guess who is bored in class

[poetswarn]

Yo, this is something which just came up in class - those of you who write, how do you create your characters? Are they completely invented, or do you draw elements from people you know, or yourself? A little of both

Comments

[birdzilla]

I definitely draw from myself and people I know. I don't think a friend has ever inspired a character, but if a friend has a trait that would fit in nicely with a character I have, I might add it (consciously or unconsciously). And I don't do it intentionally every time, but I totally do the same thing about giving them one of my traits--when I do it intentionally, it's usually as a hook into a character that I otherwise have/think would be cool but am kind of nervous or iffy about playing "right." It's an entrance point into their brain, and I can expand from there.

I don't generally draw inspiration from fictional characters, individually (though sometimes I'll steal a trait or two). But I do get a lot of inspiration from settings--for example, a couple of the characters in a 'verse I've been building are kind of Fire Emblem-flavored, and a lot of the Imperials in the Cracks-verse are Suikoden-flavored. The tone and atmosphere of a fictional setting I like seeps pretty easily into things I"m working on.

I should probably note that I don't ever start out with a trait or element and build a character around it; I usually start in either with "there is a low murmuring voice in the back of my head, I want to examine it" (not literally what happens, of course, but basically my subconscious throws vague images and feelings and impressions at me and I start putting it together from there) or I build a character around their role (in their hierarchy, in their family, in the story--whichever one seems most important to them). I do the second one a lot, especially but not only with RP characters, and in fact it's rare for the first type to coalesce entirely for me until I have found them a role to start filling.

I try not to use PBs, ever, because I get very firm, solid pictures in my head of my characters early in the idea-forming process, and no PB can ever quite match. :< The one game where I had no choice, but really wanted to join anyway (usually, requiring PBs is a sure-fire way to turn me off a game), I drew them myself. Which turned out about as well as you can expect, artistically (especially as I used colored pencil and crayon), but the mods were okay with it, and it made me happy.