amandaonwriting:

Writers can use these 12 Archetypes to create characters

The 12 Common Archetypes by Carl Golden

The twelve archetypes are divided into ego types, self types, and soul types. 

1) The Four Ego Types
 
1. The Innocent
Motto: Free to be you and me
Core desire: to get to paradise
Goal: to be happy
Greatest fear: to be punished for doing something bad or wrong
Strategy: to do things right
Weakness: boring for all their naive innocence
Talent: faith and optimism
The Innocent is also known as: Utopian, traditionalist, naive, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer.
 
2. The Orphan/Regular Guy or Gal
Motto: All men and women are created equal
Core Desire: connecting with others
Goal: to belong
Greatest fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd
Strategy: develop ordinary solid virtues, be down to earth, the common touch
Weakness: losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships
Talent: realism, empathy, lack of pretence
The Regular Person is also known as: The good old boy, everyman, the person next door, the realist, the working stiff, the solid citizen, the good neighbour, the silent majority.
 
3. The Hero
Motto: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Core desire: to prove one’s worth through courageous acts
Goal: expert mastery in a way that improves the world
Greatest fear: weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken”
Strategy: to be as strong and competent as possible
Weakness: arrogance, always needing another battle to fight
Talent: competence and courage
The Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player.
 
4. The Caregiver
Motto: Love your neighbour as yourself
Core desire: to protect and care for others
Goal: to help others
Greatest fear: selfishness and ingratitude
Strategy: doing things for others
Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited
Talent: compassion, generosity
The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, supporter.
 
2) The Four Soul Types
         
5. The Explorer
Motto: Don’t fence me in
Core desire: the freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world
Goal: to experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life
Biggest fear: getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness
Strategy: journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom
Weakness: aimless wandering, becoming a misfit
Talent: autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s soul
The explorer is also known as: The seeker, iconoclast, wanderer, individualist, pilgrim.
 
6. The Rebel
Motto: Rules are made to be broken
Core desire: revenge or revolution
Goal: to overturn what isn’t working
Greatest fear: to be powerless or ineffectual
Strategy: disrupt, destroy, or shock
Weakness: crossing over to the dark side, crime
Talent: outrageousness, radical freedom
The Outlaw is also known as: The rebel, revolutionary, wild man, the misfit, or iconoclast.
 
7. The Lover
Motto: You’re the only one
Core desire: intimacy and experience
Goal: being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love
Greatest fear: being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved
Strategy: to become more and more physically and emotionally attractive
Weakness: outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own identity
Talent: passion, gratitude, appreciation, and commitment
The Lover is also known as: The partner, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, team-builder.
 
8. The Creator
Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done
Core desire: to create things of enduring value
Goal: to realize a vision
Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution
Strategy: develop artistic control and skill
Task: to create culture, express own vision
Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions
Talent: creativity and imagination
The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer.
 
3) The Four Self Types
 
9. The Jester
Motto: You only live once
Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world
Greatest fear: being bored or boring others
Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny
Weakness: frivolity, wasting time
Talent: joy
The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian.
 
10. The Sage
Motto: The truth will set you free
Core desire: to find the truth.
Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.
Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.
Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.
Weakness: can study details forever and never act.
Talent: wisdom, intelligence.
The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.
 
11. The Magician
Motto: I make things happen.
Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe
Goal: to make dreams come true
Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences
Strategy: develop a vision and live by it
Weakness: becoming manipulative
Talent: finding win-win solutions
The Magician is also known as: The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man.
 
12. The Ruler
Motto: Power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
Core desire: control
Goal: create a prosperous, successful family or community
Strategy: exercise power
Greatest fear: chaos, being overthrown
Weakness: being authoritarian, unable to delegate
Talent: responsibility, leadership
The Ruler is also known as: The boss, leader, aristocrat, king, queen, politician, role model, manager or administrator.

Note: There are four cardinal orientations: freedom, social, ego, order. The types have a place on these orientations.

Article via soulcraft.co

Shane Character Thingy part 3/final

Beliefs

55. Do you know your character’s astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does s/he fit type? Shane is a Leo and it’s a pretty natural fit, except maybe the self-centeredness. She can be like that, but she spends such a good deal of time having to worry about the pack that her self-centeredness is tempered.

56. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his/her life? All werewolves (even most unturned young men) feel a spiritual connection with the moon. It’s hard not to when it literally dictates aspects of their lives and feelings. Even so, werewolves are free to follow any religion they want and many faiths are represented in their culture. Shane herself isn’t religious at all, and beyond the inevitable connection to the moon and a very common connection with the earth (respecting nature blah blah) her spirituality doesn’t much enter into her daily life.

57. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? Pack looks out for pack. Every werewolf learns it and follows it or else. Where people get into trouble with that is definition of pack. The werewolf community as a whole squabbles amongst themselves just like any group of people, but at the end of the day, all packs unite to keep from being discovered by humans. This also means NOT HURTING HUMANS is high on every pack’s priority, and if one pack starts getting lax about it, whatever other pack is nearby is sure to harass them into obedience. So, that’s kind of general werewolf code. Shane gets a good dose of LOVE EVERYBODY on top of that, and love to her means protection. She never wants to turn away someone in need of her help. The only thing that could make her do that is if it put her family in absolute danger be it danger from death or discovery. It would eat her up and rip her apart to do it, but she would if she had to. It’s her job to make hard decisions to protect the pack.

58. How does s/he regard beliefs that differ from his/hers? Is s/he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? With most things, she mostly gives back what she receives. So if a person is tolerant of her, she’s tolerant of them. There are things, such as her code of morals, that she doesn’t budge on and will judge a person for going against. Overall though, Shane just isn’t a judging person. She’s definitely curious about ALL new things.

59. What prejudices does s/he hold? Are they irrational or does s/he have a good reason for them? She has a few less prejudices than many around her would like her to have. She’s more trusting and accepting of humans than is comfortable to a lot of werewolves. She invites misfits into her pack and likes having a job outside the pack, even though she doesn’t need one to be financially well off. So, generally speaking, Shane is a no-prejudices sort of person, unless it’s an inclination to prejudge someone as better than they truly are.

Daily Life

60. What is the character’s financial situation? Is s/he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? Shane’s family is well off. Her dad works and her mom is paid some for her work as pack leader. Shane inherits the pay and support when she takes over as pack leader, and she doesn’t ever really need a job at any point in her life. However, Shane LIKES working and very much so enjoys being a substitute teacher for like kindergarten-elementary. Once she’s pack leader, she uses the pay she gets for that to pay for her day to day living and then any extra she makes from teaching for helping out the pack and strays she takes in.

61. What is his/her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him/her? She has always held a noted role inside the pack, but she wasn’t an entitled kid. She had to answer to adults and her peers and responsibility like any other pup. If anything, there was more expectation for her to be respectful because she’d be responsible for them all one day and you cannot expect respect without giving respect. At first, the weight of her role as pack leader is a bit much, but with the help of Greta and Nate supporting her, she learns to shoulder it well.

62. Where does s/he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his/her home his/her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does s/he share it with others? As a child, she lives in a subdivision on the outskirts of Olympia, Washington in a nice two-story house with her family. When she goes off to college she gets a dorm room with Greta and eventually they move out to an apartment. Once she takes over as pack leader, she resides once more in her childhood home, though there’s a period where she lodges with Nate in his ranch-style house in the neighborhood.

63. Besides the basic necessities, what does s/he spend his/her money on? Expenses of the strays she takes in, financing Nate’s practice (she knows she doesn’t have to do it, but she LIKES helping out and it’s for the good of the pack so shut up and take the money, Nate), and if she’s splurging she spends it on extreme sports.

64. What does s/he do for a living? Is s/he good at it? Does s/he enjoy it, or would s/he rather be doing something else? Her duties as pack leader include organizing the rotation of who gets to run around the forest on the full moon (they can’t all go at once), resolving conflicts within the pack, offering assistance and guidance, helping to teach young werewolves their ways, keeping their community a secret, keeping their pack safe. Shane’s pack is a place where everyone has a voice, but in the end, she’s the one they rely on to make decisions. There’s also her job as a substitute teacher, but I feel like she phases out of that over the years as her duties to the pack become more time consuming.

65. What are his/her interests or hobbies? How does s/he spend his/her free time? EXTREME SPORRRRRTS. Basically, if Shane has free time, she wants to be spending it with people and she’d very much like to be moving around while she’s with them. Sports are a big part of that, more often than not. Hobbies are definitely extreme sports though, things out in nature like white water rafting and rock climbing and crazy shit.

