Heroes Insider Weekly

She-Ra's Tell All - Avalon, Character Creation

Secondary Character Creation in Avalon

I have to think of a new character for my story Avalon, this person needs to be someone that Avalon befriends… hold on maybe I should describe what I think of Avalon first and how I came up with her character.

 Lately I’ve been reading a lot of teen fiction where the main character is beautiful, shy and quiet puts up with a lot of crap and all that stuff. I wanted to create someone that was beautiful and didn’t care, didn’t wield her beauty like a cat of nine tails, cared more for what people were than what they looked like. I wanted someone that wasn’t shy, spoke her mind and didn’t put up with anything but had flaws and problems, someone that fought for the people that thought that they weren’t worth it.

To me Avalon is a people’s champion, one of those figures in Australia that we love so much like Ned Kelly, someone that isn’t actually a saint but is loved for their courage and their daring.

 I also see Avalon as a people’s pied piper, that she gives only to receive bonds in friendships and life lessons back rather than wanting to take material rewards.

So knowing that about Avalon, this is the process of me thinking about this, well actually two new characters. One will change the book’s flow immensely; the other is rather a secondary character. The first one is a girl that I won’t get into much because I don’t want to ruin it, the second one though I will go through my process.

I want to have this character related to the girl, anyone that has read Avalon knows that Seth struggles with superficialness and living up to this image he has in his head, this coming down from his Mother in particular. As he begins to hang out with Avalon, he starts to let that go a bit and questions things I guess, just as you will think things are really picking up for him in comes the new character…

This girl is the queen of superficialness and craves the correct image desperately so I wanted her ‘brother’ to have a quality that she is ashamed of.

I think about my life; what am I familiar with? My brother in law has cerebral palsy and why it is widely accepted now he got teased something chronic when he was young. His brothers and sisters were forever fighting anyone that teased him. To all of us he is just the same as you and me but he had a hellish life growing up.

They have told me a lot of stories about him and it works because when I describe this new character I will 1) know what it looks like, 2) I can describe the movements well 3) describe how he talks 4) I understand how he felt during situations of bullying. Also I can understand the difficulty these guys can have getting jobs that they feel gives them worth not just the jobs offered to them without a care of their personal choices.

So I have the basis of a character that I know I can describe well, that the story will feel real even when I add the humorous embellishments.

I don’t want to make the disability the main thing though so I will add some funny ‘taste’ of his that she is terribly embarrassed of. I wonder what I would find embarrassing if I stood in her shoes. I have a scene with a party in mind; you know the ones where all the girls are dressed up and blah blah. What would be her worst nightmare for him to come down stairs looking like?

I know it now, but I can’t give it away lol. (Sorry)

The other thing is behind this character and in fact most of my characters in Avalon; I want to put in a positive message. This one will be of acceptance and the ability to achieve no matter who you are.

For me now in my head my character is real and is alive, he’s already telling me his favourite singer lol.

Sometimes if I don’t let a character live in my brain for a while they don’t seem real when I put them on paper. I sometimes write mini stories for them in my head so I can get a better feel for them.

I once read a published authors article where she collected a visual arts diary full of clipping and make up and clothes and food for each character, I think that’s an amazing idea but I have  small house and don’t have the room for 500 books lol. But that shows the extreme that you have to come to know your characters to write ‘living’ beings into your books.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to write in this week’s article so I just thought I’d write what’s running through my head.

@palominolane