the writer's room discussion

who is your favorite original character you have created?

Raziel. She's a Vampriton; part vampire, part angel, and part demon. She's from my current WIP which is a paranormal fantasy series that I've been working on for probably close to 15 years now. Why so long? Well, I thought I had figured out how I wanted the story to go the first time around, but I was wrong. I actually wrote the 3rd book in the series first, but I felt readers would be missing out on how her life was prior so I scrapped it and wrote book 1. I have written and rewritten book one probably at least half a dozen times if not more. When I finally figured out how I wanted it to go, I wrote book 2. Again, I wasn't satisfied and had scrapped book 2 quite a few times. Now that I know how I want the story to go with book three, I've been procrastinating because I don't want the story to end. There may or may not be between 4 to 5 books in the series when I'm finally done with it. lol

Erica wrote: "Raziel. She's a Vampriton; part vampire, part angel, and part demon. She's from my current WIP which is a paranormal fantasy series that I've been working on for probably close to 15 years now. Why..."

goodness gracious. well keep at it, I know a lot of people, including myself, who will read a book just because it has vampires so I'm automatically in love with what you have going on lol

I have nothing specific I'm super keen on but my characters will be colorful. I will write one with violet eyes, one with nails always painted in wonderland shades, one with vibrantly dyed hair, etc. There is a certain madness in colors that I'm addicted to, so a wide arrangement of my character children will be dipped in dreamy shades. I think vivid colors can offer a fun juxtaposition between the potential darkness of a story...

its a style choice at the end of the day though lol

I will always have a connection to the OC I made when I was a kid. Her name is Hood and she is a half-werewolf. She is blind in her left eye and she has a scar running down her face on that side too. She has long brown hair that usually covers her face. She wears her hair in a long braid similar to fawn from the tinker bell movies. She wears a long black cloak with red accents (paying homage to her inspo which was red riding hood) she uses a bow and arrow, but later on in the story she gets a metal cross bow and that's pretty much her signature look.

i was playing d and d with my brother like five years ago so i recreated Hood and adjusted her a little bit. She is now blonde and not a werewolf and she is also princess that escapes from the castle to go on an adventure. its one of my current wips and i'll make a better synopsis later haha

The character I’m working on rn is Sparrow Fulton. She is a 17 yr old girl, who is a shapeshifter according to her emotion, but doesn’t know so. Her father is a werewolf and she has to endure the trauma of constantly trying to keep him at bay. She’s a relatively good student, but is caught skipping class a lot with her best friend, Christa. She like black tea, plays piano and violin, and has a black cat named Wednesday. Her mother died while giving birth to her and isn’t told until later in life when she meets her biological father. She feels responsible for her death and it becomes one of the many triggers that induce her outburst.

My character is 15-year-old Perla Onio and she is a half-italian, half-american who lives with her mother and little brother. She likes baking, music and studying.

Stella is a princess from a magical utopian kingdom. She is drawn to the avant-garde, dreaming big, and choosing your destiny. She loves art, music, and science. When she comes to Earth, she founds a museum before returning to her kingdom. She is a genius and has many talents, so becoming famous was easy for her on Earth. Yet she still learns some important lessons during her visit, such as the value to friendship and bonding.

Meet the lead in one of my wips!
Marella Kawaskai

Marella's father's parents were a wealthy couple in Japan in the 50's, during and after the war. Their technology and engineering business really took off and they held that fortune. Their son Makoto decided to go overseas for schooling when he was a young adult in the eighties. In America, he met his wife Jessie while he was studying technology development and military engineering in Texas. They met, dated and got married four months later. It was love at first sight...until it wasn't.
Makoto and Jessie had a hard first five years of marriage. At first, everything seemed perfect but they had unresolved issues and other things that they decided to avoid prior to getting married, which resulted it to come back to bite them.
First, Makoto's parents didn't approve of the marriage and they didn't like Jessie. Second, their career paths were extremely different and their futures were bound to split them. And three, they had their first child, --- only four years after they got married. The bright side was, Makoto's parents actually wanted to be involved in their lives after --- was born. When --- was about seven years old, they had Marella. When Marella was six they had twin girls --- and ---. Now that their family has been growing and they started receiving support from both sides of the family, their marriage began to repair itself..
Marella was 15 when they found out Jessie was pregnant again with their 5th kid, who was a boy named ---. At first everyone was super excited and happy since they hadn't had a baby around for a while, but Makoto was getting a little sus of Jessie.
In short, the baby wasn't Asian. The family though that the genes just must have not come through, but Jessie did cheat on Makoto. Marella thought that their marriage had been slowly fixing itself, but she was naïve and didn't realize that they both had been cheating and sleeping around. She found out in high school a little after --- was born. her older brother --- also knew, but he had known for years. He kept it to himself though. the three littles still have no idea. Both Makoto and Jessie made the decision to not tell the kids and to continue living together.

