Character Development...

The Diera (Dee-air-rah) Files..

I've been working on a fantasy character, Diera, for over four years now... she's been a hard nut to crack, but like with most complicated characters, I've often found sketching her works.

When you have a drawing of a character, you can imagine better how their face would change with emotion: does thier face contort or squinch-up when they're angry? would they narrow their eyes or raise an eyebrow to convey suspicion? Are they an honest person, or do they wear a mask??!

I know they say "don't judge a book by it's cover" but it's scary just how much more of your character's personality you can flesh out by simply considering their profile....

Unfortunately, I have long lost my origional (first EVER) sketch of Diera from 3 years ago, in which she is 14 years old... In this origional drawing, Diera had brown-tinted skin, green eyes, and long hair.

Compare this discription to a drawing of her from the start of this year when, in a flash of inspiration, I saw her picking apples with her childhood friend Ayomi. I took this profile of Diera as a child, and composed this sketch, in which she is 9:

(sometimes I like to imagine Ayomi sitting under the tree quietly sketching this, while Diera darted around after the fruit-birds)

Her eyes are still green, at this point in the development of her character, but it was from this image I moved away from the solemn, serious Diera with the darker skin, pointed chin and a narrow face to a more wild, adventure-seeking character; in this version, she has a much wider face and higher forehead, which was a gigantic step on the way to the Diera I work with today.

Below is my most recent Diera sketch, which unlike the previous ones is set DURING the major events of the story (at 17 years of age), rather than before:

I drew alot of this from the previous chlid-drawing, trying to find what definition her face would gain over 7-and-a-half years, and came up with a stronger jaw and brow-ridge, for the determination she has gained over those years.

.

In homage to her mother (whose identity i will keep as my big secret!) she now has fiery golden eyes:

>>

At first I thought her eyes might change with the onset of puberty, but then decided that was a silly notion, and that for her to be born with the golden eyes of an eagle would mark her as the wild, spirited creature she would always be... and what better basis for a prophecy (or doom!) than a child with eyes like that?!

.

This is the Diera I currently work with. A full, true character... nowadays I greet her like an old friend- though the miles she has to run, I'm afraid, are only beggining!

.

.

All for now then,

This is little miss scribble, signing off!

-

Eating Nouns, Shitting Adjectives.

In keeping with it's peculiar trend of messing with my sleeping patterns, Inspiration struck at goddess-knows-what AM, and as a result I'm currently in the middle of a short story entitled "Madeline & the Giant Ferret of Love", it will most likely be too long to post, as it's a good page-and-a-half already, and while has all the earmarks of a short story, I can't for the life of me think of an ending.
Picture this:
You fall asleep under your desk and awake to find your apartment has morphed into a cave of sorts, after you've suitably calmed down from the resulting freak-out, you are greeted by a giant ferret with messy fur the colour of "a newborn dipped in onion-soup".
It introduces itself as "the Giant Ferret of Love" and proceeds to mistake your name for "Mad-Ellen"

.....So what now? I was coasting on inspiration and hit a brick wall... WHAMM!

I have my setting, characters (will probably end up with more later), setting... But I don't have an event... though a visit from a giant ferret could arguably be an event in itself, I can't have my characters sit around twiddling their thumbs and playing monopoly for another two pages.
Drat it, they'll have to get up off their behinds and DO something, we make our characters earn their existance, no doubt about that, but thinking up their list of chores is quite nearly as taxing as doing the chores themselves...

Gah, inspiration is so volatile!
It gobbles down your nouns and verbs, and tommorow you dissapointedly flush the adjectives down with a yellow wash of oxymorons, if you're not careful. too much of good inspiration is turned into tripe by lazy people who can't be bothered putting in the hard yards to make it something.
Thats the answer, in the end. hard work.
Put work into your words, even if they don't flow easily, and the story you get is the story you earned.

It'll be tea with Madeline for me in any case,
Let you know how it turns out, if its an epic fail... well, you'll probably find out anyway,

a-rollin' up the sleeves,
Leah Mae. :)