Writing Help-Group For Everyone discussion

what did your characters start as and how are they now?

ok example:

Luke White:

2011 - The time when i started useing goodreads:
luke was a nice, careing guy who flirted often and put others above his own saftey.....
old look:

2011 (the time i started useing goodreads) - i got bored of rping with a goody goody character cause nothin' happened.. so yeah...
persionality NOW XD:

His is dark and forboding. He is nonchalance and dissdanful. He cares Nada about anyone or anything. All he cares about is money and top class weapons. When he is not killing for money he can usally be found sleeping... up a tree usally. luke is the master of NOT haveing any humanity...He kills with no emotions. his face is a blank slate. His eyes are like black holes.. sucking information in.... lettking nohing out. He is cold and ditached. His weaknesses are money and annoying people. If you wake him up or talk to much or try to flirt with him.. he'll get VERY annoyed and leave yoou gasping for breath...in a bad way...the only part of him left is the fact that he refuses to kill for free. He has this addiction for money.. yet he never spends a single coin on his own pleasure apart from buying the top of the top weapons and new ways to kill so he couls earn MORE money by killing MORE people. he sleeps in dark forests, dark allys, anywhere tthat is cold adn dark. he is someone you do NOT want to meet. He is often mistaken for an overgrown cat (jks he is pretty tall)

luke:


only with a scar like this: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XX3VNJOCWvc...

:P SEE HOW DIFFERENT!?!?!?1/1?1?1?1


the old luke chanegd into my current Alex XD

I had a character start out as a freedom fighter but I began to make her what the manga calls a shadow. Every thing in the perspective of a shadow is dimented and halucinated. (shadows are mutated super humans with dimented views.)

lol nice

btw when i say 2011 - the time i started goodreads....i mean that it was until i dicovered gr

Ok :D

I have one character that is already invented. It was a character from a series that at the beginning I found he had no stuff. He was just this push over with allot of power, being lead to use that power in useless ways that only ended up hurting him. That skeleton soon became sort of addictive. All the normal things that people saw in him (his love for cute things, his childishness) it didn't appeal to me but I used it to my advantage because behind all that dramatism was a very well kept ancient soul forced to stay young in any age and who, now bitter, lost his step for one century and had it all tumble down on him. Now he was to stay himself while copying others.

Definition of oxi-moron.

Whoa.

I daydream frequently. My characters begin as imagined conversations. I get to know them by their dialog. In time, a visual description will emerge, but my biggest insight into the character is through their inner and exterior dialog.

That becomes an issue when I decide to create a character that doesn't speak or is telepathic. That also might explain why I even have talking animals in my stories.

Someone asked me about the inspiration for a talking horse character in my first book. They were surprised when I told them that the horse was based upon my imagined dialog for real horses I have known. (Yes, I maintain a running mental conversation with nearly all inanimate and animate objects, plants, animals, and TSA agents I encounter. What? Is that weird?)

My main character was pretty well formed before I decided on her looks, age, or even gender. Adding those elements modified her, but did not define her.

This obsession I have may also explain why I keep putting limits on my character's abilities to express themselves. I had an alien poet who spoke through a translator which would not allow the use of 1st person or 2nd person pronouns. Since the alien had no name, It referred to Itself as, "One" and It's friend as, "One's pet". Other characters have been limited to speaking only in rhymes or in clichés.

I am making this far too hard...

Nice-so instead of focusing on appearance you look at the conversations you have with them.

Sometimes, I forget to create an appearance until I've already written them into the story. When that happens, I have to figure out how much description is really required for that character.

I have a problem with giving my characters an appearances-What would you advice doing?

I start by deciding how much a description of the character's appearance will enhance the reader's understanding of the character. Sometimes, you don't need much.

A guy is robbing a bank. He's holding a shotgun and screaming dire threats with a strong southern accent. There are a couple of accomplices elsewhere in the bank filling bags with money. How much description of the gunman would one of the main characters in the bank be able to provide? Are the victims on the ground? If so, can they see much else except his shoes, the mask on his face, and the barrel of that weapon? How much do I as a reader need to know about his looks to understand the character and the scene?

I'm of the belief that too much description slows down action sequences and interrupts dialog. On the other hand, a rich, multi-faceted description of the setting and the visual textures may help the reader to insert themselves into the story.

Your mileage may vary, but that's where I start.

Ubiquitous wrote: "I daydream frequently. My characters begin as imagined conversations. I get to know them by their dialog. In time, a visual description will emerge, but my biggest insight into the character is ..."

I rather like that concept....

The main character of my book changed a lot since I first started on it...

2004 - Went by "DarkIce" and hated Cristina because of something that was her own fault. Very childish and angers easily. Has surprising control of her powers, but claims that she doesn't. Only really has one incident that supports this, way back in chapter one.

2011 - Her name officially becomes Jade. She is more confused than childish now, and rarely gets angry. She suffers from memory loss and spends the first few chapters not talking. She's closer to Flame and Amber now, whereas before she was more of a loner.

2013 - Angelo becomes her world. She learns quickly but understands almost nothing at first. (Ex: She doesn't know what a road is.) Her character seems younger than before.

2014 (now) - Seems more normal. She talks fine, but suffers from PTSD every once and a while. Angelo still means a lot to her, but she often fights with her. She no longer lets her confusion bother her, and there's very little that she doesn't know about the world.

Wow, that's what I call character development! o.o