Breaking In Your Character’s Identity

[Io Beauregard]

Throughout the Gisela tournament I found myself having a difficult time trying to portray my character as an individual with his own personality. It was smooth sailing for the NPC’s, but as for Io it’s like he was just there to provide questions and show a bit of action. When I was Chidori Draconid I hadn’t fully discovered his personality until Passion’s Product, which was like my third thread. I intend on starting a new quest that will hopefully assist in that area, but I’m afraid if I make a quest with those sole intentions it’ll fail miserably.

Is it just me, or does anyone else have to take time to break in your character’s personality like that new pair of hot pants I got yesterday?

[Atzar]

Yep. I still haven't gotten a hold of Atzar's character. I don't think it's really a matter of finding out who the character is, so much as it is finding out who you want him to be. I still have about six different futures in mind for Atzar, and until I narrow it down to one, he'll keep coming across a bit flat.

But having a bit of history, some past experiences to draw upon, seems to work wonders.

[Karuka]

I have to break in mine. Normally I give 'em guidelines and tell 'em "go for it." And then they turn out different than I intend.

I think it helps to give them a more detailed history. Karuka has a long, intricate past, and has had said past from day 1. Sara's past is very hazy, and she doesn't remember any of it, and whaddaya know...she's my hardest to write.

[Io Beauregard]

So do you guys think if I were to add detail to his history, perhaps flesh out his relationship with his brothers and sisters, I'd have an easier time? He's the youngest of four.

[Elijah_Morendale]

I was finding it hard to get a bead on Elijah's character until I started doing posts from a first person perspective. The thing is, I've been writing radio drama for a few years now, and most of my narration bits have been in FP, but then I foolishly decided to try my hand at third person for my first few quests--and looking back at them now, they kind of... well, sucked, as far as portraying Elijah as one of the leads in a quest; making him stand out from the other characters (as Manda pointed out in one of my judgings, Elijah could've been played by any old NPC). For fun, I started a solo battle between Elijah and his imaginary friend, doing Elijah's perspective from third person, but Nadia's bits in first person. After my first post through Nadia's eyes, I found that writing as her helped portray who she was far better than any other way, so I've decided to use FP again as my weapon of choice.

Sometimes, a change of perspective is all you need.

As far as my other character... I've been working on Madison for five years now, and I still don't know what the hell I'm doing with her haha.

[Atzar]

Definitely, I think. More things to draw upon - especially relationships with family and the like - are great catalysts for a dynamic character.

[Max Dirks]

I think you should just try to have more fun.

Your character should make the history. History shouldn't make your character.

[Atzar]

Eh. Until the character has some history, though, he can easily come across as somewhat two-dimensional. To me, creating a backstory for him just expedites the process a bit.

[Io Beauregard]

I think you should just try to have more fun.

Your character should make the history. History shouldn't make your character.
That's my problem though. It's not fun not knowing Io. When I was Chidori I wasn't having fun until Passion's Product, when I felt like I knew the character. Besides detailing the character's history, is there any alternative way to acquaint oneself?

[Varia]

I usually take awhile to flesh out my character before I write them down. They float around in my head for awhile, while I try and decide how I want them to be. Then, when I write out their character sheets, it comes a lot easier. And I always have more information on my own character than I write down. Alaina has a full, vivid history behind her. Brielle does too, but she doesn't remember it yet.

I think knowing where your character comes from makes it a lot easier to figure out who they are, and how to write them. Change of perspective helps, too. Some characters just seem to work better in 1st person. o_O

[Karuka]

Other than giving them a solid history, the best you can do to learn who a character is is to actually work with them. All of mine needed a quest or a battle or two to break them in.

[Saxon]

I managed to break Saxon through my first quest, plus I've had him around for years before that, so it was rather simple. Trying to get into a character's head isn't as hard as some make it out to be, you just need to know where to draw the line. True, you can model the character after yourself, Saxon has bits of my personality tucked away inside of him, but it should be something rather unique to keep you willing to stick with the character and keep writing.

