Here are some things to think about when creating new characters that will help you bring them to the next level. Some of these questions are interchangeable, but answering them can really help you when writing/playing your characters.
1. What do they want the most in the world? How far are they willing to go to achieve it? Specifically define what they wouldn’tdo.
2. Who are they the closest to? How would they react if those people died? How would they react if those people betrayed them?
3. What is their worst fear? How would they react when faced with that fear?
4. What is the worst thing that ever happened to them? And what is the best thing? Define how it influenced them and/or their lives.
5. If they could change one thing about themselves/their lives, what would it be and why?
6. Are they addicted to something? From alcohol to the thrill of the hunt, define it and don’t forget to use it.
7. Did they ever kill someone? If so, how did they react after their first kill? If not, how would they react if they had to kill someone?
8. Would they ever sacrifice themselves? If so, what would they be willing to die for?
9. How do they react to meeting new people? Is it easy for them to socialize? If they were at a party, where and how would they spend most of the time?
10. What are their flaws and weaknesses? Is it something that they can work on and improve over the course of the story?
…
Let me know if you’d be interested in more writing tips like this and what specifically would you like me to focus on :) See ya!
Valentine’s day is coming up tomorrow so what better than a list of names that are associated with love! ♥
[ disclaimer: my sincere apologies if there are any spelling/meaning/origin mistakes in any of my name lists, i am by no means a professional in this area, i just like creating lists to help aid storytellers. i do try my best to find each name’s corresponding origin/meaning/spelling but i am a human who is prone to make the odd mistake. p.s, i take requests! ]
Female
Adelpha - Greek - Beloved sister
Aiko - Japanese - Child of love
Aimée - French - Beloved
Amada - Spanish - Beloved, adored, dear
Amadea - Latin - God’s love
Amala - Arabic - Beloved, bird, hope
Amanda - Latin - Worthy of love
Amandine - French - Much loved
Amara - Latin/Greek/Indian/African - Eternal
Amarissa - Hebrew/Spanish - Little lover, given by God
Amery - English - Home strength
Amia - Latin/French - Beloved
Amora - French - Love
Amorette - French - Little love
Amoris - Latin - Love
Amy - Latin/French - Beloved
Angharad - Welsh - Much loved
Aphrodite - Greek - Goddess of love
Avila - German - Desired, island, water
Aziza - Arabic - Beloved, precious, mighty
Balapreet - Punjabi/Sikh - Mighty love, strong
Brisa - Spanish/Latin - Angel, wind
Cara - Latin/Irish/Gaelic - Dear, beloved, friend
Cariad - Welsh - Love, charity, affection
Caris - Latin/Greek/Welsh - Beloved, grace
Carita - Latin - Dear, beloved
Caron - Greek - Pure
Carwen - Welsh - Love, fair, blessed
Carys - Welsh - To love
Cher - French - Beloved
Cherelle - French - Dear one, darling
Cheryl - English/Welsh/French - Beloved, dear, friend, love
Cordelia - Latin/Celtic - Heart, daughter of the sea
Darla - English - Darling
Darlene - English - Little dear one
Dava - American - Beloved
Davida - Hebrew/Scottish - Beloved
Davina - Hebrew/Scottish - Beloved
Desiree - French - Desired, wished
Elska - Norse - Love, to love
Esha - Arabic - Desire
Esmé - French/Spanish - Loved, esteemed
Femi- Nigerian - Love me
Freya - Scandinavian- Goddess of love & fertility
Grainne - Irish - Love, grain
Halia - Hawaiian - Remembrance of a loved one
Idony - Slavic/Norse - Love again, renewal
Ife - Yoruba - Love
Janan - Arabic - Heart, soul
Kalei - Hawaiian - Beloved, flower wreath
