Who are they? - #MFRW 52-Week Blog Challenge

This week's writing prompt for the #MFRW 52-Week Blog Challenge concerns setting up character profiles.

This really doesn't apply to me, because I don't.

Yeah, I'm one of those messy writers, a "pantser." Characters pop into my head, fully fledged and raring to go. Even when provided detailed character descriptions from ghostwriting clients, I begin to hear those characters' voices in my brain and sense their personalities.

For instance, one of the characters in an unfinished ghostwriting project is a former aristocrat to whom very bad things happen before the story takes place. Those bad things change her personality from polite, articulate, demure to foul-mouthed, blunt warrior. It made her seem less "milquetoast" and stronger, if brittle.

Most of the characters--at least the protagonists--in my own work imbue some part of my own personality, although I venture to say none of them mimics me in whole or even in large part. They are more resourceful than I, more powerful, more assured. In other words, I take parts of me and improve upon them for my characters.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the villains in my stories imbue the nastier characteristics of people I dislike. As with the protagonists, I amplify those characteristics that make the villains even more--dare I say it--villainous.

I think one reason I don't create detailed character descriptions is because I feel that such descriptions disallow for character development and growth. The characters are locked into those traits. But maybe I'm over-analyzing my tendency to take the plunge in bringing characters to life.

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