User blog comment:Little Miss Nobody/A Little Discussion/@comment-26897541-20160602022047

Hmmm.... I'm trying to think about how I go about this.....

I think, at least for EAH OC's, that I always start with the fairy tales themselves, and think, "All right, if I knew for my entire life that I would have to follow this particular role in this fairytale, how would this affect me and my personality? Would I turn out like Daring Charming, thinking that life'll be a breeze because Snow White's Prince doesn't DO a whole heck of a lot? Would I turn out like Arion Neptune, endlessly bitter at the world for giving me a destiny no one would ever want? How would my parents, the previous inheritors of this destiny, try to raise me in preparation for this role? Would it affect me? Would my parents be grief stricken after the events of the last retelling, or would they encourage me to accept others just like they learned to?" After figuring that out, I build from there, usually detailing WHY the characters affected this way, figure out some physical designs, look up suitable character traits, etc. Then, the real fleshing out usually happens in RP's and general story telling, because then I really get into the character's head and figure out what makes them tick. They evolve with only a bit of guidance through those methods, and I'll get random character traits that I hadn't ever thought of before but that fit for the characters, sort of like with normal people. (I got claustrophobic!Regi out of an RP, and Anteros holding serious grudges popped up out of nowhere too.) Now, how do I try to make them different? That's usually achieved by either finding rather unused but still hella cool tales to base characters off of (The Imp Prince, The Canary Prince, etc.), or by looking at other fanmade characters for certain roles and figuring out how to make my character stand out (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc.). I also try to use heritage where it fits (Rose de Beaute, Venetia Soulsong), or twist up reasoning for destiny inheritance so that it's different from the norm (Arion Neptune, Venetia Soulsong). I've even used genders to switch things up (Arion, Ahiru in that everyone seems to make girl Ugly Ducklings and no boy Ugly Ducklings). Mostly, though, I just try to make interesting characters and hope they end up different from the rest.