So, my newest project that I have up taken focuses around past lifes and many other things to that affect. Now, I can't decide how the MC should look, what he should use, his talents.. I'm just stuck, with basically a stick figure for a Main Character. Help?
Sounds like the name is the least of your problems. I personally don't sweat the name much, especially in the early phases of a story. Names can change anytinme before you are ready to unleash hour character to the world. But the character himself - that's a lot more important. I'd start with what attributes are important to the story. Is he someone who has never been popular or confident, and will have to cowboy up? Or perhaps an overconfident loudmouth, even a a bit of a bully, who learns some humility. Stick to the attributes that are essential to the story for now. His hair color and height are probably not important at this time, so don't worry about them. The same goes with his history. Some elements of it might stand ot as important to his development, but chances are aganst it. When you meet a person in real life for the first time, you generally know him for quite a while before you know a thing about his past. Let it be the same for your character. This could be called a lazy approach to character creation, but I think of it more as a minimalist approach that leaves the maximum flexibility for character development. The details will come, a few at a time.
Thats the thing, his past is the focus of the story! If you've seen my post in the Plot Creation, you'll see that his past is everything. And I can't figure out what his past should be!
To put is simply; What he is and what he does/has done are to closely intertwined. If you don't have one, you don't have the other
His past has a whole lot to do with how his personality is. and personality, believe it or not, is pretty simply once you have his background. How did he react to situations he was in? How does that make him look? Is that how he really is? Looks are a matter of point and click so to speak. They really mean NOTHING. Names are simple for me. I get everything else done for the character and the name is typically the last thing. (I have gone the other way. starting with a name and building the character on what the name says to me.) If they have a specific nationality I go for typical names of that region. To further narrow it down I rely heavily on meanings of names.
If the past is the focus of the story, then I would thing as the story develops, so will his past. My point is you don't have to decide all these things a priori; let them flow from the development.
Get to know your MC Hello, Characterization is imperative for a good plot/story so I would say that there isn't a better time to get to know your MC. This may sound weird but I tend to write in their perspective, like a diary entry I suppose, or anything for that matter. It'll help you get to know your MC a lot. I also tend to randomly think of questions like, what's his/her favorite color? or What kind of music does he/she listen to? You should be comfortable with your MC, get to know him and treat him like a person. Sounds a little crazy but to me treating your MC like a person tends to help me the most... Hope this helped. Good luck with your project
