View Full Version : i'll be back - i think i'm out and they pull me back in
The Quintessence of Quirks (http://codepoet.org/~markw/gurps/player/quirks.html)
Joe Calabrese
03-01-2005, 06:40 PM
Huh?
dpaterso
03-01-2005, 08:19 PM
In a nutshell,
"When you sit down to draft up a new character, start with the quirks."
"A quirky character is a fun character."
"Before you write ... brainstorm up a list of quirks that your character might have."
-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
maestrowork
03-01-2005, 08:38 PM
Napoleon Dynamite is nothing but quirky characters....
aka eraser
03-01-2005, 08:51 PM
As soon as I'm done picking my nose with a blunted orange toothpick I'm gonna respond to this thread.
TwoKeys
03-01-2005, 10:09 PM
Napoleon Dynamite was an AWESOME film....
I love quirky. Hmm, maybe I'll put that in my sig.
part of the article was about taglines, and my heading was twoof my favorite taglines of dialgoue. anyway.
a pretty neat article about process for different people. and dp, if you go to the bottom page he talks about his script the grave digger, which sounds pretty good from the character sketch and temporarily outline this guy creates by hashing out the quirks.
read the ending, i rarely get interested in scripts, in 50 words or less he told me more about his script than 99-100 people can in two pages.
anyway, twenty minutes.... we aren't going to last twenty seconds.
vig
dpaterso
03-02-2005, 12:24 PM
and dp, if you go to the bottom page he talks about his script the grave digger, which sounds pretty good from the character sketch and temporarily outline this guy creates by hashing out the quirks.
I saw. Yes it could be a useful line of creative thought. May I just say you're a walking psychological quirk, vig. I mean that in a constructive and warm fuzzy way, of course.
anyway, twenty minutes.... we aren't going to last twenty seconds.
Courage, mon ami. Someday soon your wincingly stereotypical Scorrash and Oirish characters will appear on celluloid, I promise ye.
-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
to the moon alice.... someday.... to the moon
vig
scripter1
03-02-2005, 05:17 PM
What we are looking at here is an article about ROLE PLAYING GAMES!!!!
D & D (dungeons and dragons) etc.
Guys sit around a table and each one makes up a character and then they take this character through all kinds of pretend action scenarios and battles with mythical creatures and stuff. You draw a card that tells you what kind of monster you're battling and how powerful it is and how many levels of growth or power your character has to have in order to defeat it.
Gamers LIVE these characters.
For several hours you get to become a Dwarf, or Elf, or Magician, or scantily clad women with enormous breasts.
I CAN'T believe Vig that you think the Gravedigger is an actual script!!!!!
ESPECIALLY when he didn't post any SCRIPT PAGES.
Yes, I followed the link.
His notes were all about the character and the level of power he has.
My husband has a whole file of this kind of stuff.
He goes every Saturday and plays with a couple of his buddies.
Are you guys for real?
Do you REALLY, HONESTLY, BELIEVE this is about movies????
<Okay, sure, it's some good thoughts, some great character stuff, can be applied > see, right here, my endorsement of the article.
but
COME ON!!!!!!!!!
This article is about creating a game character NOT a movie character.
The writer here is a GAMER NOT a screenwriter.
I just really think that needs to be clearly understood.
TwoKeys
03-02-2005, 05:18 PM
Well, at least you're not hostile.
maestrowork
03-02-2005, 05:36 PM
Napoleon Dynamite is quirky.
i have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the man's claims. i find things like this on a daily basis that i don't choose to share. this, while not groundbreaking, it did help me. whether the script is written or not isn't the point, for me the point was how the things he wrote about this GRAVEDIGGER hit home. it was a unique way to tell me what 'a' character is about within the story. and i would take that succient element and incorporate it into my writing.
i can see why you would be upset, since subjectively this article is nothing more than a amatuer explaining stuff as stupid and trivial as calling an old man a whipersnapper, when you do a hell of a lot more than that, and you dot i's and cross t's to boot and all you get is grief. i know, i know, what a raw deal.
a gamer is telling these idiots how to write a script.
vig
dpaterso
03-02-2005, 07:54 PM
Scripter,
"Gamers LIVE these characters."
