jvj

Where do your characters come from? Are they drawn only from your imagination or are they based, at least in part, on people you know (or have known)?

Do you ever wonder how much of your own personality is reflected in your characters? In that sense, maybe you consider writing to be not only a creative pursuit but also a voyage of self-discovery.

-Paul

Ohh thats a good one..

I do let myself be inspired by people, books, movies, even games that had some form of impact on me but for the most part, my characters live and breathe inside of my mind. To an extend, they all have a different part of myself in them. They are "me" and yet, they do not reflect who I really am as a whole. I grow and evolve one way, my characters do so in their way. They are me, but the older they get.. the less they are me and the more they are themselves.

It really is fascinating to go and look back at some old old characters..see how they started..and how over time they changed into whatever they are now. It makes me cringe sometimes how two dimensional I made things look in my early writing days. Oddly it also gives me satisfaction to see how I improved, how they have grown.

Some of that evolution comes from random inspiration, such as the Sword of Shadows series right here. When I see an absolute creep of a badguy like the guys in there or an especially twisted shocking turn of events, I feel inspired to improve myself and my own writing. You know, write something and pay a form of tribute to whoever pushed me to that point.

Alot more comes from me, just writing at random or thinking about storylines and slowly developing new ideas. Hell even spur of the moment ideas play a factor for me. One of my favourite characters at one time was a captive to others and intended to break free, fight his way out and be on the run. In a sudden spark of thought I decided he'd turn around on the spot and kill his captor rather than fleeing from him..thus altering his entire storyline as well as himself forever. Sure it killed alot of thought and planning but in the end it worked so much better on a greater scale.

It is scary at times how they reflect myself..and yet are totally different. But what it all boils down to..they're all part of me, part of who I am..and I'm part of them. Its troublesome because it shows me my limits. To give an example, I have alot of trouble portraying a typical holier-than-thou paladin type. That is simply put not me. Its a kind of character I want to punch in the mouth, not make a story about you know? I use those kind of characters as cannonfodder, thats about it. Also alot of them share a stubborn pride (that admittedly exceeds my own) in who they are and what they do

In closing I have to cut on the point of self discovery..I never thought of it like that to be honest but it is an interesting thought. There is stuff I could learn there probably.. I'll have to think about that.

Souldrinker wrote:It really is fascinating to go and look back at some old old characters..see how they started..and how over time they changed into whatever they are now. It makes me cringe sometimes how two dimensional I made things look in my early writing days. Oddly it also gives me satisfaction to see how I improved, how they have grown.

I don't think there's anything odd about that, Souldrinker. I think it's great! Looking back at your previous work, while a little scary, will provide clear evidence of your progress.

It will also prove how important experience is. As times passes, you write more, read more and learn more about people. All crucial elements in creating better characters. Getting older does have its advantages!

-Paul

I have been writing for just a few years, and only have completed about a dozen shorts and am working on a novella. ANd I still have no idea where any of the characters come from. I am kind of afraid to question it, to be honest.

Most of my characters are built around idealism. Each character I write (main character at least) tends to be constructed around what sort of person someone may picture when we hear a character trait used. Once I decide which character will be the brave one, which one will be the "tragic hero" which one will be whatever else, I expand upon that by branching them out based on what a person like that may actually be, add strengths and weaknesses, add a personal history, and there we go.

I do base some off people I've known, but most of the people I know wouldn't make very good characters in writing, though there are a few that would make excellent ones. My grandfather, for instance.

One of the Characters I've developed (nah, it started lurking throu my mind as simple as that, just needed to flesh out the surroundings) has quite some traces of myself despite being a female character ... uses to curse and sometimes to behave as roughly as any lad. Yeah, sometimes she comes back for a visit *g*

Others I've dreamed of ... as simple as that.

@aaron: they come from that land you stroll throu whilst you 're dreaming. Ever had a waking dream? I enjoy them, even at work.

My characters come from imagination mostly - an amalgamation of whatever my memory has stored from books, film, video games, comics etc etc. In fact sometimes I will base someone around an interesting object/landscape - bring out their character from their own environment.

Others are from a conflict I want to exploit, or a sense of idealism about what a person could be.

And alot come from dreams too - I happen to dream about ppl who are never in my real life but in my dream world they are my friends, my family, my boss or whoever.

Basically I'm obsessed with mythology, so quite a few of my characters are based on the stock idea of that but then twisted with reality - (whatever that means). It's my ode to the works of Euripides and Homer and such.

I can remember, sixth grade, chucking sickes so that I could lie in bed and write bigass chronologies and indexes like in the back of LOTR. Would just make up stuff, winging it along. It wasn't writing so much, more just brainstorming everything. Names, Items, Events, Groups.

Good times.

I bang the keyboard and somehow a character appears. eh, I really don't know, I'm not as scared of characterization as I used to be. Have written a variety of chars, from men to women to children, and sold stories in different pov's so that's ok for me.

Where they come from? I don't know; I "hear" them in my head and try to write them that way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It starts with the voice basically, if I can hear the voice I can write them, and looks I add more consciously, personality is kind of a mix between what it needs to be and what I decide it's going to be while I'm describing them.

I do actively try to keep "myself" out of my characters though, just a personal preference thing.