Curious | The Endless Forest

Curious

March 16, 2011 - 2:46am — Lu

I would like to hear others' opinions on making characters. For example, I know some prefer to make one or two and perfect them, while others create many. Spurred from a memory of when I myself was lectured for having one too many.

Personally, I quite enjoy spilling ideas. Sometimes I will place a name to a design, just for labeling purposes, but I don't consider this quite a character. To me, a character is truly born the moment I roleplay them. Any time before that, they are simply a list of what I deem interesting attributes. I'll often tuck these lists away, and purposely forget about them. There's something thrilling about stumbling across something wonderful, and knowing full well it's yours. Sort of like finding a twenty dollar bill in a jacket you haven't worn for half a year.

On the other hand, I know a person who routinely "kills off" their characters for fear of having too many to keep up with.

Just food for thought. I'd like to hear other takes on the matter.

Miscellaneous

lu's blog
Login to post comments

March 16, 2011 - 2:50am — Matthieu's Deer...

I'm a lot like you, I have a

I'm a lot like you, I have a lot, I adore creating them, I feel bad when some don't get used as often as others, but I feel worse letting the idea go to waste.
I don't think you can have too many as long as you're enjoying yourself, and I don't know why anyone else would care, their your characters after all.

tl;dr
I encourage the idea of sharing characters, the more the merrier.

—

This account is a biography holder. Nothing more.

March 16, 2011 - 2:52am — ocean

Hmmmn. I personally created a

Hmmmn. I personally created a lot of characters when I was first here to try out concepts and try to find 'the one'. I like having a few characters, anyhow--they give me a chance to take a break from characters who have become harder to play. It also gives me the ability to try out a spectrum of personalities and ways of interacting with other characters, which I find fun.

I have less characters now because it is fun to perfect them, but I do create characters when I see a concept I want to try. I don't set a number of characters for myself because I never have felt the need to. ^^

March 16, 2011 - 2:53am — Terabetha

To me, in my own creative

To me, in my own creative process, an idea does not become a true character until it speaks for itself. Until I have moments where I think "Hey, this is what ____ would do." or "I don't like that, but ____ does."...that is when a character is removed from me and becomes it's own set of beliefs, goals, and ideals. Until that point it is just an idea, something I think would be cool, a combination of visuals or traits that I am interested in. It takes more development to make a character, at least for me, and my characters stick around a long time.

March 16, 2011 - 3:09am — Dinamo

Well, sometimes for me, Ill

Well, sometimes for me, Ill just be sitting around, in school or at home-for instance, and I will just have a random spark or idea for a deer. (Like, I had one from my art class, we had to draw this one deer, and it never drank, it gets its water from the plants it eats.) This idea usually sparks into a full blown bio that I have created in my book of The Endless Forest things.

And, sometimes, I really want to make that character, because it is so unique and interesting, but I hold myself back. Id never play more than one deer, and I rarely play my second deer, Clementine. Not meaning to spam, I know you want ideas. ♥

March 16, 2011 - 3:21am — quadraptor

I have one 'main' deer (Quad)

I have one 'main' deer (Quad) and then several side characters that I put in the Forest from time to time. So on occasion you will see Zephyr, Blixt, Trunks, Pent, Caw, or Nekumbra appear in the Forest, but generally I play as Quad since most people know his picto. The only characters I have ever gotten rid of are generally fan-based ones (such as Wakka from Final Fantasy, Victor Krum from Harry Potter, Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh, and so on) that I just didn't want to play anymore, though I recycle their pictograms for other characters.

—

Quad's Updates and Stuff

March 16, 2011 - 3:39am — AliceV

Hhm... for me I made

Hhm...

for me I made following observation:

I have only a handful 'living' characters, those are also the most important to me and will propably stay for a long, long time. (maybe even 'evolving' into something bigger. Much more than just being a character... like my 'anty couple'... )
These are, of course, Jack and Jane (the anti couple) and then far behind them Collector, and two more I haven't brought to the forest.... Janus and Grave.

then there are the 'second rank' chars, those that came to my mind for a while and developed far enough to not be simply 'dropped' again but not far enough to be as important as the 'living' ones...
Those are, for example, Boris, Technokrat, LaSombra and so on...

Then there are the 'newbies'- ideas that came to my mind, inspirations from whatever... that keep me busy...kinda rough and undeveloped, but far too interesting to let go off again.

and.... then there are the brainwaves... short inspirations but at closer thinking not really worth a try, maybe going into an already existing char as well...

I am fine with experimenting... no one's gonna hurt if a character idea goes into a dead end... I think its a good training for creativity and imagination.
And it is interesting to see how a 'brainwave' maybe one day becomes a 'living' character...

... do i make sense? I have no idea.

March 16, 2011 - 5:00am — Ysrael

I have three characters that

I have three characters that I actually play inforest, two of which I am developing solid stories for. I tend to be overly meticulous about details and pasts and I'd probably be rubbish at keeping track of lots of individuals. x3
But I admire those that can keep track! I figure that a character comes from within your own mind, and you have every right to do whatever you please with it.

—

March 16, 2011 - 7:39am — celticmystress

I'm in the same boat with

I'm in the same boat with AliceV in a few cases. I have "ranks" of characters. Right now I only have a few developed characters. One character in particular, Miss Bones, will become something much larger than "a character of mine", she'll eventually have her own set of novels and the works, eventually. In an overall picture I have a had a ton of characters on this site alone, but almost 90% have bit the dust. I don't look at them as failures (expecially since I re-use their pictos); but rather as "sacrifices" for something better to come.

I know I'll never stop creating characters, whether I'm on this site, or alone in the woods for the rest of my life, and a lot of them are doomed to a dead-end. Just remember to create things you like; not because other people will like them, or because "everyone else is doing it". Because when you create something you genuinely love like a child -- eventually they will get to a point where you think they're the creator, and you're the character. Crazy right? Awesome.

March 16, 2011 - 7:49am — shamiya

I try to make as few as

I try to make as few as possible and perfect them... it's silly, and exhausting, sometimes even stressful. So they'll eventually become abandoned or partially abandoned projects while I work on something new, only to start over. I wouldn't be happy with spur of the moment characters though(unlike the one I do have, Taquito). - I can't say good idea's come to me often, it takes a lot of time and energy for me... so, I focus most of it into 1 at a time if possible. However, like I said above... it's like a never ending circle of imperfection with characters for me.