Thread "Make up a new girl character" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 4:03PM, Mar. 31, 2016

It really depends on the person. I simply consider gender like any other demographic. Of course it affects the person's character. So does race, birthplace, nationality, age, etc.

That said, if it's not essential to the role filled, flipping a coin can be fun – for any of those traits/demographics. At least, it can be a good way to BEGIN character development. If the person is already a fleshed-out character with entire story written, it *usually* isn't a great way to go about it. It can work in some cases. However, for a significant main character, at some point his gender might matter. It will influence his backstory and interaction with others as much as his race or age or weight. If you want a diverse cast, go ahead and flip the coin, roll the dice, and design the details of your character around the results.

If I need a new character, I often do flip a coin early on. There are few cases where gender matters for the role, but it does affect the further development.

Posted at 7:03PM, Mar. 31, 2016

Fair enough. To be honest, I've designed plenty of characters with the roll of a die (mainly in Dungeons and Dragons).

Here's one I've got coming up in my comic. She was a one off character that I liked, and want to flesh out into a reoccurring character. An ex girlfriend that was a one night stand for the main character, and her rebound guy turned out to be a bad guy (in the story). So it's a little cliché right? always falling for the wrong guy. But what else is compelling about this character? She has good self esteem and a good job. She sees herself as unlucky, maybe she's superstitious? I'm still working on this

Posted at 8:03PM, Mar. 31, 2016

This makes me want to start writing stories again- non comic ones. Characters take so long to develop in comics it's easy to forget things about them- their personality becomes so amazingly diffuse that it's hard to know who they are.
Non-comic stories are way tighter.

Posted at 2:04AM, Apr. 1, 2016

ozoneocean wrote:
This makes me want to start writing stories again- non comic ones. Characters take so long to develop in comics it's easy to forget things about them- their personality becomes so amazingly diffuse that it's hard to know who they are.
Non-comic stories are way tighter.

That's because it takes you six months to produce a page. You can have nice tight comic stories. There are plenty of short form stories here, except they take place with recurring characters over a longer narrative. There are also the anthology comics around. But they move faster than a page semi annually.

Even if the story is not about the character's motivation, it can still be the basis around which she is created. You never need allude to it, but that is what made the character who she is and is the "why " that gives you the hook to write about her. Like was told to me back when I first started out, come up with a single sentence or even a single word that gives a basis for the character's behavior. Like my Captain Rickover as the charming, boyish rake who just isn't the grand effective hero type that Kirk is. Or Aura: steady, grounded parent but what made her that way is what determines her reactions.

Posted at 7:04PM, Apr. 2, 2016

I think that way too much emphasis is placed on sex and sexuality in many cases these days if a character is in an action or adventure story just write a good character and don't even worry about that stuff!