***Luna's... guide of something (Character-making)

Think about what you are about to do. The mother, the matriarchal figure, you are giving birth to a person, not constructing a robot (unless your person is a robot); people have emotions, different thinking processes, physical traits that are not flawless, and more. These are people you are talking about, the ones you see in the world. So make one!

AND NO FULL SELF-INSERTS ALLOWED.

This is NOT a bio-help guide like Cinder’s (I don‘t think). Heck no I won’t ask you to describe feet and that sort of thing! I call character-making the ‘idea before the pen on the paper’. You have to think about your character before filling out the application, like how one has to know about their name before filling in the name part of any application. It’s the same concept… right?

For novice writers, it can be hard to flesh out people. Heck, I have trouble fleshing out new people at times. It’s really more of an art, in my opinion, to make deep and complex characters. We all can have fears about playing them out correctly, yes, and that’s okay. Anyways, I’m digressing. Let’s get to work. Each section will have methods to go about doing them.

Just as a note: you don’t have to follow in the particular order I have given. I’m more or less going by general applications and explaining down the road. By all means, do name last if you want to! Ideas aren’t picky like that.

”Why, that‘s just changing a few letters!”

The Letter Change method is pretty easy. You play on the phonetics of a name and change the letters to others of exact or similar pronunciation; of course, it will be harder to do this sort of thing with, say, a Japanese name (which is based strictly on phonetics of no excuses) unless you try to change Japanese phonetics to English phonetics. Here are some common letters with same or usually same pronunciation in the English system:

F (Serafina) --> Ph (Seraphina)
I (Gensis) --> Y (Gensys)
C (cat) --> K (kat)
-cle (tentacle) --> -cal (tentacal)
-ai- (fairy) --> -ae- (faerie)

Not too hard to grasp, right? Obviously, depending on your name, the pronunciation will change because English does that. Stresses are harder or softer on different usages. This is where you have to think ahead. Now for some name examples:

Serafina --> Serapheena
Bartholomew --> Barthalomeu
Calvin --> Calvan
Nicolette --> Nekolette

Play around with the common letter combinations to get the hang of it.

Addition and Subtraction

To make a new pronunciation, it‘s as easy as adding another a or subtracting an e. Also thrown into this section is those names or pronunciations that are the same even if you add a certain letter. Examples:

Fable --> Fayble
Collin --> Colin
Alexandria (short a sound) --> Alexaandriea (heavier a stress)
Naomi --> Naohmie
Cell (short e stress) --> Ceel (heavier e stress)

”You named me after an object?!”

Haha, these names can be fun. The name can be anything: an object, animal, or what have you. The only thing to really say is not to do anything extremely obvious or easy, like Rose, unless the parents would do that sort of thing. If you mix this with the Change Letter method or Add/Subtract method, this can be really fun!

Piston --> Pystan
Sheep --> Shiep
Time --> Tiem
Smooch --> Simuuch

”I made yours up on the fly!”

If you don‘t have an extremely creative mind, this method can be hard. The Made-Up method is really for those that can make a name fit and it has no origin whatsoever. A completely original name, if you will. Some methods to help with one can be a combination of any of the others above, the Mix method, Meaning method, or Feeling method and others. There‘s really no examples to give without spreading my own originality here.

The classic or little methods that won’t have much explanation except its definition are as follows:

Mix method - the use of two or more names, objects, name and object, things, and etc. to make a new name.
Meaning method - the use of a name because of meaning, connotative or denotative.
Feeling method - the use of a name due to just because you could.
Like/Dislike method - the use of a name due to you liking/disliking it.
Old Spelling method - the old spelling of a name is used.
Older Language method - Latin, Greek, and the sort is used for the name.
Foreign Language method - any name than the character’s racial status is used (make sure this fits with your character and also would fit semi-well if their race).
Surname to First Name method - a real or fictional person’s last name is used as the first name of a character.

Pool Method

The Pool, or Cooking, method, as I like to call this one, is basically picking and choosing traits, throwing them in; then, if you feel like there should be more, throw in or add in ‘sweeteners‘ and ‘food dyes‘ - these are the traits you think would add more depth to the character or result from the ‘main ingredients‘. Pool method, I call the main traits the water and the little traits chlorine levels, but I digress.

