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lucabyte · 9 days ago

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What's your favorite way to characterize your ocs? (if u want a challenge try not to answer with any homestuck related category)

mine is how many siblings they have!

Ok so this is a genuinely interesting question bc i had to actually like... Think about how to word this in a way that isn't complete nothing?

So. My favourite way to characterise my ocs is via their interests. (... something i think homestuck does very well via making sure every character has a grab bag of cool & uncool, intense & wayside interests instead of just a bunch of cool stuff they like equally, but i digress)

That said, it's not so simple as just giving them a likes and dislikes list. in fact i fucking hate likes and dislikes lists cant stand them, they always feel really flat to me. I know they have their uses but I usually can't flatten characters down that way. Likes are ephemeral-- Likes can be shit like 'warm days' which. Duh.

Something i'm a little mean about related to this is what i call "Likes: Friends Dislikes: Bullies" which is something you see on character likes and dislikes in one form or another a LOTTTT. This is because like... Yeah? That can be assumed of everyone? It tells me nothing about the character. Telling me your character likes Pleasant Weather or dislikes Gross Food is like. Uh Huh?

It's not specific! It tells me nothing! But that's the secret.

Specificity and Contradiction are where it's at. Now a character who hates pleasant weather and likes gross food? Now that's a weirdo. Or maybe even that they dislike 'gross food'-- But by their definition that's like... Anything that's not literally raw? Now that's characterisation! Now you get to ask why the fuck are they like that.

And this is how I like to approach things. I like to dig into a character's interests on the surface level by assigning them some, sure. But the fun comes from digging in and making them specific and contradictory. (And usually if a character is unfinished, to me, it's because they're still on that surface level of Just Having Some Interests) (Also, it goes without saying, one of the best places to find these interests for characters in the first place is by joking and riffing for as long as humanly possible. A core joke will carry you farrrrr)

so my actual favourite way to characterise characters? Giving them really specific dislikes, in relation to their interests.

So, for example, (because they are always the example...) Ali is a stagehand and decent actor, and loves plays. In fact, they love plays so much they are outright dismissive of other art forms. They don't play games, they don't really watch TV, their main intakes of media are books, screenplays, poetry and filmed productions or bootlegs. (and hey, bringing up bootlegs: that probably means they participate in the weird bootleg-trading-ring people have going on online. Look at that! A weird niche activity I can give them!)

But, they HATE musicals. Think they "lower" the art form-- Despite (or perhaps because) they're the most popular type of play to put on, especially in the local productions they help out on. They value the scary intimacy of a theatre production, being in a near silent room physically with the performers, they think it elevates it. Makes it unique. They don't like that musicals are like... fun and loud.

But let's go even more specific. Do they have any exceptions? Any begrudging respect?

Well, I think they'd respect musicals like Cats. Things that are pure spectacle, where the music and intefacing with the audience in a chaotic manner are the point. They like that Cats "Doesn't even pretend to have a story. It's not actually trying to compete with plays, it's doing its own thing. It's practically Theatre of Cruelty."

And furthermore, they also enjoy animated or movie-original musicals. Because, well, film is a medium they don't care about as much. It's okay if it lowers itself by being silly. Plus!! Animation is like, fake, for children, and has a heightented requirement for suspension of disbelief! It's perfect for musicals! They're nothing but spectacle! In fact, that's what makes them the perfect medium for them!

^ You may notice that the above is like, while logical, is very dismissive of other mediums! It's a little bit anti-art in places!

And thatt's the other thing. I like to make characters who don't hold the exact same opinions I do.

While there's parts of my actual opinions in there-- I do believe animated is a great medium for musicals due to the whole suspension of disbelief & fun thing-- Um. I would hope it's obvious that as an animation graduate I don't think animation is for children or inherently less serious of a medium.

But Ali is a weird little snob who will hopefully get some slightly more nuanced opinons when they're not literally only 19. So it makes sense that they're being elitist about things. They're insecure, and hanging a lot of their self-esteem on being "an artist with good and refined taste". Of couuuurse they've got a stick up their ass about musicals (something I myself am not a superfan of, but usually enjoy when I watch them. I think Ali is missing out!)

But yeah, that's just from digging in and getting specific about one interest: Theatre.

By digging into the contradiction of "Likes Theatre and Dislikes Musicals" I can find a reason for why. And I can avoid making characters just Mouthpieces For My Own Opinions by giving them opinions i disagree with.

I follow this logic a lot, though not always so straightforwardly.

Chrome is a musician who doesn't really like music, and thinks all artists are just vapidly doing it for attention. (Which should immediately clue you in to what's wrong with him.) It's a more selfish version of the same kind of reasoning Ali has, but one Ali would find ghoulish.

Ess, meanwhile, is a Pedologist. A soil scientist-- A very specific thing you usually get to via being like... A geologist, or chemist, or something more general-- But I've said he was basically on that shit immediately-- Which is a funny concept to me. He didn't go on a journey of scientific discovery to find a niche area of study-- He just loved that niche ever since he was a kid.

