Character Creation

[BigAndTall]

As a reader I have always enjoyed learning the development of a story.

When you are writing a story, where do you get the inspiration for characters?

People you know?

Fantasy?

Borrowing from some one else's idea?

Ideal mate?

Past experience?

 

[cloudy]

Interesting question.

One of my stories (I'm not telling which one) is true, so no work for characters there.

The others? Hmm..

Some are taken directly from people I know, some are just completely made up, and others are constructed around little snippets of conversation I happen to overhear, or something like that.

I've even used fellow authors here a couple of times for inspiration: used some of their quirks, etc., in a story.

I suppose inspiration for characters is everywhere.

 

[Guest]

As a reader I have always enjoyed learning the development of a story.

When you are writing a story, where do you get the inspiration for characters?

People you know?

Fantasy?

Borrowing from some one else's idea?

Ideal mate?

Past experience?

My stories tend to be very character driven, so this is a topic very close to my heart.

Of course, there is a lot of plot, but the narrative is rarely about the setting, but more about the actions and thoughts of the character within the setting.

As to where I draw from to make up my characters, it's almost always from people I know. I don't use whole personalities of those people, but I loosely base them on them, and pick certain attributes from one person and others from another.

I also know I draw a lot on myself for the female leads, particularly within the erotic pieces.

In fact, my most recent postings to Lit have been pretty autobiographical, so it has been fairly easy to write the characters.

When it comes to making up a completely fictional character, which I have had to do for my NaNo novel, I try to think of the traits such a person would have. For example, one of the characters is a serial killer, and as I don't know any serial killers, I've had to draw on a lot of other books I've read, depicting similar characters. I don't ever steal other people's characters, but I might pick up certain nuances, even subconsciously.

Lou

 

[English Lady]

My characters are mainly made up in my imagination. My female characters often pull alot from me and my character but each one is essentially made up from bits and pieces of people i know, people i've read or seem in a movie/on the telly.

There are some that have myself and my husband in them, mostly my earlier work but even know i do some as i write them for him *smiles* they come easily

 

[carsonshepherd]

I draw a lot on people I know, with their faults usually exaggerated, or their good points idealized.

My protagonists are usually versions of me (What ego?) Even if they are made up there's always some piece of me there, male or female. The hardest character I've ever written was a mousy, shy, beaten-down female who never spoke her mind - my opposite in every way. But that character turned out to ROCK, I've been told. So it was worth it I guess.

 

[BigAndTall]

Re: Re: Character Creation

I also know I draw a lot on myself for the female leads, particularly within the erotic pieces.


Lou

Is that a way for you to express something about yourself to perhaps in a way relive a moment?

(that also goes for anyone else)

 

[LadyJeanne]

I often take compelling elements from people I know and from myself, and build a character from there. It can be something superficial, such as the way they dress. Or it can be more subtle, such as an attitude.

Either way, that element evokes a character in my head that may or may not be anything like the 'original' and usually it's the thing that makes the character feel real.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Character Creation

Is that a way for you to express something about yourself to perhaps in a way relive a moment?

(that also goes for anyone else)

Yes, I think so, very much so. A lot of the erotica I write, I do so purely for my own enjoyment, and often that of another. So, yes, reliving a moment could be one way to put it.

However, even in completely fictional stories, I still draw on myself a lot, probably because there is nobody else I know better. As Carson said, maybe it's an ego thing.

Lou

 

[Guest]

 

[razor_nut]

A long series I have brainstormed is based on my senior year in high school, just with a lot more sex and embelished events. Kinda like a made for TV movie.
But yes for me a lot of my characters are in some way a part of me or people I've known. I've yet to really completely invent a character, but I think I can do so, when a story comes along and calls for it.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Almost all of my stories are character driven. I spend a great deal of time working on the characters, their motivations and traits.

Where do they come from? I don't know. I tend to make them up wholesale. Some, like the red headed femme that appeared in most of my early works is myself with minor modifications to fit a story.

Some are based in whole or in a large chunk on people I know with Lauren-hynde, Luck-e-leven, Sweetsubsarrah and others providing the lion's share of a particular character.

Some are amalgamations of traits I find sexy, appealing or fascinating. Perdita, tatelou, Cloudy, Rebeccaleah, Matriarch and many others have contributed to my characters because they each have traits I admire and find sexy.

A great many of mine owe their personality to no person living or dead, they start out as rough ideas and develop traits as the plot and story dictate. Many take on a life of their own, developing along lines I never envisioned when I began.

A very few of my characters are anti-characters. that is, they take their traitsnot from someone I know, but from a conceptualized inverse of those traits. A particularly nasty character in one story is a conceptualized inverse of a fairly beloved Ah personality.

In the end, the characters either fit the plot or mold the plot. those who fit the plot, are the ones who start out already imbibed with traits borrowed in whole or in part from people I know or characters I enjoyed reading. those who mold the plots are more fun to write, as they develop along with the story, taking little if anything from the world I know.

-Colly

 

[Weird Harold]

Lke Lime, the story -- or at least the central plot device -- comes first for me. Sometimes that initial idea involves a character trait to build the central character around.

For Characterization, I almost always start with a stereotype.

