"Weeds are weeds only from our human egotistical point of view, because they grow where we do not want them. In Nature, however, they play an important and interesting role. They resist conditions which cultivated plants cannot resist, such as drought, acidity of soil, lack of humus, mineral deficiencies, as well as a one-sidedness of minerals, etc. They are witness of man’s failure to master the soil, and they grow abundantly wherever man has ‘missed the train’ - they only indicate our errors and Nature’s corrections. Weeds want to tell a story - they are nature’s means of teaching man, and their story is interesting. If we would only listen to it we could apprehend a great deal of the finer forces through which Nature helps and heals and balances, and sometimes, also has fun with us."
Escher Girls: Developing your Characters and Making Them Interesting
Recently I got a message about a person struggling on how to develop their characters, as they normally wrote about already created characters—also about how to make them interesting and make the people reading your story actually want to continue reading it.
I’d say this is one of the main differences between fanfiction and original work. Writing fanfiction you already rely on the fact people know the characters—how they look (or are supposed to look), personalities, and backgrounds… unless you’re writing an AU. There’s people that already like the characters and would (probably) be willing to read your story. Now, you focus on a good plot to interest them.
But then we are back on our original stories, our novels, anything we write. We have to create our characters from scratch—interesting characters that can fit and make our story flow. Because good characters can handle a poor plot, yet a good plot can’t handle poor characters. I guess this is all we do here, right? this is the bane of our existence as writers.
Truth is, there’s no right way to write a story. And there’s no right way to develop a character! I tested this by asking you guys how you do to create and flesh out your characters. Every response was personal and different.
Sometimes it starts with the spark of an word, an archetype, a color, a trait, a flaw, a song lyric, a painting, someone you know in real life—then you go from there.
Here are some basic steps on developing a character, yet, you can do it as you see fit:
- You start with the personality. Once that’s done it’s relatively easier to know how they look like. You sculpt and pick virtues and vices, flaws and qualities—perfect characters are not interesting. When it comes to protagonists and antagonists, they’re neither 100% good nor 100% bad, because there is not fully good or bad people. Get what I’m saying? Round characters are the thing we’re going for. Take details from people in real life, if you want: funny habits, mannerisms, what makes people human.
- Work on the appearance of your character. What’s their body type, their eye color, skin color, hair color, shape of their face/nose, if they have birthmarks or scars somewhere…
- Pick a name as you see fit. This can be the first step depending on how you work. Is there a meaning behind it? does it show somehow their character’s personality? remember sometimes they are relevant to the setting/genre.
- Flesh. ‘Em. Out. Think of hobbies and background. How’s the relationship with their family and friends, how they act around authority, what kinds of clothes they like to wear…
- Always remember: character development is an ongoing thing. You never “finish” developing your character, just like we, as people, don’t stay the same.
That being said, be creative with it! Don’t imitate the way your favorite authors develop their characters- create your own way! your characters are all yours! Make playlists about songs that remind you of your characters, keep a journal for them- sky’s the limit.
Good links for you:
- Fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment: a blog just about character development. Seriously, if you are not following this blog, you are in nothing.
- Our character descriptions and characters tags, along with body and mind and personality.
- Create fictional characters from scratch
- 13 ways to create compelling characters
- Moral Alignments and Jung Personality Theory: both good resources by the same person. They’re a different way to add dimension and understand better your characters. Even if you aren’t using them, they’re still a pretty good read.
- Get to know your characters interesting questions require interesting answers.
-Alex
I saw this on my dash from a friend’s reblog, and given that we had a post on Escher Girls recently about writing characters and their arcs, I thought people might be interested in this, and some of the links provided which go into much more detail. :)
Character Animation: Design, Acting, and Expressions
Since these 3 asks were really popular and I’ve had some requests to make them rebloggable, I thought I’d compile them. :)
Q: Do you have any tips/resources for how to get the “acting” in animation?
Getting personality in the character is probably one of the toughest things to accomplish in animation. And since every character is different, there’s no set formula either, so this is definitely a good subject to bring up.
A lot of it boils down to what they talk about in that article:
- Believability - i.e. emotions, thought process, reactions, and consistency in attitude.
- Personality - we usually have characters that fit into the archetype (hero, villian, love interest, etc) but we also have to think about how they bend archetypes. What makes them different/interesting?
A really good way to learn about this kind of acting is to study it.
A lot of the acting comes from characters’ interactions with each other and seeing their different responses to the same situation.
Also the character silhouette and pose is really important.
Take a look at the photoset from Cats Don’t Dance. You can see the extreme acting differences between Danny and Sawyer in the scene outside of the casting office.
You may also want to look at these:
Q: I’ve been trying out different styles as well as expressions for character’s lately and I’ve been having a hard time. Figuring how to make the expressions and actions look more natural on the character, I was wondering if you had any good advice or knew of any books.
One of the best things you could read on this subject is Tracy J. Butler’s Lackadaisy: Notes on Expressions
You may also want to pick up Tom Bancroft’s Creating Characters With Personality
But first and foremost, think about the character’s personality—that shapes the expressions the most. Each character has their own set of expressions.
And one last thing—I wish I could have found the video from the Beauty & the Beast DVD where Glen Keane talks about his process of creating the Beast and his expressions, but I couldn’t find it online. So if you have it on DVD, I highly suggest you watch the behind the scenes stuff. In the meantime you can read this and this on it. :)
Q: Do you have any advice on how to start designing/creating an appealing character?
Appeal can be very much “in the eye of the beholder,” but that’s not say there aren’t some principles we can all agree on. Things to focus on are line quality, straights v.s. curves (line style/variety), proportion, and shape.
Freddie Moore, who supervised the dwarves in Snow White, is known for his appealing drawings. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston even said he was huge influence on the overall Disney style. The Freddie Moore Girl
Freddie didn’t really have a formula; it’s just how he drew. So, creating appeal can be hard to figure out, especially if it doesn’t come as naturally to us as it might to someone like Fred Moore.
But we can look at what we think are appealing characters and try to pull something from them.
Nico Marlet has some really appealing designs:
As well as Chris Sanders:
- Character Design Notes - one of the biggest, most helpful blogs on designing characters. Lots of different styles and artist interviews. Bookmark it!
I could put more, but really, what’s appealing in my eyes may not be as appealing to you or others here, so the best way is to go out and look for what appeals to you and to read up on the artists who drew them. Hopefully this helped! :)
