Characters

[togitc]

I have a reaccuring character, Joe Skot. He will be in almost every story I am going to post on this site.
Does anyone else have a character like this? If so why?
Also do you have a process of creating a character?
Mine:
I take me, my friends, and my idols and take everything I like add them into a character, then add in some random flaws taken from myself and those of people I know. Make the characters more real I hope.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I have a reaccuring character, Joe Skot. He will be in almost every story I am going to post on this site.

Does anyone else have a character like this? Yes

If so why? - Having one less character to develope, especially a main one, means one less mechanical item to deal with which, in turn, means more time for the other aspects of the story.

Also do you have a process of creating a character? - For the initial concept, no. They're usually developed at the same time the story is coming together. However, sometimes I'll create a customized one, "on the fly," while in the middle of writing a story, to fit a particular need. As for turning that concept into a character, yes, but in my experience it's the same no matter what genre you're writing..

Rumple Foreskin

 

[KillerMuffin]

I don't have recurring characters, just stories that are too long for one Lit chapter.

I get the odd request for a repeat performance for certain characters, but I don't have the energy to do it.

My characters usually develop with the conflict. I dream up the conflict and then find two characters--protagonist and antagonist--to run through it. I add characters as needed. I've never had any difficulty creating characters.

Mine are generally created on a single word. It's their "theme" or "metaphor" or some other snooty word. Basically it's their fatal flaw that changes with the conflict resolution. Take A Perfect Ass for a fer instance.

Abbie's flaw was self-image. This is her defining word. She saw herself as "Fat" and listened to people who agreed with this and ignore those who didn't.

Aaron's job as a character was to force the conflict that changed this. The gang-bang that ensued. His defining word is persistence. He was actually a rather weak character since he shared his antagonist duties with two other men.

Anyway, that's how I do it.

 

[Puppi]

I have a reaccuring character, Joe Skot. He will be in almost every story I am going to post on this site.
Does anyone else have a character like this? If so why?

I haven't had a reaccuring character yet, but I've had an idea for a "series" of sort. The only "connection" within the series? My main character would be the same in one story for almost every category here at Lit.

Why would I do this? Or why would anyone have a reaccuring character? I, personally, think it would be fun to "follow the life" of a character I created.

Also do you have a process of creating a character?

First I think of what kind of story I wish to write. I think many people have a theme (or even a Lit category) in mind before they start writing. Once a basic idea forms in my head, I "consult" my baby name book. (35,000 + Baby Names, by Bruce Lansky.) I look for names that seem to "fit" the theme of the story, or I sometimes look for a name that seems 'opposite" of the theme.

IE: If I was writing about an innocent virgin girl who had a strict Catholic upbringing (and was one of the "rare" real good girls, etc.), I may name her Caitlin since that is Irish for pure. Or, if I was writing about a "known" and "proud" slut, I may name her Jezebel since that is Hebrew for impure.

As for a name that may be "opposite" of my story's theme... I may name a "known" and "proud" slut Chastity, which is Latin for pure, and an obvious contradiction.


~Puppi

 

[Whispersecret]

Hey, Puppi! You and I have something in common. I too think names are critically important, and I often look at the origins of a name before choosing it for a character.

Also, like Killermuffin, my characters develop on their own. I'm a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of author. I choose a situation and just start writing, usually with only a vague idea of what I want to occur.

Like with A Hint of Gorgonzola, I wanted to set a story on a golf course. Who was it going to be? I decided on a divorced woman whose ex is getting married that day. Of course, she was going to meet someone and have sex on the course, but just who that someone was was unclear until he showed up.

I needed a place for them to have sex, and thought about a gardening shed. Then, I needed a reason for them to go there. Oh! How about a storm? Then as the storm approached I thought it might be a good idea for her to have an unreasonable fear of thunder and lightning.

This is how my writing goes.

I can usually count on love and romance entering the picture. It's my nature. Another theme that frequently appears in my work is the "wounded hero being redeemed by the love of a woman."

