Post by The Librarian on Mar 19, 2014 16:01:47 GMT -7
Borrowed from the Crossroads Forum here
Stacy if you want this taken down let me know.
I. Know Thyself
Good writing takes honesty and more than a little bit of bravery. It’s no different in role-playing; you are writing to play, after all. Role-playing is all about interaction and reaction. If you’re not reacting, you’re not playing. If you’re not causing a reaction, then you’re not putting enough out there. How can you expect to get a reaction if you aren’t being provocative with something personal? How can you ever get meaningful interaction without making some kind of connection? How can you create a believable character without infusing anything of yourself into it?
You are the writer – like it or not, that character, at least in some small part, IS YOU. This is true whether or not you made a decision to do so, whether or not you are aware of it in play, whether or not it is obvious to others, whether or not you’re playing a hero or a villain or someone that appears, on the surface, to be your polar opposite. You cannot avoid sharing a part of yourself with your character. If you can accept that fact, then it should be easy to see how making this an active, conscious part of your process can only enhance every aspect of your role-playing experience.
Getting to know yourself can not only help you create more believable characters to begin with, but can also help you immerse yourself in play, leading to better, more realistic, and ultimately more entertaining interactions. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Entertaining, and being entertained, mutually. (Except what you’ll really find, if you really put your heart in it, is that role-play, like any writing, can be a cathartic experience at the best of times. Knowing yourself is fucking magical that way.)
Be prepared, though. You’re going to have to remember those two very important words – honesty and bravery – and utilize those tools to their fullest to get in touch with the things that really matter. It is not going to happen overnight, and I’m sure many people would argue that you’ll never truly know yourself completely, but hopefully this guide will give you a framework in which to start.
II. On the Surface
The easiest place to begin is with how you appear to others on the surface. To identify this, we’re going to come up with a simple list of words and phrases. These should be words you use to define yourself in a general, everyday sort of way. They should be words your friends use to describe you. Keep these pretty shallow – they should be things that someone doesn’t have to know you very well to discern. Traits you wear right on your sleeve. They don’t all have to be personality traits – they could pertain to your physical or occupational self, too. Allow me to use myself as an example.
That’s good enough. When you’re done, you shouldn’t have more than 20 little bullet points – preferably less. You’re over-analyzing this part if you’ve got more – and don’t worry, there will be lots of time to really thoroughly look at yourself in depth later. Don’t feel bad if it seems like most of these are positive traits, because we don’t normally wear our faults on the surface. This is normal. If you want, you could ask some of your acquaintances for some feedback – How would you describe me in general? – but try to avoid asking people who know you too intimately. We want a broad picture here.
Now, what are we going to do with this list? We’re going to avoid making any of these traits the main defining quality of your character. These are the traits that will make your characters seem repetitive if you overuse them. It’s okay if your characters exhibit some of these qualities – in fact, you’re not going to be able to avoid it, especially with attributes that have to do with social interactions. But the better you know these bits and pieces about yourself, the better you can avoid making your characters seem like they came from a cookie cutter.
The reason is this: you don’t want to play yourself, per se. You want to consciously handpick attributes about yourself, reduce and enhance them as applicable to your concept, so that the character seems real, but unique. Remember, you’re sharing a part of yourself with every character, and that’s a very good thing – but don’t just use yourself as a template.
Going back to my own example, it’s very difficult for me to avoid having my characters be blunt, snarky, and confrontational, as these have to do with how I constantly am interacting with people. But, what I can do there is present these attributes in a new way, or consciously reduce or eliminate them by simply being aware that they exist. Additionally, I make a point to avoid giving my characters my own likes and dislikes. They aren’t picky-eating cat lovers or artistic writers. Hell, they rarely even have my own taste in music or fashion. To make your character have the exact same interests and hobbies and profession as you is a good way to build a Mary Sue – and nobody wants to see that.
III. Deeper Waters
The previous list should have barely scratched the surface of who you are as a person. It’s now time to take it a step further, and uncover the traits that really make up what you are on the inside. Everything – both the bad and the good – is equally important to acknowledge. It can be an ugly experience if you’ve avoided introspection throughout your life – but believe me, inner beauty isn’t flawless. It’s crazy and mixed up and it’s not positive or negative. It just is. So don’t be afraid – or hell, embrace your fear, if you can. But don’t let it hold you back.