66. What are his/her eating habits? Does s/he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? Shane has a high metabolism and thus a hefty appetite. Werewolves enjoy their meat and they like it on the rare side, but they eat everything else just like humans. She keeps fruit with her most of the time for a snack. In addition to three meals a day, she also eats a brunchtime snack, and afternoon snack, and sometimes even something before bed. She has lots of ENERGY okay she needs her fuel.

Associations

Which of the following do you associate with the character:

 67. Color? Orange *Iero trollfais*

68. Smell? Honestly, sweat.

69. Time of day? Twilight >_>

70. Season? Summer

71. Book? I don’t have a specific one, but she read lots of comics growing up (still does) so just that whole art form really.

72. Music? I really feel like she’s an eclectic listener and it makes associating her with a single artist or group hard for me. But whatever I am lying, it’s Nirvana.

73. Place? Definitely out in the woods.

74. Substance? I feel like she has an iced tea addiction and keeps giant jars steeping out in the sun.

75. Plant? I give up, um wolfsbane

76. Animal? Wolf, obviously, but also hyenas.

Shane Character Thingy part 2

Mental and Emotional

23. How intelligent is this character? Is s/he book-smart or street-smart? Shane is intelligent and only her emotional naiveté makes her make an ass of herself. She is nature, body, spatially, and people smart. So there were areas in which she did not always get perfect grades (she’s not the A+ honor roll student of the family) she had areas of expertise and excelled in those areas. Her best class that wasn’t physical was science and so when she substitutes, she almost always subs for science or P.E.

24. Does s/he think on his/her feet, or does s/he need time to deliberate? Shane will always think on her feet, formulate a plan on the go, and jump right into any situation. Mentally AND emotionally.

25. Describe the character’s thought process. Is s/he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? Shane takes in everything around her and doesn’t really worry about right or wrongness so long as everyone is enjoying themselves and no one is being hurt. Shane lives in a world with a lot of structure and she knows exactly where she and everyone else fits in that structure, so she rarely stops to just ponder why things are the way they are, simply accepts them and enforces them. This would be an incredibly dangerous mindset if she didn’t have Greta to question things for her. Because of this, she relies heavily on Greta to not allow her to become complacent.

26. What kind of education has the character had? So most all werewolf girls are homeschooled, but there’s really more of a community co-op going on than straight up homeschooling. The freedom college offers in scheduling is the first opportunity most werewolf girls have to attend a school. So, Shane was homeschooled growing up (even if it was a point of ANGST as a teenager) and then attended college where she graduated with an Elementary Education degree and a teaching certification.

27. What are his/her areas of expertise? What, if anything, is s/he interested in learning more about? Shane is excellent with people and it’s by far her biggest strength. She’s a good teacher who creates a fun environment for her young students and solves their squabbles easily. She loves how hands-on science can be, so even if she has to struggle and work to understand its more theoretical nuances, she always thinks it’s worth the reward of understanding how things work and being able to control that. She’s always up for learning a new sport. If there’s a new game or a physical challenge put before her, nothing is going to make her happier than learning and conquering it.

 28. Is s/he an introvert or an extrovert? Shane is a very expressed extrovert.  She hates being alone and is quick to feel abandoned and lost when alone.

29. Describe the character’s temperament. Is s/he even-tempered or does s/he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven? Shane has an upbeat attitude that’s hard to repress. The only thing she loves more than laughing is making everyone laugh with her. She can, at times, seem laid-back, but don’t be fooled; she always rises to a challenge. She gets moody around the full moon. It heightens her wolfiness and so aspects of her personality that she has more control over the rest of the time take over.  Even so, she’s not really given to being mean or snapping until the hours leading up to the full moon, when she’s uncomfortable in her skin and in a good deal of pain.

30. How does s/he respond to new people or situations? Is s/he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? New is Shanes favorite(!!!). There is some caution that goes on in the back of her mind when meeting new people, but it’s waaaaaaay at the back. She doesn’t want to welcome in someone who could hurt the pack or her loved ones, but she pretty much never meets someone she isn’t friendly with from the get go. She’s full-force Shane meeting new people and in new situations. She throws herself into new things headlong.

31. Is s/he more likely to act, or to react? Act.

32. Which is his/her default: fight or flight? Fight, but she knows when she’s licked. It’s always smartest to run away in order to fight another day. Unless, of course, it’s a matter of her or someone under her protection getting hurt, in which case, she’ll always stay and fight until they can get away.

