Forum:FC:Café Fanfic XXII

Café Fanfic is a discussion topic centered around fan-fiction. Authors are encouraged to contribute to the café's monthly discussion, which are designed to stimulate ideas and encourage engagement between members of the SWF fan-fiction writing community in a criticism-free zone.

Participants in Café Fanfic are also welcome to submit ideas for the next month's topic of discussion.

Previous topics can be found in the archival list at the bottom of the page.

There are three basic premises for Café Fanfic
 * 1) Please restrict this to stuff from your fan-fiction (written or possibly just conceptualized).
 * 2) You can suggest and make observations, but no condemning other people's work
 * 3) "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer.


 * April's topic: What kind of character(s) do you find the easiest or most natural to write? (Some people refer to these as "tropes" or "archetypes.") Is it the dutiful soldier? The noble Jedi? The scheming villain?

Atarumaster88
I gravitate most naturally to younger characters, simply because they're easier to write! With an older character, there's more backstory, more consideration of their life experiences and perspectives as opposed to a younger character, whose motives tend to be. . . simpler. Another factor is that younger characters are less likely to be/have been married/in a serious relationship, which adds a whole different layer of complexity to them. Finally, the protagonists of the major Star Wars conflicts have almost always been younger men and women thrust into challenging times. That's one of the most fundamental appeals of Star Wars IMO.

As far as specific archetypes&hellip;I'm pretty fond of natural leaders, simply because it's hard to have a protagonist/antagonist who doesn't have some ambition or leadership potential. Another trope I use a lot is someone with a troubled past or familial issues, simply because there's more room to explore conflict there. It's overused, but it works. Lastly, I employ a fair amount of outcasts/people on the verge of inferiority complexes, because there's an obvious path to go with the character in that it's easy to have them grow the story. Plus, I have a feeling that a lot of Star Wars readers can appreciate that perspective and maybe reading such a story will resonate with them. Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 17:35, April 2, 2013 (UTC)

Solus
1) What kind of character(s) do you find the easiest or most natural to write? Hmmm. I try to write all kinds of characters, bu I seem to find that it's reletively easier to write characters who are irreverent and/or informal. Sometimes roguish, usually cynical. These characters are, thus, usually young, though an older irreverent char seems like a fun thing to write one day. Never thought to, but it sounds very interesting . Anyhoo, I also have a fairly easy time writing characters who are flat-out crazy psychopaths, especially just writing their insane inner monologues. It just comes so naturally to me for some reason.

...... >.>

2) What kind of [archetypes] do you find the easiest or most natural to write? Hm. I suppose more of a rogue or an idiot. Or, again, a psycho.

...

...What does this say about meeeee??? D: - Solus          Talk to the Hand  03:28, April 11, 2013 (UTC)

Trak

 * 1) What kind of character(s) do you find easiest or most natural to write? Any characters who are a bit nutters. Naive people, as well.  I also find it pretty easy to slip into the role of any professional, particularly anyone of any medical or law profession.  I'd like to try writing someone in a political position, as I have a tendency to drop my political leanings and such into other characters.
 * 2) What kind of archetypes do you find the easiest or most natural to write? Again, anyone who is crazy. I love to write crazy people.  Mildly unhinged, moderately demented, borderline psychotic, all the way to the psychopaths.  Sociopaths are particularly fun to write, as I like to fill their inner monologue with exactly how they can rationalize their actions.

