Character creation

[telophase]

This is the answer I posted in reply to someone on the DA forums who was asking about tips for creating original characters. I'm reproducing it here because I'm vaguely thinking of working up a tutorial of some sort on this type of character-creation process.

Ironically, I've never actually done anything with characters I've created this way. XD The characters I've done stuff with tend to accrete over a long period of time as bits and bobs of things I've read or seen or heard attach to each other in the back of my head. But I find this process fun to do, at least, and I can see where it might help others. Flexing the creative muscle always does some sort of good, even if you don't end up using the final product.

I've also got the vague glimmerings of the beginning of an idea how to make a random character-creator generator that would produce a reasonably well-rounded character to start with, and also give me practice programming Ajax, but I haven't sat down and worked any logistics out yet.

You can try random generators like the ones at Seventh Sanctum (or the ones I wrote: art prompts or story generator). Anything can set you off.

I have to have the character in my mind before I can put them on paper, while others start with the appearance and work backwards to the personality. I've also had characters appear in my dreams, or I've been writing a story and realized that a character had to be this, this, and this in order to make the story work.

Or you could sit down and start asking yourself a bunch of question, out of which you generate a character, kind of like this:

Let's see ... what sort of story/world is this character in? How about a fantasy world? OK, that narrows it down a bit - I know I don't want science fiction or modern clothing. What sort of world? Everyone's doing Japan right now, and I'm sick and tired of Generic European. I've done some reading about Tibet and China for previous projects, so I'll do something vaguely like that. What about a combination of the two - sort of a high-plateau grasslands where Tibet and China meet? Sort of Mongolian?

Ooh, Mongolian, there's a thought. Horse nomads. Pretty cool, and there's not much fantasy out there like that. The real Mongols were extremely violent, and I'm not much into stories and characters like that, so I'll change that aspect. Plus, I think I want a female character, and I'm not really interested in focusing on gender roles right now, so I'll make the society more equal than the real Mongols were, so this character can be a warrior. Ah. Apparently I want a warrior, rather than a mage, or a weaver, or a mother, or a shaman, or any of a number of different roles that someone can play in this society.

That already tells me a few things about the character's appearance. She's a warrior, and a horse nomad, practically born and raised in the saddle, so she wears clothing that suits that - pants made of a tough material that resists wear on the saddle, perhaps leather. I know that stirrups hadn't been invented yet in that area of the world, so her shoes won't need to have heels on them. The horse nomads of the Chinese and Tibetan plateaus specialized in archery, so she probably wears clothes suited to that - some sort of forearm guard on her left arm to keep her arm from being slapped by the bowstring, nothing restrictive so she can reach her arrows quickly. If she's got long hair, she keeps it bound back to stay out of her face, but I expect that as it's windy on the plateau, bits of it escape all the time. Which probably drives her nuts.

And there's a personality tidbit I can expand on: impatience and annoyance. Back to her appearance - I like long hair because it's dramatic to draw, so what the hell. Long hair. Skin - she's outside all the time, and her people have lived in the outside, so they're all probably tanned pretty dark, and have darker skin to begin with. I don't need to stick to historical facts, but I also know that area in the real world was a huge mix of cultures due to trading routes and to the Mongol conquests, and capturing slaves and taking them to other places, plus one of my interests is what happens when cultures clash and mix, so maybe I'll give her a couple of different attributes. From an artistic standpoint, light eyes look really dramatic with dark hair and skin, and I think of her as the main character so I want her to stand out. So I'll give her light-colored eyes, blue or green. Why does she have them? Let's make one of her parents from a different culture - how about her dad, to be different, since it's usually the mother?

Who's her dad? How about a merchant who travels through the area? Maybe he's not married to her mom, since they both are always on the move, but if the horse nomad culture traces their lineage through the female line, like many cultures do, it's not quite so important. Mostly because I don't want her being an outcast (or an orphan), because that's been done. How did her parents meet? Maybe her dad worked on a merchant caravan traveling through the area that hired a few horse nomads as guards, including her mother.

So - she's got a family, although her dad and maybe an older brother are merchants traveling in caravans along a trade road through the horse nomads' country. What about a plot, to give her something to do? A rescue, maybe. And to turn it around, what about having her rescue ... the brother with the caravan? Another tribe attacked the caravan, wounded her dad, killed others, carried off the merchandise and a few people, including her brother, to sell as slaves. Her dad sends a frantic message for help to her mom, who sends her off. So she now has a plot: go with her dad to rescue her brother from being sold as a slave, and the story has character development potential: she and her dad can learn more about each other and their respective cultures, since they probably don't have a whole lot of contact with each other normally.

From *that* point I can start Googling for and getting library books about Tibetan and Mongolian clothing and people, to give a flair to the details and to see how the basic outlines of her clothing will be designed. I know that they're a bit bulky in reality, and I'd want to simplify that for the sake of drawing it over and over, but that's and easy change to make. And also I can figure out what accessories she'd have - a blanket, for rolling up in and sleeping under the stars, a beat-up work knife, perhaps a sword, a bow with a lot of arrows, a kit for making new arrows and to keep extra bowstrings. Her blanket can double as a cloak, especially if it's waterproofed. Maybe a sentimental item of jewelry or two. I don't think she's especially vain, so a small mirror and a comb for getting her hair pulled back in the mornings, but not much else in the way of beauty supplies and cosmetics. Maybe a headband or hat, to also keep her hair under control and to keep her ears warm in the wind. Her tribe may have some traditional patterns they put on the clothing with sewn ribbons or beads.

Anyway, twenty minutes ago, I had nothing. Now I've got a character, a world, a history, *and* a plot. Just sitting down and noodling like that, and thinking about what you've seen done over and over and what you want to do, the same or different, and figuring out what you're interested in exploring can produce a lot of interesting ideas. :)

(and I'm now kind of interested in her - I may have to see what I can do. :XD:)