Behavior Creates Personality

Alright, alright, I missed Monday. I know. My sincerest apologies. There was shopping to be had, and shopping to be done. In other words: it was girl’s day, and I forgot to even get online.

But this post is more fun than what I was going to talk about on Monday anyway!

We’ve been talking about characters a lot on Wednesdays, so I thought it would be good to get into the personality traits a bit. These are a little tricky to determine, as they’ll depend on your story and the role of your character, but there are some things that can help you to determine how your character would act in certain situations.

It’s important to think about all of the little details (if you use Scrivener, it’s easy to have a file for each character, so that you can write all of the little things down, but a notebook or an amazing memory also work wonders).

Ask yourself questions like these:

• ·         How does your character walk?

Long strides could indicate a stronger personality or mentality, while short strides could indicate nervousness.

• ·         How do they sit down?

Ever seen Star Trek TNG?—Riker sits down by swinging his leg over the back of the chair. This gives him personality, even though a lot of people don’t notice it. If your character crosses their legs yoga style no matter where they sit down, this could mean that they put comfort over appearance, and would probably alter how your other characters view them.

• ·         How loudly do they speak?

This can tell you how comfortable they are around people. If they’re very quiet, they’re probably introverted, or maybe even afraid of social situations. If they're loud and demanding, they might be a character born to lead, or one who's utterly domineering and, well, mean.

• ·         What do they wear?

Though this question is mostly for human or humanoid characters, it can tell you how they view themselves. For instance, a woman who always wears revealing clothing would probably act more sexual than one who is consistently modest.

• ·         Do they know how to fight?

A character who knows how to handle his or herself in a fight would probably be cockier than one who didn’t. Unless, of course, they didn’t realize that they knew how to handle themselves…

• ·         Do they consider themselves to have the same appearance you’ve given them?

Yeah, you’re right; I could’ve worded that better… It’s like this: if your character is skinny but thinks they’re fat, or fat and thinks they’re skinny, this means they have a skewed self-image, and are probably a little unreliable. Those can be really fun to work with, but you’ll need to keep this skewed-ness in mind while you’re writing them. If they don’t see themselves the way that you envision them, then they probably don’t see the rest of the world the way that you envision it.

            The list could go on, but that would turn into a never-ending spiral of question and answer time. I trust you see my point, in that questions about their abilities or behaviors can determine the personality of your character.

            I promise I will not forget to post on Friday. I’ve already written the post and everything!

{Rani D.}

p.s. The daily meme, because this happens to me all the time…

Music to Match

Part Four of "How Do You Write Novels?"...

#4.      Find Your Soundtrack

This part is one of my favorites, and also one that annoys me greatly at least once a week.

When you’re writing (especially fiction), it helps to find the perfect music to match the scenes you’re working on. For example, right now I’m working on the Druid Saga, and I’m using songs from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and James Cameron’s Avatar to inspire me as I write. Both of these films have soundtracks that have both wondrous and frightening elements to them, and because they both have strong ties to nature, I find that they support my writing quite well.

Realistically, the hardest part is figuring out what music matches what you’re writing.

As a general rule, I don’t listen to music that has lyrics (at least when I’m writing). I find that the lyrics can be very distracting, whereas a good instrumental track can be incredibly inspiring and help the words to flow much easier.

The genre of epic music is perfect for writing fiction, when I can find a working soundtrack.

My discovery of epic music was something that definitely spurred on my writing and makes it a lot easier for me to reach my word goals. If you can find the perfect song to match the scene you’re writing, you’ve just found the song to put on repeat whenever you’re writing a similar scene. This works especially well for love stories.

(some of my favorites in epic music are Two Steps From Hell and Future World Music)

If you need something a little mellower, instrumental or orchestra music can make a perfect soundtrack as well. I myself am quite fond of Scheherazade.

Happy Valentine's/Single's Awareness Day, everyone! Make the best of it, no matter your relationship status. Eat some chocolate for me, eh? And stay tuned for Monday’s post!

{RA}

p.s. The daily meme, because you know we’re all addicted…

What in the World Should I Name My Non-Human character?!

