[ SECRET POST #2971 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2971 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 086 secrets from Secret Submission Post #425.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[feotakahari]

I think it's a natural consequence of 100% dismissing the "more diversity!" crowd's arguments. Making a character Muslim to support the story's themes could potentially be a good thing, so obviously no one would ever do that. They'd only do so to tick off checkboxes (a "bad thing"), and therefore diversity will always suck.

[sarillia]

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't think it's unsalvageable even if it was done just to tick of checkboxes. I don't see how starting with "I think I'll make the main character Muslim because there should be more of them in fiction" is any more doomed to failure than "I think I'll make the main character an artist because that seems like it would be fun". As long as neither of these stays in this initial, shallow stage I don't really see the problem.

This could have to do with the way I approach writing though. Lots of people talk about their characters as though they just appear in their minds fully-formed. That's now how it works for me. I build my characters from the ground up, trying out different pieces to put together to see how they fit and changing random details until it feels right. And deciding to make a character part of some marginalized group is no different than any other decision I make about the character.

[(Anonymous)]

This is also how I feel about character building fwiw

da

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, see, I can't understand that approach to character-building at all because I'm one of those people who just sits down with a pencil and starts sketching to see what comes out. I never start out with a character concept in mind; I just draw and then look at the results and build their personality from there. Trying to build a character from the ground up just feels so forced and artificial to me.

Re: da

[sarillia]

When you say you build their personality from there, it seems like you might have a similar process to mine, just that you come up with the initial seeds at the spur of the moment instead of consciously choosing some off a list like I do. Or maybe your process is still completely different, I don't know.

I find all the different ways people approach writing really fascinating.

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

Well, see, I think the difference is that I start literally with a blank page. I don't have a story concept or a character concept in mind when I start drawing, I just draw, see what I get, figure out what the character's personality is based on what I drew, and then create the story around them. Which apparently is unusual? A lot of people I've talked to say that they come up with a story idea and then make their characters to fit into that.

I just can't do that. I've tried, and every time I do, the characters come out flat and forced somehow. I have to organically build the world around my characters rather than the other way around.

Re: da

[sarillia]

I sometimes do that. I actually got curious a while back about what my stories started with, so I tallied all of them up, and I was surprised that the ones that started with the beginnings of a plot weren't even more of a majority than they were. The totals came out Plot: 27, Character: 23, Setting: 17. Now I kind of want to add in WIPs to see how that affects things...

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.

But in all these cases, I actively go looking for ideas instead of letting them come to me. They do come to me on their own sometimes, but I absolutely love the process of coming up with ideas so much that it's pretty much a hobby in itself for me.

[lb_lee]

Well said. Characters do not burst full-grown from my brow like Athena from Zeus. I can choose character traits for pretty arbitrary reasons--sometimes, I choose a character's gender PURELY so I don't have horrible, "she looked into her eyes and knew she loved her" confusion in sentences. And I'll sometimes make major character changes pretty late in the game--in one case, ten years after they were first written!

Stories don't write themselves, no matter what authors like to tell themselves.

Choosing to make a diverse cast is a perfectly legit decision. On a completely superficial level, IT HELPS YOU TELL THEM APART art-wise. Seriously! If your cast is all different shapes and colors, it's WAY easier to identify them from a distance, even if your art is... I dunno, tiny pixel sprites. It gives you more leeway.

I'm not sure why people act like it's any worse than... I dunno, choosing to a clone army.

--Rogan

[ketita]

For me there's aspects of both. Sometimes I recognize a hole in the story and start thinking about who should go there, and sometimes I say "I want somebody like this". It happens like that for design, too - the webcomic I'm working on with a friend suddenly got 4 new major secondary characters, and I announced that one of them was going to be dark skin/blonde hair combo because I love how it looks.
Other characters get their traits for more 'serious' reasons, but ultimately it's about what you do with them, not just about the kernel of the characters.

[were_lemur]

I approach characterization pretty much the same way. While I might have bits and pieces of character -- how they are going to react to something I'm planning, or a bit of dialogue or something -- I need to do a lot of building to make them into someone capable of carrying a story.

And a lot of time, making a character marginalized is a great way to fuck with them. "You know what would make her life even harder? I'll make her a Muslim in post-911 America!" sounds like a great way to build in additional conflict.