Wow, that is really long haha. Thank you! Do you mind if I give it a go? Ooh, I'd love to see more of her... :p
lol, yeah I know, but it helps. No problem, by all means have at it. I feel like it's one of those things you share. I have a few other things with her that are complete-ish, they need editing and they're all out of order at this point. lol
I have a similar sheet I use when I can't seem to develop a character properly. I often skip questions that I think are irrelevant though, depending on how important the character is to the story.
I nearly spontaneously combusted when I finished American Gods lol if I ever met Neil Gaiman randomly somewhere, I would probably bow down and chant "I am not worthy" xD the guy is my idol when it comes to writing. I used to even read his blog for the style he uses when he writes it. I'm still missing a good part of his stuff...I have a lot of his novels and comics (and a few DVDs too) but I've been running out of room and funds for books lately lol. I don't have the whole Sandman series for one thing -sigh- if only I could buy the whole book store =P
Thank you very much, I'll probably find it really useful! A few things might not apply, like I normally pick names because I like them not because they have a meaning, and I might change the name as I go alone because a different name is better, you know?
I really like developing characters and understanding why they do the things they do so I have sheets even for my minor characters. I'm a little bit of a freak though. Oh I know! I use to read his blog too, if I manage to get the twitter updates on them, lol. I just changed sides of the country so I had to cut back a huge portion of my book collection but all my Neil Gaiman came with. I have all of Sandman too, that took a while to collect but was so worth it.
No problem. I don't use that question in the sense I think it was originally meant for. In most cases I explain what it means to their parents or if the character changed their name what it means to them, why they choose it, why I choose it. If it's, like in Odoime's case, another race/beings I put what it means in their language or culture. That type of thing.
Yeah, that makes sense. Doing this has made me realise how little I've thought out my characters. I decided to write passages explaining those things, too, and that's seemed useful. So I've actually done some writing!
Yay! I'm so glad it's helping you! And bonus for writing! lol.
There are some things that I never thought about (like favourites, I'm ashamed to say) and I'm a bit scared of 'committing' myself to the things I put down haha. But I'm sure it'll be fine >.> Unfortunately my goal for this week is a specific passage, not a character outline, so I'm still going to end up a bad monkey :/
- Yeah, same, though you can always go and change it. I looked at one of the character sheets that I wrote for my main character and now I'm like... no, a lot of these things don't apply to her anymore or changed along the way. That's why I need to go back and edit >.<
It's friday, is it too late to make a goal? Since I've only got one day left, let's make it a modest 500 words.
I swear the week (for the purposes of this) ends on Sunday night? I might end up changing half the stuff, but I like some of the things I've decided for my main character. Next job, do it for the two second-important characters :p
- I swear I filled it out for all my four main characters, but I can only seem to find the main main character. Maybe it's on my external somewhere. Ugh, I dun wanna go through my external, it's a black hole of doom.
I don't have an external, I just have two laptops. Sometimes I make sure all the stuff is on both, but that's a mission and a half >< I've got 2 more 'main' characters to do, and then I'm mostly set xD
I know, when I first went through it I was like "Is all of this really important?" But I've found it is, You don't have to commit to anything really, characters do grow and change just like real people do. I don't even think I set a goal for myself this week, Maybe I'll just stick with what I've been doing, 1500 words.
I imagine it will be important, apart from a few things that are particular to a particular story. The changing thing is actually important to my story anyway. My character starts out with pretty much no life, no achievements and no ambitions, and grows through the people she meets :) Haha, I said to keep mine the same unless I say so, so yeah...
Hmm, maybe you can write that in the sheet, the progression of the character, where she starts and to where she ends up? That sounds like a good plan. lol.
I might do another sheet for her later. I'm not sure exactly what she'll be like yet, it all depends on how I write her xD
Lol I tend to exaggerate a lot with characters too. I sometimes build up characters that don't need much work to develop, they just kinda 'poof' in the story while I'm writing and I feel like I know their personality well enough in my mind for them not to need anymore analysis on my part. It's pretty awesome when that happens, but I over-scrutinize most of my characters, just because it's fun xD I read a bit of Sandman in a bookstore some time ago and wanted the whole series ever since. I need a new bookshelf...
I have a specific goal for this month: write a poem a day every weekday, and two poems each day on the weekends. So I should be reporting 9 new poems each week. I'm working towards submitting a manuscript of 80 poems in November for publishing!
Thanks. c:
Wow that sounds incredible! If it gets published, let me know so I can have a look? :p Good luck!