33. Describe the character’s sense of humor. Does s/he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? Shane’s humor is a toooouch immature. Things she finds funny are people falling, that’s what she said, poop, chasing cats. Basically anything that will make Greta blush is hilarious to her.

34. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does s/he deal with them? No, Shane is pretty mentally healthy.

35. What moments in this character’s life have defined him/her as a person? Greta finding out that she is a werewolf, the day of her fourteenth birthday when she realized she was imprinting on Greta and wasn’t going to be able to stop it, when she took over as pack leader from her mom.

36. What does s/he fear? Screwing up and losing people she loves because of it.

37. What are his/her hopes or aspirations? She wants to create a more accepting pack and open up her home to distressed werewolf youth from packs everywhere. Be it because they were accidentally bitten, having trouble reconciling their two sides, or are struggling within their own packs. She wants to be able to help them and feels she’s in a unique position to do it as an unconventional pack leader.

38. What is something s/he doesn’t want anyone to find out about him/her? She’d like to keep from Greta the fact that she’s already imprinted upon her, since Greta is kind of skittish about the idea of SAYING they’re committed, even though HOLY HELL THEY ARE SO COMMITTED AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.

Relationships

39. Describe this character’s relationship with his/her parents. She’s respectful of both of them, and is more affectionate with her father. She spends a great deal of time at her mother’s side all growing up because she’ll take over her role as pack leader. While she has the most respect for her mother, she also butts heads with her the most. It’s the nature of the relationship of all mother/daughter werewolves, especially the present and future pack leaders. Still, for any problems they have, Shane has a good relationship with her parents.

40. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? Yes! She has two older brothers. Matt is her elder by several years, like seven or eight. Matt is pretty antagonistic of her. It’s mostly because he’s an angry teenager growing up. He settles some as an adult, however, he remains ambitious and a touch jealous. He’s always the one to contradict Shane when she wants to make an unconventional decision for the pack. Her other older brother, Nate, is only a yearish older than her. They are very close and always have been. I kind of think that the Northern’s had fertility issues, so they had Matt right off the bat no problem, but then lost a lot of babies/were infertile in between so they finally had Nate and it was wonderful to have another baby, but they really want/need a girl, and they got lucky again, had a baby, and it was our little Shane.

41. Are there other blood relatives to whom s/he is close? Are there ones s/he can’t stand? Shane knows her grandparents some as a kid, but by the time she’s older, they’re all pretty much out of the picture: her paternal grandparents because that’s not a common werewolf family connection to be maintained anyways (marry off the son kind of dealio), and maternal grandparents because the old pack leader (her grandmother) only sticks around until an heir to their heir is born, if not earlier.

42. Are there other, unrelated people whom s/he considers part of his/her family? What are his/her relationships with them? She absolutely considers Greta a part of her family. Greta is her mate in so much as Greta will be her mate. (Which is basically all the way, so long as Shane doesn’t use scary words that mean forever sigh.) There’s an older guy in her pack, he’s a park ranger at Capitol State Forest (handy!) in addition to being the widower werewolf father of a large family. (I think his name is John or something.) His kids are almost all grown up (he has like a girl still at home) and he’s done a good job with them, especially after losing his wife and he’s an awesome guy, a real pillar of the community. He’s always been a great friend to the Northern’s and he becomes a real ally to Shane when she takes over. So he may not quite be FAMILY, but he’s closer than any other part of the pack that isn’t family by blood.

43. Who is/was the character’s best friend? How did they meet? Greta and Nate are her best friends. She and Greta met when Greta moved in across the street, aaaand Nate when she was a baby because older brother.

44. Does s/he have other close friends? She considers herself good friends to lots of people and close to everyone in her pack. Whether those two intersect or not is always up for debate. John is probably the closest to that for her.

45. Does s/he make friends easily, or does s/he have trouble getting along with people? Shane gets along with practically everyone. It’s just in her nature. She loves making new friends.

46. Which does s/he consider more important: family or friends? Family, pack, friends, in that order. Really, it all gets a bit mixed up for her.

47. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has s/he been married more than once? Long-term relationship with her girlfriend but don’t call it mated for life lest said girlfriend freak out but yesssssssss sort of married for all intents and purposes and super devoted.

