Spinoff: Casting your characters = pantsers?

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ccarver30

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I would like to know how many of the people that DO cast their characters (with models/actors/actresses) are pantsers/do NOT write outlines?

I wonder if we do this to have at least SOMEthing that is an anchor (besides the plot and junk) to the story. If I do not know what is going to happen to this character, at least I know exactly what she looks like.

Does this make ANY sense? :poke:
 

shadowwalker

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I will sometimes look for a photo or actor as the characters pop up in the story. It helps me picture facial expressions and action scenes (such as fights). But I don't immediately scour the internet for them, only if I'm having some difficulty in picturing them (at any given point).
 

Cyia

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I absolutely have an actor or character in mind for most of the characters I write. It helps nail down a particular voice for them.


Pfft!

Bunch of pantsing weirdos...
Get off my lawn!

:D

1 - no rabbit in a moustache, pasties, and a thong gets to call me weird.

2 - never tell me where you put those quarters from the dog.
 

Marniy

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Ooh I cast when I create new characters.

I outline and do write ups of character motivations and conflicts.
But my outline isn't exhaustive- It usually amounts to a time line, conflicts, themes, and stray ideas about the story. About 5 pages in total.

So I guess, I'm a plotter- but not slavishly devoted to it. If a better idea for a plot point comes up- I work it in and update the outline.
 

Moralis

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I have always outlined my stories to death and never cast any characters. Until Nano 2012.
A movie gave me the inspiration for my novel so I had most of my characters cast from the beginning. I had almost everything to start writing a novel, except the plot. I decided I would pants this year.

So yeah. I plot without casting. And when I cast, I don't plot. :D
 

DeleyanLee

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I'm a pantser and don't "cast my characters" in my original fiction. For fanfic, that's one thing--the characters are already there and come with actors. But for original fiction, I tried it once and discovered that it completely restricted how I could think of them, so that book died and I've never tried it again.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I never outline but I cast my characters by using real people and, usually, changing the names.
 

Reziac

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I absolutely have an actor or character in mind for most of the characters I write. It helps nail down a particular voice for them.

I have one character who was very loosely based on a MLB pitcher. Looks and sounds like him, but there it ends. One of his acquaintances was based on an NFL kicker, and is rather closer to the original (tho even more crazy!)

And my MC ... I've known him for over 20 years. I know how he looks, acts, sounds. Then along came an actor who is Just Right in terms of mannerisms and delivery... and doesn't look much like my MC. This ruined my own picture of him!

*sigh*
 

thethinker42

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I outline my own books (loosely and vaguely) and cast the characters.

When I write with one of my co-authors, we don't outline and don't cast the characters.

My other co-author and I cast the characters, and have a sort of vague outline (we know the conflict and what we believe will be the resolution, but we aren't entirely sure how we'll get there).
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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I'm a pantser (mostly--I've started plotting a bit more recently, but almost never with a proper "outline"), and I cast some of my characters, but not all of them. And if, during the course of the story, they take on different characteristics than I first envisioned, they get recast.
 

jaksen

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I sometimes 'base' my characters on real people, who I really know, but I don't cast them. (If by that it means I have an actor, celebrity or public figure in mind as to how the character appears, talks, behaves, etc.)

My characters sort of appear to me as I write them. I get to know them like my MC and other characters do: bit by bit as they talk, walk and do stuff.
 

SJNew

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I absolutely have to have an outline (both for the plot and the characters) before I can write anything. I never intentionally cast my characters - though admittedly, some ideas I've had have emerged from fantasies regarding certain people (no, not those kind of fantasies), or from crossover ideas, so sometimes a certain famous face might start out as my hero/heroine(s) but they inevitably change as the idea deepens into an actual proper plot.

Sometimes, though, as I'm writing/outlining, the more I get to know a character, the clearer their appearance becomes, and sometimes that has been someone famous. I can certainly see why some are reticent about 'casting' characters, especially with famous people, but I figure, so long as it's just their face and not their public persona that clags to the character while I'm writing them, it's not a problem. After all, even if I envisage a particular person playing my hero, doesn't necessarily mean someone reading the finished product won't see someone totally different.
 

Cornelius Gault

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Not a good model, since I have only been writing since July 2012, but I found someone similar to my characters on Wikipedia or Google. I created simple character profiles based on real people and situations (which I later modified to fit the story), parents, children, locations, dates, etc. I pulled pictures from Google of how I imagined the characters might look. However, much of what I put in the character profiles never makes it into the story, unless there is a good reason for it (and to avoid Info-Dumping).

I don't use an outline, per se, but create a basic one-level chapter list in Word using Heading levels, which I later add to and change as I develop those sections.
 
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