing I do is think of words that define the personality: strength, wisdom, gentle, beautiful. Something that could sum up one or more of the most prominent traits. Then I'll start looking up names on baby naming sites. My personal favourite is 27,000 Baby Names, Meanings and Origins at Baby Names World because of the versatility of the search engine. Using the advanced search you can choose the gender, country/language of origin, the letters you want it to start or end with, etc. You can pick the number of countries you want to look at as well, to get a good spread. Or you can look it up by meaning. So if you want it to sound like it's from a particular kind of region, or be a particular meaning, this is one handy-dandy site to have. From there, I either use the name as is, or more likely I modify what I find into something completely unique for my world, but which still sounds comfortable to pronounce because of the similarity to names that already exist without necessarily defaulting on actual common names.
I think it's also a neat idea, if you're really world building on top of everything (and I'll now have to do as well), to develop what names would be common in your world, even region by region. The "John Smiths" and "Michael Elis"s of whatever land you're creating.
I certainly don't disagree with any of the methods above, including deciding that the story revolves around, for example, a mage. Then maybe set up a conflict for him: The head of the Mages Council is corrupt and planning to unleash a great evil over the land for reasons related to greed and personal weakness. Knowing what he's going to go up against eventually, determine basic traits, like curiosity, a sharp mind that can put together pieces of a puzzle that look unrelated, a quirky sense of humour, and for a couple of flaws he's a womanizing drunkard who has never stopped to grieve over the death of his younger brother. Then pick what magic he uses. Let's say elementals, he's a Fire mage (I'd usually go for Darkness or Water myself, but Fire's nice and easy and pulls me out of my own comfort zone). Aspects of Fire can be added to his personality now. A voletile emotional base -quick to anger, quick to cool, quick to judge-, passionate, possibly forceful, a little inconsiderate, but generally warm and friendly. Now we can pick a name. We want something that sounds unusual, but which is easy to pronounce. We don't want to make up a language for this because he's human and distant from any other unusual race, so we're going to use my previous method of naming. Let's go off of names that include "fire" somewhere in their meanings:
---
Aedus - Fire (Gaelic)
Agnimitra - Friend of the fire (Sandskrit)
Atash - Fire (Afgan)
Fintan - White-haired; white fire (Gaelic)
Lyulf - Fire wolf (English)
Resheph - Fire (Hebrew)
Tanguy - Fire warrior (Breton)
Uddhava - Sacrificial fire (Sanskrit).
As a basic list. Then you can sit back and look at the meanings. Personally, I like Sacrificial Fire, Fire Wolf, and Fire Warrior. Looking at the names themselves, I like Fintan, Lyulf, and Atash the most as they are. So, if I pick one of them, I now have an idea of what kind of flavour I can give his home land. Seeing the names there, there's very little that needs to be done to make them fit a fantasy setting, so lets go with Lyulf, not only because it sounds cool, but aspects of the wolf can now be worked into his personality. That sense of innate power, a quiet reserved confidence, a strong sense of loyalty and kinship with those closest to him, and a fierocity that well matches fire itself, but with a honed, vicious edge that may not have been there before. A righteous vengeance.
It's an English name, so surnames shouldn't be hard to fabricate for him. I definitely suggest not using actual surnames so often in fantasy because it begins (in my opinion) to eat away at that foundation of fantasy that we're building, so let's call him Lyulf Greatwater, for further character development. He's the only member of his family to use fire within a long line of mages with greatest strength in water, so notably that their surname became synonymous with their element.
So merely in deciding what he is, what he uses, basic traits and flaws, and what his name is, we have very securely developed what sort of person he is. From there you can delicately insert him in his new world and see what reactions you get by throwing situations at him, thus discovering who you have created as you navigate him from point A to point Z, your ultimate conflict and climax.
Not my usual method, in fact it's really the first time I've done that, but he gives much, much more than a basic framework or skeleton to work from, and even I find myself impressed by the depth you can gain just from those pieces of information. I'd be interested in seeing what he does and where he goes, the kinds of experiences he wracks up with quirks like womanizing and drinking and suppressed grief mixed with an unusually sharp mind and, we can surmise, an attention to detail which allows him to make connections between seemingly unrelated facts despite his vices. He is his own personal dichotomy. If anyone would like to use him, feel free. I'd love to see what you come up with. ^_^
But I've already expressed one of my own personal methods on the first page of this post, and that's really more of what I do. Little vignets of scenes that come to me, inspired by this or that - a movie, a game, a cloud, a conversation- and build from there. I like how organic it can be, how within the complexity of my stories connections crop up on their own, taking loose ends of other stories and tying them into the new ideas as if they'd always been there to begin with, or always meant to be and had just been waiting around for the true connections to pop up.
A lot of the characters came from personas created for the S.C.A (Society for Creative Anachronism, look it up. ^_^) and the stories for why one persona would know another, and then how they could fit in the world I'd already been working on. Many (many, many) others came from online role playing. For example, the Dorosai (yes, I know it's similar in appearance to Dorsai), or head of the human kingdoms, is the very first role playing character I ever created, though more like Fionna 3.2/Phae'ana 1.2 as she's undergone not only revisions, but at least one complete overhaul.