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

In case you were wondering, the tattoo is healing nicely. I'm finally starting to get some work done, and I have some of my energy back. I've also recently found a place where I can sit down and write, and my back won't be sore. At least, it works for about an hour. Then I have to move.

But while I have an hour...

I love the question of how to name a non-human character. I don't like to say alien in this case, because sometimes they're not actually aliens. They could be animals. Or creatures that are common to earth within a specific story. Therefore, they wouldn't be aliens.

And they always have the craziest names, don't they?

When it comes to naming my characters, I like to cheat. I don't really name them. At least, I don't name them at first.

Here's an example:

When I was writing "Coetir: The People of the Woods" © I didn't name the male lead until a few chapters in. I couldn't decide on a good name for him. I was calling him Bob for almost a week. Of course, I knew that name could never last.

Then it hit me. I was watching "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and one of the Cardassian characters revealed his name (finally). If you watch the show, you'll know who I'm talking about. Elim.

Thing is, I loved the name. It was perfect. It seemed to fit my character all around.

So I stole it.

That's how a lot of writers come up with names for their characters. We steal them. Or we Google "baby names" and come up with something at random that starts with the letter we're thinking of.

Truth is, it's not so difficult anymore to come up with a good name.

I don't like to use the same name twice, so I keep a running list of all the names I've used so I won't reuse them.

But that wasn't really the question, was it?
The question was how do we name a character that isn't human.

That's a little more difficult.

Here are my two favorite ways to do it:

1. Steal it.

Yes, I know, I said this already. But if you watch enough science fiction movies and read enough science fictions books, you'll have a wealth of names stored up in your brain. Nobody copyright's the names: they only copyright their unique story. So go ahead: steal the name you're looking for.

Tolkien stole a lot of his character names from mythology, specifically Norse. That's an option, too. I've used that a few times, and simply tweaked a few spellings so it was harder to tell. 

(Maybe we should call it borrowing, so it doesn't sound so terrible...)

2. (my favorite option) Button Mashing.

I said it. And I know we've all done it. Slam your fingers down on the keyboard in any random order, and wait until something useful comes up.

In all honesty, I've come up with several simply perfect names this way (simple examples would be Tzeira and Fari, who you'll meet in a few years when the Druid series is complete).

It sounds a little silly, but trust me, it works. And it helps relieve some stress along the way.


Leave me a comment and let me know what creative ways you've come up with character names!

{Rani D.}

p.s. My favorite non-name is, of course, The Doctor. Cheap shot, BBC. Cheap shot. Although, it's also a clever way to not come up with an actual name for your character...

(yes, David Tennant is my favorite Doctor)

Rani Gets A...

This past weekend, Rani did something she's never done before (that has her talking in the third person, apparently).

Rani got her first tattoo.

Now Rani is tired. She doesn't want to do anything but sleep. And she's already tired of having to clean it every few hours.

But she's glad she got it done. She's happy with the design, and she still wants to get a couple others.

It's on her back, and she's alone this weekend, so she doesn't have any pictures, but she promises to post one soon.

She'll be feeling better by Wednesday, and she'll have an actual post for you to read.

For now, here are a few memes that have her laughing a little too hard:

Happy Monday, everyone! Stay tuned for Wednesday's post on characters!

{Rani Divine}

Above All, Read

Part Three of "How Do You Write Novels?"

 

#3.      Read. Every day. No excuses. 

This is something a lot of writers take for granted. Writers write, but writers also read. If you don’t read other writers’ work, how can you expect them to read yours? So pick up one of those dusty books off the shelves, and read a chapter. Every day. 

I guarantee that there are ten minutes of wasted time during each of your days. You may not think this is true, but look a little harder. That time you spend when you’ve hit the snooze button, when you sit down to watch Wheel, or even while you’re eating your breakfast, you could be reading.