Although I agree that your character should make his own history with quests and such, I'm going to be realistic. The fatal mistake some folks make is either not having enough background to draw from when writing or having too much and not being able to make up their mind onto which is the better course to take when you start. It's rather daunting to register a character on Althanas, if you think about it.

Really, although this person your writing about or noting their adventures are not made of flesh and blood, they're generally supposed to take on a life of their own. One way to do this is to flesh out how they think. Regardless of whether or not you have a purple elf that fires ninja stars out of his mouth or a serial killer as a character, your stories will be shallow when the only things impressive about the character is what he or she does and what race they are.

I'm not really familiar with your characters, Chidori, other then you've played a God, a merchant, and an artist. I think I may have read your first character's profile, and the thing I noticed is that you didn't have any real goal in mind for your character. Sure, you were a God, but what else? The idea of exploring the world and trying to make your mark in it has been done to death. One thing you need to keep in mind that besides knowing how your character thinks, what they are, and how they act, is that they have to have a purpose. Very rarely will a flat storyline ever succeed in the ways you might have hoped without some sort of twist.

This doesn't mean that you have to be as eccentric as you possibly can be to get something done, though. Some of the most interesting characters I've ever seen were ones that were takes on odd-jobs that are very rarely written on or new takes on old archetypes. Such as an aristocrat from Sanctuary that pretended to be a bartender known as "One-Thumb" for obvious reasons, and was also cursed with a spell that if any one were to ever kill him, they'd be engulfed in eternal torment until the wizard who casted the spell perished. Another would be the Winchesters from Supernatural who work together in a blue-collar fashion to hunt evil across the U.S. in modern stories originating in American Folklore.

So to sum it up, I'd recommend having a detailed history with your character with an overall goal in mind, developing a way to write your character (Third-person or first-person), learn how to translate their thoughts onto paper, flesh them out, try to be original without going overboard, and most of all have fun with it. If your not having fun or taking an interest in what your writing, it's probably a good idea to stop and re-evaluate what it is you hate about that character. I'd also suggest salvaging Io while learning from your previous mistakes, but remembering that you don't have to be rich and famous or born from an important family to actually be somebody. Think about it.

[Daggertail]

Tournaments are the worst place to flesh out a character. They're all action and none of the other players want to lose so they won't help you flesh out your character. That might be the problem.


Well what often worked for me was threads that were based on life with little or no adventure. "A day in the life of..." stories may not score high but they really allow your character to grow a life of their own.

[Cathexis]

It's always a plus to put a lot of work into a character, expanding on their backstory, fluffing it up, refurbishing the blurry old corners and smoothing up the rough edges. Whenever you have the time, and feel a little breeze of inspiration, jotting those thoughts down can really help. Only, it seems that most people resort to this when they're sitting at their computer, literally trying to get that stuff out of your system like a taco gone bad. Satisfied, relived even, you close your word processor and walk away.

A few weeks later, maybe days, you'll be doing the exact same thing, for the exact same reason. Ultimately, you didn't quite get as close to your character as you had first thought you had.

Everyone has his or her system, I know, but I feel that when you only try to get in touch with your character when you need to hatch a post, you usually end up with something that feels contrived and lacking in the dialogue and persona department. Then, you just put that character back on its shelf, and forget about him or her until you hit another wall.

I'm sure a lot of people do it already, but I've found it very helpful when I think of my characters in everyday situations, and things become even clearer when you start a make-believe dialogue with the character in question. You could put them in meaningless, random scenarios and see how they play out; it's even fun when, after a conversation you though went particularly bad, you put that character in your boots and figure out what they'd have said in your place. Your grasp of the character improves, and you're a lot less bummed out!

In the end, if you ask yourself how it is that you know the people that are close to you, it starts making sense. You don't know your best friend by reading an extensive history of them, or by knowing their future, or by what kind of things have happened to them that are either borish or interesting. You know them because you're in contact with them, almost on a day to day basis. Every person starts as an enigma upon the first encounter, but eventually, after hearing them out and spending some time with them, you know almost exactly how they'd react in any given situation.