So, you'd expect that I'd maybe make Ess dislike other sciences then? Nah, I think he's more nuanced than that. Because, following his very polite and politically aware demeanor, I think it would make more sense for him to be very respectful of all sciences, even if he has no real interest in them outside of how they relate to his field. Instead, he is conciously trying very hard not to form a grudge with more 'popular' sciences-- He knows why they're more popular, and he knows it's not the fault of the people who love the field that they get a lot more funding than him. It's not their fault, it's just a result of science having to be so capitalistic.....

See! Polite little man, very nuanced. That's because most of his contradictions come instead from being a terrified and anxious soul who is doing illegal shit right now while being very scared because they know it's for the greater good. (see! politically aware again. He knows trespassing is illegal, but his morality does not line up with legality. He's exposing governmental malpractice, ffs. But! Not a cool punk! In fact a very scared guy!)

Ess there does get to be a bit of a mouthpiece for me, since obviously I also believe you should trespass to go get evidence of the government knowingly dumping biohazards into the fucking water supply for cost cutting reasons. But he gets to balance it out because every time I have to do research into soil science my fucking head hurts.

Pulling back away from Ess and back to Ali and Chrome again I think I have one last really good example of letting characters have opinions that are different to mine, that's about something that isn't an interest, per se, but hits on the reason I like to do this so much.

It is so fucking fun to make characters argue.

In an earlier purrgatorio that im not going to re-look-at because its early enough the writing quality might make me dry heave, i let ali and chrome have a bit of an argument (with tabitha as a weird mediator who has the closest to my real opinions LOL.)

So. Chrome has what i can describe as "Basically my opinions, but worded in the most bad faith way possible." If I saw someone arguing my point like this i'd want to either smack them or disagree with them on principle.

Whereas Ali has "The opposite to my opinion, but worded with all of the arguments for that point of view that I genuinely respect." They're the talking points I've observed that I genuinely find to be decent reasoning, and I would be hard pressed to disagree with in polite conversation.

They're arguing about religion. Ali is religious, following a small gnostic sect that's basically only practiced by their immediate family. Chrome is bluntly atheistic, but coming at it from a conception of religion that only has room for (a pastiche of) american big-box puritan protestantism, and is assuming every religion to be the same way.

I am an atheist myself, but cannot fucking stand the culturally-christian reddit atheist talking points. So I gave that kind of thing to Chrome (part of this irony being, Chrome is far more spiritual than he thinks-- having internalised a LOT of protestant work ethic), and Ali is from a small cultural religion that couldn't be further from it-- And is also a modern-day internet user with a bitchy streak-- So of course they've memorised every rational and reasonable counter-argument to this kind of thing.

(The full on irony being, that they are fictional and thus Ali is acutally in a sense... Right that there is a demiurge. Lol.)

Even if I do ultimately take the side that uh. Idk dude i dont think god is real. Giving that opinion to the guy who's being a shithead about it makes it more interesting to write?

I treat a lot of things like this. Chrome has a bad anti-art anti-intellectual streak that I follow the logic of, but think is dangerous and flawed. Markus loves scientific knowledge and biology, but is too naive to really know how to chase it-- or when to stop. Miao has a lack of academic smarts, and deeply undervalues her other skills because she's internalised that they don't matter in comparison. Lupus believes there's good in everyone, and can't comprehend the logic of cruelty-- Leading her to equivicate legality with morality in a very childish manner.

Everyone gets an ideology. I should be able to follow the logic of everyone's ideology even if I don't agree with it. And interests are both an extension of ideology, and a window into it.

Chrome's anti-art anti-intellectualism leads him to barely partake in media-- But also undersell his own academic smarts because his skills in physiology are "just dumb meathead shit about how to stay jacked". Lupus' disagreements with Mafioso over criminals being 'cool' betray her inflexibility in categorising actions as 'good' or 'bad', because she wants no-one to suffer-- And assuming an unjust police absolutely turns that to dust.

It's all about putting characters together like a big jigsaw to make them have unique worldviews-- To then be able to look at a real world thing and go "who of my characters would like that/act like that/think that?"

(Now. Uh. I can't say I'm like. The Bestest At This-- That would be a touch egotistical given my lack of Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is And Writing A Big Story For Everyone To Look At. But um. We'll get there? I hope lol.)

But yeah, TL;DR:

My favourite ways to characterise characters are:

Give them specific, contradictory and ironic interests

Interrogate their reasonings and how it informs their self-perception

Give them opinions that don't always align with mine

Interrogate whether they are actually coherent when discussing these opinions

#lucabytetalks #hope this was thorough???? for those uninformed go to toyhou.se/lucabyte/characters to have any ideas who these guys are #but yeah lol i can attribute this focus on interests as a core to then spiral out into characterisation at least a little to #how well hs does it too. that mode of handing out a bunch of interests (AND MORE IMPORTANTLY: JOKES) is influential 2 me #ocposting #long post #oc writing #lucabytewrites #anyway in a 'who could've seen that coming' twist of blatant asexuality i also do this somewhat arbitratily w giving characters kinks #its like. funny to get freudian on their asses about it. like giving hainu (who is a youtuber) one he keeps putting in videos but seemingly #without him realising its like. a fetish. he just picked it up from the online miasma and doesnt realise why (or that) he is fixated on it #(id make you all guess b/ i went through quite the rigorous discussion 2 find one to fit that profile. its tickling. just innocuous enough)

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