This exercise will therefore be in the form of another list – or lists, if it helps you. I find it helpful to look at every aspect as a dichotomy – there’s something good and something bad about it, and maybe even something in between. White and black. Again – not necessarily good and bad. Each column is merely the flipside of the same trait. If it helps consider the left column to be qualities you ideally want on the surface, and the right to be qualities you keep hidden.
Well, now that you know all my dark secrets (which is okay, because I have no shame), let me explain what we have here. This pool of traits will make up your character’s foundational qualities. Yes, you may definitely have characters who exhibit traits that are not on this list at all, but they will always be primarily driven by something on this list. It is up to you to determine which of these pairs best define your character concept, and identify which ones you wish to deemphasize so that concept really stands on its own, apart from you as a person.
Speaking of deemphasizing, you might want to consider that there are some traits of yours that you should avoid in every character altogether. For example, the introspective/withdrawn aspect of myself. Traits like these are counterproductive to role-playing. Why? Again – role-playing is interaction. It is, therefore, harmful to the experience to have your character possess any trait that makes it difficult for them to interact with people. The only time you should ever give your character a trait like this is if you counterbalance it with a goal, need, or other reason to constantly interact with other characters.
That aside, let’s look at an example of applying specific traits to a character.
Let’s take a basic concept like my character Silver – a sheriff’s deputy, a rookie when it comes to law enforcement, more than anything wants to fit in and belong at Crossroads. Well, one of the traits on my list stands out as being a perfect inner struggle for this character – “Ambitious and driven / convinced I’m not good enough.” She’s very inexperienced, so she’s obviously insecure and intimidated by people who she feels would do the job better than her. But, she’s determined enough to keep trying, because she wants so badly to be respected and considered a citizen.
The traits “Good at appearing/being strong / vain and afraid weakness bleeds through” also work well for this same struggle, as does “Responsible and loyal to others / prone to guilt.” Hell any good cowboy concept should be nice and guilt prone, right? That’s where all those sad country songs come from, after all.
As far as de-emphasis, though – this character really shouldn’t be too “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical,” as she is uneducated, untrained, and doesn’t have a lot of “book smarts.” I also would like to downplay “Brave and enthusiastic / brash and impatient” because I want her to be susceptible to fear, while at the same time being patient in her dealings with people. This one might be situational, though. Although she’s certainly not uncaring by any stretch of the word, I see no reason for her to be “Deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby” either. This doesn’t mean she can’t have her moments, but I shouldn’t let these parts of myself overpower the character.
Let’s take another very different character of mine: Celine Monceaux – a ditzy, sweet, idealistic paladin working for a corrupt religious organization that she follows blindly. Obviously, the number one trait I’m going to be emphasizing here is “Deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby.” Plus, she’s also going to be “Brave and enthusiastic / brash and impatient” to counterbalance the fragility – otherwise, it would not make much sense for her to be a paladin. “Responsible and loyal to others / prone to guilt” makes another appearance with this character, because there must be a reason that she sticks with this organization even though it so often goes against her own ideals. “Tenacious / stubborn as hell” also serves this same purpose.
But what do I downplay with Celine? Again, “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical,” but for a very different reason this time. Celine is very well trained and highly educated, but she is trusting and gullible, which makes her overlook a lot – and she certainly isn’t critical. She is also not “a giant silly goofball / someone who deflects with humor.” Without this trait, her tenderness and sincerity shine through much more easily. Her naiveté and idealism also keep her from being “realistic / guarded.”
Now, here’s something you might be wondering: what if you want to play a villain? Do you still use my own traits as a basis? Absolutely, you do. In fact, if you don’t do so, your villains are going to come off as cartoonish and one-dimensional. All but the most chaotic evil villains have a basis in real emotional motivation. Think about the worst people you can think of throughout history – fascist leaders, serial killers, DMV workers. These people may seem like monsters, but they’ve got real personalities. Even Hitler loved his dog. (Until he, you know, had the dog killed. But he was totally sad about it.)
Take my most memorable villain, Magenta Frostwick – necromancer, mage, vain old pseudoscientific bitch extraordinaire. She was just as much a part of me as any of my other characters, and still is, even though she’s dead now.
