WIP Challenge - Check In, Day 14 - Friday

[the_rck]

Poll #15086

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

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Today I

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planned
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

wrote
3 (60.0%)

sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

edited
2 (40.0%)

posted
1 (20.0%)

rested
1 (20.0%)

did something else
2 (40.0%)

The way I feel about that is

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Mean: 5.40 Median: 5 Std. Dev 2.33

Awful 1		0 (0.0%)
2		1 (20.0%)
3		0 (0.0%)
4		1 (20.0%)
5		1 (20.0%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		0 (0.0%)
8		2 (40.0%)
9		0 (0.0%)
Wonderful 10		0 (0.0%)

How do you go about developing characters? I mean, we have canon, but canon rarely answers all our questions. When you need to know more, do you make up all the details in advance, including details you don't expect to use, or do you wait until you need to know something to make a decision?

I'm a seat of the pants writer in general. I tend to have a vague outline of the character in mind and then fill in the details as I go. I have to be careful not to contradict myself or overburden a particular character. I also tend to make different decisions about a given character depending on the story I'm writing. There are the givens from canon, but there are bits of background that could be different, too.

Comments

[linaewen]

I've been taking a break after pushing hard to finish a number of short stories.

For canon characters, I just develop them as I go along, adding in things that fit with my interpretation of them. For new characters, I do some advance work, like figuring out their name and what it means (if anything). I also try to have some vague idea of where they are from, how they talk (formally, informally), what they might look like, what their place/function in the story is, and how they will interact with the main character. The rest is seat of the pants. One thing I never plan ahead is whether an OC will survive to the end of the story or not. ;-)