Staying In Character

I've been thinking of doing this for a while, so I guess now is a good a time as any. A brief character sketch.....emphasis on "sketch"....for one of the protagonists of my ongoing project, Last Chance. It's sort of a mixture of The Avengers and The Wild, Wild, West.

Nothing really to do with the character (besides the Steampunk angle), but just thought it was a cool pic
Source

Alistair (Albert Muldoon, in the States) Moore: A British expatriate on the run from the law for a crime he didn't commit. Deciding to use his knowledge of steam technology to fight crime, he poses as a 'Yankee' sheriff by day and a masked vigilante by night.

Born and raised in London, Alistair's father was an up and coming stage magician and his mother, a very capable escape artist and magician's assistant. He was raised in the wings of the stage and picked up various tricks of the trades from not only his father, but from visiting magicians, as well. By the age of 17, he was almost as good a magician as his father, though lacking the flair for the dramatic. His lack of dramatic flair was due, partly, in his grounding in scientific endeavors. A prodigy from a young age, he began working with the odd technology known as "Steam Tek" as soon as he was able.  

One night, while walking home from one of his father's performances, Alistair heard struggling in a nearby alleyway. Always one to do what was right, he investigated and found an abnormally large, brutish man mauling a young lady. Approaching the man from behind, Alistair hit him with a lead pipe he found lying against a building. The shock of the impact ran up his arms as he struck hard, waiting for the man to fall flat on his face. Instead, the man slowly turned to confront Alistair....a smile on his face. He quickly backhanded the young lady, caving her skull in before knocking Alistair across the length of the alley. Before the haze of unconsciousness took him, he saw the large man take the lead pipe and dip the tip of it into the oozing ichor of the girl's skull, then throwing it next to Alistair's, now limp, form. 

The next thing he knew he awoke in a jail cell, having been charged with the murder of a young prostitute. What was worse, they had an eye witness.....a frail, thin, and respected, doctor....a Dr. Jekyll...who had seen the whole thing. Not knowing what had really happened, he knew one thing for certain. He didn't want to be around when English law played this scenario out. Using skills he picked up from his parents, Alistair escaped and managed to grab some money he had been saving to open his own steam tek shop. Hopping a freighter to a "land of opportunity", Alistair made his way to the "colonies", then to Wyoming where he stumbled upon "Last Chance".

Ole' Alistair still needs a lot of work as well as a lot of fleshing out, but it's a start.

Breaking the Mold

Going to keep it short and sweet this Hump Day, due to some out of town visitors.

My mom and sister flew down from Kentucky on Monday and, boy, were their arms tired (rimshot!)  Like a lot of folks from out of town, they wanted to see Disney World....so we made the hour and a half long trek up to The Magic Kingdom.

As we walked around the park, I noticed all the cast members who were walking around in character, smiling, waving, and I started thinking about how they did it. I mean, how did they handle jerky/rude visitors? I've never seen it, first hand, but I assume they continue to smile and remain friendly. Kind of like that line in the movie "Roadhouse" (yeah, I've seen it....don't judge...) where Patrick Swayze's character tells them to "be nice until it's time to....not....be nice."

As I thought about that, a question popped into my mind....

How important do you think it is for your characters to stay in character? Now, by that I mean how far do you think a character can "grow" or "evolve" before they stray away from your original concept of said character? Not that I'm saying a character 'takes on a life of it's own'....though I know some see it that way, and that's o.k too...but, I'm talking about the ebb and flow of the story dictating a character start behaving in a way not in your original character concept.

Do you let your characters change, in ways you weren't really anticipating, as the story progresses?

Ever been to Disney? How did you like it?

Character Study

I always wonder if I ever truly develop my characters. I mean, as much as they should be developed.

Oh sure, I give them names, some motivations, some quirks and traits, but do I really develop them? Is it something that should be asked the journalistic questions of who, what, when, where, and why?

• Who was their high school sweetheart?
• What was the best day of their life?
• When did they develop "X" trait?
• Where do they want to retire to?
• Why are they fascinated by ankles?

Up to this point, I've always tried an....organic...I guess you'd call it, approach. As the story developed, so did the character. They've been more reactive then set in stone. I know that a good character can drive the story or, for that matter, make you not really care so much about the story as you do the character's journey. All points to ponder.

Maybe I should come up with a checklist, of sorts, to help answer some of the "basics" of just who these characters are?

I forget which RPG (that stands for Role Playing Game...for the uninitiated) it was, I think it was "Traveller", but they had something called a "life path" where you would roll and the dice would tell you what happened at different points in the character's life. I always thought it was a royal pain, at least in terms of making a role playing character, but something like that would really be useful for coming up with story characters if you didn't feel like putting a lot of work into it.

Is something like this a "cheat" or a "tool" and does it really matter if the outcome is well rounded character?

What are some of your methods for fleshing out characters?