Star Wars Writing Tips and Tricks.

OC Designs and Naming.

This was getting so long in the last chapter, so I split it up instead.
Here it is, Pt. 2.

Designing Original Characters.

When talking about a characters design, the immediate thought is what they look like, including their physical features and what they wear. This is important as everything written in your story serves a purpose in furthering that story, even if it is only subtle and not noticed until the end of the novel.

At least, it's supposed to.

Their name, favourite colour/s, friends and family, the world they live in, their pasts, everything has a purpose being there in the novel. The greater this is amplified, the better readers will connect with the characters and the more vivid a picture you will paint for them.

Of course, you want your OC to stand out more than any other character, so you make them all flashy with unique hair and eye colours so that they are absolutely unforgettable.

Or maybe not...

This is often the trap beginning writers fall into, over-describing and over-designing their characters down to the minutes detail in the opening chapter. I personally have a habit of designing characters to the minutest of details, but that is in my personal notes so that I remember certain points that are supposed to be bought up later in the novel. This is useful for me, but others prefer to write on the fly and that is fine too.

Basic, relatable characters attract more attention from audiences than poster characters yelling 'Look at me! Look at me!' in obnoxious voices, so long as the characters are not too boring to the points of ridiculousness, the exceptions being in parody works.

Clothing and colours also play a significant part in telling readers a lot about the characters. It says something about their personality, the settings and even something about them physically.

If a character likes blue or green, they may be calmer characters whereas character who like red may be rash and hotheaded and characters who like yellow might have infectiously bubbly personalities. This is not completely true, taking Voltron: Legendary Defender as an example. Lance, the blue lion, is quite hotheaded early on in the show, and Pidge, the green lion, is not who I'd describe as a completely calm character either.

As for the setting, if it's like Australia (on 15/01/2019 there was a day in South Australia that was 49 degrees Celsius! And it's only gotten hotter here since!), then the characters would wear clothing appropriate for the hot weather. If they lived in Northern Europe, they would wear warmer clothes to match the colder outside temperatures.

Dark, monotone colours can give the impression of a gloomy atmosphere, while brighter colours give a sense of health and vitality to their wearers. Even the style of dress can reflect the ideas and standards of the world. Long sleeves and coats of conservative dress can be symbols of order, oppression or secrecy, whereas less conservative clothing can imply freedom and rebellion as this amplifies the atmosphere of the novel being written.

Think of the Imperials and Rebels.

All of the Imperials have dress standards and appear as a uniform and united front from which they defend the Empire, while the Rebel Alliance is a ragtag group with varying styles between each cell as a symbol of their own heritages and cultural backgrounds in their fight against the Empire. There is no uniform standard in the Rebellion, it's made up of whatever's practical and easily accessible for the frontline soldiers of the Rebellion.