Like Silver, Magenta was “Ambitious and driven / convinced I’m not good enough.” Unlike Silver, it’s not because she was insecure or inexperienced. In her case, it’s because her own success was never enough and she was in constant pursuit of deeper knowledge, power, and the ultimate goal of immortality. Similarly, she was also “Good at appearing/being strong / vain and afraid weakness bleeds through” – emphasis on the vanity, as she was very concerned with her appearance and horrified by aging. Like Silver, Magenta had a lurking vulnerability behind her intimidating façade – but hers was a fear of being discovered and destroyed, rather than emotional inferiority. “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical” also spoke to both her intelligence and passive-aggressive bitchiness.
Magenta was also “Realistic / guarded.” Unlike many villains, she was not arrogant, but instead well aware of her own weaknesses and therefore took many precautions against getting caught or killed. She was “thoughtful and had a good memory / prone to dwelling and vengefulness” for sure. Interestingly, on the thoughtfulness side, she hated the idea of hurting someone unnecessarily, as she considered doing so barbaric, and had enough empathy to be able to imagine the pain being done to her. But she certainly did not have a problem with letting other people do the dirty work for her, behind closed doors. The dwelling spoke to her vanity, as an ill comment about her (particularly her appearance) would certainly be remembered and taken personally. And we all know vengefulness makes a good villain trait.
De-emphasized traits for Magenta should be fairly obvious, for the most part – she certainly wasn’t “a big silly goofball / someone who deflects with humor” nor was she “deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby.” But don’t completely disregard these sorts of traits when crafting a villain! There are plenty of good villains who utilize humor to get out of the consequences of their deeds and smooth over situations. There are also plenty of villains who believe they are caring and sweet, but have a lot of deep, tender feelings – think of a stalker, for example.
It just goes to show you – every trait on your list is up for grabs for every character you make, no matter heroic or villainous they may be. Take your time and consider each pair individually, and make a conscious decision whether you’re going to play it up or tone it down. Ideally, you should have two or three main traits to emphasize, and two or three to de-emphasize. Do not give your character every trait on the list or you will be playing yourself – that is not good!
Stacy if you want this taken down let me know.
Using Yourself to Create Nuanced, Believable Characters
By Stacy
By Stacy
I. Know Thyself
Good writing takes honesty and more than a little bit of bravery. It’s no different in role-playing; you are writing to play, after all. Role-playing is all about interaction and reaction. If you’re not reacting, you’re not playing. If you’re not causing a reaction, then you’re not putting enough out there. How can you expect to get a reaction if you aren’t being provocative with something personal? How can you ever get meaningful interaction without making some kind of connection? How can you create a believable character without infusing anything of yourself into it?
You are the writer – like it or not, that character, at least in some small part, IS YOU. This is true whether or not you made a decision to do so, whether or not you are aware of it in play, whether or not it is obvious to others, whether or not you’re playing a hero or a villain or someone that appears, on the surface, to be your polar opposite. You cannot avoid sharing a part of yourself with your character. If you can accept that fact, then it should be easy to see how making this an active, conscious part of your process can only enhance every aspect of your role-playing experience.
Getting to know yourself can not only help you create more believable characters to begin with, but can also help you immerse yourself in play, leading to better, more realistic, and ultimately more entertaining interactions. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Entertaining, and being entertained, mutually. (Except what you’ll really find, if you really put your heart in it, is that role-play, like any writing, can be a cathartic experience at the best of times. Knowing yourself is fucking magical that way.)
Be prepared, though. You’re going to have to remember those two very important words – honesty and bravery – and utilize those tools to their fullest to get in touch with the things that really matter. It is not going to happen overnight, and I’m sure many people would argue that you’ll never truly know yourself completely, but hopefully this guide will give you a framework in which to start.
II. On the Surface
The easiest place to begin is with how you appear to others on the surface. To identify this, we’re going to come up with a simple list of words and phrases. These should be words you use to define yourself in a general, everyday sort of way. They should be words your friends use to describe you. Keep these pretty shallow – they should be things that someone doesn’t have to know you very well to discern. Traits you wear right on your sleeve. They don’t all have to be personality traits – they could pertain to your physical or occupational self, too. Allow me to use myself as an example.
