Recently I just wrote a characters physical appearance and started jotting down points about the character, I’ve done a few of these before but never have I started off with the appearance.
The initial note I wrote: A Greyhound-like character with a sleek and slender build, long, narrow face, pointed ears, deep chest, wearing a short, smooth coat, graceful gait, athletic movements.
I normally write with a theme in mind not a character, so the characters I write often feel forced into the story.
I’d love to hear what you feel makes a character apt for a story and what order you tend to build a story in.
Not me, but Roger Zelazny would sometimes write an entire story about a minor character so that when it came time to put them in a book he’d know exactly how they’d act in a particular situation.
I’ve been given that advice too! Didn’t know he did that tho, that’s cool.
This is my personal trick to get going. I pick an actor to play the character to start the ball rolling.
“Danny Devito walks into a bar…” is an completely different story than “Clint Eastwood walks into a bar…”
Yessss I only recently did smth similar with jeff goldblum
If you know someone who is creative, it makes a great game. One person names two actors who have never appeared together, the other has to come up with a scenario. Actors can be any age they appeared on screen. Best pair I ever got was Gary Coleman and Tom Hiddleston