Kalila - Arabic - Beloved, darling
Kara - Irish/Latin/Norse - Beloved, dear
Kerenza - Cornish - Love
Keris - Welsh - Love
Lalasa - Hindi - Love, dove
Libi - Hebrew - My heart, God is my oath
Love - English - Love
Lovella - English - Love, affection
Luba - Slavic - Love
Ludmila - Slavic - Dear, love
Lyuba - Yiddish/Slavic - Dear, graceful people
Mabel - Latin - Loveable, dear
Mabli - Welsh - Loveable
Maitea - Spanish - Love
Mila - Slavic - Gracious, dear
Milada - Czechoslovakian - My love
Milena - Czechoslovakian - Love, warmth, grace
Mina - German - Love
Myfanwy - Welsh - My lovely little one
Myrna - Irish/Gaelic - Beloved
Nayeli - Zapotec - I love you
Nemy - African - Sweet, friendly, energetic
Paris - Greek - The city of love (France)
Phila - Greek - Love
Philippa - Greek - Lover of horses
Philomena - Greek - Lover, friend
Philothea - Greek - Lover of God
Philou - Dutch/Greek - Love
Pippa - English - Lover of horses
Priya - Hindu - Dear, beloved
Querida - Spanish - Dear, beloved
Shirin - Persian/Turkish - Charming, sweet
Siran - Armenian - Sweet love
Suki- Japanese - Loved one
Tivona - Hebrew - Nature lover
Valentina - Latin - Healthy, strong
Vashti- Perisan/Hebrew - Beautiful, lovely
Venus - Latin - Goddess of love
Vevina - Irish/Gaelic - Sweet lady
Vida- Spanish - Life
Yaretzi - Native American - You will always be loved
Male
Agapius - Greek - Love, affection, esteem
Amadeus - Latin - Love God
Amado - Latin - God’s love
Amancio - Spanish - Loving
Amator- Latin - Lover of God
Amatus - Latin - Beloved
Amias - Latin - Loved
Anteros - Greek - God of requited love
Anwil - Welsh - Beloved
Armas - Finnish - Dear, beloved
Asthore - Irish - Loved one
Atif - Arabic - The kind one, affectionate
Atuf - Arabic - Love, favourable, kind
Aziz - Arabic - Beloved, powerful
Caddaric - English - Kind, loved, leader of battle
Caerwyn - Welsh - Fair, blessed, love
Caradoc - Welsh - Love
Carthach - Irish - Loving
Carwyn - Welsh - Fair, blessed, love
Chaviv - Hebrew - Loved one
Chikondi- African - Love
Conor - Irish - Lover of wolves/hounds
Cordian- Polish - Of the heart
Dariel - French - Dear one, beloved
David - Hebrew - Beloved, to love
Dawood - Quranic/Hebrew - Beloved friend
Desi- Latin - Yearning, desired, sorrow
Didier - French/Latin - Desire, longing
Dilan - Kurdish/Irish - Love, heart, loyal, like a Lion
Elmo - Latin/Greek/Italian - To love, God’s helmet
Erasmus - Greek - Beloved, desired
Erastus - Greek/Latin - Beloved
Eros - Greek - Desire, God of love
Fuad - Arabic - Heart
Gerwyn - Welsh - Fair love
Graziano - Italian - Beloved, dear
Guaiya- Chamarro - To love
Hubert- Germanic - Bright heart
Hugh - German - Soul, mind, heart, intellect
Jed- Hebrew - Beloved of God
Jedediah - Hebrew - Beloved of God
Kama - Sanskrit - Love, desire
Kamadeva - Hindu - God of love, desire
Kealoha - Hawaiian - Love
Lennon - Irish/Gaelic - Lover, blackbird, cloak
Leofric - English - Dear, beloved
Lev - Hebrew/Russian - Heart, Lion
Liev- Yiddish - Heart
Luben - Slavic - To love, affection
Lubomir - Polish - Great love
Lufian - English - Love
Luthando - Latin/African - Love
Lyuben - Slavic - Love
Manju - Sanskrit - Sweet, pleasant, beautiful
Medad - Hebrew - Love, friendship
Milan - Slavic - Gracious, dear one, loving
Milos - Greek/Slavic - Compassionate, dear, lover of glory
here’s a list of short names to coincide with my long names list :)
[ disclaimer: my sincere apologies if there are any spelling/meaning/origin mistakes in any of my name lists, i am by no means a professional in this area, i just like creating lists to help aid storytellers. i do try my best to find each name’s corresponding origin/meaning/spelling but i am a human who is prone to make the odd mistake. p.s, i take requests! ]
Female
Ada - German - First born female
