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 Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:06 pm
Why... It's better than cable! Dunno if Nino's going to let me post this here, but Inuko-chan likes to write things like this... Be warned... it's long... Very... Long... And Possibly boring while I'm at that.... Very... boring.... Boring indeed.... Now... Moving along... The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave it to him."
--Graham Greene Hello, many of you all will remember me as Inuko_Murasame. Here I will attempt to give you a way to give your characters more depth. Many times I have come to a thread in a forum with nothing but very shallow characters which in the end become despies. Their personalities seem to have nothing in relation to much of the topic. Here I attempt to help you on your way to creating a great character that has the facets that a normal person has. For Roleplays, I find this aspect very important. Without multiple facets and personalities, the character is nothing but a thing of flesh from the tip of one's imagination. Through much thought and consideration, imagination only leads to more imagination. In the end, the character is nothing but figments and parts of the imagination with nothing to hold the character together. This thread is to help you bring life to those characters that you had worked so hard to put together. Each character is missing one small link, I will admit, that even I, the one who is writing this thread, have many characters that have flaws within them. But with time, I wish to have these characters polished and refined to the image that I have within my head. Nothing is perfect, the human nature is flawed, and such everything within the power of humans is of course going to be flawed. Thus, this is not a thread to pefect characters, but more a thread to help refine characters. I only hope that this topic here will help you in your future creation of characters. If any of you have any questions, comments, complaints or anything else, feel free to PM me or post in this thread. ^.^ ----- Sincerly Serial No. 89757
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:07 pm
Table of Contents: "People are always asking me if the university stifles writers.
I reply that it hasn’t stifled enough of them.
There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good writing teacher."
--Flannery O’Connor Chapter 0: Introduction Chapter 1: Characterization: The Outer Life Chapter 2: Characterization: The Inner Life Chapter 3: Applied Characterization Chapter 4: The Journey Chapter 5: Suspense Chapter 6: Conflict
Chapter 7: Context Chapter 8: Reserved
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:08 pm
Chapter 0: Introduction: The word 'plot' comes to mind when one starts writing a story, a roleplay, a screen play, a play, anything that involves story. But to many people who write, it normally only gives the idea of what is going to happen, the setting, the events and so forth. Many people forget that it is the characters that foreward the plot, they are the things that set everything in motion. Plot does not magically appear with the creation of a character; Frankenstein’s monster might open his eyes, but until he gets up from the table and does something, there is little basis for a plot. Plot comes with your characters’ taking action; with their interaction with others; with their traits being applied to imagined scenarios. This preparation was crucial, but unfortunately your task doesn’t end there. On the contrary, it’s just beginning. Now it’s time to consider a whole new set of issues as you let your characters help you create your plot, as you begin to weave the endlessly rich and complicated tapestry of character interaction. The characters have their own mind. Their mind is not your own, they are the figments of everything that you wish that you could be, but also the figments of everything you resent. Characters are reflections of your own heart, your own feelings. Everything that you could ever imagine could go to your characters. Some people, may take that to the extreme and make everything they wish come true. Thus resulting in a character known to many-a-RPer as a "mary Sue". Some take it the other way and make it everything that they have always resented, thus making it a character that is challenging to RP and thus resulting in a very bad character. Much of the time though, I see many a character with a short biography. Many times I see the "Not much is known." Line typed along the paragraphs known as the biography. If not that it is the lines of "_____ cannot remember anything about his/her past." _____ being the character name. Even if they cannot remember, it is possible that figments of the memories can be unearthed in the character's life before the Role Play has started. It would be crucial to know when that character's memory has stopped, thus they would not forever be in a constant state of amesia. That would be a horror. This guide is more questions than it is answers. It is a way for you to look deeper into the mind of your characters. Sit down to drink tea with them, and find out more about them. Your characters are alive, they are living breathing people, it is your job to make them known.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:09 pm
Chapter 1:
Characterization: The Outer Life
Your character, their life, what they do, where they live, how they interact with other people, all of these things are crucial to who your character is in the end. Are they a shoplifter living in a modern day busy urban city? Or are they a stealthy ninja of the ancient days. Any of these professions should fit the time and age of the plot.
The character is a person, someone who is living in the scene given to you in a roleplay. They reside in a world that is figmented from imagination and thus their actions are not real, but should be rational enough to be believable. For example, there should not be a samurai with say shuriken, that is orthodox to what the samurai code is. Ninjas are characters of stealth, thus the weapons that they carry and their style of life are completely different from any other person of a different social status.
One day, you should sit down with your character, learn the aspects of their lives, do they have a job? Are they beautiful? What makes them tick? Do they live in an apartment? A rundown shack? A hand made home? In a small village? Or perhaps in an urban city in a penthouse? Are they well liked in society? Or are they shunned by everyone that they know? Does your character constantly put on a proud air? Or do they seem to be down all the time.
