Coming up with a creative writing character

[Yunas13]

Hello everyone. I'm posting this in hopes that I could get a few pointers in creating a character for a fanfiction about FFXIV. The server I'm on isn't RP based and many of my character creations are mainly for writing and not RP. 

 

I used to RP a lot on World of Warcraft as a human then gnome by the name of Plua Swiftwind. She was a Mage that had a secret past that only those closest to her knew of. I loved the character and had many RP moments and fiction ideas for years that is until I had my heart broken and I haven't used said character in 5 years as it has too many painful memories attached. Since the. I've not written much of anything, except ideas that come and go before I can elaborate on them. Lately, as you all have read in the posts I've made, I've been struggling to find a new character that I had such a close personal connection with like I did with Plua. I have my main Tsubasa Lightheart back (was lalafell and is now an Au Ra). I've been pulling from the saying "write what you know" for inspiration. I've been pulling inspiration from the anime Sailor moon/horses and a little from my old character's background. For those who write, how do you come up with a character and backstory for writing? I would love to RP but I'm scared to move a character over as the last time I was on Balmung queues to log on to the server were long. Has that changed?

 

Thank you all for reading this and for any advice you may give.

[Faye]

Coming up with a backstory isn't too difficult. You just have to ask yourself a few questions about your character and your role-play.

 

- What is the typical life and childhood like for someone of your character's race? Location? Financial status? That's typically the starting part for building your backstory.

- What are some themes you want to explore or have recurring in your role-play? Try to find their starting place in your backstory.

- Think about who and what your character is now. What would happen in someone's life to make them that way? Explain the details and answer that question.

 

As for log-in queues on Balmung, there typically aren't any, and when there are, they are very short and you can usually cheat them.

[Sin]

There's almost always a queue on Balmung but there's a relatively simple trick to getting in regardless of your number. You click cancel and try again and it puts you right in. I think the only time I ever had to actually wait for the Queue was on Release day for Heavensward.

 

 

For me, coming up with a character -specially- when its not for roleplay but story writing starts with what kind of story I want to tell. First I need to figure out the kind of tale, the moral, the essence of what I'm trying to say. The character then becomes a tool to tell that story. A facilitator.

 

What kind of story do you want to write? Start there, then you'll have a better idea of the right character to help you tell that story.

 

Start simple. Shallow. And slowly delve deeper into the meat of the character. Start at the core of the character, and explain how that core came to be. Each question you answer will lead to more and more questions to be answered like a domino effect. If you do this successfully there comes a point where the questions begin to answer themselves, and that's when you know you've a character that stands on its own.

[Nodem]

Hello everyone. I'm posting this in hopes that I could get a few pointers in creating a character for a fanfiction about FFXIV. The server I'm on isn't RP based and many of my character creations are mainly for writing and not RP. 

 

I used to RP a lot on World of Warcraft as a human then gnome by the name of Plua Swiftwind. She was a Mage that had a secret past that only those closest to her knew of. I loved the character and had many RP moments and fiction ideas for years that is until I had my heart broken and I haven't used said character in 5 years as it has too many painful memories attached. Since the. I've not written much of anything, except ideas that come and go before I can elaborate on them. Lately, as you all have read in the posts I've made, I've been struggling to find a new character that I had such a close personal connection with like I did with Plua. I have my main Tsubasa Lightheart back (was lalafell and is now an Au Ra). I've been pulling from the saying "write what you know" for inspiration. I've been pulling inspiration from the anime Sailor moon/horses and a little from my old character's background. For those who write, how do you come up with a character and backstory for writing? I would love to RP but I'm scared to move a character over as the last time I was on Balmung queues to log on to the server were long. Has that changed?

 

Thank you all for reading this and for any advice you may give.

 

Greetings from a random Balmunger!

 

I'll start with the easy to answer question. The server log in queue isn't as bad as it once was. There's not 1k people in line and you can bypass it, most times, by canceling and attempting to enter again. It doesn't always work for a quicker entry, but it gets the job done most of the time.

 

While not an outright writer, I didn't start on Balmung myself and was on a non-rp server. I use to RP with myself and imagine the daily life of my character. The best way I find to draw inspiration is imersing myself and taking it slow when wandering about. I often do this now in character by walking from place to place. You'll see some amazing things when you slow yourself down.

