Melting Snow

Love in a Parallel Universe and Character Creation

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Love in a Parallel Universe

Pain is critical
to my new understanding of self
mutilated
by the forced penetration of terror.

My inner child remembers
the terror
of being alone with a predator;
of genius vanishing
in the darkness.

Note about this poem: I wrote this several years ago and just found it again a couple of days ago. I'm considering using it as part of a character background for a female character in a short story.

The "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  prompt for Day 818
What is your most valuable resource for help in creating character traits? Do you just think up yourself? Is there a book or reference on the internet where you look for characteristics? Or do you keep a notebook and make note of people's behavior for future reference?

Character Creation

What is my "most valuable resource for help in creating character traits"? I use several different methods to create characters. Most of the time I just sit down at the computer and begin writing a scene with the character. However, I also use other resources to assist in the character traits. Sometimes I use observation and look for one distinctive feature such as ears shape, nose size, obvious scars, manner of dress, etc. Sometimes I write these down and sometimes I don't. I think writing them down in a notebook is a good idea, so I'm going to start doing that more often.

I use Horoscope.com1 and Astrological Zodiac Traits/ Sun Sign Personalities2 for some of the traits specific to the different sun signs. I don't believe in astrology myself, but that doesn't mean I won't use the attributes listed under a specific sign for a character. The great thing about Horoscope.com is that it gives you access to Eastern Astrology, Mayan Astrology, and other intriguing items that can be used for both character and plot advancement.

This past couple of week I've begun cleaning out the drawers of my desk. In one of the drawers I found several short descriptions that I wrote for a creative writing course I took in 2001. I put these descriptions in "Three Plus Character Sketches"  [ASR], I will continue to update this item when I discover other short pieces with this subject. I also discovered some poems that I think would be good for creating a character background.

Footnotes
1  http://www.horoscope.com/us/index.aspx
2  http://nuclear.ucdavis.edu/~rpicha/personal/astrology/