I hope that my characters all start in one place and end up in another, meaning that they change in some way, large or small, during the story. That's something that I think helps a story become more than a description of a sex scene.

Hope this helps.

 

[Whispersecret]

Duh, I didn't answer your question about recurring characters.

Literotica is bursting with so-called multi-chapter stories. (Don't get me started about the inappropriateness of calling them chapters.) Many of these collections are no more than a succession of sexual encounters involving the same person(s). Many of them are, in my opinion, boring and repetitive, too easily resembling all the other stories like them.

One of the things that can make your "multi-chapter" work stand out is, well, "outstanding" characters. Readers get involved with stories and stick with longer ones to the bitter end (if there IS one) because they care about what happens to the characters.

The tricky thing about recurring characters is that they have to be deep, three-dimentional people with goals, foibles, strengths, etc. (Kay Scarpetta, Kinsey Milhone, Hannibal Lechter) If they're not sufficiently complex, the stories will fall flat and the readers will lose interest. The premise of a story will only take you so far, and if your series relies only upon thrusting a flat character into unique situations, I think you run the risk of mediocrity.

To insert depth into your stories, make sure your recurring character has a goal for each situation, and I'd suggest that the goal should be something more than having sex. OR, have your character learn something about him or herself in the course of the story.

I hope this answers your question.

 

[wildsweetone]

interesting thread togitc

you've made me sit and think. thanks for that.

Does anyone else have a character like this? If so why?
Also do you have a process of creating a character?

yes i have a reocurring character. i somehow-or-other conjured him up while playing on the threads writing short short stories.

i think because of the brevity of the story it meant the character had a lot of mystery around him. he was not fully described in physical or mental terms. i think that's why he intrigues me so much. i tend to keep finding him turning up in odd stories without me consciously putting him in them. and boy, i know that sounds really odd. lol but it's just what happens.

i guess that he is actually developing, growing, becoming truely 3 dimensional because of the way he continues to push himself in my way, and with each story, a little piece of his inner self is being shown.

as for the process of creating a character. well, i've tried consciously 'inventing' a couple of characters. for a small part they have worked. but i think that i tend to prefer suddenly coming face to face with one and watching them develop through whichever direction they take off in. and yes, it's never me writing the story, it's my characters. now you know i'm nuts. lol but i still love writing.

good luck with your stories, and enjoy them

 

[ronde]

I also have a several recurring characters. They appear in a series of separate stories rather than in a series of chapters.

He's a private investigator who started out as a combination of several people and ideas, but as I keep writing about him, he's getting "developed" by the people and situations he encounters. Sometimes he does reveal character flaws, and sometimes people bring out the best in him. I hope he's becoming more real as time goes on.

The rest of the characters are female, and right now are not very well developed. I'm working on that by putting them into (hopefully) interesting situations and then letting them try to extricate themselves.

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't have any recurring characters, and even went to some length to make sure that one story was framed in a way that I wasn't commited to writing a dozen sequels.

My personal philosophy is that using a recurring character is "lazy writing." It also limits my imagination by restricting me to a particular basic framework, or "universe," that I have to fit my story ideas into. My ideas are too widely varied to try to force them onto one or two characters.

I have toyed with the idea of framing more stories as "Tales From Clancy's Bar" (the framing story mentioned above) but since that story didn't turn out very well, I probably won't.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Not on Lit. The closest thing I've got to recurring
characters on Lit are two take-offs on another writer's
characters. A great writer on ASS, Dulcinea, wrote a
series of stories about one (?) couple who never were named.
A bunch of us about a year ago decided to honor her with
a group of stories about that same couple. So "Cooling
Off" and "His Favorite Day" are both about that couple.
Off Lit, about half my stories are about one married
couple, Bob and Jeanette Brennan. Doing that, you have to
move the couple along.
They have to be, in the catchword of another thread,
three-dimensional. Then they have to evolve.
I took them from their wedding night to a point after the
birth of their daughter.