So as a result of the strange family dynamic, Marella isn't home often. She practically lives next door at Rosilla's house. Her little sisters look up to her and she started out with wanting to be a good example for them. In junior high she would get all of her school work done and get to school on time. She hung out with good friends and obeyed her parents. Once she found out about her parents, she started going down hill. What really set it off was her brother. her older brother --- was her role model. --- had an alcohol addiction that started in high school when he went out and partied with his friends. They were bad influences on him and he fell into peer pressure. he started skipping school and his parents felt like they couldn't control him so they just gave up on trying to direct him in the right direction which made Marella furious. She's not completely in her right mind, so her way of getting back at them or proving them that what they were doing was wrong, she began to disobey them and break more rules. The three littles started keeping to themselves when all of this started happening. Marella and Rosilla got into trouble more often now and Marella didn't feel guilty for it. her whole life she was taught to feel guilty when she did something wrong. Ever since she was little, she never felt that guilty ping in her chest. No mistakes she made every weighed heavily on her mind. She was mad at herself for not feeling remorse for people when they went through hardships. She no longer felt sympathy or empathy the way she used to when she was a kid. Not many people know about her mental state except for Rosilla.
Rosilla knew that her best friend had been slowly losing her mind, but she didn't know what to do about it. At first she was concerned, but then Marella became laid back and chill. Rosi liked how she no longer worried about things and she liked the new Marella. (kind of a bad friend move) But when Marella did something questionable, she never put her in check. Rosilla never once told Marella what she was doing was either wrong or that she should stop. Marella's strange and impulsive behavior became kind of a funny show for Rosi to watch (also messed up)

Since Marella feels nothing, she tries to fil the void with drugs, alcohol and just things that aren't healthy for LEAGAL. She feels nothing normally, so she does reckless things for thrill. She self-harms but she doesn't do it because she wants to die or because of body image issues or anything she just likes the thrill and the feeling of pain. She is a daredevil by nature, but while she was in high school it just got worse and worse and she felt no consequence to her actions so she kept on doing them. Even after hours of her parents yelling at her, she regretted nothing.
Because of her need to chase thrill, one Saturday night in her junior year of high school at a party, some boys dared Rosi to steal someone's mustang and she refused because she new that would put her into too deep of trouble. Marella took the bet and the two boys and Rosi and her stole the car (which was the kid who threw the party's dads) and they wet on a joyride. She drove recklessly and she hit a lot of curbs and ran a lot of stop lights since she was drunk, too. The whole experience gave her the jolt of energy, the exhilaration that she had been so desperate for.
Marella is kind of pretty short, probably 5' 2" while Rosilla is 5' 6"
her hair is naturally brown, but she dyes it often and currently in the story it's a cute beachy blonde and it's straight and falls at the middle of her bicep muscle
her eyes are dark brown and they're further apart than average
she has some freckles on her nose and cheeks, but in the winter they are less noticeable
she has small hands and her body structure is just small yk?
she has short nails that are painted black
she wears a lot of silver rings and a couple of bracelets but they're mostly concert wristbands and cub wristbands
her makeup is usually pretty natural but she wears heavy mascara so her lashes are always on fleek, she does rub her eyes a lot so she has that messy eye liner look but it actually works and looks good on her with her eye shape
her lips are pump and heart shaped, really pretty
her fashion sense depends on the day, she doesn't really have a specific aesthetic but she starts out wearing lighter colors and tighter fitting clothes but as the story progresses, she wears darker and more baggy clothes, when she before showed more of her body.
for shoes she does get pretty boujee, she is a sneaker head so she has lots of pairs of fancy nikes and converses and they are all pretty colorful like the swoosh is a bright green or neon pink just something really cute and trendy
she's hot
she's sexy
she has a scar on her cheek from the car crash
when her hair gets burnt off, she buzzes the rest of it while she's in jail, it grows to below her ears by the end of the story in like a cute korean style bob with those cute little micro bangs
from fighting the cops and being in the fire and stuff. She gets a cool burn on her left elbow that ends up looking like a birthmark after time and she also gets new scars on her face, one on her cheek and another on her jaw line
OH YEAH AND SHE HAS A BUTT CHIN GIRLS WITH BUTT CHINS ARE SO SEXY