As we should live ours -- only you're not being complimentary. But what is screenwriting, or any other kind of fiction writing, if not RPG of sorts? We build the characters and hope they'll breathe and think and feel real.
If you argue against this concept, I think you're maybe missing out on something that could be beneficial to your own writing. I haven't felt any urge to indulge in RPGs but the manuals are great source material and sure as hell get you thinking. It's all about characters, not magic spells and scantily clad slave-girls.
-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
scripter1
03-02-2005, 08:44 PM
I just can't believe you guys don't see this article for what it is and now you are attacking ME for pointing it out?
(the scripter just shakes her head.)
There is NO Gravedigger script.
He did not write a SCRIPT!!!
The gravedigger is a character this man made up for a ROLE PLAYING GAME.
His character sheet is about how many points of experiance the character has. He's a level ten warrior (or whatever) as opposed to a level 2 human.
The character leaps off the page, it is GREAT writing and creative thinking and we should learn from it BUT
The man did NOT create a story for the movies, he's just really into games.
I totally agree that screenwriters can learn something from it.
The article makes some great points about quirks.
I have no fault against the method or the advice.
I NEVER said that.
I NEVER once argued against the article.
In fact, I printed it off.
I'm glad Vig posted it.
I am just stunned that Vig thinks a script exists.
That he would call what was linked a script.
That the previous posts did not indicate an understanding that the article and method was directly dealing with role playing games and was NOT INTENDED for screenwriters or supposed to be a screenwriting article.
D at least is now making sense out of this. I'm relieved by that.
I was somewhat concerned that you had lost your mind.
Articles like this should come with a disclaimer.
"Hey, I found this piece on an unrelated site but some of the things in it really helped me and could be applied to writing. Ignore all the junk about strike strength at 100 and attack speed of 45 and hit points, etc, etc, and focus on the creation of character."
A newbie reading this article could get really confused.
scripter1
03-02-2005, 08:48 PM
I'm not hostile.
I'm being EMPHATIC.
I will remove the name calling though, that was a bit much.
maestrowork
03-02-2005, 08:53 PM
Napoleon Dynamite is quirky.
(disclaimer: I didn't read the entire article. I stopped reading at the first "quirk." As a novelist/screenwriter, I have my own ways of creating characters. I don't need a "quirk sheet.")
i agreecompletely how the hell can i think this was a script? i like it even more now that it's not a script, cause i'm writing it.
my first project that really digs deep... badump
vig
Joe Calabrese
03-02-2005, 09:26 PM
Wouldnt be the 1st time.
The filmmakers of Underworld got sued by a role playing company that has a game about werewolves fighting vampires, which obviously is the same as the film's premise-- and it settled out of court.
Compton
03-03-2005, 02:37 AM
It's funny because I've seen this linked to by a friend way back when for RPG (role-playing-game) purposes, on a small board I run.
I suppose it could help you build a character, but something about the process of going down a list, "Hates pirates: check, Religious: check", seems altogether mechanical and artificial, when in reality you're trying to create someone unique. It may suffice for an RPG purpose, where the character would be given an inexhaustible amount of time to develop beyond the cookie-cutter'esque template, but I'm not sure how well it could work for this kind of fiction, where you have finite space.
Just some thoughts...
Writing Again
03-03-2005, 04:45 PM
To me everything relates to story telling -- It is what I do. While the whole role playing game thing bores me, the idea of quirks; and yes the grave digger, does set me to thinking about the relationship between quirks and character: That is a good thing.
And there are a lot of these gamers out there. If you appeal to them you have an audience -- I notice Matrix appeals to gamers.
Joe Calabrese
03-03-2005, 05:05 PM
I believe that all memorable characters chould have something that stands out, something the audience will relate to and remember (a quirk if you want to call it). It can be physical, emotional, intellectual or in personality.
Whether it's obvious like Howard Hughes' OCD or sublte, like R2D2's beeps to convey its playfulness personality, a good character has specific "atributes" just as used in RPGs.
I'm not sure I like the cookie cutter formula to create a character. I have created characters who many times takes a different direction I wanted or developes a trait almost on its own.
Even in RPG a character can develop and even change it's attributes over time.
This may be a good blueprint to work on, but I wouldn't use it exclusively. Listen to your character and see what he/she wants to be or become.
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