Characters

I've been at it again.  Creating characters.  Animalburg is by far the most character-heavy story with a total approaching 300, (Twiggy and the Jackalopes, in contrast, has 20 at most.)  And yes I keep a spreadsheet to ensure I don't accidentally make two characters with the same name (though intentionally having two with the same name has happened.)

To be fair, Animalburg does take place in a large city.  Some characters will probably occur for one episode, others will be re-occurring, and some will only be referenced or alluded to but never appear on-screen (in the main story anyway).  It's still useful to catalogue their existence for consistency.

I usually create characters for a couple of situations:

• "What if a character could do ___ ?"
• Ex: Marvin, Toby, Blade
• "If I had a character like (insert other author/creator's character), I would do ___ differently because ___."
• Ex: Lupe, Click
• "What would (real-world friend or pet) look like as an Animalburg character?"
• Ex: Beth, Nightfall
• "Given the plot of the story/rules of the world, ___ has to exist.  Who are they and what do they look like?"
• Ex: Most parent characters & families, most of the Ninja characters, and Fleet the Super Gerbil

From my experience, all of these paths are equally valid reasons for creating a character (though I'll add a disclaimer to the third that working friends into your story may ruin the dialogue and tick off your friends.)  The important part is that with every character you sit down at some point and figure out their strengths, weaknesses, and backstory.

My new character, Angela, springs from reason #4.  She's notable for being my first character with a tattoo (not something I get to draw much because of the fur-factor).  She appears in the story when the time-stream gets messed up, and she replaces another ninja character.  Everything gets set back to normal thanks to Snow (see crazy ninja from previous entry), but Angela will probably pop up a few more times (I hate to burn bridges, especially with fun characters).

Twister has a crush on Angela in both time-lines; the feeling's NOT mutual.

 Also spawning from a mix of "what if" and "has to happen sometime" is Cicada, the apprentice of Beth and her future teammate Long Jump.  I'm still in the process of creating Cicada's appearance.  I was thinking some sort of long-tailed rodent with hair long enough to braid.  The following exchange occurs during "The Invasion Arc".

Grammar & timeline context.  Always important.

Earworm of the Day:  Inspector Gadget theme song.  Or, if you want 20% cooler, Greg Pattillo's beat-boxing flute rendition