#slowly building a blorbo is super fun

[doraingrid]

Chiara body closeups!

I've worked on Chiara's character sheet for weeks and it was difficult to resist posting bits just as I finish them, so I'm taking a moment to post closeups I've really liked.

I may also use this as an opportunity to talk a bit more about her 👇

Tattoos ✨ Chiara's a proud Crow, she has several tattoos to show for it. Chest, arm and ankle tattoos are all crow themed, with the ankle one representing House de Riva specifically. She had them done after becoming a full Crow (she had to believe she earned the right to have them).

She also has a snake tattoo on her forehead because, well, she really likes them! Chiara saw Emil the adder while growing up in the House, so it's safe to assume the fascination with snakes came from there. That was her first tattoo. Viago scolded her for a whole evening for that questionable choice of motif and placement (forehead? really?? idiot). Secretly he enjoyed that they started having more things in common, even if it was snakes and bad puns.

Body | Scars ✨ Chiara is not a good mage. Not in the traditional stay-in-the-back and cast-spells way. She doesn't know what to do with a staff, it's bad. She had a hard time managing her abilities growing up and her impulsive nature meant she often found herself in the middle of fights catching fists with her face.

She needed to find a new way to fight, traditional mage techniques weren't cutting it. She learnt to wield daggers and infuse them with magic to give her an edge in combat. It took her years of borderline torturous training to become a decent melee fighter.

As a result, her physique is pretty strong for a mage. Years of training twice as hard are showing in the defined muscles and abundance of scars, most self-inflicted, while some hold other stories.

[sleepyowlwrites]

"If you ask me for writing tips I will solve your problems for you. I'm just amazing like that."

Oh great sleepy🙏i wanna know how to write (and come up with-) interesting character interactions, and any tips you may have about character creation in general! I am amazed by how you write character interactions though, they often feel so warm. Please help with this TT and any character tips you may have in general, grateful for all of them!!1!

Characters are just like plots - you can build them from any direction. Just as a question and then keep answering.

What if there was a girl who became friends with a bunch of brothers?

Okay. So. What's her deal? She's just lost a family member and she's in a fugue state. She's usually really into all her hobbies, but now she doesn't have an attention span for anything.

Okay. Is she naturally curious? Like, when the brothers start to slowly crack her open, does she ask them lots of questions and get really interested in their hobbies too? Yeah that sounds about right.

Is she short? She's short. And blonde! A blonde character for once. Okay. And she loves listening to music. Her name is Maisy.

So if she's conversing with Connor, and he's trying to introduce her to a new group, and she's insistent on showing him her favorite groups instead. Yeah. Okay. And some of the ice melts. And some of the branches crack because they're not weighed down anymore. It's a quick inhale, like she had forgotten how heavy her shoulders were now that she can carry them with ease.

The song is playing but Connor isn't listening. He's got her hand trapped underneath his fingers, tracing down the lines. He's looking past her like he doesn't want to interrupt her fade back into saturation. But he knows. He knows she's feeling something again. He knows it's got her breath caught in between lungs and ribcage. The song ends and the world hangs around them, thick and foggy.

"Dinner's probably ready. Wanna stay and eat?"

The clouds break to let in the sun. Maisy's hand slides away from his but she can breathe like there was never any blockage.

"Sure."

-

You just start from one thing,and you go from there. Put that blorbo in a situation and explore their response. Lean them up against a conundrum and figure how they work it out.

Any interaction doesn't have to amazing or profound or witty. It just has to be consistent with the characters featured. Their actions and answers should follow up on their feelings, and make progress on their intentions. They're just people, doing normal people things, or sometimes strange people things. Some circumstances make them respond in anger. Some stuff they're super chill about. And you figure it as you go, as you encounter more situations and conundrums.

Some interactions aren't actually gonna happen in the story, but they help you formulate the types of pulls and pushes you want from your guys. You know how real people sometimes try and get heavy weights off their chest and sometimes just have the most ridiculous, unhelpful exchanges at other times? That's how fictional people do it to.

And, like everything, you gotta practice. I'm good at this because I practiced. Sleepy from 10 years ago did not used to be so good at this.

Have fun and build people!

Link to another post about writing characters

Another one

[viviskull]

@cflight​ | Accepting

🍓👉👈

((I love your Goat bard the normal amount for a human being))

((ANYWAYS FR THO, I genuinely do think your OC is well fleshed out over their last counter part from a couple years ago (correct me if I am wrong. my timing is off when it comes to keeping track of things) and I do love the way you portray them in your writing.  There’s so much I could say about this lil blorbo, but if I had to pick just one: I do like you take the time to make this idiot so darn loveble that is it SUPER easy for people to get attached to them.  This guy’s got a troubling past to boot, so this purposeful attachment makes it just ripe for you to stab your readers with so much angst that they need to go to a hospital afterwards (and I mean that in the best way possible).  Speaking of which, your writings always a delight to read too, even when I might be screaming at your even scientist after reading the most recent drabble you dropped a while ago.

Even when you only give me like a couple paragraphs to work with when it comes to our threads, you still give me just enough to work with that even I get a lil overboard with making it silly or fun as possible.  I also love the OT4 we’re slowly building for the main trio and Ekira too!  Both Lewis and Vivi bounce well off of them and I love the way their interactions feel so natural too.

Plus, you the mun have been extremely sweet too!!  Even when I might send you a random idea at 3am, you’ve been patient enough with me that I thank you for it.  You’re a good sport!!))