When you create your characters, are they influenced by anything?

[Ivy 8]

My characters can be influenced by many things... Music, a story I read, movie I watched.

[poufkin 13]

MUSIC is a huge inspiration for me! Once the seed is planted, I run with that idea and then before you know it, that character has a 2 hour playlist... and I know I gotta have the playlist before I can even start writing the profile, and THEN I gotta draw/make the graphics to accompany said profile. THEN AND ONLY THEN can I begin writing.

 

It's a process.

[Kiewbles 15]

My characters are often sparked from a good face claim, or some random personality trait that creeps into my brain while I'm trying to sleep. One of my very favorite characters was born from the simple idea of a necromancer who can only hear ghosts and not see them, and was committed to when someone sent me a playby suggestion - and now she's come so far from her foundation!

[akakios 14]

Most recently, I've been inspired by animation... well, specifically Moomins lol. 

[Gabriel Reyes 6]

I believe in the old saying 'good writers usually write what they know'. I know I'm paraphrasing there but that sticks in my head when I write characters.

 

They are usually a reflection of a part of myself and draw on some of my life experiences. I also base them on people I know or have encountered.

[DivineRabbit 64]

Sometimes characters in books that I loved. Jack the Ripper was a huge fascination of mine and led to one of my most notable characters still in play today ( as a vampire)

 

One of mine was a direct take off on the Lhiannon bloodline of Minds Eye Theater ( not dating myself at all there) and just grew into a very reputable and infamous creature

 

It truly depends, sometimes a really good show with character development will drive creativity and sometimes its music

[Atypicalzero 12]

I have a version of War (that's actually War, the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse) that I call Charlie. Woody Harrelson for a PB. I actually based him largely off of the song If You Want Blood (You've Got It) by AC/DC. I wanted to write someone that fit the general vibe of the song: cocky, fun, kind of nuts. I also, per my usual trend, took some inspiration from his character Tallahassee in Zombieland. Last but not least, the trope you see in a lot of supernatural media where such and such exists but not quite as it's written. He has a number of backstory references to gods of war across several mythologies, even married (separated) to a woman named Harmony, after Ares/Harmonia from Greek mythology. 

[shinchan 1]

i always thought the music thing was really interesting, since i've never had a song inspire a character specifically, but rather have used music as a way to drive emotion and character development. songs just don't inspire me to create anything, only move along.

 

its weird though...i'm not sure what influences my characters. usually i get an idea in my head and go 'oh that'd be interesting' like what if a wolf was raised by bears? what would their life be like? character. 

 

or sometimes tropes interest me! like the son of a prominent family whose never had a meaningful connection in his life! let's donk up his world through character development! hand in hand with this, personality types in shows/movies will sometimes motivate me.

 

i did have one character that was created solely because i was feeling so trapped in my life i wanted to emulate it in rp and let her break free of her oppressions. it was like a self insert but also a way to gain control of a helpless situation and also live vicariously through something that didn't exist. 

 

huh...actually now i think propensity for character development and challenging emotions is what drives me?

[Kat713 6]

Usually the quirks that I give them, influence them decently. It can be a mix of the FC I use and then of course if I give them powers/abilities or a type of animal species that plays a part in their influence.

[Lost Boy 18]

it depends on the type of character really and I'm told I 'do them wrong' anyways.

 

If I'm taking a canon character for a fandom RP, I'll research the character, read/watch whatever they are in inside and out. Then find a face claim that the actor hopefully has the same or similar personality in a role and in real life. then write up the character. If I find a match like that then anything I find when looking up stuff for graphics and what not I'm just constantly going 'thats so.... (insert character's name here)' and it gives me muse constantly. 

 

I do the same with original characters just the concept/idea I have for the kind of character I want to make is my base.

[ValonRhodes 4]

Generally I create a 'theme' with all of my characters. Valon, the character my username is from, was based around the theme 'Can selfishness be good?'. The question made for an interesting character where I made every plot point illustrate that theme and the relationship between the character to it. I don't know why but that's usually how I make all my characters. 

[Miserable_Ghoul 3]

It typically depends on if I've had a hankering for a certain character or not. Sometimes I can get inspiration from books--if a character's personality resonates with me, I'll throw them into my world with a different history. Again, it all depends. Sometimes I just make up character's to see how they'd turn out. 

[PersonaDraco 0]

My characters are influenced by whatever I'm consuming in terms of media at the time + what designs I want to try.

Edited September 12, 2022 by PersonaDraco
Forgot a statement.

[Lady Hyde 21]

Characters are normally dependent on my mood and recently I realised that it's the same when it comes to ideas. "What do I feel like writing?" has become "What kind of character am I in the mood for?" and I feel like my current trend has been rather stable characters. Which makes sense since my life is chaos. XD 

 

Other than that, they're occasionally influenced by what podcast I'm listening to, what I'm reading or watching. The current timeline I finished was for a character that I knew I wanted because I didn't have a 'no strings attached nice' vampire in my arsenal. So that was the start of her. And then her origins were influenced by listening to a 5 part series on Jack The Ripper that went into what Whitechapel and the East Side was like in the late 19th century so I knew I wanted her to begin sometime around then because I had a hankering for that history now. 

 

Things like that. 

 

I couldn't remember the last time I based a character off of any one thing. Normally it's an idea based entirely on what I feel like writing and don't currently have, and then it gets given colour and life from whatever is interesting me at that moment.  

[The Supreme One 8]

My characters and my role-plays are usually influenced a lot by my mood and the setting. Say if I am listening to an upbeat song, typically I'll feel a little more inspired while I'm writing. 

 

My character is also influenced a lot by the books I've read, as is my writing itself. Reading a book, or series, generally helps me improve my own ideas. It also impacts the way I write.

 

Perhaps I saw something written a certain way in a book, and now it's stuck in my head.

 

Quote

That 'key catching' sentence might find its way past my fingers, and onto the page; though not exactly 'word for word'. 

 

Books are great ways to work on improving your writing skills! By reading you can drastically improve your grammar, and your word usage. You'll also find out what people enjoy the most, and you can work on fitting it into your own plays or writing.