Feb 2020
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Niharika
Feb '20

What is the hardest thing about character creation for you?"
For me, it's definitely my problem of putting too much of myself into my characters. I tend to be more grounded, less emotional, and I tend to put that into my characters. It's okay if it's one or two, or if it works for the story, but I can't have multiple Arushis interacting with each other and expect anything interesting or unexpected to happen.

"What is the easiest thing about character creation for you?"
Names. I just go to baby name websites. I once had the unfortunate experience of naming a character Melaina, which sounds very similar to melaena. I had finished the entire book, and later found out that melaena means bloody stools. And once that was in my mind, there was no getting rid of it. So, yeah, baby names websites it is. Makes my job easier and faster, and I can just go back and replace all if I don't like it later.

"How do you choose names when creating characters?"
Baby name websites (refer above), and also I take existing words or names and try to put a spin on them (especially for last name).

One sentence of advice for a newbie character creator:
Keep writing. Keep putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. I stopped writing for several years, and when I came back to it, I found that I wasn't the same as before. I'm getting back into my own rhythm, but I think writing literally anything (fanfiction, poetry, tumblr posts) during those years would've helped.

KRWright
Feb '20
Lineia

Welcome welcome! If you ever do want to jump in - feel free to fill out an intro and just jump in. You can revisit old topics at any time as well!

This is a really important point about Mary Sues. It might be a discussion topic in itself later down the line, because the concept of them and everything they stand for is actually fascinating and a lot of new creators do fall into them (and others get falsely accused of being Mary Sues when they aren't!).

This is such a good idea omg. I also have this issue a lot of the time. Sometimes I find putting a 'dummy character' in who is everything to everyone works (everyone likes to self-insert a little) but it's definitely something that needs forethought if you're trying to build a very distinctive main character. Personally I love distinctive main character, they're often far more included in the plot and the world.

OMG this

It is certainly difficult to get inside the mindset of someone who has a mind that is structured differently from ones own. I think that's why own voices works from non-neurotypical viewpoints are so good and fascinating. What's your research process for looking into things like this?

I think this is also very important advice for new creators. I think a lot of people get caught up in the ins and outs, the intricacies, when they first start (experienced ones too!) and that sometimes we just all need to learn to chill.

This tells me an interesting thing about the way you plan - that you have a focus on the storytelling element and intwine it with the characters. Do you outline first or do you do character creation first?

I've actually found that people are often more interested in character tropes and archetypes than they are the intracacies I've laid out for them. They'll come to love the intricacies as they go - but they click on the story for the trope.

This is a good thing. I often go through and assign my characters roles in the plot, then I do race/ethnicity and then I find themes from there. Why do you start with theme first? Are you creating the plot first?

I do this too. I love to have names that are quirky and slightly British sounding. Noah Pigeon. Henry D Thistle. Leander Mediean.

It's also important to understand that as we get older, we also are exposed to more stories, styles of writing, but also we change. We understand more complicated themes, and we come at them with different eyes and experiences to frame them. Writing you do as a teen, or even in your early twenties, will differ wildly from writing in your thirties or forties. It doesn't make the earlier writing less good, it just makes it different.

KRWright
Feb '20

@Everyone Here's today's topic and the last infographic I think I'll be doing this week! Thanks for everyone who contributed yesterday - I think I've replied to them all! Feel free to continue past discussions even if the conversation moves on each day (there's no cut off point - and you can return to the past discussions at any time if your answers change or you think of more).

11

CodeMonkeyArts
Feb '20
KRWright

Usually the characters (traits and personality) come first, then the plot, and then the name. Thus why I start with a 'theme' that fits the personality of the character :smiley:

KRWright
Feb '20

Do you mean theme or do you mean archetype here? Like, for Henry from Mortician, his theme is 'death' but his archetype is 'gentleman'.

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Feb '20

Setting struggles: I think mostly just to remind myself to include setting descriptions! I have it trained in me to do establishing shots in comics and in prose whenever the scene changes to a new significant location, but I feel like I have to be mindful about transitional periods as well: like show the street my characters are walking down when chatting, describe the passing scenery and road my character is using to get into town.

