Re: culture/character noodling

Mary K. Kuhner <mkkuhner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Jonathan L Cunningham <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mary K. Kuhner <mkkuhner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(snipetty)
... A guard is not, for me, characterized enough
by making him brave, cowardly, loyal or disloyal. I need something
else: he's juggling wife and mistress, he becomes afraid when
alone at night, when he retires he wants to go back to the
mountains and raise goats.

Hmmm. May I ask why? Is it truly necessary to flesh out walk-on
characters? Do others here feel the same? I can see it for regular
minor characters, and maybe even in a cameo role for the lead
character in a scene (to retain a cinematic metaphor). But the guy
who opens the door to the audience chamber? Where do you (does one)
draw the line?

I'm sorry; I was completely unclear here.

I understood you just fine.

It had me think of the (one nice) guard I have in the ME, who at one
(fitting) point thinks about how he ended up as guard (wondering
whether it was schemed by the evil overlord), and later turns out to
have initially planned to become a cook (and he still likes cooking,
does his own in the evening even though he could get free food at
work). There's more to his personality, but that's two things that
turned up showing stuff outside his profession. (Well, the history
is part of his 'role' as another character's supportive friend. But
it gives a reason for why he is that.)

At least the history only came with a viewpoint (which has me think
of another, very minor character, whose history turned up in a
viewpoint).

Plus, it's not only individuals, but also, in the S&E, I only got
some answers about one tribe after forcing a viewpoint (one who has
an excuse to get some things wrong); before that I kept being
deceived, not knowing what was going on (the tribe is all deceivers
and liars). As a bonus, another character who I wondered who to pair
off with found his mate. :)

On the other hand, my viewpoints can get rambling about things I
learn while writing. :) (And even more when I try to add stuff I
learned later.)

If he is a walk-on or cameo it is completely okay that he is a role
and not a personality. But if I want him to develop a personality,
I need something outside his role in order to prompt that
development. If I only flesh out traits linked to his role, in my
hands he will never be suitable as more than a walk-on; he can't be a
main character as he will not have an individual personality.

Hm. I don't think I make distinctions between walk-on and minor and
main characters. Walk-ons just don't get to show much, and rarely a
viewpoint, but with seeing what they do I see an attitude at least.
Though perhaps less so at the start of a story, when I don't know
much of anything at all.

Third guard from the left needs very little. If you want him to
stand out, making him shifty or brave or red-headed is plenty. I was
talking about characters who seem to need characterization:
protagonists, major antagonists, important side characters. Or, in
my RPG experience, PCs and major NPCs--where "major" is not a measure
of power but of on-stage time and emotional significance.

It may be a tic of mine, but as long as all I know is things
related to the character's role, no matter how complex that becomes,
I don't know enough: I need one thing unrelated to their role.

I don't think of them as having 'roles', they're just people. The
guard started out as someone who sits at the pub, where I needed
examples of people working for the evil overlord, and couldn't come
up with better than 'kitchen helper' and 'guard'. But as soon as he
sat there, he was a person. What's fuzzy is the unnamed crowd also
at the table. People emerge from that only when they do or say
something individual.

--
Tina
WIP: Magic Earth (7/6): 101649 words
WISuspension: Seasons & Elements trilogy
Posted to Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.composition.

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