Practice Chat

Gh and I, and anyone who would like to input tips~

This be a chat to help Ezra!

first off, gh, I need to know what sort of character you see Ezra as. are there any other characters in movies or books that might compare or parallel to him? If not all of him then specific traits that can be related to other characters.
then the details of your story. the time period, whatever changes to the world you've made that they live in, the extent of technology and magic, a synopsis of your plot.

secondly, the sueness. Please take the test, but instead of telling me the score, tell me which things you believe can be excluded from those points against him. as winter suggests, does he need such a unique name? does he need magic? does he need such a rotten past?

thirdly, we are working on individual traits of him and not all of it together. which order would you like to work in? is there one or two etc that you have more trouble understanding?

at the end of each trait, depending on how comfortable you then feel about it we can either move onto the next or do another scene. the end of it all, we'll throw all the parts together and see if you're comfortable with him that way. if not, we can continue working on it. =)

i know we haven't chatted a lot, but are there any characters of mine that you prefer? if not, I can bring in whomever.

Bw.....I'm kind of tired....but I'll try to give you as much info as I can without short circuting....

1. some details of Coxes

2. Odd names are just usual for Coxes, when I created him Ezra was the name that seemed to fit best. Magic...er...I wouldn't know what to replace that with.........and rotten past....it could sorta be changed...it's mostly how is mother infulenced him and his brother.

3. For traits....I want to get rid of his whining....it annoys me. He needs to toughen up.

4. His mother didn't grow up with the Cox mindset and taught Ezra and Demetrius to do the right thing. It helps progress throught the story against the brainwashing...

5. I dun care who.

Sorry if this was kinda vague....it was just *spazzes*

in order of less skilled to more, my characters are (I'll keep it basic):
Faylinn - blind human, but she can see ghosts whom help her. eight
Ally - one of my only basically human. nineteen
Daren - the other basically human, though a guy would have more strength. twenty
Diana - an alchemist/witch. relies on her powers, but she's not very skilled in using them. seventeen
Wolf - werewolf. has a very strong blood lust but doesn't like losing control. twenty
Maka - daughter of Wolf and Alex Aldric in a chat, but with a bit more training. and she accepts her blood lust. her habui powers are definitely less than her father's or Dorian's. sixteen.
Lawrence - a reaper. he's not used to his targets fighting back. or being alive. mid twenties
Latimier - brother of Wolf, a hunter. Though he's only human and wont kill anything not supernatural. thirty two
Cissie - an archer. good at hand to hand as well. twenty two
Damian - the fifth Robin. he's not afraid to kill if the situation calls for it, but will be hesitant to do so.
Ayakashi - biologically engineered weapon. she kills without a second thought, but needs to be very provoked to do so. one, but looks fifteen/sixteen.
Inque - (you've seen her pic prolly) she can take any shape, and basically the only way to get rid of her is with water. she's a torturer, wont necessarily kill - but then she's always been very unpredictable for me... age is a mystery...
Asylum - totally LOCO. she's an empath who can influence what people are feeling, but can only give emotions that she's feeling. tortures and kills with pleasure. twenty one.

kay... more info about ezra?

description, family, beliefs, values and morals, strengths and weaknesses... details details~

Tips Dump 1

The Basics:

1) Know your stuff.
There has to be an element of realism in any story, even pure fantasy. How characters react to situations, how to become friends with another, how to develop a relationship... There is always something within a story that can be found in real life. Write what you know, and if you don't, look it up. A complex example: Winter's Peter and my Kim. Both have pyrokinesis, but winter and I have two separate explanations that are both plausible in scientific terms. Or a simpler example: If you'd like a character to have an accent look up how to dictate it in writing, such as Senet or Cricket. Want to include fight scenes? Research on youtube, watch movies, watch anime or cartoons even! God knows what would happen if I ever touched a katana, but Damian does it well. The WORLD is at your fingertips. Google only needs a few keyed in search words to give you a library's worth of info in a tenth of a second.

2) Point of View and Background
Every character has a background, and you must be able to show that as if you're experiencing what the character is seeing or remembering. It gives us the view of how they perceive things, and WHY they see it as good or bad based off of past experiences. What drove characters to make the decisions they did, and how, in turn, did that affect them for deciding to do things that way? Motive is key. There must be a motive behind your character, and it must make sense with the rest of the story and what you've revealed about their background already. A good character is one which you could say 'alright, i'll be friends with him' or 'wtf bully, go away...' We must make clear why characters do the things they do, otherwise they'll just seem nuts, and just saying 'well, he's nuts' is sort of a cop out, unless you actually back up their craziness. Why are they insane and what made them that way. Don't be afraid to get specific.

