Survey: Hardest Character to write?
POSTED BY: Arcadia
UPDATED: Saturday, January 13, 2007 16:21
VIEWED: 20439
PAGE 4 of 6
I find the hardest time with Jayne. I have to remind my self at times that he's not illiterate and does know some words with more than two syllables, and making sure he's not just the dumb ox that can barely string a sentence together. He can be quite coherent and even provide a nice turn of phrase once in a while.
Kaylee speaks mostly like us (by "us" I mean the folks posting here), but usually messes up tenses ("knowed") and subject/verb agreement ("weren't" instead of "wasn't", for example). The suck part is that she doesn't do it all the time, so you gotta watch out that it's not too thick (I blow this on a regular basis).
Mal's easy for me, since I actually talk a lot like him is real life. Oddly, I think internally with sentences more like Simon (my mom was an English teacher, it happens), so I get them both chattering away quite easily.
And Wash is just easy. Make everything sarcastic and you got it!
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hippie:
Well, i'm having a hard ass time writing River. I'm doing a River centric fic exploring her fragmented mind and i'v seem to run dry on getting her to sound right.
Anyone have any tips for her..?
There's lots of good analysis of River in this thread: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=12&t=23843
Personally, I always try to keep in mind that there is always internal logic to what River does, even if it isn't logical to everyone else. So make sure her actions make sense... somehow. Also, I try to keep in mind that she's just a kid. Its really easy to forget that River is only seventeen, and in some ways younger because her life was robbed of her at fourteen when she went to the academy. All the stuff people go through in high school, it hasn't happened to her yet. She longs for it in some ways. She can feel other people's lives, but there is a lot she hasn't experienced first hand. She's growing.
Arcadia (aka Greyfable and/or Katie)
www.stillflying.net -- picking up Firefly were Joss left off. We will hold 'til he gets back.
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Hmmm... hardest character. I think I'd rather go through the list and point out what's easy and what's hard with each character.
My favourite character to write is Kaylee, I agree with the dialect error many do. I hope I don't do it overly much, but I think I'm one of those who overdo it, even if it's just slightly. You people have to be the judge of that, really, cause as a writer I can either be too strict or too careless with this.
As I mainly write Simon/Kaylee, I think I got an okay handle on Simon. I don't think I do too much error in his speech, although I haven't tried giving him much medical jargon in my stories as I don't know that much... lol
I don't think I do overly many errors in Inara's speech pattern, but I might do some. Characterwise I feel that I portray her okay (again, that's for you to decide). I feel her to be gentle, but also stubborn and she has a temperament when it comes to Mal. I don't find portraying Inara as difficult, but writing Mal/Inara is a lot more tricky for me than writing Simon/Kaylee.
Mal I feel I've gotten down, at least to an okay extent, I don't think I differantiate much between his speech pattern and Kaylee's as I feel they talk a like a lot. Character like I don't think I make him too soft or harsh. If I make him harsh in one part of the fic, I have another part where he either is forced to apologise or in some other way make up for at least part of what he did.
River is very difficult to write. A lot of things she says are things others don't understand, reading her surroundings, the things she says are things not everybody understands. I sometimes find myself looking up definition of things, as she's a genious and sometimes she says the textbook definition of things. Other times I give her just short sentences since, as someone else here pointed out, she's minimalistic. It's a tricky balance to make her perfectly understandable and then have her do something that seems crazy for the people around her.
Wash, although I don't write him that often, is kinda fun to write. I won't call him easy to write and I generally use him little in my fics. Mostly I include him briefly, but I don't think Wash is the hardest character to write.
Zoe isn't a character I write much either. I think the few times I've used her that I've done okay.
Jayne is another character I don't include overly much. I love torturing him when I do, though... lol... If I have the character down or not, well I really don't know. I just do my best when I have to include him.
Book is definately the character I write the least. I can't remember if I've ever given him a line in any of my stories or not. He's been included a little, but mostly in narration.
...so hardest character. I think I have to go with River, because she's a different kind of complex than the rest. You have to write her do something that *looks* completely insane, but also be in her head and know *why* she does it (because there is logic behind most of it, just the logic of a broken, disturbed girl). You have to master the simplistic speach as well as have access to more advanced things as you have to consider her being a genious when you write her. River is definately the toughest character for me to write, but when writing Simon/Kaylee it comes with the territory... lol
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"Joss, if you kill him now I'll stuff a compression coil up your ass sideways!"
~ Kaylee, "Serenity in 2000 words or less"
Kaylee's the perfect woman!
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I actually think Wash is easier to write for. I'm usually pretty funny most of the time, and I understand his logic as well.
