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🖋️ Weekly character dev questions [W43]

Posted 3 years, 9 months ago (Edited 2 years, 6 months ago) by Caine

Want to suggest a question? Feel free to DM me!

I figured that since the "weekly show me a character" thread has been alive and running for a couple of years now, I could give a shot at doing similar with development questions! I'll post a new prompt each week both on this starter thread and the comment section! Feel free to post answers weekly or combine previous ones into one post - whichever feels the best for you.

Week 43: (Pick a character) How do they feel about big gatherings like parties? Do they enjoy having a lot of people around them or do they prefer less (or none)? How likely are they to approach people they don't know?

Previous weeks 2021

Week 1: (Pick a character) What would you consider to be the most impacting event in their life (that isn't their own birth or death) and why?
Week 2: (Pick a character) What makes them feel the most confident? Is it more internal (being good at something, succeeding in things etc) or more external (being praised, getting their skills acknowledged by others etc?
Week 3: What is your favourite part of character creation and why? Does it depend on character/time/your mood/etc?
Week 4: (Pick a character) How does your character generally react to failures, both their own and the failures of others?
Week 5: Do you have distinct "favourite" characters among your ocs, or does your current favourite change? Or do you consider them all "equals"?
Week 6: (Pick a character) If someone were to attack them out of nowhere, how would they try to defend themselves? Or would they try at all?
Week 7: How do you feel about your characters sharing traits/interests/etc with you? Do you try to avoid similarities or do you embrace them?
Week 8: When you create a new character, how much of their story do you work out on the spot? Do you prefer to get all details done at once or prefer to add more little by little?
Week 9: Which one of your characters would you consider to be the most "unexpected" character from you and why? The reason can be anything from their story to themes and even the design.
Week 10: When you're creating a new character, how much do you think about their family/guardians? Are they usually an active or a distant presence in your characters' lives?
Week 11: What was the first original character you posted online like? Do you still use them?
Week 12: (Pick a character) How do they feel about positive attention? Do they thrive in it or does it make them uncomfortable? Feel free to talk about the nuances of "positive attention" or attention in general if you want!
Week 13: What's the most drastic non-visual change you have made on a character? Why?
Week 14: Pick your oldest and your newest character on TH. Would they get along? What would their chemistry be like?
Week 15: What is your process when it comes to naming characters? Do name meanings matter to you? Do you pick a name with a "purpose" or based on a "feeling"?
Week 16: (Pick a character) What is their love language? Does it depend on people? Have it changed throughout their lives? Is it a combination of several types? (Suggested by PicklePantry)
Week 17: Pick your current most and least favorited characters. What do they have in common? What's different? When were they posted on TH? Do you think they still reflect your current tastes in character design and/or story?
Week 18: Have you ever learned a tip/trick related to character/worldbuilding development that changed the way you view your works? Or do you have some specific tips/tricks that you consider to have been particularly helpful for you?
Week 19: Have you ever had OC related "advice" that has done more harm to you than good? If yes, how did you end up learning out of it?
Week 20: (Pick a character) What's one memory they wish to never forget (and why)?
Week 21: What kind of compliments do you enjoy the most when it comes to your characters? Is it about design? Certain story elements (backstory, personality, trivia etc) or maybe about people finding them easy to understand?
Week 22: What do you find to be the most important aspect when you create or buy character designs for yourself? Is it the colors, clothes, silhouette, simple design to draw fast or something else?
Week 23: Pick two characters you'd consider similar to one another, either in design or story/personality. What would you consider to be their main differences?
Week 24: (Pick a character) How reliable would they consider themselves to be? Would other people agree with them?
Week 25: (Pick a character) What would they consider to be their greatest passion? Alternatively, what is something they find to be "their own special thing" that they delight in doing?
Week 26: When you're reading someone's character profile, where do you start? Is it the overview? Trivia? Backstory? Something else?
Week 27: If you had to name exactly one movie that has had a huge impact on you as a creator, which one would it be and why?
Week 28: How did you discover original character communities/the general concept of them on the internet? If you don't remember, what would you consider the most fun aspect of ocs for you right now?
Week 29: (Pick a character) If they had to pick an animal to describe themself, which one would they pick and why? Would you describe the character with the same animal or would your own pick for them be different?
Week 30: What's the most bizarre/interesting/weird piece of trivia you have learned while doing oc research? Did this trivia find its way into the character or some other character later on?
Week 31: (Pick a character) How do they express their anger? How does it appear to others, and how does the character themself feel about their own anger? Does their society encourage or discourage certain expressions of anger?
Week 32: What's the biggest story and/or personality related change you have made on a character? What made you want to change it?
Week 33: (Pick a character) What do they do on their free time? Do they have hobbies or have they had any in the past? What's something they wish they could put more time into (such as learning a skill, participating in some activity etc)?
Week 34: (Pick a character) What kind of impression does their appearance tend to give to others [in their worldsetting]? Is it an impression they want to give to others? Are they aware of the way people perceive them in the first place?
Week 35: Have you ever created a character but refrained from actually posting about them publicly? If yes, why? And if no, could you ever see yourself in a situation where that could happen?
Week 36: (Pick a character) What is their most treasured item and why? If they don't have any feel free to talk about the reason for it!
Week 37: (Pick a character) Who is their most trusted friend and why? How would the character describe this person? And if they don't have anyone they trust, feel free to talk about the reason for it!
Week 38: (Pick a character) What's their preferred sleeping position? Are they a calm or a restless sleeper, and do they like sleeping next to others or prefer sleeping alone?
Week 39: (Pick a character) What do they typically smell like? And why? Do they use a certain perfume, cologne, or deodorant that makes them smell a certain way? Suggested by soyyemilk
Week 40: (Pick a character) Where did they grow up in? Did they live in the same place/area most of their life or did they move places? How would your character describe the place they consider their childhood home (or the closest thing to it)?
Week 41: Which one of your characters would you consider the hardest to draw? If you're not an artist yourself, what would you imagine being the hardest?
Week 42: (Pick a character) How open are they about their feelings? Do they have anyone to talk to if they're worried? Are they more likely to talk about positive or negative feelings with others?