3) Good or Evulz...
People, in real life, are too complicated to really be classified as 'good' or 'evil', and same goes for characters. Examples: Dorian may be a dangerous, slightly insane, habui soldier but he's demonstrated some good as well - caring what happens to Marley on occasion or (as in a chat he's in) becoming seriously worried whenever his children are in danger. Damian has the biggest ego and isn't afraid to show it, but he's quite affectionate towards cats and really wants to impress his father. Mr. Face loves fuzzy - no matter how evulz he is you can't help but feel some liking of that fact!
Intent is also to be kept in mind when someone does something bad or good. Someone may view an act as bad or good, when the character themselves perceives the event the other way around (case in point: the antihero. Doin bad things for good reasons. Killing, but killing abusive parents as an example. Who's right in that situation - law or logic?). Basically...people are complicated...

4) Flaws, Limitations, Weaknesses
No one's perfect, and neither are characters. Weaknesses are what makes characters interesting to readers, because they provide the conflict in the story to add to the plot. They are what makes a reader RELATE. In fact, 'perfect' characters tend to annoy people - Mr-GoodyGoody Cyclops or Attitude-Problem Wolverine? Most would choose the latter. Jacky's TDH as another example...
Flaws give us the authors challenges that we need to write around. Usually without them, we get the generic sue case. If you're going to give someone a fantasy ability, what are the draw backs? Having to give hours and hours to practice a spell and still have the chance for it to fail, such as in Harry Potter, or being immortal but having to never go out in the sun or eat Italian food, unlike Twilight... Such goodies come with a limit, and that is what makes it interesting to the reader, not what the character can do with the awesome power.

5) Details, details, details~
Knowing your character is key. They are YOUR character after all. They give your creation life and make it easier to know how they might act in a situation compared to someone else. Not just flaws or strengths, but quirks. Likes and dislikes. Habits, pet peeves, things that embarrass, and favorite style of clothing. The idea is to develop a well rounded, believable, complex person. You're creations should all have distinct, separate, unique personalities. Because no one is exactly the same, even in fiction.

Likes: Reading, the quiet, coffee, music

Dislikes: Judging, his father, hypocrites, mornings, sometimes himself, letting people down

Habits: Needs coffee to stay awake if didn't sleep, has trouble getting up in the morning, if he has insomnia will read until he crashes

Pet Peeves: Having perfection in his work and his self

Things that embrass: being made a fool, originally not pleasing his father, messing up

Weaknesses: He can be cowardly, even though he hates letting people down he may still run away out of fear that he may not live up to expectations, he's already let them down before, or it could be a selfish reason. He's been taught by his family to leave people behind. His guilt is causing insomnia problems.

Mindset: His mindset has both Cox and his mother's infulence. He's been brain washed to torture, kill, and take orders but his mother always wanted him to do the right thing. She didn't agree with the Cause but was unable to verbally protest it so she found ways. Even when he completes his orders, there is a nagging bit of guilt and he feels like he has let his mother down. When she died, (when he was eight) he felt alone and unloved so he began to strive to make his father proud and be the perfect son but slowly, the guilt began to devour him in a way. He then relized that any more completed orders was going to destroy him and he began to pull away from the Cause. The last order he had been given before he left was to kill Liz, which he did not complete. I believe I am going to go back to using him when he was a Cox.

Flaws: Even though he is pretty skilled at potion making, one wrong move (such as tempature, incorrect amount, ingrediants, etc.) can cause it to fail and his insomnia is affecting this. His insomnia is due to his guilt and he stays up reading until he crashes. At times he can be selfish and cowardly.

