Monday, November 07, 2005

She Does What? Oh….Ew!

That’s right, this next one will cover the great realm of personality. Now, when you get down to it, you will realize that I can’t cover every personality out there without writing some sort of short novel or long short-story, but what I can do is give examples as to how a personality will affect the atmosphere of the duel.

Alright, we shall first cover our, pardon my language, clichéd bases (is it just me or is calling something cliché actually starting to get cliché itself). Alright, so we move to the loner dude who wears lots of black make-up and never smiles, while fighting because he just plain hates the world (Veggie’s Angst anyone). This type of personality gives way to that of a boring air in the duel world. Not a lot of spice, although this character does tend to be a bit on the dark side as fair as attacks and speech patterns go (For the most part, there are always exceptions). I can imagine one to use Fire or Dark attacks while controlling the aforementioned character while either not caring what the opponent says at all or getting very upset at their foe’s words.

Doesn’t sound like much fun, huh? Well, I have a way to spice things up…Check out this character sheet.

Name- Morgan Zolgalman

Age- 17

Sex- Male

Description- Morgan dresses in all black, wearing a long trench coat that drapes around his ankles. He has jet black combat boots and always has an assortment of silver jewelry that studs his eyebrows, nose, lips, and ears. His hair is spiked into a dark, black mohawk, and he wears jet black lipstick. He is the perfect image of goth.

Short character sheet, I know, but I didn’t want to put spoil the twist. Now, I want to show you a good way to surprise anyone after reading this sheet.

Morgan walked drearily through the streets as a fine downpour of rain fell upon his ebony locks. His makeup was running and he looked like a scary funhouse attraction, but he wasn’t looking for fun, he was looking for a fight. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and bent over, keeping the precious smokes dry, with a flick of his finger, the cigarette was lit and in his mouth. He pulled long and hard and then flicked it into the drainage ditch nearby. His opponent had arrived.

As the other man gently drifted into the street, Morgan’s heart began to race. His mouth just couldn’t keep it shut in any longer, “Wow, aren’t those jeans just so cute! Oh! My! Gosh! I just can’t believe how vibrant your eyes are! We have to go shopping, I saw this pair of torn jeans that would look absolutely stunning on you!”

Alright, you probably weren’t expecting that right? Exactly, thanks to a comment by Clovis, I thought about this. Taking the cliché and making it unique, a very good trait of any writer, taking what they are comfortable with and making it something actually enjoyable to read. Now, when you read the first part of that sample, the tone of the duel is dreary and dark, correct? But as it nears the end, it turns into something…well, fruity.

Not only can you deceive your readers, but you can start it off with something fun. Make your character spit out random, lame jokes during a fight, or make some cheesy fighter who uses a bunch of lines from…I don’t know, E.R. You can do a limitless amount of things to make your writing unique, because in truth, isn’t that what we all aspire for?

Take Libram’s writing for example, he has a stunning ability to integrate characters with truly charming and creative personalities into his writing, such as Big Boy, the child-like Android who is an excellent example of man-made machine, or his creator Amy, who is very nerdy, yet has a sexy side like Laura Croft.

All I am saying is, people need to find ways of making the same old, same old into something new and worth my time to read. The days of heroic, Hercules type fighters should be gone, and an era of frightfully charming, or devilishly cunning characters should begin.

***

Next Blog- Setting the tone of the duel in the intro.

Corbow6

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Y halo thar. Nice use of example. XD Okay, I already saw it coming lightyears away, but it's hard to not chuckle. Indeed it's interesting to transform cliches, considering it's so radically difficult to come up with something original nowadays. Though, don't discount angsty characters just yet, especially if they always have something to say in what I call 'tragically hilarious' manner. =P Heck, just to take angst to a new level, I've already developed a villain bent on destroying the entire universe simply because his hot dog came with mustard instead of ketchup. As ridiculously as it sounds, he actually succeeds in conjuring up an army of nigh-unstoppable undead... until he got so depressed watching a zombie flick and decided to switch to mutant army... Then he decided to keep both... >_> Yep.

=O Yeah, you still owe me a character duel.

*smacks you repeatedly with steel gauntlets until your brain bleeds out of your orifices*

Ah shucks, dead already? I'll just hang your head on the wall as a nice, trophy. ^_^ Mmm... Too bad I've never been good with DIY taxidermy...

Corbow6 said...

Muahaha!

*Head begins to shake rapidly*

BOOM!

*It then explodes.*

After football is over we shall duel...Hmmm, what character to use...