Ali - Arabic - High, elevated, champion
Amy - French/Latin - Beloved
Anne - Latin/Hebrew - Favour, grace
Aria - Hebrew/Italian - Air, song, melody
Aura - Latin/Greek - Wind
Ava - Latin - Bird-like
Aya - German/Japanese/Hebrew - Sword, colourful, beautiful, bird
Ayn - Hebrew/Finnish/Russian - God has favoured me, grace, eye
Bay- English/French - Auburn-haired
Bea - Latin - Bringer of happiness
Beau - French - Beautiful, handsome
Belle - French - Beautiful
Bia - Latin/Italian - White, fair
Bindi - Noongar - Butterfly
Blair - Scottish - Plain, meadow, field
Blanche - French - White
Blythe - English - Joyous, kind, cheerful
Bree - Irish - Exalted one, strength
Briar - English - Bush of wild roses
Brook - English - Small stream
Bryn - Welsh - Hill
Buffy - Hebrew - Diminutive of Elizabeth, my god is an oath
Cara - Latin - Dear friend
Chloe - Greek - Blooming, fertility
Cia - Greek/Hebrew - Light,
Clair - French - Bright, clear
Coco - Portuguese/Spanish - Diminutive of Socorro, help, relief
Cora - Greek - Maiden, girl, daughter
Cove - English - Small coastal inlet
Dara - Hebrew/Irish - Pearl of wisdom, gift, compassion
Dawn - English - Sunrise
Doe - English - Female deer
Dot - Greek - Diminutive of Dorothy, gift of god
Dove - English - A bird
Eden - Hebrew - Delight
Edie - English - Prosperous in war
Ella - Greek/Norman/Hebrew/German/Spanish - Beautiful, fairy maiden, goddess
Elle - French - She
Elm - English - Elm tree
Elsa - Scandinavian - Joyful, Noble, god is my oath
hello everyone! i am finally back with a new name list, i hope you enjoy it and find it usefull!
[ disclaimer: my sincere apologies if there are any spelling/meaning/origin mistakes in any of my name lists, i am by no means a professional in this area, i just like creating lists to help aid storytellers. i do try my best to find each name’s corresponding origin/meaning/spelling but i am a human who is prone to make the odd mistake. p.s, i take requests! ]
Female
Adalina - German derived - Noble
Adelaide - English - Noble natured
Adrianna - Latin - Person from Hadria
Aishwarya - Sanskrit - Wealth, prosperity
Alethea - Greek - Truth
Alexandria - Greek derived - Feminine form of Alexandros, defender of men
Alexandrina - Greek derived - Feminine form of Alexandros, defender of men
Alianora - Unknown - Unknown
Amaryllis - Greek - Sparkle, shine
Anastasia - Greek - Ressurection
Anastazja - Polish - Reborn
Angelina - Greek - Messenger
Angelique - Latin - Messenger of God
Annabella - Italian - Loving
Annabelle - English - Favoured grace
Annalisa - Latin - Graced with God’s bounty
Annamaria - Italian/French/German - Bitter, grace
Anneliese - Latin - Graced with God’s bounty
Antoinetta - Latin - Praiseworthy
Antoinette - French - Priceless one
Antonella - Italian - First born
Antonia - Italian - Priceless, praiseworthy, beautiful
Antonina - Spanish - Priceless, highly esteemed
Arabella - Latin - Yielding to prayer
Araceli- Latin - Altar of heaven, heavenly homemaker
Araminta - English - Prayer, protection
Arianna - Greek/Italian - Most holy
Ariella - Hebrew - Lion of God
Aubrianna - German - Elf
Augusta - Latin - Great, magnificent
Augustina - Latin - The exalted one
Avabella - Hebrew - My God is an oath
Avalina - English - Little bird
Avianna - Latin - Birdlike
Avrielle - Unknown - Unknown
Bathilda - Germanic/Norse - Battle
Benedetta - Latin/Spanish - Blessed
Benedicta - Latin - Blessed
Bernadetta - French - Brave Bear
Bernadette - French - Brave Bear
Busarakham - Thai - Yellow Sapphire
Cairistonia - Unknown - Unknown
Calliope- Greek - Beautifully voiced
Candelaria - Spanish - Candle
Carlotta - Italian - Free man
Carolina - Latin/French - Free man
Cassandra - Greek - The one who shines & excels over men
Cassiopeia - Greek - Unknown
