On creating an original character. Part 1

Hello, hello, this is Dr. (_____) coming to you live from the real world to waste your time and other fashionable stuff, and present you with my own guide to character creation, because some people (you know who you are, just think about where your reading this.) just can't seem to get the hang of making characters that are actually distinct from pre-existing characters! Which is baffling, because it's not hard at all. actually I shouldn't say that since apparently It IS very hard to do something original. But enough vague accusations. Lets move on to the meat of today's post: Dr. (_____)'s guide to character creation!

Step zero: So you want your own original character:
Good for you, you've just joined the ranks of countless other artists and writers who want to make their very own creation! You've also just opened up a big can of worms, some good, some bad.

The good news: You do this right and you'll have a core around which to build your very own stories rather than just using the characters someone else made up. A huge step up, you'll no doubt agree.

The bad news: It's not always an easy thing. which is where this guide come in with some basic dos, and some basic don'ts (which a lot of people ignore. again you know who you are, and if you don't? Shame on you.)

Step one: The basic concept:
This is where most people make their first mistake, usually because they've never done something original before they decide to draw "inspiration" from pre-existing characters.

Say for example you're a Sonic fan, and want to create a fan character to write about. You've no idea where to start so you might just go "He's like sonic, but..."

Problem. If your "new" character is so identical to sonic that you need only list the one or two things that make him "different", exactly how original is that character, really? If your being honest you'll realise that it isn't. And no, adding more and more stuff after the "but" will not get you away from that. The only way to get away from the unoriginality is to drop the "like sonic" bit entirely.

so what now?

Well... look at the basic concept for Sonic himself. "A blue semi-anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run at the speed of sound and battles evil." It's short, simple, and describes his basic appearance , powers, and character. Countless iconic characters start off from similarly concise and descriptive statements.

Thus if you want to create your own original fan character you might start off with something similar. Like oh I don't know... "A young green hedgehog wearing a scarf wishes to surpass Sonic in every way, and keeps getting in his way." There a new hedgehog character described in simple terms, which is not only a different colour, but age and appearance too. Sure its still another hedgehog, but he is not JUST "like sonic but"

(Disclaimer: Given the amount of fan-works concerning sonic, I feel it necessary to say, on the off chance that I have described someone else's character, I assure you that I was unaware of their existence and did so unintentionally.)

Step 2: Characterisation:
Okay. You've got your basic idea, so now its time to move on to fleshing out the details. No I don't just mean a long excruciatingly detailed back story. That is actually the opposite of what I mean. Think about "Dirty" Harry Callahan, of the Dirty Harry movie. We know next to nothing about his personal history, why he has issues with authority. What we get instead is a character so iconic that it helped spawn the renegade cop archetype.

Writing ten pages of a character biography doesn't automatically make a character interesting. History is only a part of characterisation, and it's always important to recognise that you have to pick the proper time and place to reveal it. Do it in the wrong place and you'll just bore your audience or bog down a story with details. Which is generally why we either only learn bits and pieces of a characters history, or get a full blown prequel to explain it all. Make a story out of it.

Long story short, when creating a character its important to first focus on how the audience sees the character in the "present" and THEN think about divulging the characters past to them.

Lets go back to that sonic character I made up in step one. Lets call him Groove, which is something I just picked from a list of racing terms.

Groove is young, hyper-actively upbeat, and practically bursting with enthusiasm for pretty much everything in the world. He constantly rushes into trying to solve problems, frequently not sticking around long enough to have them properly explained to him, though its easy enough to keep him out of the way, just make up something for him to do and watch him go to it.

There you go, a good start to some original characterisation. The character will of course change and grow during the course of any stories he's involved in, that's what characters do, but for now you have a snapshot of how he is "right now" and I haven't bored you to tears with the character's life story before you even begin to care about him.

And that's it for part 1, stay tuned boys and girls for part 2.

Coming Out Part Deux: Sticking It To the People Who Want You To Die

Okay.

When LGBT people come out, whether on National Coming Out Day or otherwise, and whether to the public or just a handful of individuals, it's always a brave act in some respect or another, because there's always at least a little risk involved in coming out. The risks involved vary, depending on things like the age of the person and/or their peers, where they live, whether they directly depend on other people financially, whether there are anti-discrimination ordinances in place, etc. Even when all these things are most ideal, there is still risk. I mentioned that now is a better time for me to come out than it would've been ten years ago.

Why?

Three words: “bigotry” and “high school”.

In the US, kids who come out as LGBT while they're still in school have to deal with a lot of shit. In 2009, it was found that 9 out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at school because they were LGBT, ranging from exposure to frequent homophobic/transphobic language (7 out of 10) to physical assault (almost 2 out of 10). Many times, the school faculty don't do anything about it, even if it's reported, and sometimes even when sexual orientation or gender identity are listed as protected classes in the schools' anti-discrimination policies. Sometimes they take part in it.

Of course, coming out has positive repercussions as well as negative ones, and the increased wellness and self-esteem that the She-Elf mentioned in her last article remain true for students as well as adults who choose not to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity, even if incidents of harassment increase with it. It helps that in better scenarios, these kids have a support group they can turn to, whether friends or family, school faculty, state or national organizations, or student-run groups such as a Gay-Straight Alliance.

But even with this support, these kids still have to deal with bigotry against them just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. From their fellow students, from faculty and staff, from the government, from religious institutions – people who want to force the LGBT back into the closet so that they won't have to be reminded that there are people out there who aren't heteronormative. Sometimes with lethal consequences.