One of my favorites is Zelony. She's a 350-year-old bottlenorn (tiny being with a bottle for a body), and she spends most of her time sewing clothes for her friends.

Honestly, the main reason I like her is because she's very ordinary. She doesn't have any big traumatic event or especially standout role, but she is a constant positive presence and a delight to write for. Of course, she still has flaws, such as not always giving the most helpful advice, but she is still someone who tries to be good. I think she's a good example of how a character can be good and pleasant and still interesting.

My favorite one right now is one for a fan fiction. (X-men evolution) Her name is Leanna Sallow. She's fifteen, on the petite side, with white-blonde hair. She wears pleated skirts with button up shirts and boots. She is athletic, fast, and has general athleticism for sports. She is a mutant, because of the show, and her power is something I really like. There is a world parallel to earth where demons live. There is a prince there, who rules it. The demons have a horse shaped head with a mouth that opens all the way up to their neck, with long, sharp white teeth. They have the body of a predator, lean with powerful legs and massive claws. Their skin feels like rubber, but looks like black ink. They have red eyes. Leanne's power is that she can pull the shadows of the demons onto earth. They can affect the physical and metaphysical world, and if she's not careful, they might fully emerge. The prince of the demon realm is trying to get Leanne to let them free, and they commonly refer to her as "the bridge" or "bridge". Leanne herself can travel to the demon realm, and bring others with her. She's afraid of her power at first, and still has to remain cautious, lest they escape and wreak havoc on the world.

Kennedy wrote: "My favorite one right now is one for a fan fiction. (X-men evolution) Her name is Leanna Sallow. She's fifteen, on the petite side, with white-blonde hair. She wears pleated skirts with button up s..."

I still haven't actually written this yet...

One of my favorites from my recent work is Neena Singh.

She's the main character's roommate, an English major with an interest in classic literature. She's not super social with her roommate, but she has two close friends, Emma and Courtney, who she is very friendly and affectionate with. She's aro/ace and doesn't have much of an interest in relationships. She's not attending a super prestigious school, but she is a very dedicated worker, and she makes schoolwork a priority.

Not sure exactly why I'm drawn to her as a character. I just find her role in the story to be a very interesting one. She's one of the few important characters in the story, and I drew on some of my own experiences in determining some aspects of her character. Aside from that, though, I just think she's cool :).

Henna_UwU wrote: "One of my favorites is Zelony. She's a 350-year-old bottlenorn (tiny being with a bottle for a body), and she spends most of her time sewing clothes for her friends.

Honestly, the main reason I li..."

350 :0 :0 :0

ok guys i have two possible names for my fmc and i need help choosing so pls pls pls give me feedback
its either rheanessa (but shes either called Rhea or Nessa havent decided which nn to use yet) or iliara
plsss help me i have no idea
also if neither sound good give me ideas cause i desparately need a name for her and im stumped !! 🖤

Haylie ✩ wrote: "ok guys i have two possible names for my fmc and i need help choosing so pls pls pls give me feedback
its either rheanessa (but shes either called Rhea or Nessa havent decided which nn to use yet) ..."

I think character names often depend on genre. If the story is science fiction or set in the future, I think Rheanessa might be a good choice, with the nickname Rhea. If it's a story that is set in either the historical past, the present, or a world that generally resembles our own, I think Iliara would be a better choice.

One protagonist is named Sirius. He doesn't have a last name, or
an appearance yet. He's shy, but his loyalty outweighs it.