Legs set apart, Damian's arms crossed in front of him, he glare down at Ezra's form instead of having to look at the actual person. "Why the fuck do I have to be his fighting instructor..." he mutters under his breath before looking up at the classroom, giving a none too happy look at Ezra.
"Because you violence well. And it'll be fuuunnn~" I tempt, leaning on the desk to raise an eyebrow at him. Like I could ever convince him to do anything I wanted. The little rebel; how the heck does Bruce do it...
"Tch. What'll be fun would be -" I clamp a hand over his mouth, stopping whatever he might have said. I didn't know, but it wouldn't be good for this excursive probably... He simply glares at me before proceeding to lick the palm of my hand.
"I don't care, stupid, it's you getting all the germs," I tease before looking up at the two of them. "Now, to begin...
"As I said before, know you're stuff. Hopefully you've been watching whatever may help you to achieve that, as was your homework? Instructional videos work best, since they show the real world physics and people to it all. Or if there's some business near you that teaches fighting, take a day and go observe. Most instructors will allow you to watch if you ask. Take some notes as you watch this. Try and write what they're doing creatively while you're watching. Or talk to people who fight in school and ask them to describe the steps for the full first person point of view. Maybe get them to teach you a couple of moves so you yourself can experience how they feel.
"But that's for when you have free time. This is just the first fight, to see how you write a combat scene with the knowledge you have currently and how we can improve it fairly easily just through a few changes in words or a bit more descriptions. As you've probably noticed, people stalk this chat... So ALL OF YOU OTHER AUTHORS READING THIS - feel free to put in your own tips and suggestions after the fight when we discuss how it went.
"Of course, this is all about trial and error. Don't be frustrated if we must do a few dozen scenes to get it right. Also, I know action scenes can be difficult with trying to do sizable posts so I will allow less than three sentences for this trait practice - though I don't want to see one liners all the time. Try and be descriptive when you can, and if you really can't figure out how I'll share some pointers at the end of the fight."
I pause, pondering if I missed anything. "Oh - Winter wanted to bring in White Angel to help teach, and if you don't mind we can wait for her to arrive. But other than that.... Any questions?"
Damian managed to get a pressure point and I pull away with a small yelp, shaking my arm to get the pins and needles feeling out. "Yeah. Why the fuck do I have to be his instructor?! What about Nightwing or Kim or Father?!"
I cough and ignore him. Mostly for the lulz... "Questions from the class?" I specify more.

"Why the hell do I have to be here?" Ezra grumbled, crossing his arms unhappily.

I looked up at him and patted his cheek, "Be a good boy and behave for once."

Ezra glared, swatting my hand away with annoyance. "I do what I please and don't touch me, I'm not some pet."

"Ezra...."

"Look! He doesn't even /want/ to teach me." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

I sighed and looked back at Bw and Damian, "I don't mind if Winter and White Angel join. The more the merrier."

"/Wonderful/," Ezra groaned from behind me. I shot him a look, couldn't we all just get along? Heh...wait...this was Ezra and Damian we were talking about.

This was going to be a looooonnnnggg day.....

I stroll in, followed immediately after by White Angel. Tucked in the crook of my arm is my trusty copy of How Not to Write a Novel (which I recommend to anyone and everyone who wants to write something worth reading. It's a fantastic guide). Learnination time.

"Hullo!" I greet. "Are we commencing with the commencement?"

"Thanks for joining, Winter, White Angel. It's just about to go down," I say, collecting my doodled on writing class notes (I was bored, what can I say...). "To the battle simulation room!" With some author powered imaginings, in a flash we were suddenly in a black room, gridded out all over the floor, walls, and ceiling in white. There was a door to the left, aka the control room which would dictate what hologram would be showing, and secretly a one way window for observation.
"This better be the one in the Manor," Damian mutters under his breath. Oh that cursed mountain...
"Alright! This is Young Justice inspired so I shall explain the concept of this room that Ende and I had come up with." I pause, thinking through the details we gave this room. "Settings can be anywhere, with any other person who can be computer generated, and there's no limit of space going in any direction. The room's griding makes it very deceiving on how big it really is. After every fight injuries will go away by the magical power of author and we'll pause to discuss what was good and what was bad. Characters can discuss moves and tactics, authors can discuss writing style and all that technical stuff."
I give a smile. "So, authors, if you please we'll go to the control room. Characters stay here and we'll put you into a setting."

"Sweet," I say with a grin, heading towards the control room. Gods I love technology. "Can't wait to get this started. It's gonna be so much fun!"

I enter the room, taking it all in. Did I mention how much I love technology? I think I did.

I look through the one-way window to see White Angel casually adjusting parts of her clothing. Of course, I know what she's really doing; she's checking her weapons all stealth-like. Someone who didn't know wouldn't have a clue. White Angel's a trained professional, after all.

I followed Winter in, with as much excite as getting to hug a baby panda without being mauled (pandas are fuzzy, I wanna hug one). I gapped at the equipment then glanced at Ezra, who had distanced himself a bit from Damian and White Angel. Geez...way to be sociable. Then a thought hit me, how were the holograms solid enough to hurt their opponent. "Wait...if they're holograms, how can they hurt there opponent?"

"Obviously /they/ aren't holograms -" I gesture out the one way window to our characters standing there quite awkwardly. "- and we won't include holograms the first go around, I'd imagine. Any punches or physical injuries between Ezra, White Angel, and Damian will be real, which we can just patch up at the end of the fight," I explain, messing with the tech to give them a setting of a simple parking lot at night, a few cars in their spots and the street lights letting them see.
"But if we include holograms in later fights, those rules are more complex. The computer generates the injuries upon the three of them, and then their minds fill in the pain received out of common sense.
"Dick explained it once as being like motion sickness. You see you're moving but your balance doesn't register it, making you sick. Well, in this scenario, they'd see themselves hurt and their minds will supply the pain. Holograms will also not hesitate to kill, if they are so programed, but if they can deliver a killing blow the sim will automatically stop and that'll be the end of that. And...that'sa*slightly*sickeningfeelingforthecharacter....Butanyway... Let's start!"
I press the lovely labeled 'start' button and the computer goes ahead and makes the scene around them.

