Characterization Corporation

The style of your writing can have an impact on how your character and their actions are perceived, as well as overall clarity.

Do you focus on what your character is doing, or do you offer up bits of what's going inside of their heads? Do you add a touch of humor to your posts? Is your writing visceral, or do you only provide as much as is needed? In your RPs, do you write aggressively, pushing the plot forward, or do you hang back and follow the lead for the most part? Does your style change between your characters?

I've been told that I have a somewhat clinical style. I also often get into thought processes - partly to better get the message across, partly to show logic out of a fear of being accused of using OOC knowledge - and I tend to play support more, rather than taking a leadership role. And I know that I quanitize way too much ("a bit," "somewhat," "just a little," etc.), but I'm not sure how I can get something that's partial or infrequent across otherwise.

I like to show what my character is doing--to give the other person something to play off of, a visual image at the least. I also tend to respond more than lead--although I'm getting much better at this and depending on the characters, I'm not afraid to RP aggressively.

My style changes between characters. For instance, Samuel Clemens is my blind dude. He can't see, so I have to translate everything through his remaining senses: tones, sounds, touch, taste, smell...but he's also very sarcastic so he often throws jokes in. Sterling Argentum, however, is the exact opposite--and is in fact a hunter of supernatural critters. He'll go after anything with the intention to slay it.

I do like to get into my characters' heads, and reason things out if they need to take a step that isn't intuitively obvious for them to take. So that part is universal--as I like to know what the other characters are thinking as well from their own writer's perspective.

I just looove being inside my charries' heads. A lot of my narration is just what they're thinking. Recently, I have been trying to be more "Show, not tell," but I still love thoughts. Sometimes I needlessly spend up to 45 minutes formatting stuff in my posts to look like a chat log or to look like someone's falling off of a building to their death. (The text is one word per line, and it starts at the top: Itty-bitty, and lots of space in between. It gradually gets larger, and smaller spaces until *THUD.* I was very pleased with that post.) I'm very "fluffy" in that sense, although I like to think that I don't waste anyone's time with stuff that's hard to read like too many obscure words from the thesaurus or super confusing accents. (i.e. Wolfspeak)

My style doesn't change too much from character to character, although there are some differences. For instance, when I'm playing my character Jane, I as the narrator almost become a character, myself. Saying little things to Jane that no one else can ICly see, solely for the entertainment value. And I have Jane often saying cool, brave, quick-witted things in her head, followed by a shy, dumb response out loud. Whereas when I'm playing a character like Thilga, I tend to let him do the thinking and talking.

I do enjoy injecting humor into my posts, but recently I've been not as narrative-heavy as I'd like. More just "say what character did/thought/said in response to other characters, hit send." Still trying to figure that one out.

I do tend to be a very aggressive RPer- Whatever group I'm in, whether it be just two people or five, I'm generally taking the leadership role to push the story forward if it's not currently being filled.

I don't know what you mean by this- Could you elaborate?

Huh. I'm unfamiliar with "Wolfspeak," so I had to look it up, and... wow, I've seen people doing that. Typically not wolf sorts, but yeah. Always struck me as a bit pompous. If you're gonna use a fancy word, it should be because it's simply the clearest and most correct word. And... hopefully people don't find the accents in my dialog annoying or confusing! I used to be a lot heavier with it, but I've scaled it back since a friend complained.

As for the quantitize thing, I put in some examples right there. One of the things I've heard a lot about writing in general is that too much of it is "useless" quantitizing fluff. Basically things like:

• "He hopped around a bit until he fell."
• "She was somewhat saddened by this turn of events."

The trouble I have is that, without those quantitizers, it feels like the perception will be more than intended.

Ah. I see the problem here.

In your first example, specifically, I can't see someone hopping around "a bit" at all- If someone's hopping around until they trip and hit the ground, then that tells me just how much they were hopping without the "a bit" part. It's a contradictory statement.

You could always use less words that mean more! For instance:

You could substitute "somewhat saddened" with "disappointed" or "unhappy." Unhappy isn't totally depressed, it's just a mood that's been brought to a point where there is no longer happiness. Thus unhappy.

This subtly lets the reader know just how much sadness is present within the character's mood, while avoiding the tedium of using those annoying "a bit" phrases!

Of course, I'm no writing expert. I'm just giving you advice based on what I think would be best.

Those were just the first examples I could think up. When I do it, it makes more sense, at least to me.

Haha right! I get that. I was just under the impression that quantization was a problem for you, is all.

Take a look at how I write (for serious) sometime and you tell me.

I'm pretty straightforward so my posts are usually short and straight to the point. I don't focus on environment very much; it sometimes gets too extraneous for me when I read vividly descriptive material. Other than that, I don't know much about my style and I'd love if someome could point out things I could work on, and tips on how to improve upon my writing in general.

Mist is pretty straightforward, too. If you're anything like him, you just need to be careful that you put in enough description that it's clear what's going on. I often need to ask Mist about different things to make sure I understand things right, and sometimes he pokes at me because I missed or misunderstood something. (He's still fun, though. )

Hm, I don't know what Mist'a style is like.

Sometimes I try to lengthen a post with description but it's hard to do that without going overboard. I think I use enough necessary description but I think I tend to ignore physical settings and environments. I've been asked to provide more info about settings at times because I guess I sometimes make it seem like the setting's a blank space, lol.

Well, you could try practicing descriptions. Just pure descriptions - lay of the land, weather, alternative sensory information (touch, smell, sound, maybe even taste), how different settings affect things, etc. It's not so much to put it all on your RP posts, but just to have a feel for what might be there, and from there figure out what's worth mentioning. Typically, any giving descriptor only needs to be mentioned once, too, and should only be brought up again if relevant. Also, it helps if you can incorporate the description into the rest of your narrative rather than than doing a scene dump.

