Post by Fantasme! on May 11, 2011 19:01:26 GMT -5
Hello all! Fanta here! ;D. I thought it would be interesting to make a thread about what you guys think makes an original, interesting character! I don't necessarily need help with this myself, but I always could use some extra tips! Not only this, but I'm curious to see what you all have to say, and figured this could be a good resource for anyone that can't seem to make a non-generic/non stereo-typical character. I'm sure we can all think of different "types" of general, common personalities, examples being the "manipulative, smooth character" or perhaps the "fiery loud-mouth with a secret soft-side". But with soooo many different characters with the same "type" of personality, I'm finding it harder and harder to make one that stands out from all the rest! Now I know many turn to the option of creating characters with mental health disabilities such as Schizophrenia to make their characters unique, which is all fine and dandy, but am I the only one that doesn't see a whole lot of truly unique characters on large-scale sites? Y'know those ones with 100+ characters? With all those personalities, there has to be many that are very similar to each other. I see this as a slight issue! After a while, it seems to me that it would become boring to roleplay with charries of the same general "type" of personality. My hope is that this thread can help members to "break away" from the common personality types, or just add their own twist to make their character unique. This is why I feel the history of a character is soooo important. If you think about yourself, you don't just act the way you do because you feel like it (or at least I hope not). For me, my family or my past has a great deal of influence on my personality to this day. I feel that showing a character's past will give your audience a much stronger idea of WHY your character acts the way he or she does. To quote my English teacher (o.O), "an author doesn't just add something into their writing because they feel like it." So I feel that history plays a large role in making your character more unique. ANYWAYS, after my long tangent of rambling about subjects that don't hold much significance to my point, I'd like to jot down what I feel makes a character unique and realistic, and how I make a unique character.
What I think makes a unique character:
1) HE OR SHE HAS DIRECTION.
For me, this is one of the most important things, if not THEE most important. ;3. I've made this mistake too many times to count with previous characters of mine. If I don't know where I'm going with them, and don't plan out their history FIRST, I get "stuck" way too easy. My favorite characters are the ones that have a purpose for who they are and how they act; the one's I can think of a situation for, and know EXACTLY what they would do in that situation. Planning is essential for me, and I feel the need to "know my character" before I create their biography, or else I'll lose my motivation, and not even be excited about role-playing them.
2) HE OR SHE HAS CONSISTENCY.
Has anyone else ever seen someone break away from the "norm" of their character? I know I have seen it, and I've done the same thing as well. What I mean is, I've had my character's actions, take on life, personality, reasoning, and points-of-view, ALL planned out, and then when I go to roleplay, I've made the mistake of straying COMPLETELY away from what they would do, or what they would say. Now I can understand a character with multiple-personalities, or just a naturally unpredictable character, but if you have a character that's known for being gruff and aloof for example, I think a good character wouldn't suddenly become a social butterfly in a thread, and that same bitter character in another. This inconsistency makes for confusion in your canine's personality, and the lack of "sticking" to your character's personality may cause you as the writer to lose focus on who exactly your charrie is! Not only this, but if you intend to have your character "change" or show a softer side when they fall in love, for example, I've found quite a few people that have made their character transition from a harsher, bolder personality, to a softer, sweeter one much too quickly-- which is highly unrealistic. You know the old saying, "old habits die hard"? Well this fits nicely with this situation. Your dog isn't suddenly going to change after a few exchanges with another character, and it could be compared to how unrealistic it is to have your canid fall in love too fast. When I've done the whole "straying from my character's habits" thing, I find I get the infamous Writer's Block very quickly. This is because I lost the direction of my character!
3) HE OR SHE IS UNIQUE, WITHOUT BEING TOO UNCOMMON.
Unique and uncommon are two whole different things. I think I'm fairly unique, but I don't think I'm too outrageously uncommon. A character CAN be unique while still being "average." I personally feel no strangely-shaped birthmark or odd physical characteristic will truly make a character unique from the rest, and I don't think a writer should take that chance of an "odd aesthetic attribute" without a TRULY GOOD reason for it. Otherwise, it really adds no true uniqueness to your canine. Instead of sprinkling your character with too many out-of-the-ordinary physical traits or mental diseases, I think showering your character with his or her own special "quirks" can help add that "extra special touch of individuality" we all try to seek for our character. As all of us should hopefully know, perfect is BORING. Characters with special markings or glowing, shiny fur and a perfectly sweet and loyal personality may make YOU seem like you want your character to get attention, plus it just makes your character unexciting to roleplay with. Slight touches such as a crooked smile, overly large, clunky paws, and a habit for pacing MAKE your character. I like to think the little things are what make him or her interesting to roleplay. Even though it can be considered unrealistic, I think giving your character an accent can help with this! We, as animal role-players, practice a lot of anthropomorphism in our characters in writing, or giving our animals human-esque traits. With this in mind, if they can speak English like a human can, why shouldn't they be able to have an accent like a human can?