Though, like Solus, I wonder what this all has to say about me... D: Trak Nar Ramble on 06:22, April 16, 2013 (UTC)
 * So for both you and Solus, is allowing the sociopath/demented person to rationalize whatever crazy string of actions led them there the chief draw in writing one? Does the knowledge that they get to "break the rules" of normal society make them easier or harder to write? Atarumaster88  Jedi_Order.svg ( Talk page ) 15:58, April 16, 2013 (UTC)
 * Mostly, I think it's because we all have a bit psycho in all of us, I can just kinda do the things that occur to me but would never, ever even consider. That and they're just so much fun. You can do almost anything and find a way for their mind to justify it. As long as their psychosis is consistent, you're pretty much good. Their also fairly easy to make interesting as they are often quite memorable. And stuff. - Solus          Talk to the Hand  02:33, April 18, 2013 (UTC)
 * I just find it so much more fun to have my characters think outside the box, so to speak. And it is a bit of a challenge to write those inner monologues, as I need to convince myself of the character's motives.  However, when writing, I don't really think about "how will this character respond to this situation?"  I just slip into character.  It's basically method acting.  I'm not writing the character, the character is writing his or herself. Trak Nar Ramble on 05:32, April 21, 2013 (UTC)

MPK
Who do I find easiest to write? Dudes, first of all. I was born a dude, have dude parts and a dude brain, am a dude now, and probably will remain as one for the foreseeable future. As such, my stories tend to be dude-dominated because of that. Coming up with decent personalities, backstories, and thought processes for characters is hard enough - having them be chicks makes it even harder. At least, that's what I used to figure. When I was writing Through Glass, I wrote as a chick partly in a deliberate attempt to make myself more conscious of how I was characterizing her in her feminine womanliness. Nowadays I feel like there's no real difference in writing a chick vs writing a dude, it's just that you need to actually know what makes the characters tick, what events have shaped their lives, what their souls are made of. Because souls are gender-neutral. Or something.

Gender psychology aside, who do I find easy to write? Characters who are insecure, or who think they are secure but aren't. You can tell that pretty easily if you've read my fanfics on here - four out of five of them have to do with people who are insecure; Revan's brain is screwed up because she can't remember everything, Deyrus is being eaten at by dark side-fueled bloodlust (compounded by the fact that he has no one who can help him resist it), Morgent Kelbus thinks he and his pal are up to the mission but they aren't, and Cos Shibatt is insecure because he doesn't know how to use his sword and that totally isn't meant to sound dirty.

Insecurity mixes well with one of my other main preferences, that is, Jedi. Jedi with insecurity issues are an easy formula for drama due to the whole dark side temptation angle, not to mention the somewhat less predictable sense that because they have these powers and this "higher perspective" (if you will) on the universe and whatnot, they carry a lot of responsibility; hence, if their imbalances cause them to screw up, it will be a big screw-up. There are other reasons I like Jedi and other Force-users, though. I like playing with the dynamics of master-apprentice relationships, because there's a ton of different ways you can spin those things.

Not sure what else I can think of right now. Hopefully I'll branch out more in future writings. -MPK, Free Man  15:19, April 16, 2013 (UTC)
 * I had a lot of problems writing female characters at first, as well, which is Fugitive is almost completely a dudefest. You said that gender roles aren't as important as understanding a character and their motivations, but do you still take that into account when writing a character? How about species? How do you feel writing a different species (say a Zabrak) impacts your writing? Atarumaster88  Jedi_Order.svg ( Talk page ) 15:58, April 16, 2013 (UTC)
 * Regarding the first question: Good question. I'll have to get back to you the next time I actually write something. :P For the others, I have also noticed that humanocentricism pretty much prevails in my writing as well - an easy trap to fall into, since I myself am a human. I think that the main reason it's important to have species diversity in fanfic is because when you don't, you're kind of forgetting how enormous this galaxy is that we're writing in. Even the movies, though they have a primarily human main cast, feature plenty of aliens around them. Aside from the value that species diversity plays into the greater setting of Star Wars, though, I don't think that one needs to let the species of characters play into their characterization too much - and by that, I mean you shouldn't waste time fleshing out whatever alien culture they come from (or researching it if that's filled in by the canon) unless you have a specific direction to take it in. Otherwise, I think you're likely to end up with the mentality that all twi'leks are either strippers or second-in-commands to Hutt gangsters, all Rodians are thugs, all Mon Calamarians are good guys, all Klingons are dumb brutes, etc. -MPK, Free Man  00:59, April 17, 2013 (UTC)