48. Is s/he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? NO.

49. Who was his/her first crush? Who is his/her latest? Greta/Greta lol.

50. What does s/he look for in a romantic partner? Greta. No really, someone to balance her out.

51. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does s/he relate to them? If no, does s/he want any? Not yeeeet, but she definitely wants kids. She looooves kids. Which is good since she sort of has to have a daughter someday.

52. Does s/he have any rivals or enemies? Definitely rivals. Both from inside her family with Matt, inside her pack with some more conservative members, and from outside her pack ala other packs that don’t take a shine to her leadership approach.

53. What is the character’s sexual orientation? Where does s/he fall on the Kinsey scale? Lesbian, six.

54. How does s/he feel about sex? How important is it to him/her? Shane thinks sex is awesome! She wants sex all the time! With Greta! WOO SEX! (werewolves are extra horny around the full moon shhhhshshhshhh it’s okay Shane.)

Behold! A Puerto Rican with No Heat Tolerance.: Maintaining Character Consistency in an Inconsistent World

Name: Greta McFerrin

Date of Birth: July 15th, 1988

Height: 5’ 5”

Species: Human

MBTI: ISTJ

Zodiac: Cancer

Important information:

• Played by Freya Mavor.
• She was across-the-street neighbors with Shane until high school, at which point her family moved to a different neighborhood so Greta would be closer to the Catholic high school she was to attend. Despite this separation, they remained best friends.
• She found out about werewolves because of Shane and due to growing up in the same neighborhood as them and being best friends with the local pack’s heir apparent, Greta earned their trust and is widely accepted as, if not an actual pack member, then a very trusted friend of the pack.
• She was the only child of a rocky marriage. It’s left her with some issues. *cough*matingforlifeidekwhatyouareeventalkingaboutnope*cough*
• She went to the same college as Shane and it was in their senior year that they started a romantic relationship.
• She’s currently in law school.
• She likes to think and sort through her feelings a long time before acting on them or voicing them. She has a quiet confidence that comes from knowing whatever solution or choice she decides on was reached after a lot of consideration. She’ll still second guess herself, but only if she discovers she’s made a miscalculation of some sort, no matter how small.
• While she isn’t a bold leader, she is a level-headed second-in-command. Shane runs nearly all of her ideas and decisions in her new role as pack leader past Greta to see what she thinks. Especially day-to-day problems the pack faces.
• When she needs to confide or talk things through, she turns to Nate, Shane’s youngest older brother, who is her age and human by choice. She loves Shane, but sometimes it’s nice to have someone more like her in demeanor and situation to talk to. She was practically raised in the pack, but sometimes there’s no getting around the fact that she’s a human in a werewolf’s world.
• She’s a hard worker, never says no when her help is needed, and will never admit defeat, even when she’s got too much to handle.

What if these were PBs of new characters?

What if they were siblings?

What if sometimes they were SRS CLASSICAL MOOSICIANS?

What if sometimes they were little campus rockstars?

What if I had no clue what the fuck I was talking about?

30 Day Writing Meme

Day 27 → Do appear­ances play a big role in your sto­ries? How you go about design­ing your char­ac­ters?

Editor!Emily: Okay, Emily. What are you not going to do when you describe the protagonist?

Writer!Emily: Abuse adjectives?

Editor!Emily: Other than that.

Writer!Emily: Ummmmm….

Editor!Emily: THIS. YOU AREN’T GOING TO DO THIS.

ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS?

Writer!Emily:

30 Day Writing Meme

Day 09 → How do you get ideas for your char­ac­ters? Describe the process of cre­at­ing them.

It’s a very quick process for me. I’ve never had a character who developed slowly in my mind. Often I find a name and a character springs forth, fully-formed, from my head like fuckin’ Athena or something. The character is almost without exception the source of my story as well.

• Erimentha (which means Collector of thoughts) lead to the creation of my CoT ‘verse. (Even thought I changed her name to Elizabeth later.)
• Salinger led to this whole Unnamed Book Gang Book thing.

This isn’t to say that my characters don’t develop over time as well. I’m always discovering new things about them. Basically, I know who a character is because they’re a facet of my own personality, and it’s just a matter of giving them a history. Some characters bury that past so deep that it takes a while to find all the skeletons though, so they still surprise me from time to time.

