Post by The Pilot on Sept 19, 2007 17:50:23 GMT -5
Character Motivation.[/color]
Another big issue I see facing writers and roleplayers is that of their character's motivation. What drives them? What makes them do one thing instead of another?
I see it very prominently in fanfiction, that original characters, and sometimes canons too, don't have a clear motivation, and they seem to be floundering around through the progression of the story. If you don't know who your character is, how are they supposed to know?
So b e sure to keep this in mind:
A character without a clear-cut drive is a weak character.[/color]
Think about what motivates you to make certain choices that you do. Is it because you're doing it to benefit someone else? Are you doing it because you have a strong opinion about something? Are you doing it because you had a bad incident involving it before and want to avoid it at all costs? Asking these questions is a good first step. By figuring out why you do the things you do, you can begin to understand and plan out why your character does some of the things he/she does, and you can even start cutting out things that seem too OOC.
The reasons for an individual to be motivated to do this or that are usually very complex, and sometimes so complex that they aren't aware of the reasons themselves. A most popular example of this is a character's fear of intimacy, though it can manifest itself in many ways. For instance:
"Tyler is an extremely competitive young man on the school track team. After doing it for years, he sensed that his competitive nature is somewhat aggressive, and it can cause him great fluctuations in his mood if he comes out in first place or not. What Tyler doesn't know is that the source of this behavior came from when his older brother would consistently remind him that he was the faster of the two."
Characters without clear motivation do often come across as one-dimensional. All of my main characters share a common theme: all of them are in a situation that they would rather not be in, but have conditioned themselves into thinking that it's the best for them. When first experimenting with characters like this, many of them did come out as weak protagonists that seemed to have little effect on a forced plot. As I looked a little more at their psychology, however, I realized that their despondency and subtle resistance to change was an effect of an underlying drive that is common to almost all forms of motivation: the need to survive, whether that means the will to cope, or the will to change. That's for you to decide.
Writing your character as deviating from their normal persona can be easily read as careless inconsistency by many, unless the non-sequitur act is a result of an external force. (This is most often the case, but just keep in mind that all of this is in shades of gray, and all of it has some exceptions.) Like convincing your reader/fellow roleplayer that having an emotionally scarred character take a very stressful situation in stride and visible ease would take some effort and skill.
And again, another abrupt ending because I can't really think up anything else to say, or how to bring it to a nice, clean close. Sorry!
But anyways, here's a good link on character development: www.esva.net/~davidpoyer/cdf1.htm
Check it out!
Another big issue I see facing writers and roleplayers is that of their character's motivation. What drives them? What makes them do one thing instead of another?
I see it very prominently in fanfiction, that original characters, and sometimes canons too, don't have a clear motivation, and they seem to be floundering around through the progression of the story. If you don't know who your character is, how are they supposed to know?
So b e sure to keep this in mind:
A character without a clear-cut drive is a weak character.[/color]
Think about what motivates you to make certain choices that you do. Is it because you're doing it to benefit someone else? Are you doing it because you have a strong opinion about something? Are you doing it because you had a bad incident involving it before and want to avoid it at all costs? Asking these questions is a good first step. By figuring out why you do the things you do, you can begin to understand and plan out why your character does some of the things he/she does, and you can even start cutting out things that seem too OOC.
The reasons for an individual to be motivated to do this or that are usually very complex, and sometimes so complex that they aren't aware of the reasons themselves. A most popular example of this is a character's fear of intimacy, though it can manifest itself in many ways. For instance:
"Tyler is an extremely competitive young man on the school track team. After doing it for years, he sensed that his competitive nature is somewhat aggressive, and it can cause him great fluctuations in his mood if he comes out in first place or not. What Tyler doesn't know is that the source of this behavior came from when his older brother would consistently remind him that he was the faster of the two."
Characters without clear motivation do often come across as one-dimensional. All of my main characters share a common theme: all of them are in a situation that they would rather not be in, but have conditioned themselves into thinking that it's the best for them. When first experimenting with characters like this, many of them did come out as weak protagonists that seemed to have little effect on a forced plot. As I looked a little more at their psychology, however, I realized that their despondency and subtle resistance to change was an effect of an underlying drive that is common to almost all forms of motivation: the need to survive, whether that means the will to cope, or the will to change. That's for you to decide.
Writing your character as deviating from their normal persona can be easily read as careless inconsistency by many, unless the non-sequitur act is a result of an external force. (This is most often the case, but just keep in mind that all of this is in shades of gray, and all of it has some exceptions.) Like convincing your reader/fellow roleplayer that having an emotionally scarred character take a very stressful situation in stride and visible ease would take some effort and skill.
And again, another abrupt ending because I can't really think up anything else to say, or how to bring it to a nice, clean close. Sorry!
But anyways, here's a good link on character development: www.esva.net/~davidpoyer/cdf1.htm
Check it out!