Previous weeks 2020:

Week 29: Which one of your currently posted characters has gone through the most changes throughout the years?
Week 30: Which part of character creation do you tend to struggle with the most?
Week 31: (Pick a character) What are they afraid of? How do they handle their fears? How do they respond to other people's fears (friends, strangers etc)?
Week 32: (Pick a character) How does your character feel about change? Do they welcome with open arms, or are they afraid of it?
Week 33: How do you go about making a new character? What kind of things do you like to keep in mind when planning their story/personality? Do you consider your other already existing characters when planning new ones (avoiding stuff already done with one character etc)?
Week 34: (Pick a character) What do they consider their greatest achievement? How about their lowest low moment?
Week 35: Do you have story elements or certain character tropes/cliches you love to use in your characters? If yes, what are they? If not, have you ever noticed common elements despite trying not to have them?
Week 36: (Pick a character) How do they handle money? How do they earn it, if at all?
Week 37: What kind of settings do you prefer to use in your works?
Week 38: What kind of villains do you prefer to create? Does your preference differ from what kind of villains you love to see in fiction?
Week 39: (Pick a character) Do they have any goals/dreams/aspirations in life? What are they? If they don't have any, does the lack of them ever bother them?
Week 40: Are there things in fiction you love to consume, but prefer not to create yourself?
Week 41: What do you usually do if you can't connect with a character you have or you can't make them work quite the way you'd like?
Week 42: (Pick a character) What kind of things get them excited? How are they like when excited?
Week 43: What type (human, feral, anthro, monster etc) of characters do you have the most? Have your tastes changed at any point?
Week 44: Do you have any fears or insecurities as a creator? If you do, are these more based on your work itself or the way other people will react to it, or both?
Week 45: Do you tie your interests/hobbies to your character in any way? Why/why not?
Week 46: Do you prefer developing your characters on your own or by interacting with other people (be it RPing or discussing)?
Week 47: What kind of questions do you prefer to be asked when it comes to your characters or setting?
Week 48: What kind of conflict do you like in fiction? Is it a conflict of interests? Morals? Based on lies or miscommunication? Something else entirely?
Week 49: When you get an idea for something you'd like to explore in fiction, are you more likely to make a whole new character for it or use the idea for an already existing character?
Week 50: How do you use your characters? Are they something you collect? Part of a story? For RP?
Week 51: What kind of layout do you use for your character profiles? What makes you like it?
Week 52: What do you do when you feel like you have ran out of ideas or you have hit a creative wall with your work?
Week 53: Do you like to look back at your creative works or do you prefer to just keep on going and paying little attention to what you have made in the past?