Like the time Chloe was squeeing to Liz about how hot that new Protector was that Liz sparred with and Liz cut her off to say, “Yeah, and so is the boyfriend he was thinking about the entire time we sparred.” I was like, OH HE HAS A BOYFRIEND DOES HE WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS IS MY STORY CHARACTERS SHOULD CONSULT WITH ME ABOUT THINGS JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A TELEPATH DOES NOT MEAN YOU KNOW MORE THAN ME LIZ ZALMAN I CREATED YOU WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING AND I JUST OKAY GOOD OKAY FINE LET’S GO WITH IT.

So… yeah. Jones is always pulling this shit on me and I love him for it.

Harper Character Thingy —Part 5

Beliefs

1. Do you know your character’s astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does s/he fit type? Leo (August 6^th). There’s some definite matches, but also some that aren’t. I’m not big on astrology, but it’s kind of fun to look and see.

2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his/her life? Her mom believed in God and Jesus and stuff, her grandfather didn’t like religion but did believe in something more, and her dad believed in Jack Daniels. Harper ends up agreeing more with her grandfather, but other than to take his name in vain, Harper doesn’t spare much time to think about God or any junk like that. She figures she’ll just wait for the surprise at the end.

3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? Protect the weak, stand up to bullies. Help those less fortunate. Only motherfuckers take shortcuts to get ahead in life. Those came from her grandfather, her mother, and Salinger respectively. Nothing could make her compromise those morals, because if she did, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

4. How does s/he regard beliefs that differ from his/hers? Is s/he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? She’s curious about most everything and tolerant as long as someone else’s beliefs don’t violate one of hers.

5. What prejudices does s/he hold? Are they irrational or does s/he have a good reason for them? She thinks all the citizens of Unity are pretty much brainwashed zombies who want to be that way, and she has a good reason for thinking that, but that doesn’t make it true. Not for all of them.

Daily Life

1. What is the character’s financial situation? Is s/he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?  Harper grew up middle-class, and now money is pretty irrelevant, but there’s still profit and greed in the world. She lives in tiny bolt holes throughout the Underbelly and most of them don’t have a bed, she borrows clothes that don’t fit, and she skips meals when rations are running low so that the supplies will last longer for her friends. She’s not rich, but that’s more than lots of people can expect in the Underbelly.

2. What is his/her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him/her? Harper was a decorated soldier of the state once, now she’s an outlaw. Overall though, she sees it has a positive change.

3. Where does s/he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his/her home his/her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does s/he share it with others? Living arrangements change pretty regularly, depending on which on Henry’s bolt holes the gang ends up close to on any given night. Most of the time it’s a hole in the wall kind of space. If there’s a mattress, there’s only one and everyone sleeps on it together.

4. Besides the basic necessities, what does s/he spend his/her money on? There isn’t money anymore, but she’s often traded for books or art supplies.

5. What does s/he do for a living? Is s/he good at it? Does s/he enjoy it, or would s/he rather be doing something else? Harper is the second in command of a gang of intellectuals who save books and arts and occasionally a person by smuggling them onto ships bound for Mars. She’s very good with her people and excellent at planning. She enjoys doing good work with good people, but it’s a hard life, and a part of her would love to stop fighting and just draw all day.

6. What are his/her interests or hobbies? How does s/he spend his/her free time? Drawing is the closest thing she has to a hobby. Free time is rare, but if she has some she reads or draws.

7. What are his/her eating habits? Does s/he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? She takes only what she needs, eats all of it, and never complains, even when she doesn’t get enough or it tastes horrible. When supplies run low, she always takes as little as she can get away with, sometimes skipping meals, so the supplies will last longer for her friends.

Associations

Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his/her favorite:

1. Color? Royal Purple

2. Smell? Oil paint and smoky outdoors.

3. Time of day? Sunrise.

4. Season? Summer.

5. Book? To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. She loves it so much that she took Harper Lee’s name as her own.

6. Music? Anything with wicked guitar and a loud bass line.

7. Place? Rooftops.

8. Substance? Ink.

9. Plant? Strawberries. Harper dreams of eating strawberries again.

10. Animal? Dogs.

Harper Character Thingy —Part 4

Relationships

1. Describe this character’s relationship with his/her parents. Harper always butted heads with her father and when he divorced her mother, she broke off contact with him. Harper had a great relationship with her mother until the day she died in an enemy attack. The grief really messed her up for a while.

