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Old 01-13-2013, 07:17 PM   #1
Ellaroni
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Do you celebrate fictional birthdays?
The MC in my contemporary YA turned 18 on January 11th, so I had an extra bar of chocolate while revising. Almost felt as if I needed to wrap a gift too ;-)
Does anyone else celebrate the birthdays of their fictional characters? (I have one coming up in February too!)
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Old 01-13-2013, 08:48 PM   #2
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I don't know. I remember noticing it was my MC's birthday a while ago, but I didn't do anything special other than smile at the thought. I guess I'll get better with practice .
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Old 01-13-2013, 09:09 PM   #3
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I'm pretty sure my MC's birthday is August 5th. Not sure what year though.

Do I celebrate? Nah. I don't even know if her birthday's going to end up on the page.
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Old 01-13-2013, 09:57 PM   #4
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I'm really lazy. I don't celebrate them, but they've got to have them.

My MC's birthdays:

November 11th.
May 5th.
October 10th.
February 2nd.

Get it?
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Old 01-13-2013, 10:11 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thebloodfiend View Post
I'm really lazy. I don't celebrate them, but they've got to have them.

My MC's birthdays:

November 11th.
May 5th.
October 10th.
February 2nd.

Get it?
I GET IT.


I sometimes forget my MCs birthdays, oops. I don't celebrate them or anything.
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Old 01-13-2013, 11:32 PM   #6
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I don't even know my MC's birthday. It's in October. That's all I know.

Well, gee, now I feel bad.
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Old 01-13-2013, 11:44 PM   #7
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I remember my character's birthday,March 25,because it's one of my best friends bday as well.
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Old 01-13-2013, 11:55 PM   #8
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Characters are supposed to have birthdays?

Damn. *shuffles off to create calendars too ...*
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Old 01-14-2013, 12:32 AM   #9
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Yeah, I don't know my MC's birthday. I know it's sometime in the fall, but I still haven't picked out an exact date. I feel kind of guilty now...
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Old 01-14-2013, 12:36 AM   #10
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July 31st, Harry Potter's birthday. Always.

Edit: oh, this was about your own characters. The MC of my WIP is a Virgo. That's all I know.
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Old 01-14-2013, 01:06 AM   #11
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I don't celebrate their birthdays because only twice in the course of the narrative have the birthdays actually come up.
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Old 01-14-2013, 02:25 AM   #12
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...Yes. I used to actually make cake/treats for them...
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Old 01-14-2013, 02:42 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KateSmash View Post
Characters are supposed to have birthdays?
Ditto.

I had my MCs born in the winter, and in the second draft I discovered a character talking about their birthdays being in the summer. That showed I couldn't care less when they were born.
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Old 01-14-2013, 03:06 AM   #14
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I usually figure out when the character was born so I can skim the major headlines and bread/milk/egg prices when/where they were growing up, give them a sort of temporal place (the further back their birthdays go, the more attention I pay to this). I haven't celebrated the birthdays, though.
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Old 01-14-2013, 04:17 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KateSmash View Post
Characters are supposed to have birthdays?

Damn. *shuffles off to create calendars too ...*
Yah this. I don't even have exact dates, just seasons because of school and days of the week...because of school.
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Old 01-14-2013, 04:55 AM   #16
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Not at all. Neither my own characters or other characters get to have their birthdays celebrated by me.

I don’t give my characters birthday aside from pinpointing a certain season or month, just so I can keep track of their age as time goes on.
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Old 01-14-2013, 06:56 AM   #17
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Only my waifu's (see avatar).

I have no idea when my own characters' birthdays are.
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:04 AM   #18
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Usually the only time their birthday comes up, is when I write my characters profiles. Which I've been kind of delayed with writing lately. (Research for setting.)
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:06 AM   #19
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The only fictional chars birthday I celebrate are Bilbo's and Frodo's on Sept. the 22nd. Yes I am a nerd, lol...
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:16 AM   #20
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Asuka Langley Soryu's birthday is December 4, for the curious.
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:27 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankiebrown View Post
July 31st, Harry Potter's birthday. Always.
My friends and I did this for years. As for my own characters nope. More than half of them don't even have birthdays.
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Old 01-14-2013, 10:22 AM   #22
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For various reasons I had my two FMCs in Partings and Greetings born in August and September (September 24th to be exact) of the same year, so that they would be very close in age but one (the one who isn't narrating) being a school year above the other. That's so they don't get to meet a year earlier, when the older one starts at sixth-form college - important as they've had a present boyfriend or former girlfriend (respectively) at the point where the novel starts.
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Old 01-14-2013, 12:24 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankiebrown View Post
July 31st, Harry Potter's birthday. Always.

Edit: oh, this was about your own characters. The MC of my WIP is a Virgo. That's all I know.
Any fictional character would count, I think!
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:08 PM   #24
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I gave my MC my younger son's BD because it was convenient.

I don't celebrate it specially for her.
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Old 01-17-2013, 09:09 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thebloodfiend View Post
My MC's birthdays:

November 11th.
May 5th.
October 10th.
February 2nd.

Get it?
I DON'T GET IT BUT MY BIRTHDAY IS OCTOBER 10TH AND I THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE BORN. THIS IS INFORMATION I AM GIVING YOU TO HELP AS RESEARCH OKAY GOOD.

Ahem.

Yeah, I generally know the month because that's important to keep track of things like whether they're older or younger amongst their classmates and whether they've been eligible for a learner's permit long enough to have their G1/G2/G yet, and how old they would have been if they discarded their virginity two summers ago, blah blah blah. If the date become significant in the text or in some random episode of the character's past/future that I secretly know even if it doesn't make it to the page, then I know the date. But generally, yeah, just the month.

Although I do like it when authors make specific dates significant in their texts and then readers latch onto that significance and recognise those dates when they come around IRL. Like January 10th in Looking For Alaska.
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