the third option for me
I'm working on a big universe since 2011 and I'm writing a novel, all of my characters belong to it (there are two parts of it but I'm working on them at one time and it probably will take me decades to finish it because this is so huge)
of course I love drawing them, getting art of them and talking about them, but their main destination is building the plot lines in my story  👀they must hate me for everything I'm doing to them since almost 10 years
What are your characters for/how do you use them? I've been really curious lately to know how people use their characters and what the purpose is. It occurred to me that everyone doesn't use them the same.
Do you make visually appealing characters that you can draw?
Do you collect cool/cute designs for fun?
Do you build characters to write and is it for personal enjoyment or are you a writer?
Do you have mostly fan ocs to be more involved with you favorite fandoms or to write fanfics?
A little of everything or something entirely different?
I must know!
I have some fan characters to use when roleplaying! But I mostly create them to build interesting stories, write them, draw, or just imagine. And Rafael Torre is my to-go character when I want to draw but feel stuck ^^
I have a lot of uses for characters, the ic is one I'll be using for a main personal project to write about, but since he has what is in my opinion a pretty visually appealing and relatively simple but interesting design, I'll also be drawing him quite a lot most likely.
I also have others that I use more for rp or forum games, and a few more that I only really use for art :)
i love romance so i make lots of characters just to ship and sometimes that leads to bigger stories (that i never get to write), but most of my characters are just for drawing ^^ i like drawing pretty designs much more than i like writing about them so my stuff is all about the aesthetic
Use them for role plays and personal project stories. I love my babies and its always fun to imagine them in different types of settings and scenarios. I find shipping them is the most fun, I especially love seeing them have kids and a family, it also helps with development.
Most of them are for my future story, as they all connect back to each other. The only character that doesn't link back to any of my ocs is Lemonade. Well, they link back to a certain spirit child. Kind of.
My characters are all for my stories. Personally I don't like them just sitting around doing nothing, so I yell at them to get a job and the organized chaos that results of this is my writing.Â
For me it's a health mix of the first & third options! I like telling stories and worldbuilding, but I also like enjoying the characters I draw. The designs I like the least tend to not get as much attention as the ones I like more :') Usually I just make cool designs and let the stories follow after. But I've got a couple designs that hardly have stories or lore, who just exist to be cute n fun to draw.