PicklePantry

It honestly depends on what the changes are for each of my characters.

Like there's Reggie, who is constantly dealing with changes to store policy because the corporate office doesn't care about the employees as much as they do getting more money. It frustrates him and he tries his best to find a middle ground that can support both sides, but tends to lose. As much as he hates the changes, he still abides by them. He's more afraid of losing his job, which is basically the thing he loves the most and the ONLY thing he knows how to do, than anything else.

And there's also En, who went through the biggest change of losing his family and his home when he was exiled. He didn't want to accept it and wanted to stay home, but knew that was a battle he couldn't hope to fight let alone win, so he accepted it. And it really wears on him throughout his journey. He tries to keep his head up, but sometimes it's too tough.
But throughout his journey he goes through plenty of other changes, such as having to go through new routes into mysterious places, having to do things he's never done before, all kinds! And he's pretty adaptive, accepting them optimistically.

biscuitygoodness

Changeling welcomes environmental change - she travels a lot and goes to a whole bunch of different places, and would just get antsy staying in one town for too long. She is, however, EXTREMELY resistant to personal change. She has a very strong set of personal beliefs, and it would be fruitless to try and argue with her about any of them. (They range from her hatred of government authority to onion rings being the absolute best food.)

Cherry and Olive are both resistant to change, just because they have been living under the same circumstances for so long. They daydream about being somewhere different or doing something different, but they are just too used to what they are doing to really consider taking action.

Mary is used to change, both being a system and living through several tumultuous times in her life. She has to adapt to survive, often having to come up with new and creative ways to get by. She doesn't look forward to change like Changeling does, but she accepts it.

Killian Deering Caine

Week 32: (Pick a character) How does your character feel about change? Do they welcome it with open arms, or are they afraid of it?

I like to think Killian is adjustable in a way that he might not be happy about change, but if he's given the time to mentally prepare in advance he'll be just fine. However, he's not good at all with sudden changes and often struggles accepting them solely out of spite for not being warned beforehand. It's especially prevalent when he's still a teenager but does slowly grow out of that childish spite as he gets older. He still absolutely wants a warning first before changes happen though, and it's only in think-or-suffer kind of situations where he can react to a sudden change in a more mature when when his fight or flight instinct takes a hold of him.

Caine

Week 33: How do you go about making a new character?
What kind of things do you like to keep in mind when planning their story/personality?
Do you consider your other already existing characters when planning new ones
(avoiding stuff already done with one character etc)?

PicklePantry

You know, it's different for about all the characters I've had.
Back when I first made characters, like back in my RPing youngun days, I'd look for pictures that could be RP characters, and once I found one I liked I'd put a personality and a name to it. Sometimes with the pictures I'd see stuff and think, "What could be the reason for that?" and it would end up being a big role for my character.
I still sometimes make characters that way. I'll play around on Picrew and like the design so much I want to keep it and add to it. But lately I make characters more by starting with a concept or a name, both usually start as jokes but I like building on them once I have a face to match. For concepts, they tend to come up randomly? Just a random thought that I'll write down and want to keep for future use. And sometimes it's to try some possible plot holes I have with other characters.
Lots of times, both in my youngun and current days, whenever I start writing out the character I'll get lots of ideas right then and there. There have been times when I've had ideas that I couldn't really use, but after time I'll have a character and think, "Hey, I could add that tidbit to them!!" because they have enough stuff to not need to rely on that sole trait. It's happened a lot more recently, with Mori's weapon or Hopper's worries. And how I mentioned that ideas come while writing, I was writing a reaper character about a month ago and on the spot made up something that could explain their existence, but lately I've really liked that idea I made up and want to blow it into its own world, kinda deal. I guess that kinda connects with my thought process; you know myths where it explains things like why crows are black, why there are eclipses, things like that? I've always loved those. The idea that something spectacular and paranormal is the cause for stuff we see all the time has always been fascinating to me, so I like trying to mix that with my writing, with the whole modern/fantasy combinations. So I think it bleeds into a lot of my thought process.

