To the writing community, I was wondering how you all come up with your unique individual characters in your story. I am curious to see if there more out there like me because I often find myself being critical of my ideas for being unoriginal.
If I were to describe myself as a writer it would be that I can weave a background and a story to go with a character with confidence. However, I often run into the situation where I have trouble physically forming that character in my mind to start working with. I suppose this stems from what got me into writing to begin with. I came across a picture of a female in an anime and was so struck by her look that it was like lightning. I simply had to write to story surrounding a created character that looked like her.
Ever since, I have found myself looking to visual aides for inspiration more so than my imagination. Everything from artwork, anime, video games, and so on. Is this a bad thing? Does this make me an idea thief and a bad person for doing so?
The world of writing has such a diverse community in which there is unparalleled freedom to go in new directions with character designs or race, especially the SFF genre I belong to. In this realm of freedom, do some of you create as I do with character inspiration coming from visual stimulation? Or do you use other methods? I have even had one friend recommend the unconventional method of putting physical characteristics (hair color, skin tone, etc.) on a dart board and throw darts to create the combination for the character.
Thank you all for your time in this!
If I were to describe myself as a writer it would be that I can weave a background and a story to go with a character with confidence. However, I often run into the situation where I have trouble physically forming that character in my mind to start working with. I suppose this stems from what got me into writing to begin with. I came across a picture of a female in an anime and was so struck by her look that it was like lightning. I simply had to write to story surrounding a created character that looked like her.
Ever since, I have found myself looking to visual aides for inspiration more so than my imagination. Everything from artwork, anime, video games, and so on. Is this a bad thing? Does this make me an idea thief and a bad person for doing so?
The world of writing has such a diverse community in which there is unparalleled freedom to go in new directions with character designs or race, especially the SFF genre I belong to. In this realm of freedom, do some of you create as I do with character inspiration coming from visual stimulation? Or do you use other methods? I have even had one friend recommend the unconventional method of putting physical characteristics (hair color, skin tone, etc.) on a dart board and throw darts to create the combination for the character.
Thank you all for your time in this!