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Handling Character Connections
Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:02 am
by PinkMagus
I've recently found myself with a stroke of creativity during physics class and jotted down some quick notes, and now am seeking to better organize the ideas. What I have right now is just a simple web showing different characters and their relation to one another, see attached. Also, I am terrible when it comes to names of characters, so any help on better names would be much appreciated.
The general gist of the story is as follows.
The main character gets caught up in a blood feud between a family of mages and a family of vampires after his parents are murdered due mistaken identity, romantic hyjinks and drama follow.
I was planning on having the setting be in Seattle (I am a local here so I know the area, and it is fairly recognizable).
The point of this thread, other than being a gauge to see how well this kind of idea would be received, is to get advice on how to organize the actual scenario lay outs into a manageable form. Also, is this kind of character relation plotting a good idea?
Re: Handling Character Connections
Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:12 am
by Samu-kun
I generally make one, but it's a good idea to have supplemental information somewhere else because there's a lot of information you need that won't fit in a character web.
Also, it can be downright cool to see how all of your characters relate to each other.
This software is also good for organizing character webs.
http://www.habitualindolence.net/labyrinth/
Re: Handling Character Connections
Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:27 am
by chronoluminaire
It's a very good idea to plan out your characters' relations to each other in as much detail as you can.
As for how to do it: everyone has different preferences. I just have one big text document called "Characters", or sometimes one small text document for each character, in which I'll describe in text their relations to each of the others. Perhaps using colour codes for each different other character. Other people may prefer all sorts of other ways to do it.
As for the story:
the one thing to watch out for is cheapening grief. If the main character's parents have just been murdered, he's going to be quite screwed up, or at the very least in deep grief, for some time, unless he really, really disliked them. Even then he's going to have some emotional issues. I got in trouble with one thing I wrote where a majorish character died, and I didn't spend enough time with the main character grieving because I didn't want to make the tone too melancholy.
Apart from that, though, the story sounds fine: go for it!
Re: Handling Character Connections
Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:51 pm
by PinkMagus
Thanks for the ideas, I'll probably use that program to clean up my web, and do the character relation sheets after I clean the web up so I can put down more detailed information.
About Story
While grief isn't going to be the focus of the story, the grief will be important in establishing a starting point for the rest of the tone to build from. I also want to add in the confusion and guilt that sometimes accompanies a major shock such as the death of family.
Also I could use a little clarification about what goes where on the boards. After reading the rules for the various boards, I decided to put this here because it is purely text and scenario without any related coding. So it should stay here until I actually get to the point in which I am using the coding, right?
Edit (Add):
So I was rummaging around my documents looking at some old music I made when I was messing around with program my brother gave me a whiles back (Fruity Loops). Like always, since I was just messing around I had a lot of untitled 1s and 2s, etc. Ended up finding a little scrap with some good musical ideas in it, I might use it as the main theme of the game. It's no where near being actually usable, but the music ideas are ready for plundering, I'll post it here for fun. Password for the archive is 'pink'
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OVGK7RS4