Catalina - Spanish - Pure
Celestina - Spanish/Italian - Heavenly
Celestine - Latin - Heavenly
Charlotta - French/German - Manly
Charlotte - French - Free man
Chrysanthemum - Greek - Gold flower
Cleobella - Unknown - Unknown
Cleopatra - Greek - Glory of her father
Cordelia - Welsh - Jewel of the sea
Corinthia - Greek - Woman of Corinth
Cressida - Greek - Gold
Daniella - Latin/Hebrew - God is my judge
Dayanara - Spanish - Forceful
Debbonaire- French - Good natured
Deianira - Greek - Man destroyer
Delphina - Greek - Woman from Delphi
Demetria - Greek - Follower of Demeter
Desdemona - Greek - Misery, unlucky
Dolores - Latin - Sorrowful
Dominica - French/Latin - Lord
Dominique - French/Latin - Lord
Donatella - Italian - Gift of God
Dulcinea - Spanish - Sweetness
Ekaterina - Russian/Bulgarian - Pure
Eleanora - Greek - Sun ray
Elenora - Greek - Sun ray
Elisabet - Scandinavian - Pledged to God
Elisabetta - Italian - Pledged to God
Elizabella - Spanish - God is my oath
Elizabeth - Hebrew - My God is an oath
Elizaveta - Russian - God is my oath
Elladora - Greek - A gift sent from heaven, one who is filled with light
Emmanuella - Hebrew - God is with us
Emmeline - French/German - Work
Esmerelda - Spanish - Emerald
Esperanza - Spanish - Hope
Estefania - Spanish/Greek - Crown, garland
Eulalia - Greek - Well-spoken
Evalina - Latin - Desired
Evangelina - Latin - Gospel
Evangeline - Latin - Gospel
Evelyna - Unknown - Unknown
Fatehmeh - Arabic - Captivating, woman who abstains
8 Character Creation Tips (for DnD or just writing in general)
1. Have a goal
While it may sound like I’m stating the obvious here, your character needs to have something they want to accomplish. Maybe they want to be the best at something, see a place, fall in love, conquer the world, or something else. Whatever it is, they need to have something that they desire beyond all other things. Ideally, give them more than one goal. Make them have to sacrifice one to achieve the other, to add extra drama
2. Have a reputation
Maybe they’re the best artist in their class or they’re great at juggling. Perhaps they slipped on the stairs in front of their whole village. Either way, give something for the locals to remember about them. That way it can give you a starting point for the interactions with other characters
3. Have a friend
Whether a friend, a coworker, a sibling, an army buddy, or someone they saved, have someone close to your character whom they’re close to and wish well. Yeah, angsty “I have no friends” characters can be fun, but in small doses; eventually the reader gets fed up with them. At the very least the character needs someone to talk to or bounce ideas off of
4. Have a home
It may be a neighborhood they grew up in, their parents’ house, or a room they’ve been renting in a tavern. Hell, it could even be a person if you so choose. Everyone needs to feel secure at one time or another
5. Have a signature item
Now, recognize that this may not work for EVERY character, but it’s up to you to decide what will fit and what won’t. In many cases, it can work. A signature item is something that is recognizably YOUR CHARACTER’S, be it a weapon, a scarf, a toy, or a piece of jewelry. It’s something that makes them feel like themself
6. Have a problem
This should be something other than the problem addressed in the main plot line. Maybe a member of their family is sick, they are broke, or they’re failing their classes. This helps make your character seem more realistic because NO ONE has one problem at a time
7. Have a secret
