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My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere." ~Jeanette Winterson

"My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people." ~Laurell K. Hamilton

There are some serious downsides to messing with the same character for so long. They change--and not because you suddenly found out what was more acceptable from a literary standpoint--it's my theory that writing out a character is a lot like getting to know someone in reality. You form a starting opinion, and this lone observation can remain true, but layers and layers should keep wrapping around the core specifics. Thus, the character I roleplayed as a fourteen-year-old idiot (with cliched writing and a terrible habit of living my own make-believes rather than stepping back and letting her talk) is not the same as this one, though she certainly stuck by to rip me a new one until I got closer and closer to depicting someone with depth. Going through some old files the other day, I was laughing at myself. One, for being too scared to ever try to write anything with her, because she's not typical, and two, for always drawing her in the same situations, the ones that I found the most interesting at the time (fourteen-year-olds evidently are predisposed toward violence). I first doodled her in eight grade, and I think her initial purpose was something like the patronus in the HP series...something formed of the mind to "ward off evil." Why I thought a unicorn was an appropriate form to ward off public school bullies with is anyone's guess.

So I don't know what she is per say. I stubbornly refuse to call her a role-play character any more, because role-play writing is, as I've found out after various classes, typically very bad writing: the characters have this terrible habit of existing sporadically and without cohesion to their stories, because we as people can't help but be influenced by who we're role-playing with. I still love to role-play, but only in an episode-meet-and-greet style, rather than in long, winding plots.

That said, I know her story (which is actually not as interesting as you'd think) in the same sense that you would know the life story of a very close friend, but am convinced that I do not yet have the skill to write it down from start to finish, because I tend to think she's more like those weird, off-to-the-side, discover-a-little-at-a-time people. She's not gothic (absolutely hate that idea), nor is she Chuckles--there's a little bit of every really strict riding instructor/teacher I've ever had in her, a few of my own personal failings, and a whole lot of something I really can't identify. One thing's for sure, she is a character, and whether I ever bother to put her into anything "serious" doesn't really matter. I'll get somewhere.

And there are, perhaps, four or five of my watchers who understood any of that. XD The rest of you have to content yourselves in the knowledge that Rose really is that crazy, but only a few of her friends know about it.

Description
Spotlight
Graphite and Digital Color
11x14

My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere." ~Jeanette Winterson

"My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people." ~Laurell K. Hamilton

There are some serious downsides to messing with the same character for so long. They change--and not because you suddenly found out what was more acceptable from a literary standpoint--it's my theory that writing out a character is a lot like getting to know someone in reality. You form a starting opinion, and this lone observation can remain true, but layers and layers should keep wrapping around the core specifics. Thus, the character I roleplayed as a fourteen-year-old idiot (with cliched writing and a terrible habit of living my own make-believes rather than stepping back and letting her talk) is not the same as this one, though she certainly stuck by to rip me a new one until I got closer and closer to depicting someone with depth. Going through some old files the other day, I was laughing at myself. One, for being too scared to ever try to write anything with her, because she's not typical, and two, for always drawing her in the same situations, the ones that I found the most interesting at the time (fourteen-year-olds evidently are predisposed toward violence). I first doodled her in eight grade, and I think her initial purpose was something like the patronus in the HP series...something formed of the mind to "ward off evil." Why I thought a unicorn was an appropriate form to ward off public school bullies with is anyone's guess.

So I don't know what she is per say. I stubbornly refuse to call her a role-play character any more, because role-play writing is, as I've found out after various classes, typically very bad writing: the characters have this terrible habit of existing sporadically and without cohesion to their stories, because we as people can't help but be influenced by who we're role-playing with. I still love to role-play, but only in an episode-meet-and-greet style, rather than in long, winding plots.

That said, I know her story (which is actually not as interesting as you'd think) in the same sense that you would know the life story of a very close friend, but am convinced that I do not yet have the skill to write it down from start to finish, because I tend to think she's more like those weird, off-to-the-side, discover-a-little-at-a-time people. She's not gothic (absolutely hate that idea), nor is she Chuckles--there's a little bit of every really strict riding instructor/teacher I've ever had in her, a few of my own personal failings, and a whole lot of something I really can't identify. One thing's for sure, she is a character, and whether I ever bother to put her into anything "serious" doesn't really matter. I'll get somewhere.

And there are, perhaps, four or five of my watchers who understood any of that. XD The rest of you have to content yourselves in the knowledge that Rose really is that crazy, but only a few of her friends know about it.