I think the greatest barrier between a writer and his ability to write about a character is the fact that he categorizes one as nothing but, or at least not a lot more than just that. Fictional or not, you're still writing about a person. The same rules apply, they're just a little harder to put in practice.

[AdventWings]

I think this phrase is absolutely critical in ant aspect of writing - whether it be narrative, fiction, non-fiction or even free-style poems.


Know Thyself

In this case, know who you are writing. As with real live people, the Present is drawn from interactions with the Past. The Past is what shapes our actions, our personalities, our feelings and our life. The same can be said for characters, even fresh ones.

Above all, know your characters before you write them. Writing a character with a clean slate is also a nice experiment, although you will have to prepare yourself for the unexpected response.

Let the characters writing themselves is a very tough practice. Don't try this unless you're prepared to find the unexpected...

[Mutant_Lorenor]

In my case I'm working off my own experimental rpg system. I love rpg's to death and most importantly I -love- writing. For me writing has to be fun and challenging which is why I try to purposefully create characters that are outside of my own personality. Lorenor has SOME traits that I can relate to but he's a complete whack job. I think that's why I love to rp him so much. Even though I've been struggling with the new iteration of his personality I find that I can still get posts out and keep having him grow as a person. Let the story write itself, many people have hinted at that already. The other major suggestion I can give from my own personal experience is to draw from an excellent personality. Avoid archetypal personalities and create your own unique combinations.

There are literally thousands upon thousands of personalities types to choose from and you can mix and match. I use a Freudian type system for my personality pyramid and work it from there. I think a complex and believable psychological profile is more important than a long drawn out history. History don't mean squat diddly if the Character can't co-exist well with other Characters in Althanas. The whole point of Althanas is to RP with other people in a community setting. To emphasize that point the best suggestion I can give you is to simply just WRITE more. Actually use your Character(s) NOT JUST Io but others in general. And just WRITE. You won't start to have fun until you're completing things.

John I think you're wrong about tourneys. Tourneys can add great back history and its on YOU to contact the other player(s) that you're in a particular match and have good communication with them. But that's another story.

[Opening Title]

There's some great advice in this thread and the only thing I can think of to add that hasn't been mentioned before, except perhaps by Lorenor (
I think a complex and believable psychological profile is more important than a long drawn out history.) that could be of some use, is to either find or make a list of traits and fill them out for your character. Like, Favoutire Colour, Phobias, Allergies, Quirks, Favoutire Ice Cream Flavour, that sort of thing. It's not permanent, but it can be a useful brainstorming activity that might help you get further into the mind of your character.

Hayashi's personality began changing in his first thread, and it continues to change. I've found that no matter the 'guidelines' I outline for my characters before I put them in action, they always manage to change at least a little personality-wise as I put them through situations. But yes, it does indeed help to know your character's past, and give them goals and aspirations. My ninja dude for example is obsessed with regaining his power and returning to his village to show them he is not a complete failure. It gives him a sort of driving force in threads and I have noticed that, as compared to some past characters of mine who didn't really have any set goals, he is a lot easier to write for.

[Stuffed Fury]

Hehe... The way I do this is simple. I base my character off Althanas. Now I know what you're thinking, "Oh, everyone does that though." Not really. I have a distinct plan for Sasorick after perusing pretty much the entire Althanas Almanac, basing my character off something that I liked from that. This is rather than basing the character on what I like and try to assign him a purpose in Althanas.

Rather than making Sasorick a "merc" or "wanderer" I already gave him an occupation, a Ranger - who aspires to be a Corone Ranger. It's a lot easier to get into a character if you adapt them to wherever you're role playing in - At least from all my experience that's what I think. Though my plan for Teddy isn't etched in stone right now, this makes it a lot easier to start writing with him. This is somewhat similar to what Opening Title just said, but hey.