This can affect the plot or not; either way, it helps make your character more well rounded. Maybe your character can’t read, left their crewmates to die when a kracken attacked their ship, or made their long lost sister run away. If you choose to have it affect the plot in any way, this secret should embarrass your character, make it so that other characters don’t trust your character, or somehow endanger them and the people they’re close to if found out
8. Have a reason to be brave and to fight
Maybe it’s because your character wants to be like their hero, maybe it’s so they can repay a debt (like if someone saved their life previously), maybe it’s for their child, but your character needs to have a reason to occasionally face their fears
Have fun!!!
I understand that this is meant to be simple, but GOSH DANG, is it so helpful! This came at the perfect time for me, as I am in the process of creating characters both in the realm of fictional writing and tabletop roleplaying. I’ve been seriously struggling with one of my characters for a long time now and always felt something was missing. Only now do I realize - I had all of these, except for a secret! Well, I gave him a secret to keep, but not one that would make him fearful, embarrassed, or ashamed! And what point is there in a secret without a price attached to it’s exposure? There was no cost, no blow to his own worth or self-esteem or ego, to keeping that secret from his friends and allies. Now I know I need to sit down with my DM and work out where to interweave a potential secret into the plot.
Thank you for this, OP! May it genuinely help all of my followers as it has helped me.
Let’s be real, folks: living in a fantasy world is not all fun and games. On top of our usual stresses, we now have to deal with curses, monsters, BBEGs and so much more. Roll on this table and find out: why do you need therapy?
Open the images in new tab for better quality. Have fun playing, and feedback is much appreciated! If you like what I do, consider buying me a coffee!
This is to celebrate that I reached 2k over on instagram!! So I’m hosting a draw this in your style, more information in instagram if you want to participate!
Anonymous asked: Hi there, I was wondering if you had advice on how to rename a longtime character? I have an OC I’ve RPed for a couple years on the same site, but I’ve quit the site. I really like the character, but every time I think of the name, it reminds me of bad memories from this site. I’ve been looking through Behind the Name but it’s a bit overwhelming. Thanks so much for the help!
There’s a couple of methods I’d like to suggest. I’ll pop this under a cut as per usual, but a short gist: base it off what you already have, or randomize it in various ways. Just like naming it the first time, you just get a second shot at at. Maybe you had a second place name you sorta wanted and picked the first one instead, I mean, that name didn’t come out of a void and it doesn’t leave a void you can’t work off.
Kittycorner Meaning: Name the character the same name meaning but a different etymological relationship. What does your current character’s name mean? Where did it come from? Can you make the name more precisely match the character’s background/timeline somehow by changing it to something from a different region? Peter for instance means stone in Greek. Throw in an English background, and you could just call him Stan! Or Alan, or Bedros. They all mean stone, or something similar, so you can come out with the same deep meaning, but have a different name.
Similar Nickname: What nickname did you use for them? Names commonly have the same nickname in common, so you could find the same nickname, but then pick a different main name. Cassius, Castiel, Casey, Caster… They all start with Cas, so if your character is normally called Cas, you could step one to the right and pick a new name! Will, Bill, William. Dick, Richard, Fredrick. It’s pretty easy to do.