4) HE OR SHE DOESN'T JUST HAVE "ONE TRAIT."
Realistically, most humans won't likely have just one trait to their personality; rather, there's many layers to their persona. However, I believe in over-exaggerating a FEW of the many traits that your character has so they all stand out, and further creates that feel that you're trying to portray. Think of it kind of like acting. In drama, you're SUPPOSED to over-exaggerate the mannerisms of the character(s) you're trying to portray, so your audience can get that much better of an idea of what they're like. Be warned though, if you over-emphasize on too many traits (especially their better traits), your canine may start to sound unrealistic, or "perfect." This is kind of a contradiction to what I stated above, but it's GOOD to have a few defining traits your audience can pick out just from the context, to create a slight "type" for your character's personality, without being too generic.
5) HIS OR HER TRAITS ARE NOT MISTAKEN FOR HIS OR HER CIRCUMSTANCES.
To put it simply, if your character's pregnant (assuming it's a female, of course) you can't assume (if you're anthropomorphizing) that she will act COMPLETELY as she would had she not been pregnant. We all know many women tend to become a tad bit...grumpier when they're pregnant, but that does not mean that's how they always are. Her defining points SHOULD NOT be because of her condition of being pregnant. Another example being, just because your character's destined to do something great, doesn't mean they'll do it. If some prophecy they hear foretells that they will save the world, they probably won't believe it at first unless they're really gullible, or really that full of themselves. Secondly, just because charries tend to have a set way for how they're supposed to act, because that's how others think they should act as that breed, it doesn't mean they HAVE to act that way! To clarify my previous comment, if you want an adorable looking, fluffy Maltese for a character, why not completely switch up their personality from what you would THINK a fluffy dog's personality would be? Perhaps you could make it a sweet-looking male Maltese with a deceiving persona, a resentment for those who undermine him because of size, A big-dog complex (though most small dogs have this trait anyways!), and a surprising ability to convince and trick others to compromise for his size? This unsurprising twist is unique!
------------------------
Ahh! Sorry if all that jazz above was hard to follow! I just randomly started typing and that's what happened! Does anyone have any tips on making a unique character, or what they think makes a unique charrie? Jeez, or you can count how many times I said 'character' in my rant! I was just kind of bored and decided, "hey, why not rant on the Chatter board?"
. Go ahead and shout out on this thread if you disagree with any of my thoughts above, because I'd love to hear what you have to say!
With all of my <3,
Fantasm.
What I think makes a unique character:
1) HE OR SHE HAS DIRECTION.
For me, this is one of the most important things, if not THEE most important. ;3. I've made this mistake too many times to count with previous characters of mine. If I don't know where I'm going with them, and don't plan out their history FIRST, I get "stuck" way too easy. My favorite characters are the ones that have a purpose for who they are and how they act; the one's I can think of a situation for, and know EXACTLY what they would do in that situation. Planning is essential for me, and I feel the need to "know my character" before I create their biography, or else I'll lose my motivation, and not even be excited about role-playing them.
2) HE OR SHE HAS CONSISTENCY.
Has anyone else ever seen someone break away from the "norm" of their character? I know I have seen it, and I've done the same thing as well. What I mean is, I've had my character's actions, take on life, personality, reasoning, and points-of-view, ALL planned out, and then when I go to roleplay, I've made the mistake of straying COMPLETELY away from what they would do, or what they would say. Now I can understand a character with multiple-personalities, or just a naturally unpredictable character, but if you have a character that's known for being gruff and aloof for example, I think a good character wouldn't suddenly become a social butterfly in a thread, and that same bitter character in another. This inconsistency makes for confusion in your canine's personality, and the lack of "sticking" to your character's personality may cause you as the writer to lose focus on who exactly your charrie is! Not only this, but if you intend to have your character "change" or show a softer side when they fall in love, for example, I've found quite a few people that have made their character transition from a harsher, bolder personality, to a softer, sweeter one much too quickly-- which is highly unrealistic. You know the old saying, "old habits die hard"? Well this fits nicely with this situation. Your dog isn't suddenly going to change after a few exchanges with another character, and it could be compared to how unrealistic it is to have your canid fall in love too fast. When I've done the whole "straying from my character's habits" thing, I find I get the infamous Writer's Block very quickly. This is because I lost the direction of my character!