Damian
I watch the computer make the scene for us, glancing over to Pacifist shifting away with a small smirk first before looking over to White Angel. "So. I suppose first fight should be one on one. To be fair..." Pfft, yeahright... But then we didn't even know each other's fighting styles so it'd most likely be less teamwork and more getting in the way. I shrug, looking back to Pacifist. "You have an opinion?"

White Angel

Every weapon accounted for, in good condition, and readily accessible. Excellent. I watch as the scene appears around us, instinctively taking note of the area right away. But...if they were holograms, did it really matter? Oh well.

"Fair indeed," I say dryly, smirking under my mask. Either one of us could beat the kid within an inch of his life. If we were holding back. Given the opportunity, we could kill him straightaway. But...that wouldn't be conducive to learning.

Ezra

I roll my eyes, I just wanted to go home...and /try/ to sleep...even though sleep hardly ever came. I pinch the bridge of my nose, "I have no preferance for whom you choose." I just wanted to get this over with, as soon as possible. I /hated/ being judged...let alone the possibility of Damian and White Angel laughing at me as they normally do.

Damian
That doesn't help, Pacifist...The thing we're trying to do for you... God, that's a weird thought... "Well..." I turn back to White Angel. "I don't think I've seen you fight before..." Granted, the most she's seen me do was mostly fooling around, but she's seen me do something.

White Angel

"I don't think I've seen you fight, either," I say. "But I guess I'll go first." I turn to Ezra, cracking my joints and stretching. You never want to do extensive physical activity without stretching first...not that I thought this would be extensive. "Alright, Pacifist, try to earn my respect."

Ezra

Yes for practice fights, you warm up. For ones that weren't exactly "normal" practice fights, who gives a crap. I drew my dagger, keeping the other crap I had hidden incase they were needed. I went for an attack, swipping my dagger at her arm.

White Angel

He didn't stretch. First failure.

He took the first move. Second failure.

He left himself wide open. Third failure.

I jump back, moving to grab his attacking arm and driving my free arm forward at his completely defenseless zone, large dagger already in hand. He's making this far too easy. But what could I expect? He is the Pacifist.

Ezra

I moved back my attacking arm out of her reach, but felt the dagger dig into my side. I gave a cry, bleeding from my side as I struggled to move out of the way, pulling out a second dagger in a fluid motion.

White Angel

I whip my attacking arm back right after I deliver the blow, assuming a battle-ready stance and watching him. Would he be stupid again and take the first move? You never want to take the first move...not unless you have the element of surprise.

UM I SCRAPPED EZ LAST NIGHT SO HERE'S WILL


I looked at BW and WD. "Erm.....should I just....shove in Will...Or um....?" I asked, cause Ezra was gone and Will was the replacement. Er....

Likes: Reading, the quiet, coffee, music

Dislikes: Judging, his father, hypocrites, mornings, sometimes himself, letting people down

Habits: (when he gets guilty....and gets morals this isn't him yet) Needs coffee to stay awake if didn't sleep, has trouble getting up in the morning, if he has insomnia will read until he crashes

Pet Peeves: Having perfection in his work and his self

Things that embrass: being made a fool, originally not pleasing his father, messing up

Weaknesses: He can be cowardly, even though he hates letting people down he may still run away out of fear that he may not live up to expectations, he's already let them down before, or it could be a selfish reason. He's been taught by his family to leave people behind.

Mindset: The basic Cox mindset. Their family motto is show non miserebor or show no mercy. He's been trained to kill the enemy and live for the Cause. Starting to slowly develop morals, which will pull him away from the Coxes.

Flaws: Even though he is pretty skilled at potion making, one wrong move (such as tempature, incorrect amount, ingrediants, etc. can cause it to fail At times he can be selfish and cowardly.

"That's what the lovely rewind button is for~"
That lovely button... I press it, going back to the start of the fight, looking to Winter and GH. "Start again, I suppose."

Gh

"Yay~ Thank you!" I grinned, looking at a confused Will.

Will

Why couldn't Gh ever tell me where I was?! And great....there was the brat (Damian) from before...fun. Ah, wait, what was that stuck to my shirt? A posted note. I picked it up and read it. Fight was written in Gh's handwritting...with no explation as to why I should. Great, oh well. Can't argue with authors...