Where I go from there depends on whether I want to puncture the stereotype or emphasize it, but I never leave it just the stereotype for a main or secondary character.

 

[cantdog]

I don't do very well at characters. For me, people are very different from one another and they act in random and sometimes unfathomable ways. When my characters do that they seem real enough to me, but they often don't to others.

Even when I base them on the actions and opinions of real people, which is nearly always (it is much easier) the people themselves aren't struck by how real they are in the slightest, and only once did one recognize a part of himself in a character.

I know there are universals in people, and I write to those, express those. But within that universal mold there is a lot of room; nobody fills the form completely. The results are a wild mix of variations, which are yet every one human.

It is difficult, when I clearly see the motivations, the desires and fears, which are going to move a character, to know how much of that to include when telling the story. Sometimes I feel I've over-explained or belabored the motivation, other times the action just occurs in the story because I think it's obvious why they did it. I make errors in both directions all the time.

Just knowing people, even knowing them well, is no guarantee you can make them come real to a reader.

 

[impressive]

Like a couple others have mentioned -- some stories are autobiographical, so the characters didn't require "inspiration" per se. Most of my other characters are based loosely on folks I know, pieces of me, or folks I would like to know.

I tend to start with plot -- or with just "scene" on the stroke pieces -- and then fill in the characters to suit.

I prefer to leave OUT as many physical characteristics as possible unless it's necessary -- and then, it's typically to set off a dichotomy (i.e., tall and fair vs. petite and dark). I don't like to be bludgeoned with such details when I read -- so I seldom include them when I write.

EDITED TO ADD: Many times I'll have a character in mind, but when I actually start writing, that character won't cooperate. S/he will be redefined -- almost against my will. When that happens, I don't fight it.

 

[Guest]

I prefer to leave OUT as many physical characteristics as possible unless it's necessary -- and then, it's typically to set off a dichotomy (i.e., tall and fair vs. petite and dark). I don't like to be bludgeoned with such details when I read -- so I seldom include them when I write.

Same here. I very, very rarely describe any physical attributes of my characters. The reader might get a feel of the general size, or even shape, of the character, from certain actions or situations that character might find themselves in, but I never actually write how tall they are, or whatever. When it comes to describing characters, it's all show and no tell, just as I like it to be when I read a story.

I like to give the reader scope to be able to decide for themselves exactly what the character looks like.

Lou

 

[cantdog]

I put Abs in a story of mine recently.

 

[impressive]

I haven't used any AHers for characters (or pieces of characters) ... YET. Then again, I'm still gettin' to know y'all.

 

[razor_nut]

Same here. I very, very rarely describe any physical attributes of my characters. The reader might get a feel of the general size, or even shape, of the character, from certain actions or situations that character might find themselves in, but I never actually write how tall they are, or whatever. When it comes to describing characters, it's all show and no tell, just as I like it to be when I read a story.

I like to give the reader scope to be able to decide for themselves exactly what the character looks like.

Lou

That's something I'm working on, and I think is probably the best way to go. Detailed description can be very difficult, especially when it's so much easier to let the reader picture what they want within your loose guidelines.

 

[Guest]

That's something I'm working on, and I think is probably the best way to go. Detailed description can be very difficult, especially when it's so much easier to let the reader picture what they want within your loose guidelines.

I beg to differ.

Detailed description is very easy to write. It's only difficult to write when you are trying to disguise the fact that you are giving a detailed description of the character. If that makes any sense!

Lou

 

[English Lady]

Same here. I very, very rarely describe any physical attributes of my characters. The reader might get a feel of the general size, or even shape, of the character, from certain actions or situations that character might find themselves in, but I never actually write how tall they are, or whatever. When it comes to describing characters, it's all show and no tell, just as I like it to be when I read a story.

I like to give the reader scope to be able to decide for themselves exactly what the character looks like.

Lou

Same for me. I HATE reading physical attributes in stories. especially those of the 36DD boobs or 12 foot penis type

 

[Guest]

Same for me. I HATE reading physical attributes in stories. especially those of the 36DD boobs or 12 foot penis type

12 foot!? Big LOL!!!

 

[impressive]

12 foot!? Big LOL!!!

Indeed. (Quite.)

I'm tickled with the rash of new writerly threads over the past 24 hours.

 

[razor_nut]

12 foot!? Big LOL!!!

And sadly only a centimeter thick.

And yeah I get what you mean, that's what I meant to say. It's hard to make it not come across like a police bulitin. 6 ft. tall. 180 lbs. brown hair. brown eyes. scar on chin. "mom" tattoo on left forearm.

 

[English Lady]

well you know what I mean...they're always so ridiculously big and wide*L* And urgh i get sick of those kind of discriptions. Give me osme hints and let my mind fill in the rest -ta!

razor_nut - exactly, a list of atributes is fairly boring and really doesn't give you any real memorable detail about a character

 

[Guest]

And sadly only a centimeter thick.

HAHAHA!!!

Originally posted by razor_nut And yeah I get what you mean, that's what I meant to say. It's hard to make it not come across like a police bulitin. 6 ft. tall. 180 lbs. brown hair. brown eyes. scar on chin. "mom" tattoo on left forearm. [/B]

Yep, you are so right.

Lou