Beautiful People ~ Echo

“Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters’ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist’s.”

Sarah Waters

Beautiful People, is a blog event created by two people: Sky and Georgie. They post ten questions each month, for you to answer about your character[s]. So you can know more about them. This is helpful if you want a well-developed character people can relate to, in a way.

I’ve seen it around a few blogs a couple of times and looked at the questions once or twice. It wasn’t until now that I’ve decided to do the writing meme. The only reason why I wanted to do it was because I’m bored and I want to get to know my Camp NaNoWriMo characters better. Plus, I’m quite curious about what their favorite color/book/flower/etc is.  

For this month, we got to choose our own questions by either making up our own or using a set of past questions that were already used in their archive, because Sky and Georgie were busy over the summer. So I decided to use the very first set of questions that they posted, considering that, I’m new to the whole thing. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here is the first character.

Quick info on the story world: In the year 2200, America is literally silent. You get rich for having no words come out of your mouth but if you talked you go into poverty. The chitchats* are tired of it so some of them starts riots while others slip in and join the tawel** community determined to break down the silent system on the inside. Meanwhile, the tawels are also doing the same thing; trying to break the chitchat’s system down by sending some of their own to join the chitchats community. So it’s a constant war between those two using technology that are far too advanced than our modern ones and something else, something quite wrong.

1. What is their full name? Echo’s full name is Anastasia Amsel, but she would rather be called Echo.
2. Does his or her name have a special meaning? Echo’s real name Anastasia doesn’t have much meaning other than the fact that her parents wanted to name their daughter after royalty. Her nickname has special meaning though, from Echo repeating questions and phrases back instead of answering them.
3. Does your character have a methodical or disorganized personality? That’s a hard question considering that I don’t know Echo that much, but if I had to guess, her personality would be somewhere in between. She breaks down at night when no one is watching but during the day she’s kind of snarky but she hides it by being charming especially with this certain guy. ;)
4. Does he or she think inside themselves more than they talk out loud to their friends? (more importantly, does he or she actually have friends?) It depends on the friend but she is more likely to think to herself than to actually talk out loud.
5. Is there something he or she is afraid of? The two things that I can think of right now are spiders and her mom. She’s afraid of spiders because they’re small and can easily crawl up your leg without you noticing it. She’s afraid of her mom because of certain reasons but she’s angrier with her mom than scared because of the things that she did in the past.
6. Does he or she write, dream, dance, sing, or photograph? Out of the choices listed here, Echo is more likely to dream than dance, sing, write, or take pictures. However, her dreams are more nightmarish than the happy, odd, and/or normal dreams.
7. What is his or her favorite book? (or genre of books) She doesn’t really read but she likes to look over the latest fashion magazine.  
8. Who is his or her favorite author and/or someone that inspires him or her? She doesn’t have much people that really inspire her but one of them would include a girl named Lana (a tawel).
9. Favorite flavor of ice cream? She likes this zebra striped ice cream that has blackberries and vanilla in it.
10. Favorite season of the year? Echo really likes autumn because of the slight chill in the air and the need to wear jackets that aren’t too heavy or too light.

Well that’s it, also if you want to know what Echo looks like go here. The drawing was drawn by fudgemonkey from the YWP Nanowrimo forums.

*Chitchats – People who talk.

**Tawel – People that is quiet. (The name may change)

What does your character want?

source 

How to create a character and their personality.

Article found here on SUPERHERO NATION.


1. Find a list of character traits. I would recommend using the list from  SN, there's plenty of them, trust me. Or if you want something more visual...

[source]

2. Now choose a couple of traits that are noticeable in your character(s). It can be two positive traits and one negative traits, or two positive and negative traits, or two negative traits and one positive trait. Just make sure your character has at least one positive and negative trait. No one can be perfect or that bad either. Plus it makes your readers want to connect to your character if they find traits that are like theirs, if that makes sense. 

3. Now ask yourself why your character is like the traits you chose out for him/her. 

So, why? 

It's probably a bit more helpful if you read the original article, because it might make a bit more sense. 

Also don't forget to fill out a character questionnaire, that can be found here. I would suggest just filling out the first five questions, so you can know what your character would look like. But you can do all of them, if you want to. 

Also, you don't have to use that questionnaire, there are others out there in the world. That was just one that I remembered at the moment. 

