*How do you Create a Character?

[Jiggly_333]

Hi there!

This is part three in a three-part series. You should check out parts one and two first. That's because both do a great job in leading up to this section which is going to be a bit more technical than the last two. The first part explains why I'm doing this, the point of making cool characters. The second part describes more about what already exists, the archetypes and tropes that are well-established within the NSFL ISFL. Pretty much, making it to this part means that you are actually committed to attempting to create a full-fledged, well-rounded character. So let's start.

First of all, the "Me, but successful" people are kind of onto something. When creating a character in any setting, whether it's on-stage, on-screen, or even in DnD, you need to have a part of you at the root of the character. My favorite example of this is with Dan Harmon when he created Community. Each character was written with a piece of his being within them. That's what makes a character real and human. On the other hand, writing about yourself is incredibly self-serving and narcissistic. So obviously, there's a piece of you, but it isn't you. There's some level of separation.

This is actually a sort of point of contention I've had with people in sim leagues. In real life, I am a straight white cis-man from a solidly middle-class family in a suburb. That's some fairly boring shit. Why would I write about that guy? So, I choose to write about characters who interest me, namely female characters. I write about women's soccer, so it comes a bit more naturally to write about a woman in sports since I am surrounded by women in sports a lot of the time. Try to explore what differences there would be for you if you were not you.

My favorite character I ever wrote in all sim leagues was a Left Winger in the SHL: Dakota Reid. She was originally supposed to be this sort of Gordie Howe-esque player who will get a goal, assist, and a fight in every game. I wanted her to be an amazing scorer and hard-hitting fighter. Unfortunately, she was never really any good and while she had an incredibly long career the most she did was win the award for most PIMs one season. But every week I'd flesh out her character some more. She came from the same Chicago neighborhood that I grew up in, but she also came from a split household. She spent summers in England with her dad. And while I did put a lot of my own heart into her, she had a different mindset based on her own past experiences and so I wrote based on those. It was a weird shift for her to start off her career much more hot-headed than I am and end her career in this almost monk-like nirvana that I could never reach. I made sure to have things happen around her in her life. She got married, she had a couple kids, picked up a new hobby from her mom. She was her own person and I'm still truly proud of what I did there.

The point of that example was to show how you don't need to start with a character that different from yourself. If you allow the character to grow on their own, they will be their own person. If you follow the logical steps from point to point in their life, you can figure out how they would react to certain situations. It may be similar to how you'd react, it may be different. It's your job to figure out the answer and write it.

So find your similarities and find your differences. These similarities and differences can be stuff like what I did with Koda. Different gender, but same neighborhood. At the time that I originally created her, I would always say that I was a QPR fan, so she was a QPR fan. But unlike me, she was also a Detroit Red Wings fan. For your own player, think about things about yourself. It can be as simple as just general information, but think of flaws and strengths. I think of myself a pretty dang good musician, but Koda couldn't carry a tune. And I admittedly have held onto grudges I shouldn't, Koda learned at the end of her career to let go of negative feelings and just focus on who she cared about. All these things shape a character and make them easier to form.

So now, with all of these similarities and differences, you have a model. You have a list of instructions essentially. Now comes the trouble of following those instructions and knowing how to read your own instructions.

What I mean is, now you need to take this character and figure out how they'd react to a given situation. That's what writing is about. One of the core tenants of art itself is "art is reality heightened." The characters may be faced with unrealistic circumstances, but you need to yank it back down and connect it back to the reader. And in contrast, you need to take things that are mundane and turn them into something interesting.

In a traditional story or plot, you have an actual story structure. The classic Story Circle of "You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change" works really well and is really helpful. The problem is that the sim doesn't really allow for a clean Story Circle experience. While you can affect how good a player is somewhat by earning TPE and all that, it's just a weighted random number generator. So you need to be able to think on your feet. Your player had a bad start despite it narratively making more sense for this to be their year. Use that confusion, find something that's in their way. When it looks like there's an obstacle for your player, create one. An example I have of that is when my wide receiver, Tegan Atwell, was set to finally get some massive targets, but instead she was literally missing from the stat sheet. So, I wrote about how she felt sick the entire game and spent most of it throwing up on the sideline. Use the sim to your advantage.

But if you really want to give a traditional plot structure, it needs to be done as something off-the-field. It needs to be some sort of self-actualization. For me, Dorothy Morimura, the still active left fielder/designated hitter in PBE, was a player who really helped me figure out how to write like that. The sim itself did its own thing. I didn't really pay attention to it too much. Instead, I tried to look into the character herself and work through her emotional issues because I needed an easy 300 words every week. 

However, you will mostly be dealing with situational writing. That list of personality traits, personal history, and personal tendencies are what you lean on for help. And then, when you finish with making that new story, combine that story into the whole past. Not only does it help keep your stories consistent with eachother, but you also make it easier to create character growth. Something small in an old article may be something that grows into a new character trait. And when writing realistic characters, characters who feel like real people, always remember the second law of thermodynamics: "In an isolated system, entropy can only increase." When dealing with a character gaining life experiences, they can only grow wiser. And in turn, they usually become kinder. This is why a character arc with character growth is much more fun to read and follow than someone who is an asshole their whole career or a boy scout their whole career. While the sim may not allow you to fully tell a story with a beginning middle and end, you can still tell a story where a character grows and changes.

I hope that this all works and makes sense somewhat and is helpful to anyone truly willing to write some good damn character development. Writing is really cool. There's a reason why people say the book is better than the movie or the manga is better than the anime. Because all media adaptations take the primary source and then place it through a different lens. Watching something happen in an exact fashion doesn't compare to reading a description about how fucking cool that thing that happened was. You'll sorta feel let down because imagining it was so much more cool. Although, I wasn't expecting Annabeth to be that hot, so that was cool. The one good thing about that movie.

Anyway, that's it. That's the end. I could do another series maybe someday. I wrote all three of these parts tonight because I just had the inspiration to do it and I knew I wouldn't do it in the morning.

[Yeenoghu]

In a traditional story or plot, you have an actual story structure. The classic Story Circle of "You, Need, Go, Search, Find, Take, Return, Change" works really well and is really helpful. The problem is that the sim doesn't really allow for a clean Story Circle experience. While you can affect how good a player is somewhat by earning TPE and all that, it's just a weighted random number generator. So you need to be able to think on your feet. Your player had a bad start despite it narratively making more sense for this to be their year. Use that confusion, find something that's in their way. When it looks like there's an obstacle for your player, create one. An example I have of that is when my wide receiver, Tegan Atwell, was set to finally get some massive targets, but instead she was literally missing from the stat sheet. So, I wrote about how she felt sick the entire game and spent most of it throwing up on the sideline. Use the sim to your advantage.

I really like this point, and I have seen others use it in similar ways that I appreciate. As you said, randomly not appearing in the box score can be a good story beat--the player was sick, or the player was benched for some reason. I don't have time to write a lot of media about my player, but I would probably approach it in a similar story-based fashion if I did. I was one of the users lured into the community by the 'it's D&D, but football' line, after all.

[timeconsumer]

Did you like the ending to Cooter's story?

[Jiggly_333]

Did you like the ending to Cooter's story?

Honestly, it was beautiful. You remained on theme and gave an ending that made sense for the character.