11/11/19

There are numerous ways in order to increase the depth and memorability of characters. Easy to find are a suite of common tips for improvement, such as fallibility and clear motivation. Or, imperfect characters who aren’t meandering. (Still rules are meant to be broken from time to time). Such things are indispensable mantras for forming one’s base for philosophies on fiction, still I often find, and this isn’t for all, but comedy is a powerful instrument for fleshing out characters.

Given different genera won’t necessaeily lend itself to comedy, even still, toying with characters in the author’s head through comedic and other lighter scenarios will help to strengthen the creator’s understanding of their characters.

I’m not special, and so I can be assured that others have at one point or another taken their characters too seriously, pedestalized their heroes to altitudes that perfects and thus dulls their persona. People are flawed, blunder, conflict and jest. Comedic works tend to flesh out characters in ways serious media don’t do due to the ill-fit between genera. Comedy is not required to flesh out characters of course, but I find it, if anything, is a great meditative tool.

Scene Dances

Always important: scenes are supposed to convey something. Scene dressing, world building, character’s feelings, goals, and so on. Scenes should service a function, even if that function is mundanity. In order to present a cold reality to things sometimes having a character walk from their lover in dead silence is best.

That is another important aspect to remember, scenes in both film and book are sort of dances. Sometimes, you need to give the reader breath, sometimes you must rob them of it. Patterns of complex rhythms are dire to lift a reader and to drop them.

It takes time and patience to forge these patterns but when it is done, when you are able to dance with your prose you will be able unlock many paths and then you’ll realize that shit I guess I gotta practice ten-thousand other things.

There, tips from an unqualified writer. XD

Also important: Have fun with scenes, while there’s a point to them it is important to remember you can do whatever you want. Drawn out action sequences, witty comedy and so on–sometimes it’s good to relish in the art not try to get to the end as quickly as possible.

Reality and Imagination

I am one who falls victim toward my own imagination. How with little motivation, I imagine unpleasant mundanities, and hyperbolic horrible scenarios so frequently they be made seemingly real. Despite that these fleeting truths are not but figments and hold no form in outside reality; their claws cut deep, and they engulf the senses.

I hope others who have this quirk as I do come to understand it better than I, and can control their minds so not to undergo these idiotic tortures. I may forever be caught in this cyclical system of self-abuse and dried of self-esteem, but I hope I can at some point, in some fashion, help others out of these trenches.

Story Tip?

A not necessary component of stories, but an important aspect of a storytelling, are stories that exist outside, in some capacity, of social restriction.

That is to say, whatever social conventions and taboos that exist within the author’s residence, this content extends beyond it’s boundaries. They might carry with them turbulent contentious thoughts from the readers, but are in no way less important or less artistically viable.

Things such as homosexuality, if within a society where it is persecuted, should be contained within a work if pertinent. Other socially shamed sexual interests, unapproved hobbies, philosophies and so forth can be expressed in numerous ways through literature. Authors ought to bring forth concepts that mightn’t be approved by their surrounding society, and if done correctly can afford such a society a perspective and awareness of sides of reality that they reject or of which are ignorant.

This extends to all prohibited activity, be socially or legally, and the significance of it be illustrated through the work itself. These are important due to the potential complacency and atrophy that many people undergo when they parrot and blanket themselves within the social system. When no critical thought is produced and one is merely a mirror, stories that exist outside of the social architecture can jostle the reader into creative and critical meditation.

An often forgotten, or intentionally ignored aspect of stories by many is that content of a story is something that often exists outside of the artist themselves. Characters and scenarios, relationships and ideologies, can be numerous and be expressed through an array of characters that don’t necessarily reflect an author’s personal interests or otherwise.

Overindulgence

The greatest, and more emotionally charged works of film in particular, are the pieces that dispense with  the obscene use of some particular facet, like the rule of cool, or beautiful people, or gore–When you can dial back the an overly used factor, to show fear, lust, love, failure–anything that may contrast the common tropes within your work; that work forms a unique mask. Unpopular as this opinion as it might be, I find it important to consider.

For instance, not all characters need to be chiselled jawed hunks, or bosomy bouncies–contrasting them with other physiques, personae, and not cliche characteristics can be useful for fleshing out and emphasizing the chiselled chiselness of Mr. Chisel and the like.

Moreover, if one’s work involves a lot of ‘intense, dark’ mettaaal’ sort of looks, circling back a tad and adding unexpected musical scores, personae, and contrastive appearances creates a unique experience. Such as people who don’t ‘look’ dark, can be more intimidating than those who do, likewise, having one or two people who have this ‘darrrk’ look about them become more prominent and interesting.

Really, one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever used is restraint, without it, my works would be nothing but self-indulgent (beyond what they already are), cyclical daydreams. Protags would be just ‘stoic badasses’ and ‘messages’ would be put on high volume. Boring and annoying. Uninteresting. More interesting: inject multiple view points. Contrasting ideologies, kill off characters (appropriately not just for the ‘shock’), have protags screw up, lighten up the color (in film and it’s a grim story), show character not just cliche indulgences.

