Thursday

CREATURE/CHARACTER CREATION

Let’s face it… it’s tough to create a unique and different character of any kind for our stories. Just when I think I’ve got a super idea, I search amazon.com for similar characters or stories and I find a million. I’ve heard that every story and every character has already been used at least once. And I definitely believe that.

 
So what do we do to make our characters unique? It isn’t easy and definitely gives us a major challenge. Since I’m a very visual person, the first resource I go to is the internet. I google kids, or animals, or whatever is similar to the character I am going to create. Just looking at a picture gives me tons of inspiration and ideas. Once I find what I might like the character to look like, I ask myself a ton of questions. What if this kid had braces instead and had trouble talking with them? What if this kid only liked to wear red? And on and on.
The other day I needed to create a unique creature and give it a unique name that wasn’t in the dictionary. It wasn’t easy but turned out to be a blast for me. The first thing I did was decide if I wanted this creature to be scary or funny and did I want it to be a “person” creature or animal? Once I decided that, my hands were on fire googling everything I could think of.

After the long process of finding some things I liked, since I can't draw a twig, I went into Photoshop and the real creative process began. I cut this, pasted that, and finally ended up with what I thought was a unique and fun creature that I could write about. The problem with that is, it’s so much fun for me that I have a hard time knowing when to quit and go with what I’ve created! And no, I’m not going to tell you what I actually came up with! You’ll have to read the book when it comes out to find that out!
Anyway, that was my process. When you create your own characters, creatures, demons etc., what process do you go through? Especially you authors who write paranormal, how the heck do you come up with what super powers you want them to have, that are unique?

13 comments:

  1. I've found that every character has been different. Some come complete, and others take time.

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  2. I have to agree with Katie, some of the characters just bounce right in full of spirit and depth, while others you really have to get to know and form. Kinda like people I guess. Some times you can look at someone and know them while others you can know for ever and never really know them.

    ctny

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    1. That is sooooo true, Courtney and I'm not sure which I enjoy the most!

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  3. One of the things I do is to have each of my characters write a letter to me. They tell me what they want me to know about them, and usually, they slip a bit and tell me something about themselves they definitley DON"T want me to know. They describe themselves as they see themselves in the mirror; then they describe themselves as they would like others to see them; and finally, they describe themselves as they believe they are, emotionally, mentally, physically, psychologically, and ethically. Sometimes they are right on, sometimes they are not.

    I also write a character analysis for each one, and then I compare my notes to their letters. I usually learn much more about them from their letters than from my analysis!

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  4. Wow, Mikki, that's a long process you go through but very thorough and I'm sure loads of fun! I'll have to think about doing that myself.

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  5. I love stories with great characters. When I write, I try to make mine unique and fun. You and your commenters have some great ideas on how to do that.

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  6. I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to connect!

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  7. I've just bought a graphic tablet to help me create my own illustrations for my stories, hopefully that will help.

    I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to connect!

    Thanks,
    Jim

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    1. Jim,

      I'd be curious to know how your graphic tablet works out!

      I'm now following you as well. Thanks for the connect!

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  8. I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to connect!

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  9. Connie,

    Thanks. I tried joining your blog but can not figure out how to do that!

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  10. Hi Allyn my follow is on the right about halfway down my blog page. I have google join, network blogs and linky. Thanks Lynn I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to connect!

    You can find me here: http://lynnthompsonbooks.blogspot.com/

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