Alright. So you're starting to see motives. But just incase you still don't get it. I've got a pretty good idea where to start with you now.
*writes on chalkboard*
"Characters are........"
And the answer to that?
They are Human Beings, or Sage, Relorian, Aralang, race doesn't matter. We're not referring to human as the race, but as people.
Characters are people, and until you see them as such, you will fail at characterization.
When you RP, you don't just RP for yourself, you also RP for the ones to RP with you and read the RP. And even though you make them up. People want your characters to be "real."
They want them to be whole and alive, believable, and worth caring about. They want to know your characters as much as they know family, friends, even themselves.
I'm sorry, but at this point in time. As a reader, I can't care about Avidan, Gallaghar, and Laura and what happens to them, as much as I care to see what happens to K2 or Koty and their fate and paths.
Because you have not given us anything to go by to care for your characters. We can't see them as real people..
When making your character, you want people to know more about them than they know any person in real life. Because fiction plays on understanding human nature and behavior.
And we're roleplaying fiction.
So then?
What is a character?
A character is what they do. When someone makes an action, it leads to ones around them, forming an already created judgment on who they are and their personality, before even speaking to them.
In observing life, if you watch people and how they act, you form conclusions.
Example: A man and a woman meet and talk, minutes later, they hug. What does this tell you? They're close, friendly, or a couple. People are made around actions, and in fiction and roleplaying. This is no different.
In observation, people are formed in our minds from what they do, and this gives us an idea of what they are or who they are. It's the strongest and most important form of Characterization. It's also the easiest.
When your character steals something? We know they're a thief, or desperate. If they execute someone, we'll know they're cruel or just. If they tell two different people a different side of a story, we'll know they're a liar.
It's the easiest form, but it's shallow. And this is where YOU are stuck in Characterization.
In roleplaying this isn't enough. Just as rin real life, watching someone and seeing their actions is NOT enough to know who they really, are. You can say they're a liar, but that's only judging by actions. You can say their a thief, but do you know why? Do you know the deeper and inner reasons as to why they decided to do such an act? No. You don't, you only know what you've judged. And that's why we come to what I've been trying to teach you about villians, heros, and all of characterization.
MOTIVES!
When you observe the thief stealing something. Would you see them as nothing but a lowly thief, if you knew they were doing it to feed themselves because their government decided to take everything they had?
The ruler that executed someone, would you see them as cruel, if you knew the person had millions of chances and tried to assassinate said ruler? Or if they were a rebel and a freedom fighter, would you see the ruler as just?
A vilian who has tried to kill a character the whole RP, would you see them as truly, evil, if you knew that the character they're trying to kill wronged them in their past?
Would you blame a villian for being evil if you knew they were abused all their life?
The woman and the man. You'd judge them one way, if you knew that the man had a wife at home, and was hugging this stranger affectionatly. And you'd see them another, if you knew they were friends seeing each other. These acts take on a completely different meaning when you know the the info behind them.
And that is the lesson I am trying to teach you.
Motive is what gives moral value to a characters acts. No matter what a character does, good, awful, it's never morally absolute. Even in evil and good.
What could be a murder, can be self defense. What can be seen as thievery, could be a job, the only way they could survive, or something else all together.
A kiss could be deception, betrayal, or seduction.
And in hero and villian, and any other archetype you can think of, this is no different. They all have motives, they all have reasons, and they are never just one archetype in the end.
A character is what he or she does, but even more, what they mean to do.
But how can we understand a Characters motives?
With another little thing called.....
BACKSTORY
Before we move on to that however.
Your assignment is to create a character with just name and age.
I want you to ask questions to yourself about said character, until you find the motive behind their actions.
When done, post character here.
