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- Seen Dec 4, 2011
I was doing this kind of "game" to help make up characters. I type about 15-20 words off the top of my head no matter how related or unrelated they are to each other. Then I outline a character using all or nearly all of the words in the list. I have found this helps to pull a character out of nowhere.
Here's one I just did just now:
Gushing
Polarized
Milk
Forgotten
Wayne
Ear
Telephone
Operation
Systematic
Secrets
Lies
Affirmative
Listening
Shock
Venus
Practice
Lemming
A man gushing with polarized thought and the complexion of milk, Wayne has forgotten the simplicity of life and health. He's always got his ear to the telephone and his pen to the paper and operates unnaturally systematically. He is full of secrets and lies, ones he thinks is necessary because of the kind of work he is tied up in. He does have a knack for listening and following instructions, and is a bit of a lemming - if told to jump, he'd jump. Yet he is very valuable to the firm. It takes a major shock in his like to get him to see what he has turned into - stress induced illness that could become life-threatening. After a dream about the planet Venus while still drowsy on meds in the hospital, he enters a mid-life crisis and turns back to the mind of a teenager. He quits his job, he starts doing as he pleases and angers a lot of people in doing so. He loses his house, his car and his wife. He ends up becoming a pokemon trainer, travelling and sleeping rough but free. To him, the whole process is healing and his stress-induced illness disappears. To others, particularly his old boss and work colleagues he's gone mad as a hatter. His old boss finds him on occasion and seems very nice and friendly, even concerned, but the line of work he is involved in is filthy (gossip mags) and it becomes apparent he just wants him back to work. "I've seen this before, you just need help to get better" "That's a lot of talent to put to waste" etc. Wayne doesn't want to go back and when he threatens to expose the company for the lies and slander they have fabricated in their magazines (which they have used to control the minds of the small city they dwell in for their own agenda), he becomes an assassination target.
It seems to have developed slightly into a plot outline also. But I'm working on another story just now, I might not use this until later on. Or I could use it in my story since the story is chapters in series, he could be a sub-character that comes in later, I can see straight away how hecould be integrated in a relevant way to the storyline.
Here's one I just did just now:
Gushing
Polarized
Milk
Forgotten
Wayne
Ear
Telephone
Operation
Systematic
Secrets
Lies
Affirmative
Listening
Shock
Venus
Practice
Lemming
A man gushing with polarized thought and the complexion of milk, Wayne has forgotten the simplicity of life and health. He's always got his ear to the telephone and his pen to the paper and operates unnaturally systematically. He is full of secrets and lies, ones he thinks is necessary because of the kind of work he is tied up in. He does have a knack for listening and following instructions, and is a bit of a lemming - if told to jump, he'd jump. Yet he is very valuable to the firm. It takes a major shock in his like to get him to see what he has turned into - stress induced illness that could become life-threatening. After a dream about the planet Venus while still drowsy on meds in the hospital, he enters a mid-life crisis and turns back to the mind of a teenager. He quits his job, he starts doing as he pleases and angers a lot of people in doing so. He loses his house, his car and his wife. He ends up becoming a pokemon trainer, travelling and sleeping rough but free. To him, the whole process is healing and his stress-induced illness disappears. To others, particularly his old boss and work colleagues he's gone mad as a hatter. His old boss finds him on occasion and seems very nice and friendly, even concerned, but the line of work he is involved in is filthy (gossip mags) and it becomes apparent he just wants him back to work. "I've seen this before, you just need help to get better" "That's a lot of talent to put to waste" etc. Wayne doesn't want to go back and when he threatens to expose the company for the lies and slander they have fabricated in their magazines (which they have used to control the minds of the small city they dwell in for their own agenda), he becomes an assassination target.
It seems to have developed slightly into a plot outline also. But I'm working on another story just now, I might not use this until later on. Or I could use it in my story since the story is chapters in series, he could be a sub-character that comes in later, I can see straight away how hecould be integrated in a relevant way to the storyline.