Within the last month alone, eleven teenagers killed themselves as a result of bullying, harassment, and discrimination because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. On September 13th, Cody Walker, then Billy Lucas on the 14th. Then came Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, and Raymond Chase on the 28th and 29th (as well as Tyler Wilson who is still alive and well, but had his arm broken by bullies because he joined the cheerleading squad, an act that isn't LGBT per se, but certainly defies gender norms enough to enrage some bigoted bullies).

I hoped October meant things would be better, but then came Jeanine Blanchette and Chantal Dube, who died together on October 4th, Zach Harington on the 10th, and Ayishia Hassan only yesterday, as well as the report about Chloey Lacey.

And those are just the victims that were reported in two news blogs. How many more are there out there? How many more tomorrow?

The National Center for Transgender Equality, along with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force recently released this year's National Transgender Discrimination Survey, which showed that despite a national average of attempted suicides of 1.6%, attempted suicide rates of transgender students was at 41%. Half of transgender kids attempted suicide when they experienced harassment at school, as well as “...59 percent for those harassed or bullied by teachers, 76 percent among those who were physically assaulted by teachers and 69 percent among those who were sexually assaulted by teachers.”

And the bigots aren't sorry. Not one little iota. They pretend to be sorry, but then turn around and blame the victims, or blame gay people. These are the same people who claim that hate crimes laws discriminate against their religion. These are the same people who are against anti-bullying ordinances that include LGBT students, because they claim it “pushes the homosexual agenda”. These are the same people who claim that the high rates of suicides is “proof” that “homosexuality” needs to be regulated.

No, you morons. They wouldn't be dead if you people weren't telling them that they are inherently bad because of who they are. They wouldn't be dead if you weren't encouraging your kids to bully LGBT kids by treating them like inhuman monsters.

This is why I get so upset when idiots like Ryuu think their homophobia is excusable because they don't go out and punch gay people. They're ignorant, whether deliberately or otherwise, of the harm they do to people just by contributing to the toxic environment that leads to children feeling disgusting and unwanted, and getting bullied until they don't want to live anymore.



The plan, of course, is to try and force LGBT people into hiding away, or of disappearing (figuratively or literally -- they don't give a shit either way), because when you have to hide, you can't fight back. There's no pride in the closet, and without pride, there is less incentive to fight back against people who oppress you. Worse, that shame can be used as a weapon. How many people are apathetic to, or work against, LGBT causes out of fear that they'll be perceived as gay by association?

This is why people need to come out. Because they feel better about themselves. Because they can look around and see others like themselves, and know that they aren't abnormal, or wrong, or sick, or alone. Because there's pride in living true to yourself. Because there's pride in knowing that no matter what the bigots say, you are being true to yourself and living your life according to your own terms. Because they can't blackmail you with information that you give away willingly. Because it exposes the deadly reality of homopobic and transphobic bigotry.

And because when bigots find out that their sister or brother, or mother or father, or son or daughter, or uncle, or coworker, or teacher, or student, or boss is gay, bisexual, or transgender, they realize the people they hate are also the people they love, or people they deal with on a regular basis, and they see the results of their bigotry first hand. Many bigots become a little less bigoted as a result.

Tolerance toward LGBT people is growing in America, and it's due, in part, to the growing number of us who let the world know that we exist.

And for those kids who still have to deal with hatred and violence encouraged by bigoted adults, it gets better.

It really does.

Coming Out

I'm an asexual transsexual atheist. For those who know me or have seen me on DeviantArt, that probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, since I'm pretty much out online anyway.

There's my coming out, for National Coming Out Day.

Actually, I planned on writing more about this, but the subject I intend to cover is one that's very hard for me to write about. Moreso than usual, I mean, and it goes beyond the usual trouble I have with writing things. I will say that it's easier for me to come out now than it would've been ten years ago.

But that's something for another day, hopefully one that's very soon, because it absolutely must be aired out. In the meantime, I didn't want to be late for National Coming Out Day, so there you go.

National Coming Out Day

Le suilon.

It's National Coming Out Day, again. It's celebrated as an awareness day for the GLBT community. It is celebrated in the states and a few European countries on the eleventh, and in the UK on the twelfth.

Now, I think many people don't understand why people in the GLBT community can't just "stay in the closet" and "keep it to themselves." They don't like it being "thrown in their faces."

Well, to cite the American Psychological Association:

Why do some gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals tell people about their sexual orientation?

Because sharing that aspect of themselves with others is important to their mental health. In fact, the process of identity development for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals called "coming out" has been found to be strongly related to psychological adjustment; the more positive the gay, lesbian, or bisexual identity, the better one's mental health and the higher one's self-esteem.

Because roughly ninety percent of all people are heterosexual, many people with non-heterosexual orientations feel invisible, because everyone misidentifies them as heterosexual. Now, when it comes up, some heterosexuals will point out that they're not gay.

It's not just for people yelling "I'm not gay!" when any question of their orientation comes up. Sometimes, this will be when straight people who support the GLBT community start an argument with, "I'm not gay, but..."

It can even be more subtle than that. People hold hands and kiss their boyfriends or girlfriends all the time, in public. They can talk about their straight marriages or straight relationships casually, without fear of being judged for being in a relationship with the opposite sex.

But, somehow, it's flaunting it if a gay person does any of those things. This can definitely make people feel trapped. That's why coming out is important, in the GLBT community.

Also, I already recently came out on the blog, for Celebrate Bisexuality Day, so I just decided to give a little more information.

Have a rainbow-licious day.

Namárië.