Doce

Music atm: Enam – Purple and Gold

After stalking Rainfreak’s blog so hard, I found myself thinking about the creative process that leads to character creation. It’s more likely to be over nine thousand approaches to this process – and I probably don’t stick to just one of them – but I’ll try to show more or less the guidelines I follow:

• Characters are born out of necessity.

What do I mean with this? That new characters only show up if the story needs them. If the character’s not bringing anything new, or opening a door, it should go to the drawer and no more spotlight to it. I personally do not enjoy stories with a three dozens of side-characters (also, side character ≠ figurant). But I must assume I have two or three characters I don’t really need.

This also means that when a character is no longer needed, it becomes disposable. Yes, disposable. There are many many ways to dispose of someone.

• Character’s must have motivation.

I’ve learnt, somewhere along my path, that if character A is on this story, it must WANT something, even if a glass of water. I’ve also learnt that dramas are nothing but creating character, making them climb a tree, throw stones at them, bring them down. Drama is over. This leads me to my next point:

• Characters are nothing but the story’s tools.

Although the veracity of this statement changes according to the kind of story we’re talking about, it is mostly true. When I mean tool, I mean the character is the driving force of the story, opening doors to new events and places. I also want to burn down the ideas that characters are our friends and they need to be helped or guided… Story, just like real life, will kick their asses and no karma will be there to make things nicer. The Story will shape them, change them, convert them into new people, always justifying this new thing they have become. Which leads to our next point:

• Character’s attributes are born from the story they’re placed on and they’re only determined if they’re of any relevance to the events.

Well, that sentence kinda speaks by its own, but I’ll explain anyway. I do not define attributes for the characters if they’re never meant to be revealed. Want an example? I don’t care if Angela likes raspberry or not. But in Mikhail’s case – on the Tobira setting anyway – it is relevant and it is justified. A huge part of a character’s attributes must be able to be identifiable by the story. And justified as well. It doesn’t matter if Clor likes cats or not, and it’s not even worth to mention such detail. I think this kinda sums up and brings things together – attribute and it’s justification are connected, since if you have the justification, you’ll know what attribute it will lead to.

Now that I mentioned these points, I believe half of my creative process is stated. Nevertheless, I also like to add some bits of randomness and irrelevant info to my characters – but putting limits to myself while doing this. Too much is too much and not fun at all. It annoys me to see ultra-detailed Profile Sheets, mentioning even the blood type! And I could bet it is mostly unimportant for 90% of the stories. Also, if the only way you’ll know a detail is according the Profile Sheet, that means something’s wrong as well.

And since I’m mentioning these Profile Sheeta, I have to add – I can never fill them for I lack too many details about my own characters! Also, as the story goes on, those listed attributes will most likely change – sure, a human being will always be a human being, but I’m sure they can stop liking vanilla icecream over night. My two cents – anyone, and I mean anyone who reads the story should be able to fill said Profile Sheets. Relying only on the info the story gives. Because the info on the story should be more than enough and the result should be exactly the same the author did. Well, maybe not 100% alike, but still pretty close. Characters are open to interpretation too.

You must have noticed by now that I’m more story-driven than character-driven. Look at it like that ends against means thing. The end would be the story and the character the means. Touché.