I've taken many situations I really enjoyed from role playing experiences and reworked them to remain part of the characters I'd created, but to be my own work specific to Eleasia. And in some ways, the world building itself lends itself to stories and characters. With an Age of Legends, for example, there was a huge, huge battle and bloodlines from some of the most notable warriors still floating around that play key roles in "current" events. The vague ideas of these ancient warriors became more solid of necessity to me as an author, because knowing what happened allows me to use it to colour the "present".
So, I think there are just too many ways to approach character creation. Try some things out, experiment and just see what feels right and gives you the most to work with comfortably. But most of all, have fun with it, because it's not worth the effort, if you ask me, if you can't enjoy what you're doing.
*NOTE* Any and all mistakes grammatical or otherwise are the official mistakes of this post and will remain due mostly to the laziness of the author. Thank you.
. . . The End.
ChrisBfla
Chris Berman
When I wrote my first novel, I used a lot of atributs for my characters, taken from real life. These were diffferent bits and pieces of people I knew or had met over many years. For the lead female character of my book, I used everything about my wife. In my story, Marina is from Kiev and born of Russian and Ukrainian parents. She's a radio astronomer working for the Russian Space Agency on SETI projects. My wife is from a city just outside of Kiev and is Russina/Ukrainian as well so I even used her parents in parts of the book, casting her dad as the Russian Minister of Defense. This all went along with a romantic subplot. This made a lot of the book very easy to write.
You can find the characters to populate your story almost anywhere, but using people that you actually know and just exagerating certain traits seems to work. I did not however exagerate my wife's great beauty or intelligence. She's so over th top in those areas already it would have been difficult to improve upon them.
Chris
You can find the characters to populate your story almost anywhere, but using people that you actually know and just exagerating certain traits seems to work. I did not however exagerate my wife's great beauty or intelligence. She's so over th top in those areas already it would have been difficult to improve upon them.
Chris
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
- Messages
- 8,095
Generally the plot outline comes before the characters, and the characters tend to be the sorts of people who fit the plot, although both affect each other. At times it's not so much the plot that dictates the characters as the need to be entertaining for the reader: my four main characters were written so that no matter who was in the room they could have an argument.
But ultimately I think you have to be able to imagine them fully. It's fine to use random determination tables or whatnot to get the basics, but then you have to connect these and fill them out into a full character, which is where it gets tricky. You don't have to know everything about the character, I think, but you do have to be able to come up with a convincing response to a question about him/her.
But ultimately I think you have to be able to imagine them fully. It's fine to use random determination tables or whatnot to get the basics, but then you have to connect these and fill them out into a full character, which is where it gets tricky. You don't have to know everything about the character, I think, but you do have to be able to come up with a convincing response to a question about him/her.
Cheehwawa
ΩSIRIS
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2008
- Messages
- 40
The main character of one of my projects is named Odessus. The character has had many names, the most recent was Osiris, but I figured I should think up an original name... I was reading about the Odyssey, thought about Odessa (which is a form of Odessyus, which means 'wrath') and then I got this cool idea to have 6 past incarnations of the character named after the other 7 deadly sins, tie that into the plot, etc. Im not too sure how the original idea came up.... probably after reading about Osiris vs Set from Egyptian mythology
WafflesToo
Breakfast of choice
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2008
- Messages
- 111
I've always enjoyed just creating the character's basics and let them run wild in my head for a while. Eventually they just kind of create thier own characteristics...
...beware Flandersization.
...beware Flandersization.
Aes
You Feel Fascinated
I come up with my characters through some odd mix of plot and world building or just spontaneous character creation.
For the former, I'll think of a miniature story "piece" (new or preexisting) that goes well in the puzzle that is my world, like a town. I'll then think about that town, what it's like, the kind of people who live there, what they do in their day to day lives, and how they relate to the rest of the world. Then I'll kind of mentally explore this town and just watch for anyone who seems interesting--when I see someone, I'll watch them, what they do, and who they interact with and this is how a character develops. I may keep watching them, or I may move to one of their friends until I finally see someone who is suitable. Sometimes, I'll even end up with a handful of usable products. This way, I not only have a character, but this character has a place in the world.
For the latter, I'll just have an instant burst of inspiration, where I'll know roughly how I want this character to be, then try to mash them into the world somehow, but I find this to be a bit messier.
Even still, I've made some (what I think are) great characters using both methods, so just see what works for you.
For the former, I'll think of a miniature story "piece" (new or preexisting) that goes well in the puzzle that is my world, like a town. I'll then think about that town, what it's like, the kind of people who live there, what they do in their day to day lives, and how they relate to the rest of the world. Then I'll kind of mentally explore this town and just watch for anyone who seems interesting--when I see someone, I'll watch them, what they do, and who they interact with and this is how a character develops. I may keep watching them, or I may move to one of their friends until I finally see someone who is suitable. Sometimes, I'll even end up with a handful of usable products. This way, I not only have a character, but this character has a place in the world.
