Musings on Creativity

[in_the_blue]

Playing too many characters comes with inherent risks. I always admired people who could roleplay different characters on 5, 6, 7 different sites but I never saw the attraction in it.

Now don't get me wrong: I so admire the creative process. I love the way roleplay makes you first get to know your character inside out, and then to stretch what you think you know to accommodate the way other people interact with you. It's one of my fondest tools as a writer and as a wannabe method actor and just as a person in general.

When I joined my second roleplay, I specifically decided to stay away from the Harry Potter universe. I've been playing in that fandom for so long, it was time for something different. The HP characters I play -- Sirius, Charlie, even Dobby, in addition to the OC of 15-year-old werewolf Mary Frances -- are all together in one world. I know their world and I know their interactions. It's a gas having all these characters although no disrespect meant to House-Elves, Dobby is my least favorite to play. I picked him up out of necessity. And you can tell by everything about my journal which character is my all-time favorite, no bones about it, it's true. Even through the darkness ingrained in his character's psyche, Sirius is a study in continual fascination for me. He's all passion and drive and force of will.

Charlie is really different. He's more jovial and sunshine. And who can help but love a guy who loves his dragons like they were puppies? (Hi Tonks!) I wanted to play him sparingly, but he's teaching now in our universe so he's a lot more in demand. Right now he's having fun, though... scoping out old territory near the Dragon Reserve in Romania, and that's more fun to write than a lot of other things. It's Charlie Weasley meets van Helsing meets Indiana Jones!

Gawd, it's like having quintuplets. I'll take care of you, and then you, and then you, and... I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's way too much fun. So long as I can keep multitasking, I'll keep playing.

[end of musings for now]

Thanks to krystaliske for posting her uber-cool Spike icons in bebopicons!

Comments

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

But then, isn't writing a full book even worse -- all those characters to keep straight at one time? There are more of them, and their actions depend on one another, and you have to know where everyone is at a given time and what they think of each other, and then their individual psyches.

Just musing.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

But if you're writing them, you're in control of their thoughts and actions to some measure. When you have to have one of your characters react to something thrown at them completely out of the blue... that's what makes it not worse but more of a challenge.

It's really fun, though, and that's where the stretch and having to know your characters comes in. It's less a question of keeping straight where they are and what they think of each other than intuiting how they react to the unexpected.

All improv.

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

"Gawd, it's like having quintuplets."