 

[Sabledrake]

I have recurring characters who crop up in varying different projects. There's a girl named Aiden who appears in my Gargoyles fanfic, then made the leap to a horror novel (and also, though it didn't start out intentional, appears under another name in my fantasy novels). A guy named T.J. has done the same thing in short stories.

I enjoy it myself, and in a way I think of it as an in-joke for people who've read my fanfic and other stories to see these familiar names and faces turn up in the books.

Sabledrake

 

[Guest]

Hi. I'm new to this so you guys better "bare" with me. hee hee.

Yeah, I have recurring characters in my stories. I have posted 3 stories so far but I have a 4th in the pipeline. My idea is to keep the reader guessing as to what the person involved looks like and build the picture up in follow up stories. I find it a great way to hold the reader's attention.

 

[Guest]

Reoccuring Characters

I have a character I write about that has reappeared in several stories and threads I've posted at Chyoo. My real world friend Susie was the inspiration for her literary counterpart Siouxie-X, a full fledged porn actress if only in the realm of my imagination. A running joke between my friend and I gave life to the character as I contunualy 'threatened' to expose my friend's 'past' of working in the adult film industry. The RW Susie even critiques what I write abut her legacy and has on many occasions provided some excellent story plotlines and character details.....I feel quite fortunate to have my 'character' onhand to consult when my pen goes dry......

 

[Just_John1]

Recurring Character

I too use a recurring character. I have found that third person stories seem to be more successful here and I tend to use the personality traits I either posess or would like to have. I seem to write better when I understand the character and his thoughts. Timing, age situations may change but the character is basically the same.

My female characters, which I definitely don't understand, never have probably never will, (remember Venus us the only planet in the solar system the revovles backwards) is still built on the basic framework which attracts me. Her name may change but the basic character is also recurring. I'll burn out on some characteristics and will find new ones attractive to keep the characters fresh.

 

[Couture]

Isn't a recurring character just another way of saying you are writing a series?

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

"Isn't a recurring character just another way of saying you are writing a series?"

In my case, no, well, not really. If you're cranking out a serial, the plot should have a certain consistent order and flow. While most of my posts are taken from an erotic version of my first novel, I'm not doing a serial, so I can post whatever I wish and do so in any order.

RF

 

[Weird Harold]

Isn't a recurring character just another way of saying you are writing a series?

If the recurring character is the main character, it could be considered a "series" even if not a "serial story"

If the recurring character is a secondary character -- a bartender who observes and introduces various otherwise unrelated stories -- then I think it's more of a "common setting" than a series.

 

[Coolville]

I don't use reoccuring characters but all the character names I use in all my stories are names of people I know/have slept with/wish I had slept with.

Gives me a kick to write about Juliette or Claudia et al doing things they either have done or I wish they had done.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I have two types of story-writing. One is where I sit down and plan my story, its characters, their names and backgrounds, their actions and way of expressing themselves. the other is where I just lay down on my bed with a pad and pencil and let my imagination flow down on the paper without even a toilet break.
(Free space for jokes here.)

 

[PAUL C]

Recurring characters

I have recurring characters. Lots. Four generations of the same family to be precise.

I like to write within the world I have created for these characters. But then it is also refreshing to write outside. I often have two or three stories on the go at the same time. Currently I have three. One in my main series, one a large scale Sci-fi and one a mystery about a couple in an old lighthouse.

I like to explore situations. I have written thousands of words about making cups of tea and boiling eggs. I find that I can only do this in the context of the longer story with the characters already defined.

I have written a few 'wham, bang, thankyou Mam' type stories but I have never been truly happy with them.

 

[wildsweetone]

Isn't a recurring character just another way of saying you are writing a series?

this is going to sound a little odd i guess, but my recurring character turns up in odd places in different stories.

i think it's because he's not a fully developed character. he doesn't fit into only one little niche.

the other one i'm having trouble with is my nun. somebody killed her off and i want her back! she keeps sneaking up on me and begging to be let into stories.

characters eh, they can drive one nutty.