If you need an example of a character made from this, my Nil Rosewood was made especially from this method. I picked traits from these two lists I found online, threw them in. Presto. We have ourselves Nil pasta. I made them work from having her a negative person. That‘s really all there is to this method. To make this method complex, you will have to explain how the thrown-in traits work together.

Umbrella Method

This is a pretty cool method. You concentrate on one trait, ‘open‘ it up, and this one trait can explain any traits you give to the character. If you cannot think about anything else for the character but at least one trait, this is a great one. I shall explain with a character. The trait I shall ‘open‘ up will be ‘easily jealous‘.

So this character is easily jealous, how does this character feel about friends? Insecure or secure? Secure.

If this character is easily jealous but not about friends, what are they jealous about? Wealth.

Does this mean this character does not care about others‘ traits (meaning they do not wish to be someone else)? They don‘t care.

This character is jealous of wealth: do they spend their money a lot or no? Spend.

Why? They want wealth in items, not in money.

But wealth in money is about the same as wealth in items, right? ”You can always get more money; if you don‘t have items now, you never will.“

So does this mean they are good in saving? Yes; then will spend when enough is made.

Let‘s move on: because of this person is easily jealous of possessions, who does this person easily get along with? Normal or rich people.

Why? Though jealous of these people, this person believes that if he/she gets on their good side, they will give him/her money or items to increase his/her collection.

Are they mean to the poor, then? Not particularly; they just have nothing to offer.

Who do they not fare with? Those with no spine, braggers that finally make him/her snap, the religious.

Why? The ones without spine, s/he does not tolerate at all; s/he tries to tolerate braggers to a point to be good but will lose it eventually under constant abuse; religious are always in constant need of more money and s/he thinks it is a waste to spend under a figure that won’t save them anytime soon.

So s/he is not pious? They are slightly; they agree with some concepts of religion.

So s/he are moralistic? Yes; s/he has their own set of morals, but based some off religion.

Does this character try to please others? To an extent, yes.

So s/he is okay with jokes? Yes; s/he tries to tolerate even stupid jokes as well, will even force a chuckle if have to.

S/he forces a chuckle; dishonest? Little ones, mostly; lying is one of their morals that s/he believes can be slipped for the ‘better good‘.

Is this jealousy incorporated in bouts of courage? Will s/he try to use this jealousy to power their dreams? Courage, yes; power of dreams, definitely.

Is this character a dreamer? Yes.

Realistic dreamer? Not exactly; this person wants to own all of the items in the world.

So is this character a packrat? Complete definition of it.

Messy? Not really; s/he has a system of storage.

So this person will not replace defective items? If the item in question is not one s/he will be needing everyday, no; if yes, they will and throw the defective one in storage.

How about old items? Not often replaced.


…So on and so forth. The point of this is that you get what I was getting at. I ‘opened‘ up the ‘easily jealous‘ trait and expanded it to these traits of: being secure with friends, a spender, jealous of possessions, only save to enough money, not faring with said people, reasons for that, slightly pious, moralistic, a bit dishonest for the ‘better good‘, having courage, being a powerful dreamer, being a packrat, not being messy, and not often replacing items.

Bam! I could have gone on and expanded more into social, romance, views of the world, and else. This concludes the Umbrella method.

Spice of Myself

It is totally okay for a character to have bits of yourself. A character can be much easier to play out if a character if under the Spice method. The important thing is that you don‘t let your FULL self be in this character.

The main way to use this method is to incorporate a couple or few traits that you are known for, then for you to thrown in or expound the traits in not a way that is yourself. I‘m not saying you have to go completely opposite of yourself. (Again, this can lead to its own stereotype). You could go for total opposite, or you can take the opposite path of what you are. Example: say if you put in that your character saves money just like you; but, instead of making the character a person that spends that money when they think they deserve it by strict interpretation, make it so they spend it more times BECAUSE they think they deserve it more times. There. You used the same trait but branched it off differently. Bravo!