If you’re looking for something new to read, here are a few authors to check out:

Ted Dekker

Tosca Lee

Michael Crichton

Scott Lynch

Robin Parrish

Ronald K. Siegel

And here’s a few book series’s that might peak some of your interest:

Doctor Who (yes, there’s a book series! They’re short and read like the TV show)

The Circle (Dekker)

Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis each have their own novel franchise)

Gentleman Bastards (Lynch)

The Chronicles of Brothers (Alec)

The Space Trilogy (Lewis)

Lastly, a few books that you might not have read, and might give you some inspiration or useful information for future writings:

The Silmarillion

The Saga of the Volsungs

The Poetic and Prose Eddas

Le Morte D’Arthur (or The Fall of Arthur by Tolkien)

Till We Have Faces

Let me know if you’d like some recommendations in a specific genre. My library is quite extensive. I also believe that every writer should read at least a little Shakespeare, but I understand that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Character Appearance

Morning everyone!

If you’ll recall, when creating settings I like to find pictures online which can be used to form my own fully realistic worlds. Now, there’s no problem with doing the same to create the appearance of your characters. It actually works quite well if you can think of an actor or model who would easily suit the role.

But the process changes drastically when you’re creating a character that is not human, and is not so similar to any creature that comes to mind.  

Step 1: Make a List of All the Things Your Character Will Need to be Able to Do

For the purposes of this exercise, I’ll be creating a character for a story I’m currently writing, called “Cedwig: The People of the Vines”©

Step 2: Male, Female, or Neither.

You should know your story well enough to know whether you want to be writing a male or a female for whichever roles, so I'm not going to go over this in detail. 

(Stick with your gut on this: I’ve had to give characters gender changes before, and it’s a very annoying procedure).

As for my character, Cedwig females are the most powerful, therefore the character must be a female. As the leader of a village, this makes the most sense. 

Step 3: Humanoid, Animal-Like, Mythological Creature, or Extraterrestrial.

This step is a fun one. Depending on your story, you should know by now what type of character you’re creating. If it’s a semi-aquatic creature, you could base it off an angler fish and a basilisk. If it’s extraterrestrial, you get to let your mind run rampant. If it's mythological, I suggest Wikipedia or some such other online resource.

As for my character, she’s a humanoid. I created the Cedwig to be humanoid so that they could be relatable to humans, who are also in the story. If your story doesn’t contain humans, you won’t really have to worry about this element—but you’ll have to make your characters much more believable. 

If your character is a mythological creature, then you've practically finished deciding their appearance (rather, it was decided for you). Congratulations, you won't need to follow the last two steps! Unless, of course, you'd like to tweak things. 

Step 4: Skin, Fur, Scales, Exoskeleton, Etc. 

In answering these, you’ll be able to decide on the skin color of your character (or fur/scale/exoskeleton/feather/etc. color, depending on your story type). Obviously, if your character lives underwater, they should have scales of some sort.

My character is tied to a forest setting, so she needs to appear as though she belongs there: therefore, she has deep tan human-like skin, with dark spots for camouflage. If your character is one who is not tied to a particular setting, you have a lot more freedom here. Think about the things you want them to be doing, where you want them to be going. Don’t give them a skin color that clashes greatly with the colors of the settings they’ll mostly be seen in.

 Step 5: Features.

This is absolutely my favorite part. Obviously, humanoids don’t look exactly like humans, and extraterrestrials look practically nothing like them—so what do they look like?

Use your imagination here.

Does it have tentacles? How many legs? What color are its eyes (don’t let them clash with the skin tone)? For that matter, does it even have eyes? What does their hair look like, if they have any?

My character has a prehensile tail to help her climb through the trees. She has long legs, to assist with the running I mentioned earlier. She has a big mouth, therefore a bright smile. Her teeth are sharply pointed (that tells readers that she at least has the potential to be a predator). Instead of hair, she has vines (by including this, the reader begins to understand that though she isn’t human, she isn’t entirely animal either: she’s partly plant). She is abnormally tall, also adding to that plant-like notion. Her nostrils are actually deep slats where a human nose would be, three on either side of her face (these look something like gills, which illustrate that the character could, perhaps, breathe underwater).

And you’re done! The basis of your character is complete. Of course, you’ll still have to name them, and you’ll have to decide on their personality… But we’ll get to those in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading! 

{Rani Amber}