Sometimes when I get bored, I go on IMDB/ Facebook/ any site with pictures of people and pick certain ones, crop them to a certain size, greyscale it and paste it on a Microsoft Word document. Then when I need characters or want to flesh one out, I go through the document and find one that I like the most and start working with that.
Anybody else do something similar?
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50,113 / 50,000
Mei 11, 2008 - 00 51
When I start a new project and I'm character developing, I often go to one of a number of stock photo sites. They are searchable so you can search for age, gender and even places for settings. When I find a picture that suits the character I'm developing I past it into that projects notebook - top left corner of the page. In a circle in the middle of the page I put the characters name (often the name changes before I start the actual writing) I brainstorm out from the circle - things that pop into my head about the character. Basic appearance, traits, faults, fears, relationships to other characters, personality and any other odd bits that come to mind.
Once I can close my eyes and visualise the characters and once I can hear them having conversations in my mind, I'll start writing the story.
Jeff
59,041 / 50,000
Mei 14, 2008 - 09 29
I can't say I do that... but it's a great idea!
XP *steals*
52,670 / 50,000
Mei 14, 2008 - 11 01
Oooh! What a great idea!!
Do you have any sites that you could recommend? (The stock photo sites). I sometimes have trouble coming up with what my characters look like.
Thanks!
51,075 / 50,000
Mei 18, 2008 - 18 44
Oh, I do that all the time. I never have characters that I don't find a picture of.
Here are some of my favorite sites to use:
www.starsusa.com
www.newfaces.com
www.gettyimages.com
www.lizbellagency.com
www.bitterepiphany.com
6,590 / 50,000
Mei 21, 2008 - 13 52
huh...actually I thought I was the only one who did that. Weird.
0 / 50,000
Jun 13, 2008 - 19 13
That is positively BRILLIANT!!!!!! *cackles evily*
I'm stealing your idea. You don't have a choice in the matter.
:D
0 / 50,000
Jun 14, 2008 - 02 14
That is a beauty.
I've just started recently making collage pages, cutting out pictures of faces, hairstyles, clothes, accessories, things my character would wear and putting them on to a page with their name up the top. Plus character profiles on a different page.
The stock photo sites sound awesome, I'm gonna have a look at those as well.
Smart cookies we have here...
Sairz
52,670 / 50,000
Jun 16, 2008 - 21 29
Thanks, daqu, for the links to those websites!
I lost this thread for a while, and just now came back to it. (Yeah, it's bookmarked now).
Happy character hunting, everyone!
20,189 / 50,000
Jun 23, 2008 - 22 01
lol i've been doing that too
sometimes it helps if you search for...like...girl swimmer too
cause that way you can really see how your character would be pictured if she was a swimmer...swimming...
agh idk if that made any sense. but yeah i've been doing that for quite some time. lol
0 / 50,000
Jun 26, 2008 - 15 50
I do something like this too!
When I'm writing a story, I like to pick out people from my favorite tv shows or movies to play the roles. Sort of like I'm a casting director. :) Then I look for pictures of them on the internet and make a page of my "cast of characters"
It helps me a out a lot because I know exactly what my characters look like and how they sound. It's easier to write when I can hear them talk in my head.
9,470 / 50,000
Jul 1, 2008 - 23 15
Hey, that's awesomeness! And a lot of them give names, too, which helps with the decision-making :) (unless you want to make the character 'yours' by giving them their own name XD)
*sprints off to find people*
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Jul 2, 2008 - 07 26
I can't say I do it with pictures, unless I draw them myself (I am an anime artist). I find that my characters look completely unique in my mind, and it would be a pain in the butt to have to go through tons and tons of pictures until I find one that kinda matches. Instead, what I tend to do before I start to write (unless I just have this great idea that I have to work off of), is I fill out a little form I made myself so that I can just flip back later to say that yeah, this character has a birthmark on his hip, or likes to drink chocolate milk with every meal. I find just writing it out (and later reading it before I start to write again) really helps to enliven the character in my mind. I can add other things later to my list, but I know what my character likes most, hates most, what is sure to make him sad, what nervous habits he has, etc.
0 / 50,000
Jul 3, 2008 - 15 07
I always drew out my characters. I was doing that about a year ago, when I realized it was nothing but time-consuming, as those drawings hurt me, not helped me (I can't draw for the life of me). Now I just trust in my memory. I do have a brief character-sheet, one that goes over certain appearance qualities, but no more than what you would find in the text itself. If I ever need to find a specific detail, I skim through until I find what I need. The personalities of my characters are ingrained into my head, almost as if the characters are there with me in my head (think The Host, if you've read it). I've actually fought with quite a few of them at times.