My Dark Mirror

I won‘t get too in-depth with this one method. Having a character opposite of yourself can be fun or hated; but, again, this can be a stereotype in of itself. Be careful of this one. Trying this one can make you hate your character if it is the Dark Mirror method, and we do not want you to always give the Dark method-made character receive the short end of the stick; you have to give these characters breaks as well.

Example of my Dark Mirror method character would be more Pystan Jam. She‘s peppy; I‘m pessimistic. She‘s talkative; I prefer to myself. I can go on with the opposing parallels.

The classic or little methods that won’t have much explanation except its definition are as follows:

Symbol method - the character is supposed to represent an object, ideology, living being (not particularly human), a group, virtue, etc.
Sacrifice method - the character is supposed to bring another character to light and/or improve them, even at the cost of themselves.
Foil method - this character is supposed to accentuate or make another characters‘ traits visible. Think if white was on black; the white shows more against the black, and vice versa.
Extreme method - the character is supposed to show the extreme side of one character‘s trait.
Mechanic method - this character is supposed to fix another character.
Fixed Role method - this character has or will have a fixed role with another character, like friend, loved one, etc.

Tragedy

Tragedy is a common history aspect. Usually of the death kind, what we have ourselves here is one that has potential to be awesome, especially if coupled with other aspects like romance and friendship.

One of the best kind of tragedies is the extremely depressing or continually saddening ones. There are usually two approaches to tragedies: death of people in a single instant or death of people over time. I find the latter more depressing; but, in my opinion, if you can incorporate both of these in a single person‘s history, that would be really epic. (If we’re going with the father/mother/sister/brother deaths, make these even more interesting; these are starting to get too old). Here are things to influence your tragedy:

Natural disasters
Murder
Sickness
Miscarriage/Complications during labor
Fatal accidents
Assassination
Recent death (during the storyline)
Sudden failure of heart/lungs
Crib death
Old age
Abuse of drugs/alcohol/the like
Unintentional murder
Random disappearances
Kidnapping

Romance

Perhaps this person had romantic encounters in life; and, possibly, some sexual encounters. Incorporate these in your history, express how they react to things in the romance world. If they have no experience in this, perhaps explain why not or just omit for someone to fill in that slot in later threads and events. Romance troubles include:

Tragic romances
Failing of understanding
Cheating
Rape
Fear of commitment
Romance not for love
Innocent crushing
Marriage for reason other than love
Rejection
Eloping
Liking an older figure
Prostitution
Incest
Arranged marriage
Homosexuality/Bisexuality/Asexuality/other sexualities
Love triangles/squares/etc.

Friendship

Friendship is a powerful bond. Never underestimate its power, even if you prefer to be a hermit. The best people in life are sometimes the ones we don‘t know beyond our family. Friends and people, though, can be manipulative.

Manipulative friends
Friendship out of money/benefits
Shifting of interests/other groups
Rivalry
Backstabbing
Loyalty issues
Not finding solace in cowardly friend
Moving away
Differences between financial statuses
Friendship found in animals
Friendship in younger/older only

Family

Because human beings are usually stuck with a group until they get older, family is a major factor of one‘s history. What happens in a family affects most members of a single branch in a family tree, and this can affect other branches should it be detrimental enough.

Financial issues
Sibling rivalry
Distance of family members
Lone wolf of the pack
Death of family member
Divorce
New addition of family (babies)
Stepfamily
Half-family
Child out of wedlock
Conception of other means not deemed normal
Twin/triplets/etc.
Unexpected new addition of family
Finding family-like feeling with another group than own
Running away
Kidnapping

Here are more issues to consider for histories:

Financial issues
Social issues
Diseases/Dysfunctions
Traumatic experiences
Detrimental fears/phobias
Educational issues

Remember to do research for anything you are uncertain of or what your character is centered on. If your character is inflicted with a disease or dysfunctions, study in depth about them and have this affect things like personality if it does so. And don‘t forget the rule: people can take many sides of anything, especially with diseases and dysfunctions. Refer back to my CIP person up there for an example.