Development length: When I make mention of scenery, or include it in my backgrounds, I do try to dress it up as much as my characters, especially in establishing shots. I want to make the places feel lived in and used. But I wouldn't say I spend as much time thinking the settings over as I do characters. The settings I come up with are usually already informed by real life examples I've experienced or have seen images of. So since I have a clear picture of them already, it takes less time rounding them out.

However when it comes to things such as magic systems and creating cultures, or correlating historical fantasy plot points with real historical timelines, I do a ton of thinking and research!

Blank rooms: I'm trying my bestest to include backgrounds as much as I can (• ‸ • ; ). If anything, I'll at least include props/pieces of furniture or make mention of them if I can't fit in a whole background/description of the room.

sort of writing exercise: the following is an excerpt from one of my 'establishing shots' in my novel

The interior of the lodge smelled of smoke and leather and was as dark as the curtains that hid it. Their footfalls triggered groaning creaks from the hardwood floors. Plush high-backed chairs circled the impressive stone fireplace rising from the center of the hall through the towering roof. Patience caught glimpses of many mounted beasts guarding the perimeter of the main floor while more graced the walls. Only vague shapes in the dim light, she could not identify their species. Valon led her to a back room, the hall’s communal kitchen.

A lone uncovered window lit the rustic kitchen with shaded light from the patio …

Iris-Grimoire
Feb '20
  • Taking in consideration no place is a flat plane is my worst problem with settings. Both for writing and drawing, I just have the hardest time parsing that even a valley has hills, houses can have annoying steps, ruins will have collapsed floors and elevation is never the same. I need to practice BG painting way more to try and get this into my head... I also get lazy way too easily and don't take advantage of the fantasy genre as much as I should.
  • Yes! To justify character traits, flaws, backstory, etc, all needs setting, especially for things like magic systems, culture, how it developed differently from the real world and everything. It's very, very essential, but a little more subtle and not always going to display in the work. As for individual scenes, I always try to make it a world where people interact and have affected it in some way; even long abandoned areas.
  • I don't want to brag, but...

    I always try to set down notes about the current setting. It's good to have quick, simple ideas of objects they can be manipulating or interacting, things to lean/sit/lay on, but as I said first, it's hard to think of elevation without making an effort to it. It's also good to add to that excitement of the scene, such as "half-sunken ruins" or "temple on a mountainside", and the more I love the scene the more I can make the audience be interested as well.
nathanKmcwilliamsIn the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Feb '20

Struggle
Drawing the damn backgrounds and settings. I suck at drawing static objects, like buildings and trees. I am actively working on improving. But it's slow going.

Development Length
Hell yes, I spend more time on my worldbuilding than anything else. My characters evolve from the world I've built, so I start there first usually.

In Dragon Sparking it's my goal to visit every trope setting you can think of. I've already got Viking High Fantasy started, next up will be Futuristic MMORPG meets Camelot. (AKA Space Knights.)
Here's one of my older bonus worldbuilding sheets about my comic's world. I even go into what kind of wildlife exists in each locale.

FB_IMG_1540838164129.jpg720x1008 174 KB

Blank Rooms
( ._.)--> lots of them. Interior design is something I struggle with, but I do try. Usually once an establishing shot is out of the way, I 'cheat' a lot with gradient backgrounds or close ups.

UrMom
Feb '20
1
KRWright

Hmm I've read debates on whether ASPD is non-neurotypical, some people get a bit upset when you associate sociopaths and psychopaths with autism since since ignorant people like to link the two, despite only sharing some superficial similarities. Other's also argue that despite people with ASPD having different brains, they have a behavior disorder rather than a neurotypical one since not everyone with different brains (people with depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, etc) are considered part of that group according to some circles.
A few people would say I have a neurotypical disorder due to my depression, but that's a really grey area given it could stem from either sides. The subject is still extremely new, so more research still needs to be done on it.

Sorry, babbling a bit there.

