1. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    Character profile: truthbeckons

    Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by truthbeckons, Apr 17, 2017.

    Hi. Thought I'd wait to make sure I was going to stick around and post before I gave an intro that no one has any reason to be interested in. Now I'm not sure how best to introduce myself, so I amused myself by filling in a bio template.

    Feel free to say hi, ask me anything you're actually curious to know, or critique how interesting I make myself sound.


    Physical description: Slightly tall, athletic build with broad shoulders, incongruous with lack of physical coordination. Messy, chin-length, very thick hair. Big dull-coloured eyes. Casual, largely unisex wardrobe, only wears boots or sandals. Never pierced or tattooed, but lots of moles. Low voice, refined Australian accent which unintentionally turns Californian when very excited, betraying a significant episode of personal history. Relaxed manner, but tends to fiddle with things. Very strong tastebuds, so finds most meals intolerable.

    Personality: Systematic and abstract thinker. Calm, introverted, plans ahead but lacks present-mindedness. Consciously subordinates feelings and value judgements to detached reasoning process. Highly critical, but looks for the potential in everything. Independent to a fault. Will not violate own principles of honesty, high standards or integrity. Listens to energetic early 80s rock-pop or earnest 60s folk-pop to get in a good mood.

    Background: Grew up home-educated and still a little awkward as a result, now more out of self-consciousness than inexperience. Depressed, acutely traumatised and briefly psychotic over ten years following adolescence. Spent some time in a mental ward, but got better after a protracted period of drug-dazed recovery. Struggled uphill in long dysfunctional relationships for much of early adulthood.

    Current life: Now in late twenties, attempting to put the pieces in place for a stable, satisfying life. Trying to make up for lost time and forge new connections, especially building relationships with immediate family. At the tail end of a teaching degree, studying full-time with extra units. In the early stages of learning German and tennis, but both may go the way of bass guitar and remain amateur hobbies.

    External conflicts: Having trouble meeting someone whose shit is also together, but who lacks a life partner. Still relatively untested at being in charge of a high school class, only just about to get first taste of it. Got over first couple hurdles of getting into shape, now struggling to break through to the next level and stay motivated.

    Internal conflicts: Concerned that current happiness is fragile, because it's all new territory. Confused about the growing desire to have a family (now as hormonal an inclination as a philosophical one) while having become so comfortable not having to share space and mesh lifestyles with another person. Deep down afraid of hitting a wall and realising own limits, and often tempted not to risk approaching them.
     
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  2. savethebbbees

    savethebbbees New Member

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    Hi! I love how you filled in a character profile for yourself that's such a neat idea for somewhere like a writing forum - adds a lot of helpful structure to talking about yourself, too. You haven't said much about what you write but based on your description of your characteristics and experiences I'm very interested in knowing more!
     
  3. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    Welcome to the forum; I hope you've enjoyed your time here so far. :) At least from what I've observed, your posts have been very helpful and insightful so far.

    A member character profile; what a fun idea. :D Maybe that should be a thread in the Lounge...

    See you around!

    -Kat
     
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  4. Bill Chester

    Bill Chester Active Member

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    You forgot to mention that you have a great sense of humour!
     
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  5. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    Cheers, guys.

    I haven't spent nearly enough time creative writing during the above described patchy history, so I'm still getting back into it, even though it's something that's been dear to me since I was tiny. (At least in my uni career I've been fine-tuning my editing skills, and I like to think that even if I haven't finished any creative writing that I'm really happy with yet, I can take pride in being a pretty badass editor.)

    I'm still crazy busy with uni, but whenever I feel like sneaking in world-building and discovery writing exercises, I've got one project that I've kept coming back to. Now I've got a thorough outline and some scenes, so I'm trying to get through the meat of it.

    I feel like I've finally grown up enough to say some things to my teenage self, so what I'd like to finish is a coming-of-age thing about discovering dangerous worlds, navigating uneven power relationships and learning how to make decisions and take control in the face of bewildering uncertainty.

    And it's contemporary fantasy. I've fascinated by the medieval worldview described by C. S. Lewis in his lectures/book The Discarded Image, and I've been incorporating ideas from that about a precisely ordered, anthropocentric universe with hidden, half-immortal beings who exist between humanity and godhood. There's obviously more to the pitch, but that's already a lot of words for a short question.

    The other thing I'm interested in is basic contemporary lit, but I feel like I'll have to really dig deep to make that interesting, so that will be less of a fun passtime and a bit of a heavier undertaking, I think.
     
  6. savethebbbees

    savethebbbees New Member

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    I can identify pretty strongly with a lot of this! University has been a real obstacle for me and my writing - I study a completely unrelated subject so I spend most of my time battling with reading scientific literature rather than getting any experience with fiction. World building is also my secret addiction... :)

    Your project sounds super fascinating - I know I only threw in a short question about your writing there but it sounds like something I'd love to hear more about, though that being said it's probably because the topics you aim to address in it are things I have life experiences with I guess. The contemporary fantasy component in particular really intrigues me, though.
     
  7. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    How the fantasy comes into it is a bit complicated. Basically, the main character is drawn into the hidden society of nigh-immortals, who are powerful in some incomprehensible ways, but have magic that they can teach humans. To be a part of this world and allowed to learn their secrets, a human has to enter into a contract of service as something between an assistant, an apprentice and a companion. The more I thought about the imbalance between the immortals, who have advantages like perfect, simultaneous access to all their own knowledge and memories, and the contracted humans who can't even know what they're getting into, the more sketchy it sounded, so I thought it was an interesting way of exploring the kind of questionable lifestyles and relationships we can get into when we're naive and just desperate to discover something different/exciting/"real", if that makes sense.
     
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