Clean Strip: Entirely wipe the character’s name, and go through the process of naming them from scratch. Start with where they grew up, their family genealogy, and the time period and research common names relating to that time period. Work them over, and pick ‘deeper meanings’ if you like to highlight major parts of their character. Explore the character, are they, as TVTropes calls them, a lancer? That’s the second-in-command to a main character who works to contrast them by being the opposite personality and injecting friendly conflict. Maybe you’ll name your character Lance if so, or… be a little less directly on point. Lance means “Land” in old German, so why don’t we use Darrick instead. That means King of the Land! As you can see, a permutation of anything you come up with is available, and you don’t have to explain how you got from point A to point B unless you want to.
Roll for It!: Another option, roll a dice for numbers between 1-26, and take the letter that matches your roll, then look through names starting with it! Pick your top 10 favorites, and roll again. Luck itself picks it, this can feel like a form of destiny. You have no hand in the ultimate outcome, you can influence it, but you can’t pick it by yourself. On the other hand, sometimes having it roll a name you don’t like makes you unhappy and roll again, which means you should remove the icky name you don’t like. You can keep rolling until all the names are good and dead, leaving you a final winner which subconsciously you picked all along. The die works simply as a way of forcing you to make a decision, because it already has, so you can decide to agree or disagree. Magical.
Ask a Friend: A friend who knows you and your character may have a good enough feel to pick a name for you. After all, we don’t get to pick our own names, our parents do, and that’s almost similar isn’t it? A loved one picking a name means it has more weight, and honestly your parents didn’t know you or your future before they picked a name for you. People don’t always grow into their names, and that’s alright.
Find a Name: A final way to do this is probably the most round about. Roleplay finding a new name. Create a reason to redefine yourself, or to find a name to be called by. Maybe it’s a symbolic act for the character of divesting themselves of their old life. Maybe they have amnesia or have forgotten a large portion of things, and need to find something else to call themselves. Maybe they pick up a title, or a new identity for some reason, and become so accustomed to playing that role they refuse to give it up. This option is the most fluid for change, within the game. It means no one has to pretend the change was true all along, and the people you meet can help form a history of this new name. Unfortunately, you’ll be stuck with the old one for a while longer, but this gives it some solid backstory as a reason to adopt a new one.
That’s basically all the advice I can give! Good luck finding a name that suits! It was hard enough trying to figure out the first one, I know, but you can do it. Sometimes, it just comes to you. You really don’t need to follow any rules when you do this, you’re the writer, not a best friend. You’re essentially a god-like figure with the choice of changing anything at any moment to your fancy without any reason or rhyme. There’s no reason to feel trapped by anything you’ve already created, because you can just say it never happened. Sometimes we get so close to a character we feel like we’re telling their story rather than creating it from scratch, but it’s not true. We’re gods. They live at our whim. You can change shit.
The only major thing that this may effect OOCly is how people you play with respond to it, well… Let them! Try and make it easy for everyone, explain your reasons, and just do it! This is your character, not theirs. You can change whatever makes you feel better. Let that character grow. Let them become something more than a first draft. It’s alright, and good people will respect your choices even if they’ll miss The Old Days™.
Oh and final word of warning, maybe let your friends know the name you have in mind in advance and ask them to make fun of it. If they can come up with something stupid in under 15 seconds, either be prepared to deal with that stupidness forever, or try a different name. People are very very bad at being original and any knee-jerk response will happen over and over until you want to scream. Best check in advance. Seriously. Sometimes you don’t see that that name rhymes with Penis, and now Thenis the Penis is the only fucking thing you hear forever. Don’t fall for this.
Feel free to create the most in depth and detailed backstories and character traits for your character as you like. But please don’t forcibly insert all of these details into your actual story. It can result in info dumping and just unnecessary information.
