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Sorry, I can't reply to comments anymore so I'm disabling them. If you do want to leave a comment, just leave it on my front page. And if you've faved this stamp, thank you for the fav

It aggravates me when I see characters that are very poorly researched or created, be they fandom or original. Some are just slight peeves, like how a Japanese person has a completely non-Japanese name. Others can have massive plot holes in their background, especially when it comes to FCxCanon.

I'm not ribbing against people who just don't really know how to build characters, but while a writer is said to "write what they know", it doesn't necessarily mean they should stick to what they know either. Just because you know schizophrenia involves hallucinations doesn't necessarily mean everyone who may hallucinate is a schizophrenic.

See, the thing about plenty of people on dA is that they think they can create a character for a fantasy world and slap them down and say "hey! I'm done", regardless of how they look, speak or behave. This is probably why there's such a high proportion of highly unbelievable characters on this site.

The thing about character design, especially concept work, is to design something or someone that fits into a world. Any world, be it fandom or canon. It doesn't matter how ridiculous they are - if they behave, act and speak in a way that has good reasons behind it, or in a way that we can understand, we'll believe in them. If they act differently to what has been stated previously in the story, there had better be a damn good reason why.

Lay down the rules that you would build your characters to, make note of the exceptions if they happen and whether they're rare or not, and follow them. If you have done enough research, you would have picked up a great treasure trove of knowledge that you can base these rules on and therefore depict them in a way that even we, people who aren't part of your world, would believe in them. Because your purpose, as a storyteller regardless if it's for a side character or an entire network of worlds, is to convince us to believe in the existence of your world in our imagination.

Showing that you have done research means you know what you're looking for, you know what you're doing and you respect the nationality/ethnicity/social group you are trying to emulate. You don't HAVE to be a native to portray a character right, but you should put some effort into it instead of just slapping down a character concept that makes no sense whatsoever. We are not cardboard cutouts. The friend you meet on the street is not some 2D prop. Believable characters are the same.

"But characters are characters! They're disposable! They're fictional! I don't intend to do anything more with these guys!"
If you want to treat it that way, fine by me. To me, my characters are fictional too. I know they don't exist. I can choose to lock them away forever and erase their existence from my mind. I can choose to destroy them however I want and forget all about them.

But you want people to believe in them, to root for them. While we all know that it's imaginary, you want people to willingly suspend disbelief, even if it's just an hour reading one of the stories you write, and let the character exist in their minds as well. It's very hard to feel for a character that you don't even believe in.

***

Over the course of having this stamp on dA, some people have said "realistic is boring, what if we just want to have some fun?" or "but that's not thinking outside the box".

I don't mean to say "no, don't have fun at all". Have fun while you're doing this. Think outside the box whenever you want, however you want, whatever you want. However, please observe that the stamp does not use the word "realistic". It uses the word "believable". BELIEVABLE. Also, what is with this anti-reality attitude going on on this site? Do you honestly not appreciate how fantasy-like our own Earth can be sometimes? You're not looking hard enough if you think our world is boring.

It's just that when you present yourself as a "serious" worldbuilder/character designer and then create all sorts of things even you can't explain or can only use some ridiculous explanation to handwave things, you're not going to get taken seriously whether you like it or not. It's probably just going to called "wasted potential".

Not everyone asks for realism references in their stories and not everyone wants to have the most grounded rollercoaster ride ever. The audience just wants it to make sense to them so that it doesn't bother their brains while they're reading your work. It's not how realistic the character is, it's how much they convince the audience that they exist and truly belong in the universe they're set in. And all the research you do/did will help us feel connected to your character, because we all need something that is familiar in order to believe.

There, done, omfg.

Description

Sorry, I can't reply to comments anymore so I'm disabling them. If you do want to leave a comment, just leave it on my front page. And if you've faved this stamp, thank you for the fav

It aggravates me when I see characters that are very poorly researched or created, be they fandom or original. Some are just slight peeves, like how a Japanese person has a completely non-Japanese name. Others can have massive plot holes in their background, especially when it comes to FCxCanon.

I'm not ribbing against people who just don't really know how to build characters, but while a writer is said to "write what they know", it doesn't necessarily mean they should stick to what they know either. Just because you know schizophrenia involves hallucinations doesn't necessarily mean everyone who may hallucinate is a schizophrenic.

See, the thing about plenty of people on dA is that they think they can create a character for a fantasy world and slap them down and say "hey! I'm done", regardless of how they look, speak or behave. This is probably why there's such a high proportion of highly unbelievable characters on this site.

The thing about character design, especially concept work, is to design something or someone that fits into a world. Any world, be it fandom or canon. It doesn't matter how ridiculous they are - if they behave, act and speak in a way that has good reasons behind it, or in a way that we can understand, we'll believe in them. If they act differently to what has been stated previously in the story, there had better be a damn good reason why.

Lay down the rules that you would build your characters to, make note of the exceptions if they happen and whether they're rare or not, and follow them. If you have done enough research, you would have picked up a great treasure trove of knowledge that you can base these rules on and therefore depict them in a way that even we, people who aren't part of your world, would believe in them. Because your purpose, as a storyteller regardless if it's for a side character or an entire network of worlds, is to convince us to believe in the existence of your world in our imagination.

Showing that you have done research means you know what you're looking for, you know what you're doing and you respect the nationality/ethnicity/social group you are trying to emulate. You don't HAVE to be a native to portray a character right, but you should put some effort into it instead of just slapping down a character concept that makes no sense whatsoever. We are not cardboard cutouts. The friend you meet on the street is not some 2D prop. Believable characters are the same.

"But characters are characters! They're disposable! They're fictional! I don't intend to do anything more with these guys!"
If you want to treat it that way, fine by me. To me, my characters are fictional too. I know they don't exist. I can choose to lock them away forever and erase their existence from my mind. I can choose to destroy them however I want and forget all about them.

But you want people to believe in them, to root for them. While we all know that it's imaginary, you want people to willingly suspend disbelief, even if it's just an hour reading one of the stories you write, and let the character exist in their minds as well. It's very hard to feel for a character that you don't even believe in.

***

Over the course of having this stamp on dA, some people have said "realistic is boring, what if we just want to have some fun?" or "but that's not thinking outside the box".

I don't mean to say "no, don't have fun at all". Have fun while you're doing this. Think outside the box whenever you want, however you want, whatever you want. However, please observe that the stamp does not use the word "realistic". It uses the word "believable". BELIEVABLE. Also, what is with this anti-reality attitude going on on this site? Do you honestly not appreciate how fantasy-like our own Earth can be sometimes? You're not looking hard enough if you think our world is boring.

It's just that when you present yourself as a "serious" worldbuilder/character designer and then create all sorts of things even you can't explain or can only use some ridiculous explanation to handwave things, you're not going to get taken seriously whether you like it or not. It's probably just going to called "wasted potential".

Not everyone asks for realism references in their stories and not everyone wants to have the most grounded rollercoaster ride ever. The audience just wants it to make sense to them so that it doesn't bother their brains while they're reading your work. It's not how realistic the character is, it's how much they convince the audience that they exist and truly belong in the universe they're set in. And all the research you do/did will help us feel connected to your character, because we all need something that is familiar in order to believe.

There, done, omfg.