3) HE OR SHE IS UNIQUE, WITHOUT BEING TOO UNCOMMON.
Unique and uncommon are two whole different things. I think I'm fairly unique, but I don't think I'm too outrageously uncommon. A character CAN be unique while still being "average." I personally feel no strangely-shaped birthmark or odd physical characteristic will truly make a character unique from the rest, and I don't think a writer should take that chance of an "odd aesthetic attribute" without a TRULY GOOD reason for it. Otherwise, it really adds no true uniqueness to your canine. Instead of sprinkling your character with too many out-of-the-ordinary physical traits or mental diseases, I think showering your character with his or her own special "quirks" can help add that "extra special touch of individuality" we all try to seek for our character. As all of us should hopefully know, perfect is BORING. Characters with special markings or glowing, shiny fur and a perfectly sweet and loyal personality may make YOU seem like you want your character to get attention, plus it just makes your character unexciting to roleplay with. Slight touches such as a crooked smile, overly large, clunky paws, and a habit for pacing MAKE your character. I like to think the little things are what make him or her interesting to roleplay. Even though it can be considered unrealistic, I think giving your character an accent can help with this! We, as animal role-players, practice a lot of anthropomorphism in our characters in writing, or giving our animals human-esque traits. With this in mind, if they can speak English like a human can, why shouldn't they be able to have an accent like a human can?
4) HE OR SHE DOESN'T JUST HAVE "ONE TRAIT."
Realistically, most humans won't likely have just one trait to their personality; rather, there's many layers to their persona. However, I believe in over-exaggerating a FEW of the many traits that your character has so they all stand out, and further creates that feel that you're trying to portray. Think of it kind of like acting. In drama, you're SUPPOSED to over-exaggerate the mannerisms of the character(s) you're trying to portray, so your audience can get that much better of an idea of what they're like. Be warned though, if you over-emphasize on too many traits (especially their better traits), your canine may start to sound unrealistic, or "perfect." This is kind of a contradiction to what I stated above, but it's GOOD to have a few defining traits your audience can pick out just from the context, to create a slight "type" for your character's personality, without being too generic.
5) HIS OR HER TRAITS ARE NOT MISTAKEN FOR HIS OR HER CIRCUMSTANCES.
To put it simply, if your character's pregnant (assuming it's a female, of course) you can't assume (if you're anthropomorphizing) that she will act COMPLETELY as she would had she not been pregnant. We all know many women tend to become a tad bit...grumpier when they're pregnant, but that does not mean that's how they always are. Her defining points SHOULD NOT be because of her condition of being pregnant. Another example being, just because your character's destined to do something great, doesn't mean they'll do it. If some prophecy they hear foretells that they will save the world, they probably won't believe it at first unless they're really gullible, or really that full of themselves. Secondly, just because charries tend to have a set way for how they're supposed to act, because that's how others think they should act as that breed, it doesn't mean they HAVE to act that way! To clarify my previous comment, if you want an adorable looking, fluffy Maltese for a character, why not completely switch up their personality from what you would THINK a fluffy dog's personality would be? Perhaps you could make it a sweet-looking male Maltese with a deceiving persona, a resentment for those who undermine him because of size, A big-dog complex (though most small dogs have this trait anyways!), and a surprising ability to convince and trick others to compromise for his size? This unsurprising twist is unique!
------------------------
Ahh! Sorry if all that jazz above was hard to follow! I just randomly started typing and that's what happened! Does anyone have any tips on making a unique character, or what they think makes a unique charrie? Jeez, or you can count how many times I said 'character' in my rant! I was just kind of bored and decided, "hey, why not rant on the Chatter board?"
. Go ahead and shout out on this thread if you disagree with any of my thoughts above, because I'd love to hear what you have to say! With all of my <3,
Fantasm.