Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Character study (late, I know!)

When I create a new character for a story or an artwork I tend to study who they are.  I think about them every day, I imagine them in dramatic or funny situations, or I just stare at their drawings just to see...emotion, intelligence, and whatnot.  I become a stalker of my own characters, recording every single aspect of their daily adventures in another world

When I create a written version of a character's adventures, I explore their lives, the people around them, their religious or atheist beliefs, hardships, family, culture, moments of joy and happiness, and other things that add up to a living feeling character.  There are times when I create more than one story for a single character, for example, my character Vistalgia currently have four stories and one of them I decided to develop for a future comic.  Having multiple stories for a single character is good but this can quickly become confusing when developing a back story that works best for that character.

The last thing I want in my story is a bunch of nonsense plot-holes on a series of characters, especially the main character.  Writing notes or a series of short story helps avoid major plot-holes and other inconsistencies.  Organizing character's stories and designs will help in keeping track of who they are.

Anyway, hopefully all that artist/writer lingo makes sense. Here's an old example of what I'm talking about:

(Note: The following may or may not make sense, have any connection with the Mult (future comic), or even have proper grammar.)

Thoughts on Johnovia©
Ideas by Amari Harkness
Onundav, 3rd , 5009
            Journal of World Tracker and Empiroplanetnologist Krillvony…

            So, here I am, looking over the lands that once was a great mighty planet kingdom…or pieces of it. Hey, all the other kingdoms and realms would be so jealous of her blessings: the abundance of forests and creatures, the clear light purple sky and blue clouds, perfect weather year round, and so much land and water. Now, Johnovia is just a tragic victim of a Dilyefilla gone astray from its distant home, the Outer Walls.
There is only one muliverse, an enormous universe with many little universes inside of it, in existence. Our muliverse, Engu.  Surrounding Engu, there is Chaos, or the Johnovians call their creator god, AllTime. Keeping Engu safe from the randomness and the chaotic nature of AllTime is the Outer Walls. Within the Outer Walls is the Inner Walls. Within the Inner Walls are universes, realms, and worlds; the Inner Walls keeps them safe from the Outer Walls' vacuum… normally.
The people of Johnovia didn't know about the Dilyefilla, the Inner or Outer Walls. They didn't know that once every hundred years or so Dilyefilli, fragments of AllTime's power, would break out from the Outer Walls and into the Inner Walls of time and space. And from there, one or two or maybe even twenty Dilyefilli passes by their opposites, the Illifeylid, and make their way into the universes in the Inner Walls. One just happens to hit Johnovia's universe. This sort of event is completely unpredictable, even the Channels of AllTime wouldn't see it coming. Johnovia didn't see it coming.
What are even more unpredictable are the effects of the impact or the entry of a Dilyefilla. Anything can happen when it made close enough to a universe, from changing the universe's natural laws to transforming the organic inhabitants into metal or liquid. Sometimes if two Dilyefilli hit a universe simultaneously, they turn it inside out, hurling any living and nonliving thing in to the mercy of the Illifeylid of the Inner Walls.  In Johnovia's case, the Dilyefilla entered the universe without doing anything harmful at all until it hits a planet or a star.
Johnovia was so lucky that AllTime made it a utopian planet that lasted for billions and millions of years, yet so unlucky to be in the path of the most random and destructive force in the entire Engu… it makes me wonder, why? The Johnovians had great faith in AllTime, they conquered planets and realms in his name, discovered new technologies and cures, built an empire spading several hundred dimensions, and they gave all the credit to Him. But, why did AllTime allow the destruction of Johnovia?
Sigh, maybe He got tired of them or left them. Or He stayed and watched them suffer.
Or maybe He gave them a challenge, a challenge that if they make out of this alive…maybe if they are still alive…or even still exist…
I-I don't know. Silly idea. There is no way they are still alive. Then again, I might be wrong…
____________________________________________________________


This example is an experimentation on a character named Krillvony.  Here I'm using him to explore a lost world through his point of view.  From this short essay I can tell that Krillvony is some type of archaeologist studying the remains of a long lost civilization.  He is troubled about his findings on Johnovia especially on how the civilization died out.

However, Krillvony's character is still in the works.  I must continue studying his character to make him more than what's presented above. (Does he have a family, where does he work, why this job, etc.)

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