Making Characters

making characters got so much easier (and more enjoyable) when i realized my groove was explicitly making characters for plot+theme needs. 

(Keeps casts trimmed down, for one.)

like - i don’t … do those eighty-thousand question lists about characters; most of those are useless for my style anyway. Don’t want to know what everyone’s favorite color is or what they feel about their grandparents > do want to know which tropes they subvert, and the why of that first crucial plot-relevant action they take.  everything before and everything afterwards both leads to that.

for example - ‘i need uhhh, a random ass meatbag soldier that knew diane and her dad who’s a spineless coward under a totes smooth operator look that tries to shank them and gtfo lol’  boom, hardin.  (who happens to be one of my actual favorites - and most well received - villains I’ve ever written.  working backwards to find his motivation of why [why’d he betray them? what blackmail would someone need on him to switch loyalties? why’d he serve dictator dad? why does he give a shit about diane? ] has honestly been the meat of the last two chapters. )

likewise - ‘i need a villain who masterminded [redacted] and was an ambassador that mentored diane when they were younger - super charismatic, takes her in under her wing but is a corrosive piece of shit.’ even the visual designs trail that; thinking of station and what kind of institutional power they need in order to apply their will on the plot, how much of a disney villain peacock they are in order to telegraph that corrosiveness, how much they want to resemble which country to get the most sympathy from people, etc. 

i - and I would wager a ton of readers - truly don’t give a shit about characters until that ‘why’ chain starts rolling out.  and i honestly feel like so many more other characters would instantly be more compelling if that was applied.