[Saxony Tarn]

Description's one thing -- what i call my "Steinbeck" style is another. (i don't quite know how that particular author came to be linked with it, but the idea was that it was supposed to be high, mighty, pompous and grandiose. Although i've never needed a page to describe the average tree. A particularly salient specimen that should have plot value to justify it, maybe.)

Problem i have is, i'm also a bit of an artist in my own mind, and i want to be able to describe, say, a character's costume and gear well enough so that another artist friend could sketch it and come up with something relatively close to what i'd have in my own sketchbook ...which reminds me, i need to do just such reference sketches for my latest project, it helps keep ME consistent as well, and that brings me to

Inconsistency, which is another thing -- this isn't Toon, so characters shouldn't be pulling suddenly-needed equipment out of extradimensional pockets and leaving us wondering where they had been keeping it for the last five chapters. (If they're wizards, of course, they might but shouldn't rely on it!) The "Conservation of Plot Points" Rule is one fact-checking thing i subject my drafts to; its main thrust is that if it's introduced, it's clear to the reader, and likewise that nothing mentioned is left unaccounted-for - unless, for example, it is intended to be a set-up for a sequel. Some readers are like that and love nothing more than pointing out to you that, say, Poughkeepsie is in New York, not New Jersey, so in anticipation of those types i tend to be one myself when crafting something that might be read by others.

Sparkling Repartee also has its well-deserved high seat at the table, so let me throw this chunk of meat out:

What way of developing characters works best for you? Action? Forced Cooperation? Psychological / Conversational interaction?

i favor throwing a few more-or-less-unlikely types together, giving them a situation to deal with, and seeing how they react to each other -- quite often they surprise me; act on their own initiative before i'd planned for them to do a given thing, reveal depths & layers to their makeup that i hadn't figured them for having and such. For example, several characters in various stories have "come out" in the process of writing, and i usually look back at 'em & find that it was a logical development, though i hadn't envisioned them that way at first. Do any of you have characters like that -- that being, characters that get up off the page and exercise Free Will of their own? And do you beat them back down into submission or just stand back & roll with it?

This becomes more of a challenge in some ways to do with a borrowed character - for the stock example here, a Tolkein character you've borrowed for fanfic - because then you're the actor who's been handed a script, and it's your task to extrapolate, given what you can infer from the main story, how that character might react to what you're subjecting him/her to. Example from my own project: just last night a certain borrowed Tolkein character felt that his extensive combat expertise wasn't getting the proper amount of deference from the leader of the party he'd found himself in, so he decided to pull rank on her -- far sooner than i'd expected him to, eh, cross swords with anyone in the party, and, given the approaching Orcs i'd just mentioned a paragraph back, at the most inconvenient moment possible. After going back and reading the exchange of barbed dialogue that ensued and hasty compromise that resulted, i thought, "Yeah, that is very much in character for him, in fact i can see *actor's name deleted* delivering those lines with just the right touch of chauvenistic S.O.B." ...and i now figure this as the beginning of a beautiful love/hate relationship!

Anyone else have some memorable character-development experiences to share?

|_|) |_|) |_|) <-- a round for all on this thread, from newcomers to charter members. Fill w/ your favorite virtual bard-oil beverage and enjoy!

s.t.
(and here i was worried when the Elf suddenly got all attitudinal on me...!!)