2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? Harper had a younger brother that she lost when she was seven. (I’m thinking her dad was in charge of him, lost track of him for a second and when he looked back it was too late and the boy died in an accident. This led to the divorce and the hard feelings. Her dad probably drinks himself to death after that.) She loved him and feels like a failure for having not saved him. When she was in art school she age progressed a picture she had of him, and then did an entire series of drawings of his life that never was. She still draws him sometimes. (She also has a tattoo of his face, but as a child.)

3. Are there other blood relatives to whom s/he is close? Are there ones s/he can’t stand? Harper really idolizes her grandfather, which is why she became a Protector. All of her immediate family is gone now. They might be a cousin or two out there somewhere, but she has no idea and doesn’t really care about them anyways. She’s made her own family of friends.

4. Are there other, unrelated people whom s/he considers part of his/her family? What are his/her relationships with them? Harper sees Salinger as a father figure, and a much better father figure than her own father, but still a father figure which sometimes means butting heads with him. She and Walt are pretty much the same wave-length. Henry is like a little brother to her. When Mary comes into her life she reminds Harper of her first love, a girl who killed herself after her mother died and her father started abusing her. Harper would fight to the death for any of her friends, but she’d do something far scarier for Mary: she’d walk away from a fight.

5. Who is/was the character’s best friend? How did they meet? Despite her closeness to Walt and Henry, Salinger is very much her best friend until Mary comes along. He was her mentor when she was training to become a Protector, he tried to talk her out of going to fight in the war, and he nursed her back to health (physically and mentally) when she came back injured and broken. He gave her someone to fight to save, so that’s just what she did.

6. Does s/he have other close friends? She thinks in a lot of the same ways that Walt does—they can have whole conversations without speaking—and he was the first person she recruited to the gang. Her and Henry hit it off as soon as Walt brought him in and convinced Salinger to give him a chance.

7. Does s/he make friends easily, or does s/he have trouble getting along with people? Harper has a pretty good sense of people’s character, and if they have some redeeming qualities, she might give them a chance to become her friend. If they are sucky people, she gives not one fuck about them. Those who do become her friends become her family. She doesn’t do anything half-assed.

8. Which does s/he consider more important: family or friends? Harper’s family is all either dead or dead to her, but her friends are the family she’s made, so there’s really little separation of the two for her.

9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has s/he been married more than once? She’s single at the beginning of the story, but Mary works her way into Harper’s heart. Harper also has a sort of widow feeling to her leftover from losing her childhood sweetheart to suicide, but no one but Salinger knows that. She never married, there was one soldier she served with who Harper thought might be something special, but that bitch turned out to be crazy. (And she recruited to a rival gang after the war, and she’s still hot for Harper, so there’s a weird one-way-sexual-frustration-other-way-get-the-fuck-out-of-my-life dynamic going on. You know, as these things go.)

10. Is s/he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? No cheaters here. Harper would murder a puppy before she’d cheat. AND HARPER FUCKING LOVES PUPPIES.

11. Who was his/her first crush? Who is his/her latest? Her next door neighbor when she was fourteen, Katie. As much as Harper would love to deny it, that Mary girl reminds her a lot of Katie. And even in the ways that she doesn’t, Mary’s still pretty adorable.

12. What does s/he look for in a romantic partner? Good heart, willingness to call bullshit on her, a confidant, someone who will understand that just because Harper will always be there to save the day sometimes she’s going to need saving too and then be willing and able to save her.

13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does s/he relate to them? If no, does s/he want any? Not at the time of the story, nor does she want them then. She’d hate to bring children into a doomed world. But after the story ends… maybe. She won’t shut Mary down right away if she brings it up, at least.

14. Does s/he have any rivals or enemies? Plenty. There’s the general problem of the government being after her and the gang for illegal trade with Mars, the more specific problem of a rival gang who are in the book running trade for profit, and the day to day problem of every other person in the Underbelly being ready to slash someone just to get their food. It makes for light sleeping.

15. What is the character’s sexual orientation? Where does s/he fall on the Kinsey scale? Harper is a six. She’s never fallen for a guy, never will, and always known she never would.

16. How does s/he feel about sex? How important is it to him/her? She likes it, and she’s no prude, but most of the time she does without. She’s too security conscious for most casual sex, especially in a dangerous place like the Underbelly. She’d rather be sexually frustrated than dead. But inside of a relationship, or with someone she trusts, she enjoys it and prides herself on being a good partner. Harper loves to win at everything she does.