Okay, I'm going to try something new today. Maybe it will rock, maybe not.
I went over to BehindtheName and used their random name generator to give me a name. With the meaning of the name as a starting point, I'm going to attempt to create a character. I went into this with no preconceived ideas of what kind of character I wanted. If this ends up sucking, blame Elen, since she sparked the thought process that led here.
Name: Vilhelm
Meaning: derived from wil "will, desire" and helm "helmet, protection"
Implications for the character:
- always wearing a helmet or hat
- intrusively defensive of others (think of awkward sitcom situations)
- not many friends, on account of that being a bad strategy for self-defense
- hell, he could play a "defensive" position on a sports team, if he ends up in a story that would have sports. otherwise, he could make armor or something.
Appearance:
- needs to be physically strong
- descriptive language should have some sort of defensive undertones when possible (i.e. "towered above his enemies", or "brought the wall of hurt down upon this suckah")
- can't be pale - needs to look like he's been outside
- if he wears a hat, a beard should hide his face. If we wears a helmet, the beard is optional. I guess a hood is an alternative to either, because hoods are badass
- scars
- frowns often
Background:
- primary parental-figure needs to exemplify self-sacrifice in a way that he isn't quite imitating
- perhaps he feels guilt for the eventual downfall/failure of said parent-figure
...and there we go - a first stage character sketch. It's pretty generic, obviously, but I think it's a pretty solid foundation to build a more nuanced character on.
From here, I think the next step is choosing a setting for mister Vilhelm, as that will help me nail down the details of his life. But that's for later. In the meantime, he can act as the writing equivalent of a coloring book page -- feel free to supply your own colors to suit your own fancy!
3 comments:
Okay. Now I'm sucked in and have to check out BehindtheName. That's some spark! :-) Oooh. I like that "coloring book page." I can spend a lot of time on choosing a name for a developed character, but I've never taken a name as a starting point for developing a character. Interesting exercise. Good post.
Cool, someone else liked the idea! It was a first for me. Normally I make the character and spend an hour trying to track down a name that works. I don't even consider that a bad thing, because I always end up adding a few things to my big "Names to use" file.
I think I might do a few more of these in the coming weeks, just to see how the end result might differ from my "standard" process.
Interesting concept. I'm impressed with how much you were able to sketch out using nothing more than a name for inspiration. That's something I've never tried.
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