Gathering of the Figments

Princess Story Girl · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:07 pm Post subject: My introduction.

Hello everyone,
I'm Zoe and I just want to help you guys out. I'm going to hang around and try to help you guys with your character development because it's hard. I'll put in tips and you can ask me questions and feel free to help other people out in here as well. Oh and just so I don't sound to up myself I know I'm not perfect, I'm going to do the best I can and if that isn't enough that's alright because we're all here to help each other. I hope you have fun learning and improving and remember I'm not here for experts so if you already know then don't read it, but don't get mad at me.

DarkWaltz · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:12 pm Post subject:

I don't know if this really goes under here, but I'll ask your advice anyhow. It's a rather trivial question I suppose:

I have an idea for a novel that I've started and I have a character Olivia who is... to make a long story short part of an ancient culture (that eventually comes to be known as Atlantis) and they all have a measure of power over certain elements. Olivia is water, the Aquaria, so I had her with wavy, bluish black hair and dark blue eyes. The problem, however, is that one of her friends, Ravenna, can understand and communicate with animals, especially ravens (hence her name). So she was going to have dark brown almost black hair and dark brown eyes. Does it matter do you think that these two friends have basically the same hair color. It kind of bugs me, but...

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Figment · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

is there a specific reason that she can communicate with ravens more than other animals, i mean usually the can communicate with a type of animal...
I mean t sounds kind of strange if i say that i can only communicate with poodles as opposed to communicating with dogs... you'd think that one type of bird would have a very similar thought process to another type of bird, although it is true that a raven may see clearer or have a darker or more mysterious personality and a canary would probably be seen to be happy and sweet in nature...
If you find that she is more communicative with birds in general then you may be able to make her colour a little different...
Hope that helps a bit...

Figgy.
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Princess Story Girl · Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

I'd have to agree with Figgy. I'm thinking that perhaps your character Ravenna is a dark type of person and if they're not perhaps you should consider changing the animal. If you're going to stick with the raven how about a less happy version of this:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/pretearfan06/happyhalloween-Anime.gif

DarkWaltz · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:26 pm Post subject:

Well, her name is Ravenna because a raven was the first animal she really knowly communicated with. And also, ravens are curious, and that is something that goes with her personality. She's not dark. And it's not really especially easy to communicate with ravens, she just has a close connection with the raven she helped take care of, and that raven spread the word that she had food. Sort of. But I think I would like to change her hair color. Any suggestions?

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Princess Story Girl · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject:

For her hair colour maybe a dark purple; I think that would be cool. Smile

Figment · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 11:08 pm Post subject:

purple would be cool, but it may look too close to the blue-black colour of the other girl's hair...

Tinuviel, can i ask a question??? is the reason the other girl's hair is that colour, because of disney's atlantis?

I'm not saying that its a rip off or anything... i mean its just a haircolour... but why can't her hair be a different colour??? then Ravenna would still be able to have dark hair...

And i think Ravenna may need to have dark hair... and in thinking about atlantians i would see them as having a very solid hair colur... not brown because that is too in between colours... but what about a white, or white blonde, or maybe a liquid gold sort of colour...

Or perhaps she could have a multi-tone sort of hair, blacks, browns, blondes, reds etc...

Or rather than gold hair, she could have silver, with a bit of a blue tint to it???
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DarkWaltz · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 8:04 am Post subject:

Hmm.... No Figment, I haven't seen Disney's Atlantis. I've heard about it though, and this Atlantis is pre-sinking. I picked the blue-black color because her element is water. Hmmm.... I think purple may be a little too weird, but cool! So, going with Olivia having water powerness and Ravenna being able to talk to animals... What do we think? I suppose Olivia could have liquid gold or something, but I was going to give silvery white to the air power (Naivdya) and redish gold to the fire power (currently Amhitaba) and maybe brown or something to the earth power (Terradria). I'm still not quite sure what to do.

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Figment · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:

Well maybe you could have them both with dark, blackish hair... Olivia with the blue tinge, Ravenna with blacky purple...

Have the been friends for long?

you could play up the fact that their hair colour is similar and say that they did everything together and people always called them the twins... or maybe when they meet for the first time, they feel an instant connection, this may have somthing to do with the fact that other people where they live rarely have black hair???

It's always hard to come up with good ideas when you don't know the story... Hence tons of suggestions... Very Happy

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Princess Story Girl · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:45 pm Post subject:

I think that Olivia would look uber sexy with silvery-bluey hair Smile

DarkWaltz · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:58 am Post subject:

Well, I was thinking I might have her hair be wavy black but in the light it's shown to be navy blue. Or something... Silver blue sounds cool too... Smile

I think I might give the Terradria chestnut/ hazelnut hair with gold and bronze flecks, the Amitahba dark red gold hair, and the Naivdya silvery white hair. Or something. Meh.

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Aurora Asha Ila · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:08 am Post subject:

Hey, as a personal oppinion i think using red for fire, blue for water and black for raven communication is a little predictable. Almost cliche. I think its a great idea. My suggestion is to not only use the colour of the hair, but also the type of hair and personality. It shouldnt just be the hair that defines the characters element.

Consider this.

The water element might have wavy ash-blond hair and grey eyes, because in reality water is clear, and reflects the colours of the environment around it... and the sky.

Fresh water or salty, deep lake or frivolour stream...

Experiment with the character of the environment she is used to...

n e way. Hope that helps...
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I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty, city,
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

Extract from Clancy and the Overflow, by A.B. Patterson.
Ironically he never actually went outside of a city his entire life, let alone Droving. phht. Henry Lawson was much more acurate, he didnt romanticise the Aussie bush.

DarkWaltz · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:26 am Post subject:

Hmm... So it is a bit cliche I suppose, but I like her hair the way it is. These elemental people basically are their elements in many ways, so it would make sense to have their looks reflect that. I do like the grey/color changing eyes idea though. Do you mean they would change with the weather or with her emotions? Or did I not understand at all?

~J
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~DancingEponaTinuviel

Aurora Asha Ila · Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:50 pm Post subject:

Sorta, more that they'd reflect the colours of the environment around her, so, for instance if she lived in a forest the eyes would turn yellow when she looked at the sun, green all around her, and ocasionally the colours of the fruit or a bird she likes.
She might have brown hair with twigs embedded in it. She might dress it up with feathers and berries.

If she lived in the sea her eyes could be many different blues at any time, sometimes they could be green, or they might flash silver like a fish when she feels playfull.
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I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty, city,
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

Extract from Clancy and the Overflow, by A.B. Patterson.
Ironically he never actually went outside of a city his entire life, let alone Droving. phht. Henry Lawson was much more acurate, he didnt romanticise the Aussie bush.

Mouse · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:44 am Post subject:

Hmmmm I see what you mean of how it could bug you...okay. I think I may be able to help. My character (D*ck) has green hair, hazel eyes, and a milky tea clolred skin. He can turn into a centar, and could all his life, and centars tend to have green hair. Perhaps it should be where your character inherits the color from her past family and such...as she may have inherited the power. You could give her a pair of brown eyes (perhaps animal like even), but raven black hair, and perhaps her skin should as well match something. Did I help...or confuse?
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Let the magic of words, flow within your pen's ink, surge through your pencil's grafite...or update it all, and type fast!