I create characters in a number of ways. Sometimes, I want to write a story that conveys an emotion or I just have something I want to say. Other times, I just have an idea for a character and then come up with a story to fit them in. Rarely, a character enters my mind fully-formed and ready to be put in a story that comes with them. It's all very weird and varies from character to character.
When I do have to create a character, I usually base them around an aspect of myself. For example, the Crimson Knight is a personification of my adolescent rage. He was created as part of some fan fiction I dabbled with almost 15 years ago. He's been re-invented many times, has gone through many name changes and his details have changed a lot as well. But, the very core of the character is rage and anger. Unlike his previous incarnations, the [Universe 333] version has much more anger in him and is much less likely to have a happy life. As he has evolved and changed, he has taken on many aspects that aren't a part of me. One thing I haven't mentioned is his love of country music. Why does he love country music? Partly because I don't really like it so it provides some distance from me, but he's also from Arizona where I imagine country music is a little more popular. I also his 'theme song' as it were, is Johnny Cash's "I walk the line" as Micheal is walking a very fine line between damnation and heroism. While he is a dark hero, he is still a hero. He fights the bad guys and is actively trying to bring more good into the world. Part of the evolution of the character also revolved around his weapon. Originally, it was just a magic weapon that allowed him to focus his anger into a weapon. But, as he changed to a super hero universe, I had to really think about his weapon. The previous idea I had was for a group of weapons based on emotions but I accidentally copied the colors and emotions from the various Lantern Corps from DC. Going back to the drawing board, I looked at Micheal and his weapon and what kind of character he was. As he was based on rage, why not make the weapons based on the Seven Deadly Sins? Thus, Micheal was reborn again, along with his weapon and what you see today is the extrapolation from the original idea. To continue our analysis of the Crimson Knight, we also need to look at what kind of characters he is surrounded by. This is also an important part of creating a character, looking at the other characters in the world and those that are part of his/her world and life. In the 'relationship' section in the profile, his current lover is a woman named 'The Countess.' She's another character I've been working on and when I came up with her, I saw her as a good fit with Micheal. While I haven't written in out yet, I have a story about who she is and how she comes to meet Micheal. The story revolves around betrayal and heart-break, a good match for Micheal's character. You see, the Countess was originally 'The Countess of Crime' and was a 'mastermind' villainess. She was raised by a hero named Captain Astroman, but was in fact the biological daughter of his arch-nemesis, the Count of Crime. Long story short, Captain Astroman's wife was seduced by the Count (without knowing it was him, of course) and got pregnant with his child. This was the Count's ultimate revenge on Astroman, knowing he couldn't conceive children of his own and would have to raise the child of the arch-enemy as his own flesh and blood. This is a good, dramatic back story that doesn't involve rape (which I'll have to talk about soon) and gives the character of the Countess a good reason to be the way she is. She's raised by a super hero but doesn't have any powers of her own (except a very high intelligence she's been careful to keep hidden) and when she's a teenager, that most vulnerable time in everyone's life, she comes to find out her father isn't her father at all. That pulls the rug out from under her life. She changes deep inside but remains the same on the outside, plotting and planning. Eventually, she claims the title of her biological father and starts up a massive criminal empire. During this time, she has figured out who Micheal really is and tricks him into a relationship (striking at the right time, when he is emotionally vulnerable) and uses him to gain access to the Vigilance Committee's massive computer on crime and heroes and all kinds of stuff. In the first story I wrote about these two, The Countess reveals who she is the the Crimson Knight and that she plans to teleport him to a deserted island. This being costume hero stuff, she's betrayed by an underling and gets teleported to the island with Micheal. This is the start of her transformation between villain and hero. That is dramatic and (hopefully) realistic. How Micheal and this woman continue to have a relationship helps them develop as characters. I'm using it help Micheal find forgiveness and let him grow beyond his original concept. The Countess also offers a good counter-point to his character. Micheal is a weapon. That's all his is and it's all he wants to be. He knows that's what the Vigilance Committee is using him for, to destroy things that need to be removed. He doesn't want to think about the moral implications of what he does and what he has become. Now, we have a character that is able to break him out of that cycle and let him grow. He will still be angry and violent, but now he has someone to hold him back when he needs to be controlled. The Countess is also the brains to his brawn. The contrast between them creates conflict for them but also allows each character to shine in their own way. No character exists in a vacuum. They inhabit a world filled with other people. And not all of them will agree with them and the villains they face aren't all despicable monsters. To talk about [APOSTLE and PRINCESS], where I'm at right now is the manhunt for the main characters. I've created a government agent who is leading the hunt for them and have gotten into his head. I've shown that he doesn't care about the moral implications of hunting Alts, as it is his job. He lets others figure that out while he does what he does best. Sure, he wants to advance in government service, but it isn't his job to go beyond that. To give a spoiler, right before he dies, he thinks of his wife. That makes him human. He isn't a monster, he's a human being who has hopes, dreams and etc. Good villains are good characters. Now, let's talk about the details of a character. Because the devil is in the details, as they say. In the Crimson Knight's profile, I figured out where he was born but I haven't set when his birthday is yet. With the All-American Girl, I gave her birth date. That's because astrology is mildly important for me when I create a character, but since [Universe 333] is suppose to be an internally consistent universe, I wanted to have characters get old and retire. In the Marvel universe, time is flexible and characters who should be in their 70's are maybe pushing 40 these days. That's wrong to me. These old character should retire and new characters should be invented to breathe new life into our stories. Also, they should have to deal with more responsibility. In the X-Men I guess Professor X is dead (again) and now Scott Summers (aka Cyclops) is now running the Xaiver Institute. I think. I don't know, I haven't really been reading comics regularly for several years.