I, Stacy, am...
|
That’s good enough. When you’re done, you shouldn’t have more than 20 little bullet points – preferably less. You’re over-analyzing this part if you’ve got more – and don’t worry, there will be lots of time to really thoroughly look at yourself in depth later. Don’t feel bad if it seems like most of these are positive traits, because we don’t normally wear our faults on the surface. This is normal. If you want, you could ask some of your acquaintances for some feedback – How would you describe me in general? – but try to avoid asking people who know you too intimately. We want a broad picture here.
Now, what are we going to do with this list? We’re going to avoid making any of these traits the main defining quality of your character. These are the traits that will make your characters seem repetitive if you overuse them. It’s okay if your characters exhibit some of these qualities – in fact, you’re not going to be able to avoid it, especially with attributes that have to do with social interactions. But the better you know these bits and pieces about yourself, the better you can avoid making your characters seem like they came from a cookie cutter.
The reason is this: you don’t want to play yourself, per se. You want to consciously handpick attributes about yourself, reduce and enhance them as applicable to your concept, so that the character seems real, but unique. Remember, you’re sharing a part of yourself with every character, and that’s a very good thing – but don’t just use yourself as a template.
Going back to my own example, it’s very difficult for me to avoid having my characters be blunt, snarky, and confrontational, as these have to do with how I constantly am interacting with people. But, what I can do there is present these attributes in a new way, or consciously reduce or eliminate them by simply being aware that they exist. Additionally, I make a point to avoid giving my characters my own likes and dislikes. They aren’t picky-eating cat lovers or artistic writers. Hell, they rarely even have my own taste in music or fashion. To make your character have the exact same interests and hobbies and profession as you is a good way to build a Mary Sue – and nobody wants to see that.
III. Deeper Waters
The previous list should have barely scratched the surface of who you are as a person. It’s now time to take it a step further, and uncover the traits that really make up what you are on the inside. Everything – both the bad and the good – is equally important to acknowledge. It can be an ugly experience if you’ve avoided introspection throughout your life – but believe me, inner beauty isn’t flawless. It’s crazy and mixed up and it’s not positive or negative. It just is. So don’t be afraid – or hell, embrace your fear, if you can. But don’t let it hold you back.
This exercise will therefore be in the form of another list – or lists, if it helps you. I find it helpful to look at every aspect as a dichotomy – there’s something good and something bad about it, and maybe even something in between. White and black. Again – not necessarily good and bad. Each column is merely the flipside of the same trait. If it helps consider the left column to be qualities you ideally want on the surface, and the right to be qualities you keep hidden.
I, Stacy, am...
| I, Stacy, am...
|
Well, now that you know all my dark secrets (which is okay, because I have no shame), let me explain what we have here. This pool of traits will make up your character’s foundational qualities. Yes, you may definitely have characters who exhibit traits that are not on this list at all, but they will always be primarily driven by something on this list. It is up to you to determine which of these pairs best define your character concept, and identify which ones you wish to deemphasize so that concept really stands on its own, apart from you as a person.
Speaking of deemphasizing, you might want to consider that there are some traits of yours that you should avoid in every character altogether. For example, the introspective/withdrawn aspect of myself. Traits like these are counterproductive to role-playing. Why? Again – role-playing is interaction. It is, therefore, harmful to the experience to have your character possess any trait that makes it difficult for them to interact with people. The only time you should ever give your character a trait like this is if you counterbalance it with a goal, need, or other reason to constantly interact with other characters.
That aside, let’s look at an example of applying specific traits to a character.
Let’s take a basic concept like my character Silver – a sheriff’s deputy, a rookie when it comes to law enforcement, more than anything wants to fit in and belong at Crossroads. Well, one of the traits on my list stands out as being a perfect inner struggle for this character – “Ambitious and driven / convinced I’m not good enough.” She’s very inexperienced, so she’s obviously insecure and intimidated by people who she feels would do the job better than her. But, she’s determined enough to keep trying, because she wants so badly to be respected and considered a citizen.
The traits “Good at appearing/being strong / vain and afraid weakness bleeds through” also work well for this same struggle, as does “Responsible and loyal to others / prone to guilt.” Hell any good cowboy concept should be nice and guilt prone, right? That’s where all those sad country songs come from, after all.
