1 / 10
Feb 2016

In my comic11, Slide to Unlock , my main protagonist is 15 years old which is very close to my own age(14). But a good majority of my characters are (physically) in their early 20s. Despite myself not having lived that long, my story leans more toward the experiences of these supposedly "older" characters. Sometimes i fear that i'm writing them wrong because i don't have the same understanding as people who are older than me. Do you think it's risky to write characters that aren't in you age group?

  • created

    Feb '16
  • last reply

    Feb '16
  • 9

    replies

  • 5.5k

    views

  • 1

    user

  • 7

    likes

  • 3

    links

My comic8 features two main characters - one of them is 6, the other is in his early-to-mid 30s. I'm 27, so I'm closer to the older one's age. The rest of my cast is scattered across a span from early 20s to early 60s.

I don't find writing any of them to be difficult because of their age (except possibly the 6 year old; small children are a bit tricky), as I focus on their personalities. Sometimes their age impacts that - say, a younger character might be more impatient, or more energetic, while an older character might be more patient or might lack the energy to do stuff - or maybe their memory is going.

But I wouldn't call writing them "risky". What you need to keep in mind is that the older a person are, the more likely they are to have experienced stuff. Your 15 year old character is more likely to be naive or lack knowledge about things, and is likely to be more emotionally immature - but it all depends on what he's done during those 15 years. I've known teenagers who were very grown up and serious and responsible, and I've known 40 year olds who acted with the maturity of 12 year olds. It's all a matter of what lessons life has taught them, and how well they've learned.

... Also, people in their early 20s are still pretty young. When I was 22, I spent most of my time feeling like I was 14 and didn't have a clue about anything. XD

I do fear that a little! I always worry that I'm too ignorant to tackle certain subjects or characters.
Early 20s though... That's still a really young person. If it helps, I'll tell ya this - it's an age where you feel like you're supposed to be an adult and often times people feel like they're not and that they're meant to "get their shit together". No one has it together, ever, though, haha! Butyea, like @AnnaLandin says you should just consider what the characters have experienced and how that would make them act when they start adult life, what they think an adult should be.

that's me right there. i see adults and think "an adult" while i see teens and think "my peers".

Yeah, I spent most of my teen years writing stories with adult characters ranging from young adults to ancient beings, and when I read these stories now, they were clearly written by an angsty teen. Which is understandable since I was naive and didn't hang out with adults much.

I have to say though, emotional maturity and personality are two different things. I know a person who is younger than me (21) but is much more emotionally mature than me because she had to grow up fast in order to survive poverty and she had to deal with anger issues no kid should ever endure. But she is still discovering herself at this age because her personality hasn't fully developed yet. Her ideals and principles can still change. I can't pinpoint an exact age we all have our personalities established. Perhaps it's when we really know our limits, likes, dislikes, what we want in life and what about us is difficult to change. It's something to consider if you plan on writing adult characters.

There are so many things that can affect their change in behaviour and thinking, like hardships can harden someone and betrayal can turn someone into a cynic. It's things you discover by yourself or through other people's experiences (can be real people or fiction. The latter can be badly written, though). If you want to know how to write someone of an age group you've never experienced, it's always good to hang out with people from said age group, see how they behave, react to things and talk, and listen to their experiences because they're what made them into who they are now (eg. Relationships, jobs, their losses, their successes, families).

For example, I have a character who is a pregnant mum in their late 20's / early 30's but I have no idea what it's like to be one, so I had to refer to my sister-in-law. She's probably way more realistic than most depictions of pregnant women I see on TV, as many writers and producers tend to sugarcoat motherhood a bunch, lol. Which brings me to another point: don't always trust depictions of certain age groups and types of people you see in the media lol.

Yeah, I've mentioned on here before that I'm a bit trepidatious about writing certain characters in West4. The story takes place across various locations in an almost episodical format so the frequency of characters who are not at all like myself is quite high. I'm afraid of falling into stereotypes, especially with child and exotic characters. I know no children and live in a small town where most people look like their parents were related. Diversity is not something I'm exposed to often, so I'm relying entirely on research, which means, if I'm not careful, I could make a real pig's ear of characters that are meant to be interesting.

No need to be worried about how they act in comparison to their ages cuz dat can help do alot in making the comic funny so all u have to do is plan all your important characters ages and make them correspond with future characters that they have any relationship with

Writing people of different age groups comes down to "research". Old people speak differently compared to children, and their mannerisms are generally different depending on their age. Lots of observation on the people around you goes a long way.
I find the most convincingly written children are often written by parents and anyone who spends a lot of time with kids. A more naive depiction of children would be high energy, candy-obsessed, and pure good-vanilla type of character. Kids aren't pure all the time, they're a mixed bag! I have my little sister and her friends to work off of as reference, and it helps!
(My main characters are between 6-10 years old)

Well, Its all up to you actually.
You can do research etc
Overall, It depends on what the story is about.

Personally, I tend to seek out experiences, that allow me to learn more about others etc, so thats where I get my 'character stereotypes' from. Though, I only use them if its a slice of life comic. Otherwise, I don't really bother with them if they're not the main character.

My comic has characters of all different ages and maturity levels. The main characters are 14, but the secondary characters are 16/17. A lot of the difference in age I show through how they handle their missions. While the 14 year olds are scrambling about and very disorganized, sometimes needing to be saved at the last minute by an older fighter, the 17 year olds are more organized, disciplined, and self-sufficient, as they've completed their training. Not to mention how they handle "scary" Sister Rain, the head of the Assassins. While the 14 year olds cower from her, the 17 year olds aren't too bothered. It's subtle things like these that can help really show age differences.

I have the opposite problem to you. I have all ages in my comic and my main characters are between 14/ 16 . but I am soon 45 and often feel a bit out of touch with the generation I am trying to write about especially when it comes to how the younger generations talk, lots of times I have to research words because i don't quite grasp the modern meaning. As for your question regarding older people and maturity as it has been said before age does not mean mature. most of the time I act much less mature than I am ( in fact i can be very silly at times) Only when I am in a bad mood do I really act my age. ( I have learnt long ago that only when you forget about your inner child do you truly become "an adult" and most of them are no fun at all)