Introducing a character into my world involves a simple but standard method. There are basically three ways a character is born:
1. I have a certain name that I want to see used on a person. The person then gains personality as I draw a basic sketch and write out their character sketch.
Famous Examples: Mustafa Kribana, Morley Behr, Faren Kay Wills, Avicile Mohaili, Lesko Diamond
2. I am inspired by a person- either by someone I know well or someone I have merely chanced upon. I want to capture little bits of their personality, looks, style, or even just the name and come up with someone who is somewhat like the original person, but original enough to be unique. The obviousness level of the tribute varies person by person. Rarely have I totally copied someone, and even then it's not anything close to a carbon copy.
Famous Examples: Eagle Rivers, Winterwood Rivers, Harrison Kye, Rebecca Landon, Steven Behr
3. I have a situation that I need a character to fulfill. It could be someone with a certain medical condition, someone who comes from a particular place, a prominent sibling of someone else I have already created, etc. Their name and personality comes after writing their history first.
Famous Examples: Eric Latham, Brian Foster, Maineco Djosevili, Gary Charles
After I have figured out who it is I am creating, and after I have a solid foundation down, it's time for their character sketch. I have done this with most people- some as I created them and others several days or months later. A character sketch involves a small portrait-style drawing in the upper right-hand corner and the infamous list on the left side of the page, going down. While every character sketch is unique, there are several basics that are always addressed. An example is shown:
Name
Age
Bday
Bplace
Parents
Siblings
Height/Build
Heritage/Race
Hair
Eyes
Personality
Favorites (unique to the person)
The next thing to do was to establish their birthday. Early characters, such as the Kye and Mohaili families, had a random birthday that wasn't really significant, with the exception of Rodney Savage, whose birthday was the number of letters in his first and middle name for the month and the number of letters in his middle name only for the day (November 5, 1987). Starting with Mustafa Kribana, I had a new and standard method which I still use today.
I remember well sitting in zero-hour English on March 15, 2005. We were in the middle of reading Julius Caesar and the "Ides of March" was here! . I may have been dressed in a toga and leaf-crown with my best friend, running down the halls warning people to "beware the Ides of March" during the day but in the middle of this English class something interesting happened. I had this name in my head, Mustafa, that I wanted to put into a person. I decided that his birthday would be on this fateful day, the Ides of March. On this day, I wrote his character sketch.
From then on, the date that I wrote my fresh creation down on paper, either in a character sketch or right to my computer, became their birthday. The year is insignificant, obviously, but the month and day is legit. It took a little while for this idea to really stick (I know because Lesko Diamond was created long after Mustafa and his birthday for sure doesn't line up with the time I finally wrote him out.) and I can remember with clarity the day I really decided that this was how I wanted to do it.
I had another idea for a person in my head and I finally wrote him out on paper. The date? February 10. The person, Gary Charles. Did he last? You bet he did! He's one of the most prominent! Just as a note, this only works for the inspired major character, not the siblings. Otherwise they'd all have the same birthday! From Gary on, every new major character has his birthday on the day I wrote them out. A few major characters have a special birthday and if that is the case then a sibling will have the birthday of the day I wrote them. Usually if this is the case then there are two major characters in the same family so it doesn't matter.
So there you have it. My naming/creating/birthday method. It's cool. I'll be sending a lot of later posts to this post as a reference. Good bye.
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