As far as de-emphasis, though – this character really shouldn’t be too “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical,” as she is uneducated, untrained, and doesn’t have a lot of “book smarts.” I also would like to downplay “Brave and enthusiastic / brash and impatient” because I want her to be susceptible to fear, while at the same time being patient in her dealings with people. This one might be situational, though. Although she’s certainly not uncaring by any stretch of the word, I see no reason for her to be “Deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby” either. This doesn’t mean she can’t have her moments, but I shouldn’t let these parts of myself overpower the character.
Let’s take another very different character of mine: Celine Monceaux – a ditzy, sweet, idealistic paladin working for a corrupt religious organization that she follows blindly. Obviously, the number one trait I’m going to be emphasizing here is “Deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby.” Plus, she’s also going to be “Brave and enthusiastic / brash and impatient” to counterbalance the fragility – otherwise, it would not make much sense for her to be a paladin. “Responsible and loyal to others / prone to guilt” makes another appearance with this character, because there must be a reason that she sticks with this organization even though it so often goes against her own ideals. “Tenacious / stubborn as hell” also serves this same purpose.
But what do I downplay with Celine? Again, “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical,” but for a very different reason this time. Celine is very well trained and highly educated, but she is trusting and gullible, which makes her overlook a lot – and she certainly isn’t critical. She is also not “a giant silly goofball / someone who deflects with humor.” Without this trait, her tenderness and sincerity shine through much more easily. Her naiveté and idealism also keep her from being “realistic / guarded.”
Now, here’s something you might be wondering: what if you want to play a villain? Do you still use my own traits as a basis? Absolutely, you do. In fact, if you don’t do so, your villains are going to come off as cartoonish and one-dimensional. All but the most chaotic evil villains have a basis in real emotional motivation. Think about the worst people you can think of throughout history – fascist leaders, serial killers, DMV workers. These people may seem like monsters, but they’ve got real personalities. Even Hitler loved his dog. (Until he, you know, had the dog killed. But he was totally sad about it.)
Take my most memorable villain, Magenta Frostwick – necromancer, mage, vain old pseudoscientific bitch extraordinaire. She was just as much a part of me as any of my other characters, and still is, even though she’s dead now.
Like Silver, Magenta was “Ambitious and driven / convinced I’m not good enough.” Unlike Silver, it’s not because she was insecure or inexperienced. In her case, it’s because her own success was never enough and she was in constant pursuit of deeper knowledge, power, and the ultimate goal of immortality. Similarly, she was also “Good at appearing/being strong / vain and afraid weakness bleeds through” – emphasis on the vanity, as she was very concerned with her appearance and horrified by aging. Like Silver, Magenta had a lurking vulnerability behind her intimidating façade – but hers was a fear of being discovered and destroyed, rather than emotional inferiority. “Observant and detail-oriented / highly critical” also spoke to both her intelligence and passive-aggressive bitchiness.
Magenta was also “Realistic / guarded.” Unlike many villains, she was not arrogant, but instead well aware of her own weaknesses and therefore took many precautions against getting caught or killed. She was “thoughtful and had a good memory / prone to dwelling and vengefulness” for sure. Interestingly, on the thoughtfulness side, she hated the idea of hurting someone unnecessarily, as she considered doing so barbaric, and had enough empathy to be able to imagine the pain being done to her. But she certainly did not have a problem with letting other people do the dirty work for her, behind closed doors. The dwelling spoke to her vanity, as an ill comment about her (particularly her appearance) would certainly be remembered and taken personally. And we all know vengefulness makes a good villain trait.
De-emphasized traits for Magenta should be fairly obvious, for the most part – she certainly wasn’t “a big silly goofball / someone who deflects with humor” nor was she “deeply caring and sweet / secretly fragile and kind of a crybaby.” But don’t completely disregard these sorts of traits when crafting a villain! There are plenty of good villains who utilize humor to get out of the consequences of their deeds and smooth over situations. There are also plenty of villains who believe they are caring and sweet, but have a lot of deep, tender feelings – think of a stalker, for example.
It just goes to show you – every trait on your list is up for grabs for every character you make, no matter heroic or villainous they may be. Take your time and consider each pair individually, and make a conscious decision whether you’re going to play it up or tone it down. Ideally, you should have two or three main traits to emphasize, and two or three to de-emphasize. Do not give your character every trait on the list or you will be playing yourself – that is not good!