(Note: Yes, I'm aware that there's the new Marvel Now and this is years out of date, I don't care.) But, back to the point. The point I'm trying to make is that your characters are going to get old. They're going to have birthdays. You should set them so you can figure when to celebrate them and if your character even wants to celebrate them. By setting these details, I find the character becomes more and more human to me. Now, let's talk about tragedy and horrible experiences in a character's past. One thing that has become common in comics and other things is a trope known as 'rape as a backstory.' I shit you not, this has become so common in writing that it has its own TVTropes page. The gist of it is people try to create dramatic, tragic, hurt characters by having them raped at some point in their lives. While I do agree that rape is horrific and can create drama, it should be used sparingly, at most. It really fucks people up and while it will consume a person's life in so many ways, it should be handled extremely carefully. In the Crimson Knight's history, he spent time in the Child Welfare system. How many of you thought he was molested and/or raped while he was in there? Well, all of you are wrong. First and foremost, I avoid any mention of it as I didn't think it find the character and I didn't want to deal with the issues that it would cause with readers. Also, look at Micheal: does he sound like a predator would pick for a victim? No, he shouldn't because he isn't. Micheal is angry at the world because it took his parents and then failed him afterward. He's also angry at his sister because she found a place in the world. One without him. I made no mention of him looking for his sister. Given the resources he's had at his disposal, he could easily find her. There's a few reasons for this: as I mentioned, he's angry at her for getting out of the system and imagines she's had a pretty good life (I won't say if she did or not, but I have figured it out). He's also angry with her for not trying to find him once he turned 18 (again, I know but I'm not telling, you'll find out in about 20 years). His anger won't let him find her. He would rather be angry at her from a distance rather than have to deal with any apologies she would try to make. He also fears that she could make him jealous and perhaps violent if she did in fact have a good, happy life. When it comes to tragedy, I try not to go over-board with it, except when the character needs it. Look at [APOSTLE and PRINCESS]; Peter and Anna had fairly normal lives. Except for the death of Anna's brother, she's had a really good life. Of course, that death and how her family reacted to it is very much a reason why she is the way she is, but it's something that happens in the world. As Anna develops and grows older, she finds that she wants to change the world so no more brothers die. She wants to be that hero that comes at the nick of time to save the innocents in peril. I've written her desires for being a hero already, but as I go forward in the story, you're going to see that desire come to the fore. She's going to be a hero, she's going to save people, but she's also going to learn that you can't save everyone. This will be a counterpoint to Peter who already knows that. He knows the difference between reality and comic books, and while he has changed and now has his own power, he isn't as excited about using it for some greater good. I have a thing planned for him in the future where he explains to another character why he doesn't change the world. Imagine you could invent free, cheap, unlimited power for every country in the world. How long do you think it would take until the Americans and the Russians and terrorists (not to mention every other country in the world) would try to make a weapon out of it? This is a defining part of Peter's character: he doesn't want to make waves and/or create problems, but he will fight for what he believes in. He will help people on a small scale because he feels that making a smaller ripple in society does the greater good. All of this comes from me figuring out their earlier lives and the things that happened there. It also has to do with birth order. Peter is an older brother and is more of a protective person because he has a younger sister, who his parents made him keep an eye on as they thought it was the 'right thing' as parents. As an aside, that's the way those characters feel, it is not necessarily how I feel about it. On the other hand, you have Anna, who's a younger child and a girl. Her childhood was filled with some very dramatic events. She moved from Russia to the US at a young age, which can be upsetting for a child. She also lost her older brother, who while he was kind of a jerk to her (like only older brothers can be), he was still her brother. Losing him in an accident (car accident to be specific) deeply affected her and her parents. Suddenly, her father becomes over-protective and she feels like he's stifling her. Her mother, who loved her son a faction more than her daughter, goes through a deep depression. While she is able to function, she doesn't smile for over a year after the death of her son. This affects Anna as a child and makes her part of who she is now. This is how I create characters: I live with them. I grow with them. I look at who I want to write about now and ask myself "How did they get to be this way?" I find that if I know who they are and who they were, I can keep them in character and write them better. They become living, breathing people, not words on a page. I'm about out of steam. If you want me to explain more, let me know. Next time I get around to writing about writing, I'm going to talk about naming characters and how it's important. Note: I noticed that some of the stuff I talk about in here makes female characters look really bad. I just want to say that wasn't what I was trying to do, this entry just deals with a lot of women that have some issues and a few that have had moments of weakness. I promise you, I like to write strong female characters and want to see more out there in fiction. I even have an entry about "Strong Female Leads" that I've been meaning to write. Please don't think I'm some kind of misogynist jerk.
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