I also do tend to think of my other characters a lot when making new ones. Most of the time they're characters that are built revolving around a current one, but sometimes when I have a brand spanking new one I like to think about which of my current ones would get along with them. You can tell with all the links I have KEKEKEK. And no matter how wild or how different my characters look from one another, they all belong to the same world! So it's bound to have fun interactions.

In terms of avoiding doing the same thing, I don't really worry about that. If anything, I like to go the opposite direction. Of course I don't want to make carbon copies of personalities and such, but I really enjoy taking overused tropes and archtypes and kinda building off it. A lot of my characters are built to be supporting roles for protagonists, so I have this mindset of "Let them be normal so that protag can stand out".

Caine

Week 33: How do you go about making a new character? What kind of things do you like to keep in mind when planning their story/personality?

I usually try to give every character some sort of quirk unique to them! Kind of like how Walter has a very distinct sense of humor, or how Hannes gets super flirty when he's nervous! I also generally try to think of stuff like how they socialize, what their inner world is like and how their background affects their personality (like how Ambrose's family was obsessed with acquiring more wealth and fame so Ambrose is likewise a social climber as an adult, though has calmed down after becoming a courtesan).

Story wise I kinda just tend to go with the flow and see where it takes me! I usually have one or two things I absolutely want to include (like how Aurel for example was married off to another country way too young and worked with a magician at one point in his life) and I just connect the dots haha.

Most of the time I draw the design first and only then start fully planning, because I love adding random elements to the design and then afterwards try to justify them by coming up with an explanation.

Do you consider your other already existing characters when planning new ones (avoiding stuff already done with one character etc)?

I used to not think too much about my other characters, but by now I have so many that I kind of have to make sure no two characters overlap too hard. I accept similar designs or personalities but only if they have the other thing different (so two similar designs is fine if their personalities are different, or vice versa). Sometimes I even have to ask myself if I really want to make a new character and if I could instead just add to already existing ones.

CanineKing

Week 33: How do you go about making a new character? What kind of things do you like to keep in mind when planning their story/personality? Do you consider your other already existing characters when planning new ones (avoiding stuff already done with one character etc)?

this really depends on if i'm putting the character in an existing story/ world i have established or if it's going to be a standalone story with no other lore really needed, but in the end it's completely random and whatever new idea/ inspo i get struck with i immediately want to draw them out and develop them as i'm developing the world (or just them). this usually results in me making really incomplete characters filling up my profile (then again, i do like using toyhouse to keep track of my oc's development)

i don't really have character ideas revolved around helping develop main characters, it's kind of like, i make a character just to "live in" that particular world. and due to Main Character Syndrome, they're all connected (somehow). in the end it's just random concepts to help populate the worlds i'm creating. for standalone characters, i just make up a general concept for them and don't. really develop more than that lol (but! there's always a rare chance of me being inspired to develop them in a world they would live in later). i just like simple ideas and simple designs. speaking of designs, nowadays, when i see something that i like i immediately go like "i want that" jkdhdk like recently i've been struggling with hair styles and i've been getting into other stuff, so i've been pretty much taking the same hairstyle just as a starting point to a design (of course i always make the character different lol) i've said this plenty of times but my ideas for my ocs are literally just abstract and intagible thoughts in my head that it's just a feeling i have, so it's just really hard to try to convey what my ideas are since i don't even know how to translate them myself. i just get lucky when i'm finally able to put my ideas into a drawing or words

"avoiding stuff already done" i wanna say "yeah i do try to keep ideas fresh!" but actually no lol. looking at how my main three couples bare tropes are, they're pretty much the same and i'll admit that. i just have a deep love for certain tropes that i honestly Do Not Care if i've done it before. i love this trope so now i'm gonna do it again but with a different design and no one's gonna stop me :P

Kirbygal

Wk. 33

Sometimes making a new oc just happens lol. I'd be like "I want to make xyz" and then I'd go about doing so ^^; For ones like my chem ocs I'd latch on to an element or compound that's been in my mind too often and then create an oc out of it, but with some brief research first to think about personality traits and occupation :D And yes I do tend to keep some existing ocs in mind when maki g new ocs if they're in the same story. Tbh sometimes that's how new ocs come about when thinking of an existing ocs history/ backstory, I "accidentally " get an idea for an oc and I'm like "Welp this sounds too good to ignore it's new oc time" XD That's actually how some ocs like Jacob and Leroy came into existence. I really like thinking about character interactions so to me it's kinda a given to consider my other ocs esp if its story based. I'll just have to come up with more backstories to fit in the whole but that's part of the fun isn't it XD