Unless you are a Census taker or something, you don’t want to read a list of traits. “Blue eyes, brown hair, allergic to strawberries, likes romantic novels” doesn’t mean anything without context. Instead, focus on a few traits and key points of a character’s backstory. Delve into them and create a character that is not just a bunch of surface level traits, but a well rounded and complete individual.
So I posted a bit of story in a forum recently. (”Scene in an abandoned bathroom,” in case you’re wondering) Since it’s still a draft, I asked for some input. The one response I got said something that struck me: That I lack character descriptions. Well, not completely lack character descriptions, but I describe my characters so little, it’s hard to know what they look like. To be fair, they were right, but I couldn’t really imagine myself describing them in the first place.
It got me thinking a lot about what I write in general.
I’ve been involved in the 3DX scene in one capacity or another for nearly 7 years now, after being an off/on fan for a few years before that. The bulk of what I’ve written and published are stories using characters created by someone else. I’ve very rarely createdcharacters myself.
My first piece on Literotica, The Alleyway, is an original story with original characters. However…I don’t remember much about the lead character’s appearance. I remember her dress. That’s about it. I could remember the way the story played out pretty well despite not having looked at it in years - the actions, the behaviors, the dialogue - but I don’t remember much about what the girl looked like.
Whenever I’ve run into artists that I’ve liked, my impulse is less to just follow them. I want to write stories about their characters. The big thing about 3DX and erotic art in general is that most it is just straight-up porn: Focus on the poontang, as it were. While that’s good and all, I feel it’s, well, rather shallow to me. I’m more interested in what got them to that moment, and what happens afterward. The erotic isn’t just about the sex. It’s about what comes before it, what triggers it, and what occurs afterward. An image of a woman in an empty bathroom covered in cum with nobody else around can be just as powerful, if not more so than depicting what got her in this state. The reason for this, of course, is because we want to imagine what got her there. (Ironically, said image is what inspired “Scene in an abandoned bathroom.”)
So it’s never that I want to write an erotic story these days, it’s that I want to write about a certain character that somebody else already has made. More often than not, these characters don’t have anything to them other than their visual appearance. I want to spend time developing them into actual people with personalities, thoughts, feelings, behaviors, ambitions/goals, and the like. In other words, the internal aspects of what makes a person a person. That stuff really interests me.
By the same token, though, I’ve done very little with creating my own characters on an external level. I don’t know why I can’t be bothered, though, to be honest. It could be a number of reasons: The fact that I’m more concerned about the internal aspects, some elements of perfectionism in terms of defining who these characters are, not being sure or just apathetic as to what my characters should look like, general apathy towards such aspects as visual appearance, worries that spending time defining these characters’ physical appearances is time that could be spent writing stories, recalling certain fans in 3DX being overly obsessed with their OCs’ appearances (down to their belly buttons), and so on.
As a result, I’ve only created two OCs throughout all this. One is Tilen, who you see as my avatar. However, Tilen hasn’t been involved in much of anything. She’s been in two 2D commissions (one completed by SpewlingMews, one incomplete by Alice X), a smattering of single 3D images (by The Dude, DBSpencer, gazukull, JimJim, morfium, Cryavision, Dest, and her original visual creator Vaesark), and a mini-set by Vaesark. I once had visions of her going on some big sexual adventure, and recruited morfium to make it. But that fell to the wayside. Since then, she’s really just an avatar and a guest to someone else’s story, nothing more. The other is Leila Mehri, a character set in Madscientist’s 80s story Infested Alley. However, since Madscientist has kind of dropped off of creating art, I’ve lost interest in developing her further.
With this in mind, I find it fascinating how people in hentai and 3DX are so capable of creating OCs at the drop of a hat, whereas I struggle with creating them. At the same time, most of these OCs are made for the purpose of specific scenes or ideas, with little thought of them as people. Compare that to me turning characters - Tara, Sayako, Cerene, Sophia, Suzi, a lesser extent Sasha and Sylvia, Kayla, Yelena, Breana - into memorable women by virtue of their personalities and behaviors.
