fandomhigh | Creative Writing; Monday, First Period [05/18].

"Ahhh, welcome back, my little goslings ♥," Shunsui beamed his greeting as his little class got themselves settled in for another session of coffee, cocoa, kotatsu, and creation. He passed along the drink carriers of lattes and hot chocolate as he did last time, because drinking coffee was simply what was expected out of young authors, and also it was very, very early on a Monday morning, by his estimation, which was just cruel, and sipping sake in class was probably frowned upon. "I hope your week has left you you excited and inspired ♥! For today's lesson, we are going to be talking about developing characters, the driving force behind any good story, which should not be difficult for any of us, surrounded as we are by such interesting characters every day ♥."

"Like plot, characters are essential to almost all stories ♥. You can't really have one without the other; sometimes the characters are created out of a necessity for the plot, and other times, a plot begins to develop around the creation of characters ♥. Essentially, characters are our people, our friends and enemies, our little critters and important objects, the actors and the players on the stage of our book ♥. There is usually a hero and a villain. Or perhaps an anti-hero. There may be a beautiful love interest that the hero and villain are combating over, or perhaps a wise old sage who dispenses helpful....or unhelpful!...advice ♥. There are roguish captains wooing sexy pirates; bookish or dreamy young girls dreaming of princes ♥. Every day young men and women trying to discover who they are and what their purposes in life may be. When it comes to characters in fiction, just as with characters in life, there are no limits as to what there could be ♥.

"One of the easiest ways for a writer to write their stories is to really understand their character ♥ Know them as well as you know yourself, probably better; get inside them, inside their heads, their bodies, their emotions and feelings ♥. Know why they do what they do, their motivations, their reasons, their thoughts and opinions ♥. The writer, when writing, will become their characters, just as an actor on stage becomes their character for the duration of the play ♥. Do you want the character of the story to be someone like you, someone you can relate to and use as a voice ♥? Or do you want them to be quite different, to live vicariously through a person who will get the chance to do so many things differently than what life hands you now ♥? Either way, through your character, you can be whoever you want and have them do whatever your heart desires ♥. The heroes in my own work tend to be very dashing and incredibly charming, so, clearly, as you can see, I tend to lean more toward art imitating life ♥."

And yes, he winked at them with that, following it with a small little chuckle.

"So," he ventured toward his conclusion, "that is what we will be doing today ♥! I want you all to spend some time really working out a character, who you can use in future projects throughout the course ♥. I have some worksheets that may help you really get down to the details of a character, but you, as the writer, of course, may determine what is important about them and what is not ♥. Feel free to bounce ideas off of each other, and, when we've all worked a little bit on our characters, we'll then put them into action, and I'll tell you more about that when we're finished ♥.

"Any questions before we begin ♥?"

[[ OCD ~~incoming!~~ now has a fully developed character arc. have at it! ]]

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Like another character!

Astrid Magnussen

Tisarwat

Tahani al-Jamil

It's a very quick overview, as Shunsui would hate to bore anyone by going to deep into detail, and, besides, it's much more fun to just let them work out all the details themselves!

Maybe breaking the seal on some of the letters from her mother before Monday was a good idea; Ingrid's own natural poetics seemed to sort of leap from the page and infuse Astrid with a little bit of her own drive to write, as if she could somehow weave together words better than her mother, whose writing, really, if you thought about it, was very pretentious and over the top and self-serving and over-the-top...

Shhh, Astrid's sleeping indeed.

And as she listened to Kyōraku-san drone on about character in a way that threatened to pull her eyelids down and bring truth to those poetic words, she pondered what sort of catharsis there might be in creating a villian character based on her mother or some sort of strong character out of Claire, the type of character she could never convincingly play on the screen, but the type of character Astrid always wanted her to be, but knew she never would be...

But, even though she was listening and paying close attention and juggling ideas, she probably looked like she was just about to fall asleep all the same.

In realizing what they were doing for this class and having a good idea of what they would be doing in Amaya and Seivarden's class, Tisarwat's attention snapped a little bit more on the lesson, while she sipped the tea that she'd brought to class herself since tea seemed to not be a part of Shunsui's offerings, and, even if they were, it was clear he just went to the Perk before class, and they had terrible tea, anyway.