In many cases, it's also good to keep in mind how your character would perceive it all. For example, I know plenty people who love going to the coast and admire its beauty, the raw nature, etc. To them, it's a treat. But, if I were to describe myself visiting the the coast...

Frustrated by how cloudy her vision had grown yet again, Novalyyn removed her glasses and wiped the salty film off once more. It wasn't perfect when she put them back on her face, but at least the world was reasonably clear again. Now, if there was just something she could do about the chill. The way the wind pushed right through the thin fabric of her hoodie left her hugging herself, hands hidden inside her sleeves. It was almost enough to distract her from the bitter, almost rotten smell that permeated the air.

With an irritated huff, she looked once more to her friends as they climbed among the rocks, the stone encrusted with barnacles that always disturbingly made her think of some sort of burrowing parasite lodged in a pore. She couldn't understand what it was about all of this... mess that her friends found so pleasant and interesting, nor why they were so insistent that she come along. Knowing well enough that time crept slower when waiting, the girl merely grumbled, found a long piece of driftwood, and dragged it through the cold, damp sand, creating large, swirly doodles to keep herself occupied.

Yeah. I don't like going to the coast. At least not around here.

I've never been to the coast but the word alone makes me think of these commercials:

I like that you feel the chill and wind rather than stating that it was chilly and windy. Being a blunt, to-the-point person, I tend to state detail than hint at it more subtly, which I know would be a more effective way of communicating setting. That's something I've got to work on, then.
Also how you liken barnacles to a parasitic pore. I think barnacles are really cool but the words you associate with it almost makes me think otherwise.

If a setting is typical for my character, I often neglect to describe it at all. It just doesn't occur to me that my partner has no idea what I see in my head. I'll easily describe a setting that's new to my character, but otherwise I usually forget.

Let me digress a bit, because I'm sick and I do what I want when I'm sick.
Charles Dickens, in Great Expectations at least, attributes certain words- adjectives and qualifiers mostly- to certain people and events, to get a reader to recall past encounters with a character and associate a word to a place, event, character, mood, whatever.
The nerd side of me really likes that. It likes it a lot.

whoops I posted twice.

A number of the scenes in that video match up to what we have here; rock formations in particular (though I'm not sure if we have that spiffy stacked thing going on, it's mostly cliffs, giant stones, and sand), and the general atmosphere (cloudy and windy). We don't have much for fields and stuff here, though. Lotta mountains and trees.

Sadly, I haven't read any Dickens. I don't read nearly enough in general. Something I've been known to do with certain characters, though, is to swap how I refer to them based on their state of mind or "mode" (which actually confused people, unfortunately). The one I did it with the most (who isn't posted) is Nyx Chaser. When she was out and about, I mostly stuck to her alias, The Black Orchid, to minimize how personal it was and because usually, if she's out and about, it's as that figure. When she was more relaxed, I'd refer to her as Chaser - still a little impersonal, but relatively at ease. The only times I ever referred to her as Nyx, the most personal form, was basically when she was in some state of mental/emotional weakness.

I do that a little bit too, Novalyyn: using their name depending on their mentality. Or at least I try to do that. My character Cody Wesson, only his best friend calls him Cody, or those people that know him from before his name was changed back when he was adopted. But when he grows into his own, his name morphs to "Wesson" which is used derogatorily by some and reassuringly by others. He uses it because of what his name stands for--which is really more important than his first name. But then his first name is the softer and more gentle aspect of him. So it really depends on the character and what I'm trying to relay.

I've got a character named Keith, but his name might as well be Hawkins, because he never uses his first name. I don't know if he ever will use it. Unless he settles down, though I don't really see that happening with him anytime soon.

Anyway. Just wanted to throw in my two-cents worth.

So you both have names for different sides of your characters?

Only one of my characters, including those not listed on this site, has a nickname.

I'm curious. Do you like your characters' names? I don't necessarily like all of my own characters' names. How do you go about choosing a name for you characters?

How do I go about choosing a name for my characters?

...um. They usually come with their names attached. If not, I try to find one that best "fits" them. I usually have preconceived ideas of names and personalities, so I tend to use those--or occasionally switch them up. For me, though, once a character has been "christened" with a name, I can't go back and change their name or it changes their personality. It's a strange...thing...that I struggle with. If I get really stuck for names and want something unique, I'll look up baby names starting with a letter I want to use. And from there I'll play around with various sounds.

Jasafar and Hassan and Murat were the ones I was most pleased with for being more or less Arabic names. Jasafar being the camel that Murat rode before he died. Now it's just Hassan left.

A name is one of the first things you come up with when you create a character?
It's interesting how people tend to attach a personality or appearance to a name.

I've named a character after someone once, but it didn't feel right so I stopped using the character altogether. I couldn't just change the name because although I did try to, I gradually started to change other things about him as well.

I don't... really have a set method.

Something I used to do when I was younger was to write down gibberish, typically stuff that sounded kinda neat when I said it out loud. Some of them became characters. I think Nashyll was one of those. I also have a guy named Calvmic Rhynn.

Other times, there's a name I simply latch onto. Julian was one of those, and I have a guy by the name of Lucas. It's not always "normal" names though - sometimes it's more symbolic. For example, with Nyx Chaser, her name is supposed to literally be "Night Chaser." Similarly, and with a similar name, I have Taryn Nix; "Taryn" came from the gibberish (I only recently discovered it's a legit name), and "Nix" is actually her claiming to be a child of Night. And I know PenGryphon's got at least one punny name.

Other times, I just try to think of a name on the spot that seems reasonable. Gregor Moretti, for example, got his name because Gregor was the first thing I liked the sound of among those that came to mind, and in his very first appearance he was disguised as a man giving out samples for a fake Italian restaurant.