I guess the way one could look at it is that while most people just make their characters are paper cutouts or wax statues, I build silhouettes: Fully functional but featureless.
A good writer, I suspect, needs to do both: Create a character that is externally and internally memorable. But that is something I have trouble with. I don’t feel compelled nor interested in describing my characters on a visual level. They could be anyone visually. Maybe that’s why I latch on to other people’s characters so quickly, because they’ve done that work for me, whereas I could work out the inner details. A quid pro quo, as it were.
It’s an unfortunate thing, really, but I don’t know what I could do to fix all that. If I’m not interested in something, I just don’t do it. And to make me do it just fills me with rage and contempt.
Just some introspection for the new year. More on stories later.
I created Yevena for a friend’s villain oneshot. Disappointed in myself that I didn’t use Eldritch Blast at all. I was trying to Ray of Frost some evil doggos instead XD At least she survived and was able to go home to hug her children afterwards.
1.- Talking too much. Specifically, with adults. I see this a lot with hyperactive children. But a lot of us don’t grow out of this and I want my representation! Plus, this can be very fun and useful! You can use it for exposition and world building. It leaves plenty of room to hide small details. It also can give a lot of context about other character’s around them.
When they start talking word after word for about a hundred words more than necessary to say they are happy, do the other character’s seem entertained? Annoyed but say nothing? Annoyed and say it? Do they look like they’re not listening? Do they look like they’re listening but later on we find out they’re just really good at pretending to listen? So many possibilities! And how does the original character react to this?
2.- Being terrible with names. I mean, as someone who once forgot the name of a co-worker I saw every day and had been working with for years, it’s kinda upsetting when character’s in books just hear it once and remember.
Especially when I’m just dying to be reminded this character’s name because I forgot. It’s not only a very relatable character flaw, it’s useful for reminding readers of who’s who! Something a lot of authors don’t do enough of (including me, I know my characters better than my co-workers, so of course it’s obvious to me).
3.- Hoarding. Not like to the point where’s it’s dangerous and a problem that needs to be solved, but to the point where you have a shoe box full of receipts from seven years ago for stuff that never had a guarantee. To the point where you have leaflets from concerts you went to at the age of ten and can’t throw away “because of the memories!” To the point where you have magazines because, “look at the pretty pictures! I can use that in scrap booking somewhere… some day.” Or stickers from when you were five years old that won’t even stick anymore.
Again, lots of people do this, it’s relatable, but also, it gives you lots of opportunities to show us stuff about the character, about their past and how they’ve changed with time. Natural exposition baby!
4.- Gets anxious when there’s too much noise, or too many people. Not as a plot point, not as a symptom of autism or something. Just normal, over stimulation. Because over stimulation can happen to anybody, and our ability to withstand it is different.
This too can be useful, it can be a good way to separate two characters from the group. “Oh, I’ll go with her, you guys stay, don’t worry!”
Also, it’d be nice to see a character realise the environments not good for them, communicate that calmly and leave before over stimulation. Like, you think after years of this shit I don’t know before things get too bad? You’d be right sometimes, but not all times. Sometimes I know my limits, and I never see that in media (if you know any media that does do this, tell me!).
5.- Having zero sense of direction. Because after four years I still manage to get lost on my own street if I come in from a direction that isn’t the one I use every day and again, I want representation.
Plus, you can have character’s get lost (especially in fantasy worlds with no GPS) as a way to discover new locations or send other characters to find them.
I hope you found at least one of these ideas useful. Or, they inspired you to think of other good and not often seen character flaws.
I want to state that I’ve used the word character “flaw” but that might not be entirely accurate for some of these I just can’t think of a more accurate word right now.
As usual, check out my book, stories I’ve written plus other social medias: here.
Which one of these can apply to one of you characters? What flaws did I miss out?