For the latter, I'll just have an instant burst of inspiration, where I'll know roughly how I want this character to be, then try to mash them into the world somehow, but I find this to be a bit messier.
Even still, I've made some (what I think are) great characters using both methods, so just see what works for you.
deathbeatsliving
Stage Two: Death
Well I find that when I come up with a character I usually want that character to fill a purpose. For example, i've got this tv series that I wanted 4 members in my team and I wanted one to be a doctor, a nurse and a coroner. Once you have the job or the role for them I think there are certain traits that come with the job. The job gives them the experience, shapes them and also creates a few suggestions for what their goal is.
Big Tip: I think that the best characters are ones that make a point about the world. For example, Ugly Betty proved that you didn't have to be beautiful to be in the fashion world. Usually I find that the main character has to more special than an average person because that's what makes us love them more than any other character, they stand out from the crowd e.g. Hiro wants to save the world, Johnny Depp has a priceless personality, Locke and Jack have fantastic opposites of views.
Big Tip: I think that the best characters are ones that make a point about the world. For example, Ugly Betty proved that you didn't have to be beautiful to be in the fashion world. Usually I find that the main character has to more special than an average person because that's what makes us love them more than any other character, they stand out from the crowd e.g. Hiro wants to save the world, Johnny Depp has a priceless personality, Locke and Jack have fantastic opposites of views.
I tend to (day)dream little snippets from a 'first person shooter' perspective - kinda strange as I have no affinity for that genre of games - and recalling how I felt can give me an emotional, if not psychological, perspective on how the character was reacting.
One thing I've noticed - as I don't dream in colour, although I can be aware of something being a given colour, I'm generally more comfortable with a dark/rain-swept/urban environment than bright, sunny fields.
I think I tend to start with a single character and their immediate environment as a spark for an idea and the progression of this into a 'plot' drags in others to populate the story arc landscape, as it were. I use the principle character's interaction with his world as the focal point and would find it hard to write from a different perspective.
One thing I've noticed - as I don't dream in colour, although I can be aware of something being a given colour, I'm generally more comfortable with a dark/rain-swept/urban environment than bright, sunny fields.
I think I tend to start with a single character and their immediate environment as a spark for an idea and the progression of this into a 'plot' drags in others to populate the story arc landscape, as it were. I use the principle character's interaction with his world as the focal point and would find it hard to write from a different perspective.
Laiko Su Katara
Mad scientist
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2009
- Messages
- 11
Its funny to see that I have a large bunch of characters that I create and add to the storyline just for fun while others struggle with them.
On the other hand, I struggle with the story :/
On the other hand, I struggle with the story :/
deathbeatsliving
Stage Two: Death
I do find the creating a character process a slightly tedious process because when I come up with my idea all I want to do is come up with the storylines, the twists, the archs, the resolution. Everyone has their own way about coming up with their story but in the end each writer should write at least 5 pages on each of their main characters. 10 pages highly recommended for the character in the pivotal role.
My process I usually go through coming up with characters are thinking first...what point about the world can they make? I think this is important because that way the character can be a heavy theme to the point that the film is trying to make. There are heavy examples of characters that illustrate the importance of thinking about this when you first start to create your characters. Ugly Betty being the strongest example...making a point about the fashion world.
The other questions I ask to get the common grounding for the character before working on them in detail (biography)..personality-three main traits, their role in the story...why are they important to the story and that usually comes out with the last important grounding...what is their occupation?
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck with your work
My process I usually go through coming up with characters are thinking first...what point about the world can they make? I think this is important because that way the character can be a heavy theme to the point that the film is trying to make. There are heavy examples of characters that illustrate the importance of thinking about this when you first start to create your characters. Ugly Betty being the strongest example...making a point about the fashion world.
The other questions I ask to get the common grounding for the character before working on them in detail (biography)..personality-three main traits, their role in the story...why are they important to the story and that usually comes out with the last important grounding...what is their occupation?
I hope this has been helpful. Good luck with your work
RcGrant
Loves semi-colons
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2007
- Messages
- 337
I'm with you on this. It can sometimes freak me out, because they have a tendency to be fully formed and very vocal. It's not been unknown for it to get to a point where one or two comment on things I am doing in my daily life, or things I have seen, to the extent when I have (outloud) told them to shut the hell up.
TyJ
New Member
All my characters are based on the creatures around me... For example there are two dogs i see everytime i walk my dogs and the way they behave towards each other and other poeple or react to things around them inspired me for two characters of my book. Its a bit weird but it worked i think... Also like most writers : poeple... The old lady feeding the birds, the moody shop assistant etc etc...Than i make this really complex character sheet until i know them in and out... Exept for names, i never understand how to find their names...
Some stories i base around a character i like, some around a world and others around and idea ( ie freesing things or being shipped off to deserted planet...).
Except for when i get really moody and start writing randomly and when i calm down i have a very sinister character on my hands, begging to be the main star in an epic story >.<
Some stories i base around a character i like, some around a world and others around and idea ( ie freesing things or being shipped off to deserted planet...).
Except for when i get really moody and start writing randomly and when i calm down i have a very sinister character on my hands, begging to be the main star in an epic story >.<
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