I usually do a mix of research on the technical side, talking with mental health professionals and assistance in mental health facilities willing to share their experiences, talking with people who live with the disorder about their experiences, along with watching vlog types of videos and documentaries. (if I can find any) Then I like to brainstorm, figuring out patterns then applying them to how my character would deal with them specifically, putting into consideration that their background and personality are usually going to be vastly different from the real people I talk to. Everyone's experiences with mental illnesses/disorders are so subjective, it can be a real challenge.
Of course this is all for more than ASPD, I actually put a lot of my research focus on stuff like depression, PTSD, anxiety, psychosis and schizophrenia. I like to be really thorough since mental illnesses and disorders are some of the main subjects in my story, and I want to apply them to the best of my abilities... I'm also kind of a nerd for psychology. Psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists are just the hardest people to get into the minds of.

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?

Probably the architecture and vehicles. It's not that they're the most difficult things, but I really, really don't like them on a personal level. I hate driving and having anything to do with cars, as well as cities. It's obnoxious because they're so simple, yet so complicated and specific. The slightest misstep in perspective or design can make a page look hideously uncanny.

Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?

This depends? If you're talking about this writing wise, then no, since I don't actually write out my story. At least in greater detail than a bullet point.
Visually, yes, I like to think I do given it takes a bit longer to build up a passable setting. Laying down perspective and grid lines can take some time when working almost strictly in a traditional medium, depending on detail and number of perspective points.

As for why, I try to give my setting attention for practice, as well as it wouldn't personally feel right to not put effort into the character's surroundings. At least for a couple panels a page.

Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few details?

Currently I have a two page spread I'm working on, the first page only has two real background scenes while the rest is kind of blank. This was intentional, the two characters in this page are outside and I wanted it to have that "blindingly bright" feel, so I only put in enough background for readers to know the general location. The second page has a scene change where everyone is inside, there is a background in every panel except one. I wanted to give a little more attention to the background in this page because it is a reoccurring location, as opposed to the one-off scene in the previous page that no one will care about or ever see again. Also it's intended to have normal indoor lighting, so no blinding brightness.

darkone4587
Feb '20
KRWright

What is the hardest thing about character creation for you?
Honestly character designs. When it comes to what a character should wear or finer details in their looks it's a bit more difficult for me. Honestly it's why my characters tend to wear simpler outfits compared to others unless I pull directly from a reference or someone else designs them.

What is the easiest thing about character creation for you?
Coming up with the concepts and their basic personalities is easy for me honestly. Mostly because I'm partially basing them off characters from other works or the ideas of various tropes.

How do you choose names when creating characters?
Their names or either based off of their personalities, an ability, something that sounds really cool, or just random.

Write one sentence of advice for a newbie thinking about creating their first character.
Do something you consider enjoyable for your first character. You don't have to hit it out of the park right away so experiment and play around for a bit.

darkone4587
Feb '20
KRWright

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
Honestly describing a setting vividly. For the most part I write the very basics of what you'll need to understand where the characters are and what their doing.

Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?
I do a lot of background setting when world building, but that's really there to help develop the characters and explaining their actions. Even if some of it will never be explained to the reader unless necessary.

Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?
Honestly not to many, but they do spend a lot of time in lightly described rooms.

At12MN
Feb '20
KRWright

Yes, that's true. :blush: Even as a reader, I tend to have good impressions on series that have my favorite tropes. I see tropes as a common ground between the reader and the series/author. It's easier to warm up if I already have something common with them.

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
I try to find something in that place that catches my character's attention the most. I think there's this exercise I found before where you have to try to enter a room for 1 minute or something, taking in as many things as you can. Then go out and try to write about the room. I always try to do that with my characters. This can be quite challenging as I'm often focused on what's happening between and within the characters so the setting sort of turns into a background.

Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?
I don't, at least for contemporary stories. Unless it's a special place. But if it's just a school setting, it's simple. For historical, developing the setting is just as maddening as developing the characters. I have to establish the period, as well as the customs and social norms.

Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in blank rooms with no/few setting details.
They are pretty much established lately because the character is going to a new place.

darthmongoose
Feb '20
KRWright

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?
I'm good at thinking small, but bad at thinking big. I create in a really granular way and tend not to think through how the places relate to each other geographically (my D&D players love how unique and well-developed my towns are... but they're always closer together than is geographically plausible, I don't pad out my world with enough distance), so like... where IS the Eye of Brilliance in relation to Aunt Sylvia's house? How far is city X from city Y? Uhhhh.... I dunno...