It may be good to also state, from my experiences, while your work is your own, and thus, an imprint of yourself to some capacity, hiding your fingerprints, will cause your work to feel independent of you, and not an echo-chamber.

True Stories

Somewhere, inside, between urgency and dictated creativity, glistens a true story that when freed from one’s own trammels, blossoms into a blinding star.

Character Sheet

So, I have nothing really to write about today perse, however, I thought it be fun to share a basic template I’ve developed for my major-characters.
This template mutates to service whatever character is being filled in. For instance, depending on a character’s class, be it thief, wizard, psychic and otherwise can determining the ‘supernatural-abilities’ section. Likewise, ‘supernatural-eye-color’ is only applicable to a narrow array of characters and thus would be excluded in most cases.

Template

Name
Birth Name:
Assumed Name:
Potential future names:
Sex
Gender
Nationality
Ethnicity
DOB
DOD

Major Age(s)
Hair Style
Hair Color
Natural:
Dyed:
Eye
Usual Eye Color:
True Human Eye Color:
Supernatural Eye Color/Style
Body Type
Aura (Common Color)
Other Physical Features
Personality
Skills
Supernatural Abilities

Likes

Dislikes

Job(s)

Sexual Matters:

Romantic Relationships:

Major Relationship and other Moments: (? Good to keep? Redundant?)

Things they do alone: 

Family:
Father
Mother
Aunt
Uncle
ETC

Bio / History

Remarks

I didn’t wish to include detailed information about the character, Sandra, here for reasons of secrecy and spoilers of her.  However in areas such as ‘things they do alone’ I’ve included things such as : 

Reads texts and fiction, listens to music usually either focused or in background; martial arts self-practice, running, baking.

This C.Sheet is really simple especially given it’s my latest attempt at them and hasn’t been refined much yet. Regrettably, this is probably a pretty bland entry, but I’ve seen such things be posted by authors and thought ‘wth not’. 

Weather

An important facet, I believe gets too little attention is weather in fiction. (Some games too, but it’s becoming a bit more important) When I say weather though I do not necessarily mean extravagantly destructive storms that rip a city apart. I mean almost the opposite. Writing how, “she pulled her hand from the cold railing and wiped the morning rain water on her pants”, or “his hat had become white again” (from snowfall), or “her bottle of water had warmed. She sat, sweat dripping from her bangs. A distant thunderous storm mocked her.”

These aren’t the best examples, but they are instances of weather that affects characters insomuch as to let the reader feel the world but not cripple the character, nor derail the plot-line just to put some example of weather. It should blend into what’s happening, and I believe is important. The days with overcast and are slightly chilly are just as important as a never-ending drougt, or a hurricane wiping electricity from a city.

 

Rebirth

Death and dieing should be important events, but not everyone needs to stay dead. The problem then arrives for a writer, death should have weight (unless that’s not the kind of story you’re telling), in which case their rebirth should change something, unless of course it was a quick fake-out-death/trick and not much time has passed or something. In such a case it’s best to use your interpretation.

However, assuming they died and are as dead as dead can be but are resurrected or the equivalent; either the character or the environment needs to have altered. Otherwise their death was indeed meaningless. Perhaps the character is the same, but people treat them differently—they did just come back from the dead after all. Or their persona has been transformed—or their body isn’t quite functional in some aspects. Maybe they return inhuman. There’s numerous ways to show the significance of their death and rebirth.

These are just musings and aren’t any sort of requirement. (Which in Of itself is a bold remark about the value of my thoughts) In any case hopfully this is good food to help get ones mind churning.

The Bad Ending

So, this builds off of my previous post, but I felt I ought to expand and refine the content. While there is an overabundance (for my taste) of Happy Endings in the west, I find that although I enjoy bitter sweet endings personally, Happy Endings are attractive. Thus, peppering into a work with a happy ending, miserable, or bad endings, is prudent. Including scenes of other people who didn’t make it in time, who were tortured, killed, starved and so forth will enliven the environment—make it immediate. Potential peril that may befall the protagonist doesn’t always have to concern them directly.

Perhaps they stumble upon a mine that is said to contain treasure, but as they explore they encounter bodies of those who were killed by traps, or cave-ins, and the like, and them reacting sincerely. Panic, needing to calm down. Growing cautious. Not only would it help the protagonist avoid what their predecessor did but it would also show what would happen if they missed a step, and express their character.

Likewise, showing someone who maybe was stuck in a vault during an invasion who suffocates, since can’t get out given everyone is either dead or evacuated. The readers discovers this through evidence before the protagonist finds the body.

This highlights and expands the universe you’ve created, shows misery and makes the reader potentially care about these otherwise narratively speaking, insignificant characters. Attack on Titan does this well. The viewer watches a battle taking place, and witnesses the deaths of these characters as the battle intensifies. You hear the last things they cry before dieing–you see what the fear before death, and thankfully, some escape, and grow from the experience that otherwise would be ineffectual without these characters’ unfortunate endings. Without failure there can be no weight to success, and the world around the protagonist is just as significant as the protagonist themselves.