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Sep. 21st, 2005 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetAh, procrastination ♥ How I love thee.
Was recently thinking on my characterization methods. See, I have to write Alfons sometime in the near future, and I have an obligation to myself (and my readers and most especially my requester) to give him good characterization. So I thought back to how I characterized people in HoS way back when. (I believe I was complimented on my Masuta. In fact, I found him rather easy to write, in contrast to Riza, whomade me relapse into trichotilomania was much harder for me to get a handle on. He seemed to give a lot of the other writers trouble.)
My basic method was:
* Take the original character.
* Find what's changed.
* Apply changes thoroughly. (This means thinking things all the way through--for example, how differently would Roy act if he were raised in the East instead of the West? And if there were no alchemy? Etc, etc.)
* Write.
It's like finding the differences between identical twins. They're essentially the same genetically, but they're still two different people. It's just finding out how different that's the trick.
To give you an example, I'll show you what really started this train of thought: My fangirling of Yoruichi/Soi Fong.
See, I was trying to think of simple terms to explain it in. Something that the masses could understand. And finally I came upon this comparison: It's like Sasuke and Naruto, only female! Obviously this didn't cover everything, so I came up with a detailed list of the changes.
* Start with Sasuke and Naruto.
* Make them female. All the time. Naturally so. Born that way, even. And no way to turn male (misconceptions/mistranslations/Kubo Tite being weird (I have no idea which one it really is, though I currently suspect the middle one) aside).
* Have Sasuke's clan be not slaughtered. Make Naruto not an orphan (whichever way you see fit).
* Put Sasuke in Naruto's service (through familial obligation). Make them stuck with one another for a few years.
* Make Sasuke a little more timid than we're used to.
* After some time has gone by and they've gotten to know one another, started to like each other, etc etc, have Naruto leave. (Since this is Naruto leaving, he's obviously doing it for a darn good reason. Like to help people and stuff. Only, and this is the clincher, he doesn't tell anyone else he's going or what he's doing or anything else before he goes. He just leaves one day out of the blue. Poof, he's gone.)
* Leave Sasuke stuck in the village, unable to follow and/or find.
* One day, when everyone is least expecting it and in the middle of some great chaos (because that would be just like him, really), Naruto comes back. Only since he's been gone so long and is kinda helping out some intruders that noone really knows are good guys Sasuke has to fight him.
* Have a great big fight sceene, in which we find out all about what Sasuke has had to learn/teach himself (probably to distract himself) while Naruto's been gone. Find out that Naruto's better at all of it.
* Watch Naruto kick Sasuke's pretty-boy ass and then learn that Sasuke was really angry with Naruto because emo-boy didn't get to tag along with him and stuff.
* Change their names to Yoruichi and Soi Fong, respectively.
* Calculate in all the changes, REMEMBERING TO CARRY THINGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and you're done! Taa-dah!
So, that's more or less my characterization method. I can go through it again with HoS examples if anyone needs me to (like the kitties or Masuta, though the kitties would be easier), or I can go into much more detail. But that's the bare bones of it at any rate.
Anyway, what I'm working on now is finding the differences between Alter!Al and MoreFamiliar!Al. So far, all I have is
* No alchemy.
This doesn't get me very far ^^a I mean, yeah, No Alchemy means No Failed Human Transmutation Attempt, but that still doesn't get me very far.
...Well, that was fairly long and pointless. Was that actually interesting to anyone, or was it just me filling up the air with a lot of meaningless words?
Was recently thinking on my characterization methods. See, I have to write Alfons sometime in the near future, and I have an obligation to myself (and my readers and most especially my requester) to give him good characterization. So I thought back to how I characterized people in HoS way back when. (I believe I was complimented on my Masuta. In fact, I found him rather easy to write, in contrast to Riza, who
My basic method was:
* Take the original character.
* Find what's changed.
* Apply changes thoroughly. (This means thinking things all the way through--for example, how differently would Roy act if he were raised in the East instead of the West? And if there were no alchemy? Etc, etc.)
* Write.
It's like finding the differences between identical twins. They're essentially the same genetically, but they're still two different people. It's just finding out how different that's the trick.
To give you an example, I'll show you what really started this train of thought: My fangirling of Yoruichi/Soi Fong.
See, I was trying to think of simple terms to explain it in. Something that the masses could understand. And finally I came upon this comparison: It's like Sasuke and Naruto, only female! Obviously this didn't cover everything, so I came up with a detailed list of the changes.
* Start with Sasuke and Naruto.
* Make them female. All the time. Naturally so. Born that way, even. And no way to turn male (misconceptions/mistranslations/Kubo Tite being weird (I have no idea which one it really is, though I currently suspect the middle one) aside).
* Have Sasuke's clan be not slaughtered. Make Naruto not an orphan (whichever way you see fit).
* Put Sasuke in Naruto's service (through familial obligation). Make them stuck with one another for a few years.
* Make Sasuke a little more timid than we're used to.
* After some time has gone by and they've gotten to know one another, started to like each other, etc etc, have Naruto leave. (Since this is Naruto leaving, he's obviously doing it for a darn good reason. Like to help people and stuff. Only, and this is the clincher, he doesn't tell anyone else he's going or what he's doing or anything else before he goes. He just leaves one day out of the blue. Poof, he's gone.)
* Leave Sasuke stuck in the village, unable to follow and/or find.
* One day, when everyone is least expecting it and in the middle of some great chaos (because that would be just like him, really), Naruto comes back. Only since he's been gone so long and is kinda helping out some intruders that noone really knows are good guys Sasuke has to fight him.
* Have a great big fight sceene, in which we find out all about what Sasuke has had to learn/teach himself (probably to distract himself) while Naruto's been gone. Find out that Naruto's better at all of it.
* Watch Naruto kick Sasuke's pretty-boy ass and then learn that Sasuke was really angry with Naruto because emo-boy didn't get to tag along with him and stuff.
* Change their names to Yoruichi and Soi Fong, respectively.
* Calculate in all the changes, REMEMBERING TO CARRY THINGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and you're done! Taa-dah!
So, that's more or less my characterization method. I can go through it again with HoS examples if anyone needs me to (like the kitties or Masuta, though the kitties would be easier), or I can go into much more detail. But that's the bare bones of it at any rate.
Anyway, what I'm working on now is finding the differences between Alter!Al and MoreFamiliar!Al. So far, all I have is
* No alchemy.
This doesn't get me very far ^^a I mean, yeah, No Alchemy means No Failed Human Transmutation Attempt, but that still doesn't get me very far.
...Well, that was fairly long and pointless. Was that actually interesting to anyone, or was it just me filling up the air with a lot of meaningless words?
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Date: 2005-09-27 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 03:48 pm (UTC)