The hardest to write for is Inara. I have to think of her as very, very well-educated in the British language, speaks well, and has a british accent before I can even attempt to write her lines.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Washpilot:
The hardest to write for is Inara. I have to think of her as very, very well-educated in the British language, speaks well, and has a british accent before I can even attempt to write her lines.
Inara has a British accent????
I tend to picture her in a Jane Austin novel, but sans accent!
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I'm the president. I don't need to listen.
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I think they all be difficult at times, but Mal was the hardest for me. I still have problems and give him a bit too much Jayne in his speach pattern.
Most of my writing has been posts BDM. The few times I've written Wash, he has been talking in Zoe's head, so if he isn't quite himself that is okay.
I had never written Zoe before Wash died, but have found her interesting to write as she works things through.
River, is anyones guess, but I'm sure I write as older than she is, though her experiences make her that way.
See I'm going in circles...they all have their difficult times.
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To be honest, I find them all challenging to write for 'cos at the the end of the day, they aren't my characters. Joss Whedon did a masterful job of giving the viewer a partial insight into these character's psyche so ultimately, we don't know everything about them. So, I have to really think real hard whilst writing dialogue to make sure I keep a level of realism.
Also, Whedon created relationships between his characters, so that has to be taken account when I write for a character. Like Simon would speak in a certain manner round Jayne and another round Kaylee...I suppose that's a testament to Joss's ability to create these realistic three-dimensional characters more then anything. Or it could be that I'm crap of course. 
But, in answer to the question, I always find Inara hard to write for, especially in her interaction with Mal. It's very difficult to keep that artful sarcasm that she uses constant, sometimes I'll be too subtle, other times she comes across as scornful.
EDIT: The above was a poorly-concealed attempt to explain away my lack of fanfiction after promising so much. Worth a go, eh? 
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~Do YOU know what the chain of command is?~
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Something to keep in mind with accents is the changing accent.
When a person moves from one dialect area to another, either through physical moving or education, they will start to adapt to the accent around them. It will vary from person to person, some will completely adapt and sound like a native, most will partially adapt, over time sound like a native to non-natives, but not native to natives of that dialect. On the other end some will adapt very little due to the strength of their original native dialect.
Another thing about changing dialects, most people often revert to their native one to a degree when talking to someone from their native area, or when tired or under stress. Someone who is very conscious of their dialect being out of place will make great efforts to blend in to the current area dialect.
I went through this transformation twice, being born in New York State to Southern raised parents, then moving to their home region at 5 years old. People from the north said I had a southern accent, southerners told me I had a northern accent. When I left home and lived in the west (Colorado) I was very conscious of my accent and pretty much dropped it all together, to where people can not place where I am from when I speak. When I visit with my family back in the south, then a little of the southern accent creeps back in, but soon disappears when I go back home.
So when dealing with character accents, consider these things. Where are they from and how strong was their regional accent? Where are the currently and how much have they adapted? How long have they been away from their native region? Who are they currently speaking to that may affect their speech patterns? At what age(s) did the person change regions? Did the person attend some sort of educational facility which has its own recognizable accent? How does being under stress or tired affect the person's adopted accent?
Of course, if the person never leaves their home region for any significant amount of time, then they would keep their native regional accent at all times.
Hera7
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River is easy and hard to write. River as in her character is so distinct that it's easy to write situations for her. But it's her way of talking, or as I like to call it, "River-speak", that's hard to do, because I can't come up with disjointed sentences and dialogue, so with my first story, I kept her to a minimum, and I used the guitar that was introduced in Blue Hand Blues as a way to have her speak normally, so that I don't have to spend hours coming up with River-speak. And I'm sure that if the show lasted years, that Joss himself would have gotten tired of "River-speak" and find a way for her to talk normally.
Book is slightly tough, in my opinion, since for the majority of the time in my stories, he's usually just a bystander observing things and has no direct impact. The only time I think where he has a direct influence is at the end of the second SHOTGUN TAM story where he gives forgiveness to Simon, which I relaize might be slightly anachronistic since it's a Catholic act, and the main religion in Firefly is Buddhism.
But the other characters, oddly enough, seem to come easily to me. Simon's my fave character to write, since I'm basically writing myself.
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"I have no reason to believe you and every reason not to."
"Why's that?"
"You work in television."
STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP
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i don't have much of a hard time with River, i find you just have to abandon the societal need for small talk and let her ask the direct, tough questions. you just gotta remember to pepper that with simple observations, and smart-assed teeneage girl combacks here and there.
Kaylee, on the other hand, is thr toughest for me........it owuld be soooooo easy to let her become a mary-sue, the girl doesn't seem to have a speck of darkness withing her......
Simon: "Were there any Feds?"
mal: "No, no Feds, just an honest brawl between folk."
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