I never thought I'd see the day...
It's snowing outside. I never imagined that this would happen (considering I now live in the northeast, the land of perpetual snow and decent road crews), but all of my classes have been canceled tomorrow. That's right: six hours of class, all canceled! =D
This means I can sleep in for once! As an added bonus, the due date of my algorithms homework ( Read more... )
This means I can sleep in for once! As an added bonus, the due date of my algorithms homework ( Read more... )
I'll use my character, Maxwell, as an example. Maxwell is a tall lanky kid with usually messy brown hair and a 'dude' attitude. He's funny when he doesn't want to be and enjoys being immature around his best friend, who is a girl (I figure this was mentionable.) Throughout his childhood, he always seemed very sickly and was kept at home with no homeschooling by his mother. He was also present when his parents had the fight that led to divorce, so that's made him distrustful and frightened of most people.
He never was sick though, he's just a bit...cold all of the time. It's because he has the ability to develop ice, with which he usually does stupid and boyish things with. He can't really control it, just make it.
He never went to school, and thusly, never learned much about what went on outside of his family. He doesn't have an education, and as a result, he can't read, and doesn't understand most basic things. At sixteen, he left home with his mother's car and eventually came in contact with his friend, a screw-it-all chick who's on the run from the law for...reasons. After meeting her, his personality goes from quiet and frightful to ecstatic and willing. He's still a thin and lanky wimp though, and he punches like a girl.
I don't know how good of an example that was, but I was trying to show you that you can pretty much do whatever you want with a character as long as you have reasons that make sense. You don't have to explain everything at once though, instead it should be slow and let the reader get to know the character. Now here, I know the divorced parents thing is overdone, but it ends up being vital to some major plot points wayyy down the road. For what he is (a boy who doesn't want to end up as some superhero) he's a pretty average kid. I don't make a big deal about his parents because nobody wants to hear about that, they want to know what he'd doing now. What's he like? What can he do? What if?
I think it's all about leverage. Don't fill up one side of the plate too much, but don't split it even down the center either. Maybe write down a few traits you'd like to see in your characters + reasons why those traits exist, and post them up here?
On to outlines. I know it's tempting to make a list of things, but you don't really need that if you want to let people/yourself understand your character. I try to show, not tell. It's one of the major factors of writing. A bad example would be: instead of saying outright that someone is clumsy, have them do clumsy thing periodically. I find that most of the personality in my characters comes from the dialogue. Maxwell is easygoing, and talks like an uneducated person would. He skips words/ mispronounces things/ etc. Try not to state something about your character, rather show the reader.
Don't try too hard to flesh out your characters before you start to write them, they develop much easier when you aren't trying. Maybe to practice that, pick a few random names you like. Stick them in a plain setting, and give them a heavy dialogue. Maybe a page or two. Just see what comes from that, see what you can do with just a name. You can post them up here if you'd like.
And that's it for now, my fingers burn. xD
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The outline was meant to jog my memory before I got deep into the story. I have no idea when I'll have time to write (with internships and graduation around the corner), and I have a tendency to forget things if I don't have them written down somewhere. Basically, it's a short-hand to help myself out until I have time to work on chapters. I'm just searching for an efficient way to store the information. I wouldn't actually post the outline anywhere.
As a side note, where do you normally post your stories? I just realized that I have nowhere to post, and I'd prefer not to use fictionpress.net since I'd get ripped to shreds by crits.
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I haven't posted much of my original work, but maybe I will. Most of it was done following an outline for my class, but some of it is pretty good. If I post it anywhere, it will be my journal. :)
I'll never go on Fictionpress.
(For your kind of character outline, might I recommend buying a memory stick and just having a word document that you can access whenever you want? That way you can jot some things down if you suddenly come up with something. Just a random page. And you wouldn't be able to lose it. xD)
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Let me know if you do post them somewhere. I'd like to read them.
That's a good idea. I have a memory stick that I take just about everywhere.
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Lol, my older ones are like blehhh. I try not to put Beast Boy and Raven everywhere, but they just sort of sneak in. All the time. Ahem. 6_9
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I'm sure your older ones are much better than mine. I still have some crap from 2003 lying around on my fanfiction account. I should probably delete them, but then I'd only have 1-2 fics remaining. XD
I like the BBRae pairing (especially your take on it) but it does seem like there is a little too much BBRae and not enough Robin/Starfire. And Cyborg. Poor Cyborg doesn't seem to get much time in the spotlight.
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