30 Day Writing Meme: Day 9
9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.
My characters grow in several ways.
#1: They're inspired by characters or character types that I like in other books and media. I'm a sucker for quiet ragdoll-like folk (Geno from SMRPG, Wizardmon from Digimon), so Tack Thatch from The Mute and the Siren ended up being the direct inspiration from Tack from The Thief and the Cobbler. I love me some strong independent females, so that's where Josephine Sparks comes in. :) Marron aka Princess Azalea is a "strong princess", and likewise because I find disfigured heroes mysterious and fun, she also wears a mask later because one of the main villains scarred her face up. :o Lisa Barrows has Matilda's insight in her, and Shiro's personality and all-white dress was inspired by one of my favorite villains, Muraki Kazutaka from Yami no Matsuei.
#2: They're inspired by neat stuff I've seen in other characters that I wish would've been used to their full potential. Like dude, Sheena from the Arceus movie would've made a perfect villain, like an evil priestess! But no. So Puri created that villain herself. Sure, she looks like Sheena, namely the buns and intimidating stare, and has some changes in her wardrobe, including getting rid of those hideous Betty Boop shoes. This haunting and calculating bitch who smiles at your suffering is Queen Ledeen, the central villain of Matryoshka. Her name is the word "needle" scrambled, and it doesn't help that this is only her human form, the guise she takes so you won't be driven insane from her real form, a Lovecraftian eldrich abomination from the deepest and most horrific "eversion" of our dimension.
When you get to the starting bones, it's like my characters are ripoffs of other existing characters. I have this habit of reading a book and associating an existing character with them in my head: I keep imagining Daisy Buchannan as Princess Daisy no matter what her appearance or personality is like, Lolita as Nina Cortex based on the description of her, Knuckles playing as Holden Caufield, Ashitaka as Nick Carroway and... it's embarrassing. :/ Josephine Sparks, I think, started as a light-blue/gray Pipsy with shorts. So when I'm trying to think of what my own cast of characters look like, I'm doing everything in my power to describe Braid as Braid and not Skull Kid. It's baffling and frustrating. I don't know why I think or read this way.
Inspiration for my characters aside, as soon as they're crafted into being, I prefer letting them develop themselves. It only seems the most natural way to do it, and I get pleasantly surprised while I'm writing and get to know them better. They become less like blank slates and obvious expys into individuals and something more... real.
There was a surprise yard sale outside today on my walk to the library, and I picked up this pretty Madeline doll for free. Already, I feel like drawing her and writing a description about her:
"Her hair was a red--lush royal red--and it fell past her shoulders in long silken locks. The wind was blowing and she held her sunhat in defense; big and yellow like the sun, with a rim like a ring of Saturn that closed above her eyes. It was tied with a black bow with a ribbon that furiously battered against the straw and the woman tugged her collar as if the breeze had strangled her. She wore a prim and proper blue dress, a bright blue like the ones girls wear for running in the valley in the mountains. Brilliant and azure like that mountain sky over the snow and reeds and wildflowers. The blue was in her eyes too, and blue was her demonour; she appeared worried, pale, her face white as if she feared something went wrong. Her dress whipped like a trenchcoat, and her feet were stiff in their black slippers and trembling lace of her white socks. Her hands, too, were soft and white as gloves, and she turned this way when she saw me, wondering who on earth I was and what I was doing here. There was no disregard in her eyes, but a fear that she would soon be in danger brought on by my very presence."
Uh huh. Totally like Madeline. :P
My characters grow in several ways.
#1: They're inspired by characters or character types that I like in other books and media. I'm a sucker for quiet ragdoll-like folk (Geno from SMRPG, Wizardmon from Digimon), so Tack Thatch from The Mute and the Siren ended up being the direct inspiration from Tack from The Thief and the Cobbler. I love me some strong independent females, so that's where Josephine Sparks comes in. :) Marron aka Princess Azalea is a "strong princess", and likewise because I find disfigured heroes mysterious and fun, she also wears a mask later because one of the main villains scarred her face up. :o Lisa Barrows has Matilda's insight in her, and Shiro's personality and all-white dress was inspired by one of my favorite villains, Muraki Kazutaka from Yami no Matsuei.
#2: They're inspired by neat stuff I've seen in other characters that I wish would've been used to their full potential. Like dude, Sheena from the Arceus movie would've made a perfect villain, like an evil priestess! But no. So Puri created that villain herself. Sure, she looks like Sheena, namely the buns and intimidating stare, and has some changes in her wardrobe, including getting rid of those hideous Betty Boop shoes. This haunting and calculating bitch who smiles at your suffering is Queen Ledeen, the central villain of Matryoshka. Her name is the word "needle" scrambled, and it doesn't help that this is only her human form, the guise she takes so you won't be driven insane from her real form, a Lovecraftian eldrich abomination from the deepest and most horrific "eversion" of our dimension.
When you get to the starting bones, it's like my characters are ripoffs of other existing characters. I have this habit of reading a book and associating an existing character with them in my head: I keep imagining Daisy Buchannan as Princess Daisy no matter what her appearance or personality is like, Lolita as Nina Cortex based on the description of her, Knuckles playing as Holden Caufield, Ashitaka as Nick Carroway and... it's embarrassing. :/ Josephine Sparks, I think, started as a light-blue/gray Pipsy with shorts. So when I'm trying to think of what my own cast of characters look like, I'm doing everything in my power to describe Braid as Braid and not Skull Kid. It's baffling and frustrating. I don't know why I think or read this way.
Inspiration for my characters aside, as soon as they're crafted into being, I prefer letting them develop themselves. It only seems the most natural way to do it, and I get pleasantly surprised while I'm writing and get to know them better. They become less like blank slates and obvious expys into individuals and something more... real.
There was a surprise yard sale outside today on my walk to the library, and I picked up this pretty Madeline doll for free. Already, I feel like drawing her and writing a description about her:
"Her hair was a red--lush royal red--and it fell past her shoulders in long silken locks. The wind was blowing and she held her sunhat in defense; big and yellow like the sun, with a rim like a ring of Saturn that closed above her eyes. It was tied with a black bow with a ribbon that furiously battered against the straw and the woman tugged her collar as if the breeze had strangled her. She wore a prim and proper blue dress, a bright blue like the ones girls wear for running in the valley in the mountains. Brilliant and azure like that mountain sky over the snow and reeds and wildflowers. The blue was in her eyes too, and blue was her demonour; she appeared worried, pale, her face white as if she feared something went wrong. Her dress whipped like a trenchcoat, and her feet were stiff in their black slippers and trembling lace of her white socks. Her hands, too, were soft and white as gloves, and she turned this way when she saw me, wondering who on earth I was and what I was doing here. There was no disregard in her eyes, but a fear that she would soon be in danger brought on by my very presence."
Uh huh. Totally like Madeline. :P