For some ocs, if I had a specific idea I want to have incorporated in them then I make sure that thing is something that gets repeated or more noted. I dont know if I think about this for all my ocs but for now I know that the ocs in my magical folder all have at least one thing they're grounded on (whether I wrote it on their profiles or not lol, I'm still figuring things out for a couple of em )

Design wise I think I'd like to come up with the basic traits first before putting a face to it, but tbh these happen simultaneously so I couldn't tell which is more important in order.

Within a story I do try to keep basic personality traits different to make them more distinguishable or for a contrast ^^ but in sure overall there's gonna be some ocs that act similar to each other xD I dont think I've ever stopped to co sider if anyone was too similar :0 But I know there's certain traits I like to reuse XD Of anything, if two ocs have the same trait, I'd tweak it a bit so they would present differently.

VincentVanGoat

I get hit with a concept, kinda just juggle it about, if it sticks, or if I am bored enough, I'll run with it. My whole story isn't really a story, and is set up to be really slice of life kinda shit so it makes it easy to just bring in new blood without any work. That sushi place just has the owner figured out now, I don't need to work her into some tale relating to my goats cause if I had main characters pretty sure it'd be Vangoat and friends. But yeah I got so lazy it ended up working for me.

As for avoiding old ideas, yeah I try to. Try. But some ideas are fun, and there are different ways to tackle the same concept, and reasons a character might follow in the same steps, maybe as a rival, or just cause why not? Yeah I had gun chocobo, guess I don't need gun horse who does similar things, but when I get some inspiration for that horse, I am sure I could make some good differences, or connections between those two. Or at least name her. Oh and Vangoat's mama, though as I remembered that I did recall Valerie as a name, and yeah kinda dig it, so hey the character development questions thread helped me develop, even if the name wasn't this week's focus :p

So in short, my brain has to go "Check out this idea" and catch me at a time of boredom, or just keep the idea in my head long enough, and it could even be a similar concept I've already done. I mean I try to do new things but sometimes the classics are good, too. There is a reason I'd repeat the idea after all.

salida

When making a new character I usually take a single or few pieces of (usually visual) inspiration and build on it a bit to make a design. I hyperfocus on my "main" ocs a TON and have a hard time writing genuine story and personality for other characters but I always make sure to have at least a few traits or tidbits about them, as I dislike having a profile be blank save for a name. I try to make my characters fairly unique from one another because i really don't want characters that are or seem to be duplicates (whether it be appearance, concept, personality or anything else)

I also dislike having unnamed characters so i come up with a name before posting or even properly designing them.

Caine

Manual bump while I'm still on bumping timeout

Jules

For me it usually happens randomly. Like I see a specific video or whatever, like "I am so inspired rn I wanna make an OC inspired by this!". Rarely I get OCs commissioned for a specific roleplay - I only did it once.

Caine

Week 34: (Pick a character) What do they consider their greatest achievement? How about their lowest low moment?

Jackson Rivers ([Post Brainwash]) PicklePantry

I just may post a couple times because I've got a few characters like this.

But one I have right now is Jackson! He's been through a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but the absolute lowest moment for him was during his Post Brainwash days when he woke up in the hospital after getting his eye removed. The person he loved never came by to check on him, never even acknowledged his attempts to reach him, and it really broke him up. It wasn't a simple matter of heartbreak as much as it was the weight of everything finally settling in. He'd been gone for nearly thirty years, and everyone he knew was gone except for this person, and now he was gone too. So it felt like his desperate attempts to break free from mind control were all for nothing, and that he literally had no reason to live anymore (if he ever had one).

However, shortly after someone ended up confessing their love for him. He was too heartbroken at first to accept them, but slowly but surely the two became a couple, and for the first time he was with someone who authentically wanted him and him alone. He'd also met a small family that he kinda adopted as his own, especially taking the little boy under his wing and being a father figure to him. In fact, the reason Jackson doesn't have his bandanna anymore is because he gave it to the little boy.
So even though it's built off of a lot of pain and sadness, Jackson ended up with the life he'd always wanted, which he'd consider his greatest achievement.

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