Do you spend as long developing your setting as developing your characters? Why/why not?
As much if not more. I usually have really detailed world-building with information about political systems, how magic works etc. For Errant, I had to write a lot of alternative history about "Brittania", which is Britain where magic is real, so King Arthur was a real guy, so the Angles and Saxons didn't become a dominant culture and it remained a Romano-Celtic culture. They still worship Brigantia and Sulis Minerva, they never say Christian-derived swears like "oh my god", "Jeez", "Cripes", "Bloody" etc., it's always "Sulis!" or "Jove!" which is really hard (more than once, I've written a character saying "oh my god" in the script and then realised, crap, these characters don't have A god, they're polytheistic!) They use latin-derived insults like "Podex" (butthole) etc. Familiar cities have different names based on their ancient ones with the assumption pronunciation tends to get lazy, like York is called Everac, Carlilse is called Caerliwald etc. OR there are cities named for places in Arthurian legend like Joysgard (based on Joyous Guard) and Camelot.

Go through your current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in blank rooms with no/few setting details.

Actually doing pretty well here. I tend to have a handle on where the characters are, like "Sylvia's house" which is a sprawling gothic mansion, or "The centre of Joysgard" Because a lot of my comic has fight scenes and over the top characters and the setting is Fantasy, I have to think a lot. Like there's a big fight next chapter that's in a residential street, there's a bar, there's a secret room... stuff like that. I'm a very visual person, so the place is important to me. Of course... as a comic artist, it can be quite different, because I'll have to draw these things. It's very visually obvious if you haven't thought at all about the setting in this medium!

ivanskilling
Feb '20

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?

Remembering to describe the setting! :smiley: I tend to focus on the interaction between characters, their emotions and actions. But I give myself some time to go back and look at what I've written with a fresh eye. Then I ask myself whether important details about the setting or character appearance is missing.

Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?

It kinda depends. If the setting is in a place or an era that I'm familiar with, it doesn't take as long. But if my story is a scifi, I'll try to use reference pictures online and my imagination to figure out how things should look. :wink:

Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?

Oh boy. :joy: So in the current chapter I'm writing, the first two scenes has minimalistic details about the setting. The third scene is heavy in detail because it is the most suspenseful and eerie part. And the final scene I'm writing only briefly sets up the room in the first two paragraphs since it's focused on the dinner conversation. :smiley:

LostSpirit
Feb '20

Okay. Looks like I missed being on time for a section. Well, no matter. I'll try and cover it, then the next! :smiley:

What is the hardest thing about character creation?
Before the current rewrite of the Curse of Immortals, I did have a version which I finished in August, 2019. One of my closest friends, someone I do trust with stories, noticed that barring a trio or so of characters, a ton of the important cast seemed or felt largely interchangeable. I'm not sure how often any of you may have stumbled onto a situation like that, where in your heart, you know they are different characters with their own set of personalities and intricacies, and yet, from an outsider's point of view, they blanket into being the same. I'm trying to listen to my mind and heart with greater detail, as I build new characters now.

What is the easiest thing about character creation for you?
Not sure. Given everything I've stated above, I've begun to explore the concept of realism while also trying to stick to the lore of my world. They're all difficult, complicated characters, at least in my head. I think what makes it easy for me is how much fun I have exploring their depth. When I uncover a piece that really works, it keeps me motivated and happy towards the whole process. I can't really point to a set of things that works for me though.

How do you choose names when creating characters?
I love playing off mythology and history, fragments, portions, sometimes the same, sometimes a variant. Though, I also have fun running different things in my head to see what sticks. This works well with anything omniscient, races, species, the kind. For example, CoI works on the principle of two gods - Ehedus and Baha. It just popped into my head one day, and it felt right. Godvildian, Noxun, Relictan - they all have an underlying principle to it that just stuck with me. Races here, by the way. But otherwise, just anything with meaning, symbolic to the character's core personality trait. I kind of build from that. Simple example, I worked with multiple languages to hone in on Daiden. In Sanskrit, the name translates to transmission. His given name is Daiden Lost. Overall, it equates to a lost transmission. Won't tell much more, or perhaps even why I went with that meaning, but it's easy when you think from a human level, from an emotional level.