 

Music, movies, anime also helps me whenever I write or want to think of something for my character's background. Drawing inspiration for a 'Doman' character gives you a lot to choose from, and I always found Japanese culture, especially feudal Japan, fascinating. While I wouldn't want to draw on it purely, that's how the background of my character was thought up when writing it.

 

This gets tossed around a lot here, but it's a true statement of Balmung. We have pretty much every kind of RP here you could think of. I'm still waiting for the gundam/mechas to roll down Ul'dah though. Stop slacking!

 

Joking aside... Drawing from your old character might be a slight hinderance if you're having problems thinking clearly on the new character. Only reason I mention this is you mentioned something happening while RP'ing as that character, and I mean no ill-will when I say this but it might be time to let that character go. Focusing on the good of the character means having to accept the bad as well, and many people get hung up on this. While I suggest letting go, and not drawing inspiration from there as Eorzea is such a large place, you by no means need to listen to me. I never RP the same character twice, because it's a personal preference and it doesn't tie me down to past hardships with people in RP.

 

Writing can be tough, and if you ever need help visualizing the area you're thinking about, go there in game and look really hard at it. I did this for writing stories about my character in the past. I feel I breath life into my character, and in doing so they even surprise me sometimes and at other times we end up butting heads. It's an amazing experience though so I keep doing it, and let them run their lives and show me their world. Though we still fight. ^^;

 

I hope I was some help and didn't just ramble non-stop.

 

~Nodem *modem sounds*

 

P.S. I'm not a modem

[Valence]

Someone already said it more or less above, but I find that backstory, while important, is eventually totally secondary to the character concept and the story you want to tell yes. I see many, many people coming up with the backstory and then deducting everything, and while I can totally understand that to each his own way of doing, I still do think that's a mistake to avoid, and a big one.

 

The backstory is a mere tool here only to serve your overarching concept and story. It's here to make your character stand out and colourful, not the other way around. A backstory is not gratuitous. If something happens at X or Y point, then it has to be meaningful and bring something to the whole character. Were you to go the usual trite road of "parents killed, etc", and even with such an overused concept, you can make it actually work if it serves to make a specific point in your story. Was your character exiled at some point from his family? Was your character raised by a totally common family of average farming joes? The important question is WHY? Just because you find it cool, or because it means that your character is a crass ignorant when it comes to literacy (for the latter example)? And then, what does it imply? How will he react to that in his everyday life? etc etc.

 

One of the most important questions to my opinion to ask yourself is, "how would I describe my character with 2 or 3 keywords?" Not more. It's easy to tell if a character stands out or not when you can or can't answer that simple question. "Oh yes, I remember about that silly character that literally craved food, of any kind, and would do pretty much anything for it!" or "Oh right, that uncouth, rude grizzled vet that will only respect you if you show mental fortitude?" One of the best ways to see if it works, is to ask other people what they kept in memories from your character. What immediately struck them.

 

Personality. Direction. Originality.

[Warren Castille]

Step one: Determine your reasons for writing. First and foremost, your motivations will help shape what sort of character is a "good fit" for your environment. In the case of writing fiction (that is, stand-alone stuff not meant to integrate with the community at large) there are a lot of plot hooks and designs that flow a lot better: A novella or episodic glimpse at the Warrior of Light works best when it isn't butting up against the entire rest of the RP world, and while any concept can feasibly work with a cool enough group, it can be lonely or isolating to be writing a character that you find amazing while other folks might not be so hot on them.

 

If you're just trying to write, then yes, go hog wild and do whatever you prefer writing about. If you're wanting to crash into other people with RP and tell stories, it is really important to remember that RP is a cooperative, give-and-take experience. What one writer likes to see might not always mesh with what's best for a community storyline, or sometimes concepts that are relatively abstract ("My hero is the crown prince of another world, and he's cursed to change between the races every moon, and also he commands a giant mecha fueled by the power of friendship. Also he can talk to cats and dogs.") don't allow a lot of breathing room for those you're working alongside.