A meme

I decided to do a meme for two reasons. 

1) I was bored. 

2) I was curious as to what my characters would do in these situations.

So here are the results which I wrote in story form. 

http://oc-meme-central.livejournal.com/17987.html

5-male 5-female OC meme

Pick ten of your OCs (Original characters) Five males, and five females. 

Males: 

1: Jason Lynch
2: Nate Bellis
3:  Mitchell Hopkins
4:  Marino De Luca
5:  Brackon Lightwing

Females:
 

6: Maria Aurora
7: Angel Hopkins
8: Jinx Ellington
9:  Adele Bellis
10: Beth Dovens

1. [2] finds [7] crying. What does [2] do?

            “One, two, three four-” Nate’s counting got cut off when he heard it. It was the sound of someone sobbing. So he looked up from his shoes and into the wide space that was in front of him. He clammed up a bit when he saw that it was Angel who was crying. And in a way, he is very glad that she hasn’t seen him, but of course, he thinks that Angel doesn’t notices anyone or anything when she’s crying.

            So he takes a deep breath starting to get tired of Angel’s tears being shed. So in a jeering tone he says, “Oh stop crying will ya? You’re going to drown everyone if you don’t stop.” Yet she still keeps on crying, not having had heard him.

2. [1] and [6] are out on a date when [5] spots them. How does [5] react?

It was a nice day down on Redwater Avenue. The sun was shining the water was turquoise not red and it was glittering. The tourists and locals weren’t competing against each other that much and everyone seemed relaxed and content to help each other in nearly anything. A kind of day Brackon Lightwing would walk down the street catching the stares of women and some men as they wonder if he’s single or not. He usually ignored them for his mind was on other stuff. Such as does he look good for his date with his girlfriend and where was the restaurant that they’re meeting each other at.

Finally, after a good fifteen minutes of walking up down the avenue and not finding the restaurant anywhere. He walks into the local diner to ask someone for directions. While being forced to wait while the person was looking up directions on his phone, his eyes started to wonder around the room. Noting that a lot of people were eating the special today and talking about how their summer is going so far. It wasn’t till his eyes stopped on two unlikely people sitting in the back of the room. That his eyes could have bugged out of his face literally. He felt confused and flabbergasted as to why Jason and Maria would be sitting in a booth alone together talking. He always got the feeling that they hated each other for reasons unknown. But they didn’t look like they hated each other at all in fact they were smiling and laughing with each other. In fact, when Jason put his hand on Maria’s shoulder without it being swatted off, Brackon finally knew that they were on a date. Causing the confusion to go away but he still was flabbergasted at the news.

3. [3] walks in when [8] is changing. What happens?

Mitchell needed to go to the bathroom and badly as well. So after excusing himself from the table he quickly went down the hallway full of doors wondering which one was the bathroom. After trying a couple of doors but finding no bathroom. He decided that he couldn’t wait any longer saying to himself that he’ll just pee out the window if he had to. So finding one door that he hasn’t tried yet he twists open the doorknob hoping it was a bathroom. Only to find something else entirely.

Jinx was in the process of changing out of her dirty and slightly bloody work clothes into something cleaner when Mitchell walked in on her. She raises her eyebrows dramatically masking the anger and embarrassment as she quickly put on her shirt. While Mitchell just stands where he is like an idiot, surprised himself and still needing to go pee badly.

“Why are you still here you b*st*rd?” says Jinx angrily nearly on the verge of yelling.

“I uh…” he trails off unsure of how to go on.

“Well have you ever heard of the word privacy?”

“I umm…”

“Get out!”

“I need the bathroom,” he says blushing.

“Well you could have just knocked on my door and asked from out there!” she yells angrily.

“Well how was I supposed to know you were in here?” he says starting to get a bit bitter himself. She sighs deciding it’s useless to yell at him some more though it would be pleasant and a bit therapeutic. So she tells him where the bathroom is. He thanks her glad to finally be getting out of there before walking out the door wondering why he hadn’t done that the first place.

4. [1], [2], [4], [7], and [10] are in a car. What's going on?