The character's life is a story within it self and it is what supplies the plot twists in the story. Perhaps there is something in the character's normal mundane life that changed drastically so that they are now on a journey (chapter 4: The Journey) and search for the opposing force (Chatper 6: Conflict.). Or perhaps something good happens in the character's life but the character has yet to find out what it is, thus suspense is applied (Chapter 5: Suspense).
In the end, it is the character and the mundane life that he or she leads that slowly forewards the plot. Many little things happen over the time and soon lead over to bigger things. The young child who was born being blind who slowly learns how to read things in the enviroment but still stumbles one day is suddenly brought to the world of sight through some miracle from a lightning strike that corrected the ever dark cloud of the child's world. The young employee who has been diligently working since being hired is one day promoted.
Everything leads to one thing to another, without the little things in the outside life, the plot seems choppy. The character's bio should be a combination of the little things as well as the larger aspects of his/her life.
Appearance, one thing that many people take for granted. Many people do not expect a girl to dress up like a male, but perhaps there is something in the past that has made the female dress the way that she does (Chapter 2: Characterization: The Inner Life). Appearance is sometimes over done, and all the Roleplayer will rely on is the look of the character. Appearance is important, yes, but it is not the core of the chracter.
The looks of the character reflect the type of enviroment that a character has grown up in. Are they tanned from hard work outside? Or are they pale from being an aristocrat? Is the character a hardfaced and gloomy character from being abused a a child? Or are they a quiet, quaint and innocent little girl who has been pampered all their life. Appearance is the mirror reflection of a character's personality.
Many times, I have seen a character who will not reveal the past in the biography section for the sake of the roleplay. I find this aspect slightly aggrivating as the characters themselves do not know anything about the other characters. They have yet to meet the characters that populate the roleplay. They have always lived in the little circle of people that they have grown up around. Anything that the creator writes is information that they know alone, and just because other character players are able to read it, it does not neccessarily mean that the characters themselves know the same information that the player knows.
In the end, this chapter is to highlight the outward appearance that characters give off, their aura, their charisma around people and what people view of them.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:10 pm
Chapter 2: Characterization: The Inner Life A character's outward personality may differ from the inner personality. The side of the character that not everyone sees. This is the facet of the dynamic character that is thier inner self, the core in which all reactions take place. All their thoughts of life and their view are through the inner life. The character's mind works differently than the player's. They are a completely different entity from you all together. A point of of the inner life that many people displace is religion. Homage to a deity can be a strong point to the character as this brings in their moral standards. Dependant on how strongly they believe in their deity of choice, the actions of the character may change through time. Inner personality is also the side of the character that many characters show with their closest relatives. It is the side that is hidden behind the facade that society forces people to take on. The fake personality wears away to reveal someone who's view of life is very different from the one that they show to the public. Characters that are always smiling, always cheerful, could hold pain within them that they don't want others to find out in fear of being pampered over. The gloomy, silent character that doesn't want to talk to anyone could be the same one who has suffered through mental abuse from parents and feel as though they cannot trust anyone, but in truth, he/she only wishes to be accepted. Take your character's outside personality, and think of why they act that way. Perhaps it is their past, perhaps it is their outlook of life, or perhaps it is their moral. People are people afterall, they have sides to them that even they are afraid of, do not fear that side as your characters do, instead, embrace them as a gift to bring forth more hidden plot lines.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:11 pm
Chapter 3: Applied Characterization A few issues to consider: Entrances and Exits Entrances and exits have power. In the famous shower scene in Psycho, what makes her murder shocking is not the actual stabbing but the fact that our protagonist, unexpectedly, is yanked off stage early in the film. The antagonists in Silence of the Lambs and in Flannery O’Connor’s "A Good Man is Hard to Find" gain their frightening power by not making their appearances until the very end. Conversely, in The Dinner Game a character who should exit in the first act lingers on; it becomes the gimmick of the film and lends it humor. When does your character first appear? On page 1? Page 50? The very end? What would happen if he appeared later? Earlier? Conversely, when does he exit? What would happen if he exited earlier? Later? Perception and Reaction Two men stand in line at a bank at 2:50pm. The first, anticipating the long lines before closing, has brought a book to read, and waits contentedly. He looks up from time to time, sees the tellers are working as hard as they can, that they are at the end of a long day, and feels sympathy for them. He thinks of how when it’s his turn he’ll apologize for keeping them late, complement them on their work, and show his gratitude before leaving. The second, needing to be somewhere else by 3:00pm, stands on the line fidgeting, fuming and complaining to anyone he can find. He glares at the tellers. He sees them as privileged, getting to sit comfortably under air conditioning on this boiling day and call it a day by 3pm. He sees them as lazy, stupid, too incompetent to count money efficiently and hasten their customers off the line—in fact, he’s sure that they are deliberately stretching out their customers, so as to not have to deal with as many people and perhaps to even shut down the bank before he personally can get his turn. He catches one looking back at him and is now positive they are all doing this just to spite him. Knowing he is being publicly made a fool of, he is now indignant, furious. He thinks of how he’ll chastise them when it’s his turn, really let them have it before he leaves. In actuality, these two men are in the exact same circumstance. It is their perceptions of and reactions to the circumstance that