Posted by Kromey at 10:33pm Aug 19 '09evolve very organically as the story progresses. My character development process can be summed up as: Hm, I need a character; this one will be female, her name's Jill, and [insert one or two vague personal details, e.g. only child, orphaned at a young age, graduated suma cum laude]. Then the character pretty much writes hirself as the story progresses.
More than once my characters have revolted against me, and my stories have ended up completely different than what I set out to write. By way of example, I sat down to write a typical knight-in-shining-armor-slays-the-dragon-and-saves-the-damsel-in-distress-and-they-got-married-and-lived-happily-ever-after story for my creative writing class; unfortunately, the knight had other ideas and ended up striking a deal with the dragon where he'd give up the damsel to the knight in exchange for free reign over the knight's king's enemy's territories, a bargain the damsel (who was the knight's king's enemy's niece, and her wedding to the knight was supposed to end the centuries-old feud) didn't take kindly to - she lured him to bed and then, once he was asleep, she killed him with his own sword.
It ended up being a darn good story, it just wasn't at all what I sat down to write - all because that knight had ideas of his own!
More than once my characters have revolted against me, and my stories have ended up completely different than what I set out to write. By way of example, I sat down to write a typical knight-in-shining-armor-slays-the-dragon-and-saves-the-damsel-in-distress-and-they-got-married-and-lived-happily-ever-after story for my creative writing class; unfortunately, the knight had other ideas and ended up striking a deal with the dragon where he'd give up the damsel to the knight in exchange for free reign over the knight's king's enemy's territories, a bargain the damsel (who was the knight's king's enemy's niece, and her wedding to the knight was supposed to end the centuries-old feud) didn't take kindly to - she lured him to bed and then, once he was asleep, she killed him with his own sword.
It ended up being a darn good story, it just wasn't at all what I sat down to write - all because that knight had ideas of his own!
My characters - Kromey