Beth: *Listening to music through her iPod while looking out of the window*

Nate: *Looks out of the window his mind planning something*

Jason: *In between Beth and Nate trying to hack into some database on his electronic out of the world device*

Marino: *Driving the car while holding Angel’s hand*

Angel: *Has her head on Marino’s shoulder a lopsided smile on her face* *Not really paying attention to anything around her except for Marino*

Nate: *Notices Angel and Marino holding hands* “Oh look there’s the lovesick couple,” he sneers.

Marino: And what’s so wrong with being lovesick? *Curious*

Jason: It is a bit disgusting. *Still looks down on his screen while saying that*

Nate: It doesn’t make you perform well.

Marino: Have you ever fallen in love?

Nate: … *Doesn’t want to answer*

Marino: Well have you?

Jason: I doubt he has *mutters*

Nate: No, I haven’t fallen in love, but I know for a fact that it doesn’t make you perform well.

Marino: If love really did that we’d all be dead.

Beth: He has a point there; now will you guys shut up Angel’s asleep. *Was half paying attention to the conversation* *Was still looking out the window when she said that*

Angel: *Asleep still having that lopsided smile on her face*

5. [6] walks in on [1] and [9] in a bedroom. What happens?

My feet felt like lead when I was walking up the stairs to the bedrooms. The noise of the party kept on pounding into my head even as I walking farther away from it all. My whole body was sore especially my arms and it felt like a relief once I finally reached the top of the staircase, my legs collapsing beneath me. It was also an added relief that there weren’t much people in the hallway, but then it meant that most of the bedrooms would be occupied. My mind was considering falling asleep out here in the hallway. But I doubt that would last long considering that my snore is pretty loud and it would wake up the others around me that might fall asleep around me later on. So I sigh and grudgingly get up and walk into the nearest bedroom.

The light in the room was turned on revealing that everything in it was white. This also included the two occupants in front of me Jason and Adele. Their clothes were stained and wet, their arms around each other. A guilty look plastered on both of their sweaty red faces as they find themselves caught in a (drunk?) make out session. As silence starts to envelope as all as I simply stare at them.

“Um… hi Maria,” says Adele in a slightly hoarse voice.

“Hello,” I say back in a fake cheerful voice to hide the hurt that’s building inside. Jason just remains quiet his eyes looking away from me. Adele notices and exchanges a couple of words with him.

Then, “Hello,” he says in a low voice.

“Hello,” I say back the cheerfulness stuck to me like glue. As another silence starts to follow my words. I wonder if he even remembered the date that we had a while back at the diner. And he apparently had for he still won’t look up at me.

“Jason was um comforting me. Depression and all that never really letting go of you,” Adele says giving a small nervous giggle.

“Yeah, that seems nice of him. I’m… going to bed, good night you two,” I say taking a couple of steps backwards before closing the door my heart beating painfully. Maybe sleeping out in the hallway isn’t such a bad idea after all.

6. While [3], [5], and [10] are cleaning, they find a photo book full of embarrassing pics of [2]. What happens?

It was spring cleaning time in the little town of Dexterton. Everyone and everything were cleaned spotless in hopes that Mayor Stacy will be happy, and hopefully not punish them if one thing went uncleaned. Especially in one townhouse, as the people that lived there, bustled in and out of doorways caring useless crap with them to throw away.

A guy named Brackon was just coming inside after having thrown away a particularly heavy television set not needing help from anyone… well just needing help of one other person named Mitchell. Beth stopped the vacuum to tell Mitchell to go clean out the rest of the closet and told Brackon to throw away the garbage bag, before restarting it again. Each of them doing what they were supposed to do. Each one was silent while they were doing it. It wasn’t until when Brackon has just came back that Mitchell comes out of the closet with a look of gleeful joy his hand holding a photo album of Nate’s.

“Guys look,” he says holding the photo album out. Beth stops the vacuum to see what he was holding, a look of curiosity in her eyes.

“Huh why would Nate have one of his photo albums out here?” she says. All of them fully knowing that he usually keeps his albums in his room.

“Maybe it has some hidden love letters in it,” says Brackon in a joking tone.

“Let’s see,” says Mitchell opening it. Beth and Brackon lean in on either side of Mitchell wondering what could be in it. They start to laugh seeing a bunch of embarrassing pictures of Nate. There was one of him naked as a baby in a bathtub full of dog toys, another one of him burying his head in Santa’s chest tears leaking out, and others of the sort. They kept on laughing even after they looked through it once, or a couple of times. Their cheeks were flushed a smile on their faces as thoughts of blackmail starts to crowd their mind once they finally finished laughing.