 

Sometimes what's best for fiction is not what's best for roleplay, and that's okay.

 

As for backstory? I've never found it terribly important. I prefer to work backwards from the concept and rationalize accordingly. Pick what tropes and personality traits you want to write, and then determine how they got attached to the character. Canny mage-type? Maybe he was dedicated to reading all he could on the subject as a child. Simple enough rationale that provides more bearing in the world: Reading and literacy aren't particularly common in the smallfolk of Eorzea. He would have been educated and better off than most. That implies wealth and stability of sometime, if he wasn't needing to work to help maintain house and hearth. It's also not a pliable career compared to trade or farming, further emphasizing a more privileged upbringing. It also might reflect on some token hereditary traits of his parents/caregivers also being capable as magic-users.

 

So we've taken three words (canny mage-type) and then spun off a tiny seed of background, with more room to work from. Maybe his mother was a powerful Hearer but refused to cooperate with Gridania and fled. Maybe his father practiced Black Magic and wants to cement his legacy by having a more powerful child. Maybe his folks promised to cultivate his aetheric nature in a pact with a demon to sacrifice later in exchange for boons.

 

I could keep rambling but this is already tl;dr enough. Sorry.

[Yunas13]

Thank you all for the quick responses. I plan to make a character that is for my writing in-game, quite possibly I'll move her to Balmung and give RP a try once more. I used to write and incorporate RP and other players into my writing and many loved what I came up with.

 

I do draw from music/anime/games/movies etc but at the moment nothing is sticking. What I'm playing with is an Ul'dah setting, character is the daughter or adopted daughter of a noble family who makes their fortune in the weaver/gold smithing trade, that is about all so far. It is a basic idea, nothing crazy. ?

[Valence]

They could be working for... I don't remember the name of the collective? The ones that do the finest silk and clothing in all Eorzea? There is a bit of lore around them to be found.

[C'kayah Polaali]

With a new character, I usually don't spend a bunch of time on a backstory. Instead, I'll identify something that inspired me to create the character. "I want to make someone who talks like Garak from Star Trek - Deep Space Nine" or "I want a chekist-style intelligence operative utterly loyal to the local evil overlord" or "I want a thief trying to stay true to their humanity in a dark world" are all good examples (and examples of inspiration I used to create characters in the past). You don't want the inspiration to be too specific, and you don't want to spend too much time on it. It's a starting point, and no more.

 

One thing that's worked well, once I have that, is to come up with a few examples of something my new character might say. "Truth, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder", for instance. It gives you something to fall back on in those critical first hours of playing a character. That's when the character starts to gel, and when it becomes clear if you really enjoy playing them.

 

Note that I've spent basically no time describing the characters back story, outside of anything in their inspiration that speaks to their current state. Instead of setting that stuff up ahead of time, I'll create it as I go. The reason I do this is because it lets me create ties with other characters (C'kayah, it turns out, is a Polaali, with ties to other Polaali in game, for instance). This is a powerful tool for character development. You do have to be a little careful with it - the people you tie your character to can't be untied without a (shudder) retcon, so you want to be able to trust that you'll probably enjoy RPing long-term with those people.

[kamikrazy]

Think about what you actually want to do through the character, do that, then allow the personality to form as you do it. Try things as they come to you, experiment as you like, and note the things you want to keep. The first 1 or 2 sessions will be rough, but by the third session you will have a character that is perfectly sculpted to you and your purpose.

 

Then lay out your notes and connect the dots until a bigger picture emerges, you don't need to spend hours and hours pondering and writing lots of throwaway ideas. An rp character is easiest to grow if you just plant it in the soil of rp, then water it. Once it's grown a bit, then all you need to do is trim it.

[desmond28]

You mentioned ideas come and go before they are elaborated on. Do something to jot those ideas down. I used to kick myself when I'd think of something really cool and then forget about it. So keep a notepad, your phone, ipod, something so when you get an idea, write/type it.

 

An example is myself and a few friends were just talking and a news story popped into our conversation about a mine collapse that happened dozens of years ago. I thought: What a neat idea for a story in the world of FF XIV. So I jotted down: Mine collapse.

 

Don't let those great ideas slip right by!