Gathering of the Figments

Ruralin · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:04 am Post subject: Help with teachers?

For my novel I really need some help with ideas for teachers at the academy. I have an idea for a beautiful woman who could teach poisons and antidotes who could act really sweet half the time but quickly change into a truly evil person. I still haven't got a name or a description of what she could look like though.

I also need an idea for a nice teacher and an odd headmaster. I need a name for the headmaster so I can ccomplete the second chapter. I'm thinking about these characters all the time, I'd just like a hand in developing them.

Very Happy

Thanks!!

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"and it’s not difficult to get in them, the trick is getting out… conscious." - 'Viper Academy,' my novel in process.

Princess Story Girl · Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject:

Look I don't want to be harsh, I just want to say that your characters are sounding a little used. I know it's hard these days with so many characters and books already before you, I know writing is about following instincts and going with your heart but if your heart is leading you into a story that is already written you have to start using your head to steer your heart in a different direction.

Ruralin · Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:35 am Post subject:

If you could somehow help me to understand what your point is that would be absolutely fantabulous! Wink

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"and it’s not difficult to get in them, the trick is getting out… conscious." - 'Viper Academy,' my novel in process.

Figment · Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:21 pm Post subject:

well, when i hear you talk about the nice/nasty teacher, i kind of think about Mrs. Coulter, from his dark materials, she sounds a fair bit like her....

When i hear about the odd yet nice headmaster i think of dumbledore from harry potter.

And when i hear about the nice teacher i think of many steriotypical characters that i have read and watched... Miss Honey.... from matilda.

I mean i know its hard to come up with completely orignal characters, they all borrow from others... espescially in a scholl setting... but maybe if you try and get to know them better then their descriptions will come easily to you...

I'm working on some character development questionnaires to put in the writing lessons section...

i mean the teachers could be great, but they seem as if... well, they've been done before... and in well known instances too...

Maybe if you develop the characters further you can make them unique to these steriotypes, but you need to get down to the little tiny details...

You need to know why they wanted to be a teacher, maybe what exactly it is that makes the nasty/nice teacher nasty and what makes her nice, something that makes the nice teacher a lttle different... i mean not a tortured past, thats been done... but maybe, i dont know, she's sweet at school and goes back home and reads erotic novels and tortures animals... just for something different....
Very Happy

Hope this helps you!

Figgy.

PS. I dont encourage people to torture animals at all, but in a character instance it is a maybe a good develpment for that character... i love animals, and even cringe when people talk about feeding mice to snakes, i have mice and rats... Very Happy

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Ruralin · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 3:55 am Post subject:

thank you, I was actually thinking of a scene in "Holes" with the Warden and Mr. Sir when I thought of the female teacher.

I agree, it's really hard, all the ideas have been taken so I'm trying to use them all but mix them up.

WHERE did the animals and torture thing come from?

I don't know, I want at least one REALLY deep character as a teacher who I'd really get to know. I'd actually prefer if this was someone with a mixed personality but instead of what you suggested they could be EEEEVIL at school and maybe someone who cares for their sick mother/father at home while sobbing for them to get better.

Whoa!! I'm getting into story mode.

What do you think of a headmaster you almost never see?

I just need his/her name for the second chapter and my brain is jammed.
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"and it’s not difficult to get in them, the trick is getting out… conscious." - 'Viper Academy,' my novel in process.

ArcT · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:02 am Post subject:

Mr/Mrs McGregor. That's a good name.

Stupid Ewan. If he didn't have it, then it'd be all mysterious and awesome.
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And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know you're alive

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

Figment · Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 7:13 pm Post subject:

Mr. John Stapleton.
(Staple-ton)

A headmaster that you never see in plausible...

Perhaps he hates crowds, attention and confrontation, This is why he stays in his office all day and we never see him...
Perhaps he became a teacher because his mother wanted him to and he is a mummy's boy. And perhaps he only realised when he reached 43 and had a mid-life crisis, that he didnt and never had wanted to be a teacher. But by this time he was the headmaster and he believes it is too late to pursue another career.
He always wanted to be a dancer...

The torturing animals and erotic novels thing was whispered to me by one of my figments.

See what i mean about the getting to know intricate details about the characters thing... If you start to get to really know them the story is not so forced... it just kind of flows from your fingertips...

Figgy.
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Hawkins · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:58 pm Post subject:

Bad Figgy! Very bad! You say not to take characters from other books...John Stapleton from 'Hound of the Baskervilles'! *sobs in a corner*

It could be coincidence. I understand. But I can't stand the thought of torturing animals either, I mean, me, the cold heartless tushwipe (it's my brothers word...I thought it was funny.) couldn't even watch this clip on an animal abuse site about these raccoons being dragged out of cages by their tail and beaten against the cages...it tore me apart. I watched the first five seconds and had to exit out of the window in tears...(everyone around me was like, "OMG, Hawkins is crying...TO THE BOMB SHELTER!") it was just terrible...and I've always been against hunting. This ass from grade school, her whole family hunted. So, her uncle was putting up a platform in a tree so he could stand on it and hunt deer easier, and he fell out of the tree and was crippled for the rest of his life. I said, "you know, everyone's gonna hate me for saying this, but if he hadn't been trying to murder someone, this wouldn't have happened." and she was like "HE WASN'T TRYING TO MURDER ANYONE, YOU P.O.S.! HE WAS TRYING TO HUNT AND FEED HIS FAMILY! AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE HE WAS TRYING TO [airquotes] MURDER ANYONE [/airquotes], IT'S BECAUSE HE WOULDN'T GO TO MY VOLLEYBALL GAME!" (note he was also a fisherman making a little under 100k a year.) and I say "what's the difference between killing a human and killing an animal? Humans can actually tell you they don't want to die?" and she goes, "Hawkins, you're so stupid. You're always trying to save the animals. They don't care if they die. And neither do I." and I lost my temper, punched her and was suspended for a week. My teacher thought I was on crack for a while. The teachers at my school were MENTAL!
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*

Figment · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject:

Right, and i suppose animals don't feel pain or have families either... i would have had to restrain myself a lot to stop myself from punching her... and i am in no way a violent person...

oh, well i haven't read that book, and that was just the name... not the character.... Razz

uhm, i actually had a principal whos last name was Stapleton... thats where i got that from... and i just thought the "John" kind've fit it...
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Hawkins · Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:22 am Post subject:

I am so totally violent. *tackles guy who looks at me funny* but you ought to read HotB, it's a good book. Very Happy

I have the shortened edition, but it's still good nonetheless. Easier to read, at least.

How's everyone's April Fools going? I made some fake blood with corn syrup, water, and red and blue food coloring (since I have black blood...I don't wanna talk about it...) and dripped it all over my hand and ran around screaming like a maniac. I freaked out EVERYONE! I think...it may have been just because I'm an idiot running around screaming, but they could have actually WORRIED that I was hurt...naw, that's asking too much. xD
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Tyler's on vacation...to CANADA...*sad*