7. [8] and [4] are playing a video game. Who wins?

“You’re going down De Luca,” says Jinx maneuvering her car away from the upcoming trouble on the screen.

“It’s barely started and you’re just saying that?” Marino says smiling a bit trying to make his on-screen car catch up with hers.

“What? We both know it’s true, and plus it’s kind of obvious that you suck at video games.”

“Is it really?” he says a bit embarrassed.

“Yes, now shut up and just race.” He did what she told him, his fingers stumbling over the controls. He was trying to make his car catch up with hers which would always last for a second or two for her car always speeding ahead of his. Finally, when he made it past his fifth lap, her car was zooming past him already on its last lap. It expertly maneuvered a pair of spikes that was in its way before speeding to the finishing line. A cheer erupting from her mouth causing poor Marino to silently sulk in his loss.

8. [9], [7], [1], [2], and [6] are having a race. Who would win?

It was a clear day and boring day in the Dexterton Park as Adele, Angel, Jason, Nate and Maria sat under a tree. All of them very bored and a bit hyper from the million cups of coffee they had earlier.

“Anyone wants to go shopping?” suggested Adele.

“That sounds nice,” says Maria sighing a bit, thinking of that certain purse.

“Sounds fun,” says Angel, wanting very badly to get that strapless black dress.

“No,” says Jason and Nate at the same time.

“Fine shopping is out of the order, what do you guys suggest that we do?” says Adele wanting to please everyone.

“Not lay around,” says Jason.

“Talk perhaps?” says Angel.

“Have a random race?” asks Nate.

“Sure sounds nice,” says Maria not really caring either way. Everyone else nods or saying yeah, all wanting to get rid of the jitteriness inside of their bodies. So they quickly stand up and approve of the finishing line (the slide that was in the distance) and lined up.

“One,” says Nate.

“Two,” says Angel.

“Three,” says Jason. And off they went, their feet pounding the grass, as they ran to the slide. In about ten strides Jason, finishes first with Maria just close behind him. Then came, Nate who was trying hard to quell the nausea has suddenly came, and then Adele a hand on her side. The only one missing was Angel who appears to have stopped in the middle of the field picking the daisies that has grown there.

9. [10] kisses [3] in front of [8]. What happens?

It was a stormy Saturday night, and no one had anything to do so they decided to play a game of truth or dare to pass the time.

“Oh come on, it’s a dare Beth you have to kiss Mitchell,” says Jinx a bit impatient.

“And if I don’t want to kiss him?” asks Beth in a questioning tone.

“It’s either that or kiss my naked ass in front of him. In fact, since it appears that you’re not going to kiss Mitchell, do you want me to take off-”

“Either way it’s not fair for me,” mutters Mitchell in a too quiet voice.

“Whoa, whoa, fine I’ll kiss Mitchell in front of you, happy now?” says Beth not really wanting to kiss someone’s butt. Jinx just smirks a delightful glee in her eyes happy.

“You know I’m right here,” says Mitchell.

“Yeah, yeah we know. Now get on with it Beth, you know we don’t have all day.” Beth sighs wondering why she even agreed to play this game as she turns to Mitchell. He turns a bit towards her wanting to get this over quickly. Apparently so does she, for she closes her eyes and leans into him putting her lips up to his. He also closes his eyes letting her lean into him and kiss him her lips feeling soft under his. After about a second or two, she takes her lips off of his, a disgusted look on her face as she wipes off her mouth. Mitchell looks away blushing a bit, an odd feeling growing in the pit of his stomach.

“Woo hoo!” yells Jinx laughing a bit wishing she had videotaped the whole thing.

10. [1] and [6] are now tagging four people to do this meme. Who do they tag?

(There was no list by the way)

Jason and Maria were uploading pictures onto their boss’s facebook. Once finished they were now ordered to tag four people. So without really looking at the list of people, he just took the first and last person that was on it.

Juliet from APurple Sky and eshy from eshyletters

While Maria took her time and choose, two people whom she saw fit.

Teitay from Sweetpeapanda and Katie from Not At All Stupid