differ. Ultimately, events and circumstance are not half as important as how characters perceive and react to them. Before you put your character into your story (where events and other characters are constantly changing), you must first get a handle on how your character might perceive and react to the world around him. You must keep this in mind constantly as you go. For instance, characters can perceive themselves as acting one way when in fact they are acting another. It is not uncommon in life for people to feel as if they are acting kindly while all the while treating other people harshly. The abusive boss, or abusive spouse, will not consider himself abusive, for if he did he wouldn’t be able to live with himself; or, he might have a glimmer of his own abusiveness, but he might justify it to himself (i.e. the worker deserved it). Indeed, a discrepancy between a character’s inner dialogue and his actions is a powerful tool to show a character out of touch with himself. Of course, a character’s perception becomes a thousand times more relevant—can indeed define the entire work—if he happens to be the narrator or viewpoint character. Through Others’ Eyes Sadly enough, consciously or not, we often look to see how people are treated by others to take our cue on how we should treat them. If we enter a room where everyone is bowing to a king, we will probably do the same; if we enter a town where people are keeping their distance from a mumbling, village outcast, we will probably do the same. This is what can make for a "mob mentality," where, if caught up in an angry, impassioned mob, you will likely allow yourself to become caught up in their cause, even if you are barely sure what it is. This insidious human trait can rear its head in much less extreme, everyday situations, and often does: let’s say it is your first day in a new school or office, and you observe everyone avoiding or mocking a certain person; you, likely, will avoid him, too, if for no other reason than not to be associated with him. Conversely, you will also take cues on who to respect, and might look to become closer to such a person, if for no other reason than others might then respect you, too. When you are more comfortable, and have been around the new environment for a while, you might take a step back from the mass consciousness and make decisions for yourself, even if they go against the grain, and decide the universal weirdo is not weird after all, and perhaps even befriend him. But on that first day, overwhelmed with people to meet, you make instant decisions, as the only possible way to make distinctions. You are vulnerable to the perceptions of the masses. Thus, your interactions of the personality that you had put together in the first two chapters makes the character come alive through the perception that he or she has to the world. How he or she reacts to the enviroment around him or her and his or her attitude towards other people. It is the persona of the character that matters in this chapter and the actions that flow along with the plot.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:12 pm
Chapter 4: The Journey The journey is the part of the character that is their goal. It can be an actual traveling adventure or it could be a journey of the soul towards maturity. The journey is the part that the character grows into, it is the point of the character that creates the suspense later on in the story (Chapter 5: suspense) if the character is near death or in a situation in which the journey could not be completed. More or less, the journey is the changes that the character undertakes while within the roleplay. It is difficult for a character through several hundred pages (if applicable) to be the same exact person that he or she was in the beginning. Thus, it is the journey of the mind, the body, and the soul.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:14 pm
Chapter 6: Conflict Conflict is the opposing force for anyone. It may be a single thing that everyone seeks after in a roleplay, or it could be something that only the character deems that he or she can carry out. It is up to you, play around with different things that make your character tick, or perhaps something that the character truely wants only to have something push him or her back. Conflict is what propels and is the true meat of the story/roleplay. It is the reason why the character must go on a journey, to break away from the mundane life that he or she leads. Conflict is the reason why there is a story in the first place. Conflict can be between two people, more than that, or even emotional. Conflict is most of the time why a Roleplay starts and is what carries the plot through to the climax.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:16 pm
Chapter 7: Context Within the context of the original storyline that the roleplay gives, the character follows the story and actions result from that. Context is what gives the character something to follow. Without that, without reading previous posts, one will undoubtivly get lost from the other interactions that have taken place. From reading through context the character can determine what to do next instead of wandering aimlessly in a world that many people have worked so hard to create. Context of the Roleplay gives the character something to work off of, which is why 'n00bish' RPs are so hard to go along with when one is 'literate'. Mainly because the previous post gives too little information to react to. More 'literate' Rps are normally what a lot of people search for and not the chat esque RPs that are out there, the posts before normally give enough information to work off of, so that one's hard worked on character can shine at his/her best.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:17 pm
Chapter 8: RESERVED Reserved for later until this psycho remembers what she forgot...
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:33 pm
Thank you! I get tired of seeing flat characters, and I really hope this will help improve RP characters here.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:43 pm
Ha ha. As an aspiring Novelist, I find it very annoying to find so many great potential characters go down the drain because of bad character creation. Glad y'all like it... took me forever to type this thing up...>.<;
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:59 pm
This is wonderful..it will help many people with dull rp characters..and help me as well sweatdrop .
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:27 pm
What bothers me is that every RP character seems to have dead parents. Am I the only one who ever has living parents who aren't actually RP characters? I mean, they're part of Ganon's history, no one ever meets them because they live in a different country, but he goes to visit them and they're still alive. I feel like the only one.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:30 pm
Don't worry one of my RPCs name Tear still has her parents.
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