But this seemed like a great opportunity for Tisarwat to put together a really rich, thought-out character that she could suggest for her role in the entertainment they'd be making! It was a shame that she figured it was unlikely that the instructors of that class would also be participating in the acting, otherwise, she could probably weave together the perfect romantic counterpart t someone else...

Perhaps she'd at least try. It was worth the try, right? And it wasn't like the other students in that class wouldn't make for suitable romantic counterpart, either, really...

Lilac eyes bright and eager, Tisarwat was already starting to get so many ideas.

If you'd already got an idea for your hero/villian/self-insert character, have at it and get to hashing out some details! If not, there worksheet can provide a helpful guide to sparking your creativity, and the worksheet may also help in bringing your current idea more fully to life! Feel free to use any of the details below, or to just ignore them all!

Character NAME:
Nickname:
Meaning/History:
Notes:

Gender:
Age:
Age claimed:
Birthday:
Astrological sign:
Hair color:
Shape/style/length:
Eye color:
Vision:
Skin tone:
Marks (freckles, birthmarks, tattoos, scars):
Height:
Weight:
Build/Body shape:
Mannerisms:
Parents & Siblings:

Country:
State:
County:
City:
Street:
Type of Home:
Condition of Home:
Reason/History of Home:
Time in this Home:
Roommates/Housemates/Guests/Family In Home:
Grounds:
Outside Upkeep Habits:
Interior Design:
Furnishings:
Inside Upkeep Habits:

Character's Best Trait (to character):
Character's Actual Best Trait:

Character's Worst Trait (to character):
Character's Actual Worst Trait:

Character's Motto (to character):
Character's Actual Motto:

Hopes/Dreams/Desires:
Religion/Philosophy:
Politics:
Temperament:

Actions while Angry:
Actions while Happy:

Hates:
Reaction when presented with above:

Loves:
Reaction when above are threatened:

Vices:
Type of Self Rewards and When:
Type of Self Punishments and When:

Biggest Regret & Why:

Reaction to Adversity:
Reaction to Triumph:

Manners Alone:
Manners Around Same Gender:
Manners Around Opposite Gender:

Time of Story (past, present, future, era):

Occupation:
Occupational goals:
Occupational "lingo":

Awards/Recognition:
Emotional reaction to work:
Notes on "Work Personality":
Skills:

Income:
Income goals:
Saves or spends:
Favorite thing to purchase:
Wants to purchase:

Hobbies/Leisure pursuits:
Biggest accomplished achievement in life:
Awards/Recognition (non-work):

Current Relationship:
Relevant Friends:
How the character relates to each:
Current relationship with family members:

Politics:

Birthplace:
Religion:
Feeling About Childhood:
Childhood Trauma:
How trauma affects character today:

Education:
Best/Worst/Favorite subject:
After school activities:
Biggest influence/Mentor:
Friends/Teachers/Relatives/Pets from past that could influence plot (includes invisible friends/dolls/bears):
Childhood habit hardest to break and how it affects character today:

What did they want to be when they grew up?
Special childhood abilities:
Childhood hideout:

Event that will affect plot:
Past relationships that affect plot:
Last relationship:
How did it end & why:

The most bizarre thing about your character:
The very best thing about your character:
The very worst thing about your character:

Other Notes:

"Alright, ducklings ♥," Shunsui called out brightly, after giving the students a good portion of class to start developing the characters, "now let's see how well you've gotten to know your characters, because you're about to become your characters ♥. Our setting is simple: I, King Hobart the Romantic, am having a grand party here in my palace, and I have invited you all to attend ♥. You are to assume the personality of your character; there is a chest of costumes and props here should you wish for something to help you get a little deeper into your character, as well ♥. Become the character you've just created, and interact with everyone else's character, myself included, should you wish ♥! I'll give a few minutes to get yourself into character, and then off you go, mingle, get to know your character through your interactions with other characters, and perhaps they might inspire you or challenge you to construct even more aspects of your character you hadn't expected initially ♥!"

And with that, he let the students prepare and hoped he wouldn't need to do too much prodding to get their new personas talking!

Or is it King Hobart the Romantic ♥?

I will never not love the meta of people playing characters playing other characters.

Creative Writing; Monday, First Period [05/18].

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