One sentence advice for a newbie character creator:
If you manage to find the heart to love even your worst character, personality-wise, perhaps villainy-wise, you're definitely doing something right. :smile:

Phew! Now, to take a break and come back with what's next.

CodeMonkeyArts
Feb '20

What do you struggle with personally most when creating settings?

Remembering details. I often to go back to how I describe a room in order to make sure I don't just conjure up items out of thin air as the plot depends. It's a pet peeve in movies, it's a pet peeve in writings, it's a pet peeve in comics. I really don't want to commit the same pet peeve, thus REMEMBERING the minutiae of the scene setting causes the most stress.

Do you spend as long developing your setting as you develop your characters? Why/Why not?

It depends on the story.

In Birth of a Sin, it's a comic-book typish setting. So taking place in a modern/contemporary setting with a few other details that include the outlandish (Evil Scientist Lair, Training Military grounds on a private Island, etc). Thus I don't really put much effort in the setting since it takes place in a setting that I'm already familiar with with only a few unusual details sprinkled here and there for that Superhero/SuperVillain feel.

For another story, I am planning a Isekai aka another world. Thus I will have different settings that have a more Fantasy slant (at most a Diesel Punk for Desert city, Steampunk for Coastal/River town, etc). I also plan on having an dimensional, Lovecraftian horror slant so will be looking at how to describe...errr...incomprehensible to the human mind things. This is will require A LOT of research and I'll be taking a TON of notes when I plan out this other story.

Go through you current WIP. How many of your scenes take place in 'blank rooms' with no/few setting details?

...Crap I have to read back my own chapters?! PHOOEY! PHOOEY I SAY!
...
Honestly, I think I'm pretty good with adding SOME details of the setting. Usually when it comes to the characters themselves. Though I write in Third-Person Omniscient, during my POV switches, I tend to describe the setting as it appears to the character. If they are leaning against something, I describe what that is. If they are looking around, I describe what they see. If I don't describe it as much it's because, well...the setting is not super important because a character is not in focus. Typically.

Also, some chapters coming up have 'blank rooms' because the room itself is suppose to be sparse...being a prison cell setting.

KRWright
Feb '20
joannekwan

This is the part I find easiest, but the rest is all stuff I have to work on a lot. I have a lot of blank rooms and half-filled spaces in my fiction.

That is absolutely fantastically detailed. I love that - the fairylights are a lovely touch as well.

I've tried this approach in the past, but I often find it hard to keep momentum. Once I have the world, I'm more likely to turn it into a tabletop RPG than I am to write a book set in it. Sometimes I feel if I develop the world too much, I end up putting in too many details that people don't need or get. Do you have any tips for preventing that from happening?

This is singlehandedly one of the msot difficult things to get right without real world examples because designing architecture that works is so hard.

Fun is the best way to stave off writers block.

Same.

This is a really good exercise. I also have a friend who challenged me to write for 10 solid minutes describing the room I was in, and that really made me rethink the line between setting and character.

I love swearing like this in books, it's a clear signifier that this isn't exactly OUR world.

I often thing of this as a case of 'kill your darlings'. Often writers include more characters than they need for the plot, where combining some would make a more intricate single character. But yeah, all your characters should have distinct roles in the plot.

nathanKmcwilliamsIn the making of Bunneh The Rabbit
Feb '20

@KRWilliams
I think it may have to do with the way I think xD I like to go through tiny details, and then see what each detail brings to the table. Like, if I make this country do something, then what happens to the others? Maybe the readers will never see it, but I want to know xD.

Plus my story is a big one with no set ending so I find it's better to have a full world planned out, and in the grand scheme of things the time I spent worldbuilding is small compared to the time spent writing and drawing.

I guess I wouldn't recommend that approach for everyone. But people that enjoy RPG's and all the little details behind them may find that way of creating a world fun.
I do get that it can burn out the passion though. And I've seen other creators fizzle out during the worldbuilding part, and I'm not sure why exactly, because I really enjoy that part.