Character Development Memes are my fave

[awanderingbard]

I've started following referencesforwriters on tumblr, which is a gathering of different resources for writers of all sorts. It's quite a useful blog, I favourite almost everything they post. The other day, someone posted a list of questions that you should know the answers to for your characters. It seemed to have quite good meme potential, and I love me some character development meme. I've removed some questions, as there were many. So,

Give me the name of a character I write or have written, and a number from the list below. I'll answer the question.

1. What is the best thing in your character’s life?
2. What is the worst thing in your character’s life?
3. What seemingly insignificant memories stuck with your character?
4. What is your character reluctant to tell people?
5. How does your character feel about sex?
6. What would your character make a scene in public about?
7. What are your character’s major flaws?
8. What does your character pretend or try to care about?
9. What is your character afraid of?
10. What is something most people in your setting do that your character thinks is dumb?

Feel free to ask for OCs and AU versions of characters. Also feel free to ask for more than one character, or more than one question.

Comments

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I may have to give this one a go later.

Alec, please!

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Yay! Memes for all!

I need a question number from you, or two or three. :-D

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

Oops! For some reason I thought you had to answer them all. :)

4,7,10!

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

4. What is your character reluctant to tell people?

The circumstances of his birth is something he usually waits a little before explaining to anyone, not because he's too terribly ashamed, but because it's sort of complicated with the teenage parents, and the hasty marriage and the divorce, and the flighty mum and the awesome step-mum, and the complicated mess of relationships to siblings. Not only is hard to explain but then he has to deal with all the questions, or assumptions that he's a messed up person or they're a messed up family, when really everyone gets along really well and his family is one of his favourite things, even if it's a bit complicated.

7. What are your character’s major flaws?

Alec is, generally speaking, Prince Charming, which means that he's nice and thoughtful and polite and sweet. It also means he's kind to a fault, lets people walk all over him, gets used a lot, and works himself to the point where he feels overwhelmed by the all the responsibility he's taken on when he didn't need to.

He's also very good at expressing his surface feelings, but anything that genuinely upsets him, he has a very hard time talking about. The most you will get out of him is 'I am very angry' or 'that was a very bad year', and questioning further is pointless, as he will deflect the hell out of it. Josh is the only one who manages to get much out of him in those situations, usually by getting him drunk and insulting him until he gets angry enough to start ranting. He's very reluctant to place any sort of burden of being looked after onto someone else, and feels he should be entirely self-sufficient, and looking after everyone else. He is very hard on himself if he feels he's let someone down, and is quick to assume he's disappointed someone when he doesn't behave or do as he thinks he should, even if they don't think he should. He and Molly spent most of their early relationship apologizing to each other.

He also gets lost easily, has trouble with spacial perception, can't do math past about a Sixth Year level, makes a mess when he cooks, and has a tendency to get very sassy when annoyed, when has got him in trouble on occasion.

10. What is something most people in your setting do that your character thinks is dumb?

Alec is very bored by social media. He does Facebook, because keeping up with the number of people in his family is just easier when you have updates, but Twitter and Tumblr, and Instagram are just stupid, as far as he is concerned. Molly's love of cat gifs is something he's learned to tolerate, but only because he loves her.

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

Aw, I continue to love Alec.

but Twitter and Tumblr, and Instagram are just stupid, as far as he is concerned.

A good reason to perhaps not teach teens and young adults. Whether he likes it or not he'd be inundated with the latest social media craze.

He and Molly spent most of their early relationship apologizing to each other.

I have this image of Sherlock witnessing this and doing both a mental and a physical eye roll.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Aw, I continue to love Alec.

Good, I'm glad. I created him to be just very much Nice Guy Man, without predicting that he would be a permanent fixture, so I've been working at making him a bit more 3D, without losing his Nice Guy Man essence.

A good reason to perhaps not teach teens and young adults. Whether he likes it or not he'd be inundated with the latest social media craze.

He has to deal with it now, a little. He had to ban mobiles in his classroom. Anyone who interrupts class with their phone ringing or receiving a text has to get up and sing a song, if it's not something hugely important (like waiting for the announcement of a new sibling being born, or something). It is a very effective deterrent, though he's had to do it twice himself. Thankfully it's just smart phones he's dealing with, not so much social media. Though his group of genius 7- and 8-year-olds are probably Tweeting about poverty in their spare time.

I have this image of Sherlock witnessing this and doing both a mental and a physical eye roll.

HAHA! And eventually just losing it at their caution with each other.

Sherlock: For the love of God, she wants to have sex with you, you want to have sex with her, go and have sex and stop trying to see if the other one wants to have-- *John sticks a sandwich in his open mouth.* Mmmex!

I've never been able to find a spot for Sherlock to make fun of their age difference, which makes me sad, because he so would.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Ooh, fun! Could I get #4 and 9 for Mycroft, Sherlock, and Trevelyan from the Trio verse? Thank you!!! :)

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Sure thing!

Mycroft

4. What is your character reluctant to tell people?

Generally, Mycroft is reluctant to tell anyone anything. He doesn't like to have conversations. He prefers silence. However, paramount in the things he doesn't like to tell people is how he's feeling. Any inquiry will result in a simple, "I'm well, thank you", no matter how he is actually feeling or who is asking the question. The majority of the time, 'well' is an accurate word, and very rarely does it not describe his emotional state. His physical state, however, is not always 'well', and he's very much inclined to underplay this, even to physicians trying to help him. He can't afford to be sick, and so he simply declares himself not to be ill, and forbids it and feels that should be the end of the matter. Mummy is quick to point out that this is precisely what killed his Father, and, indeed, Mycroft is sometimes worried about that, especially as he nears the age that his father died. However, he attempts to keep himself in fine fettle, eats well, exercises, and had the heart defect he inherited surgically corrected once it was found in his mid-thirties. Therefore, he is fine, and intends to stay that way. And no one else need know if that isn't quite the truth.

9. What is your character afraid of?

Mycroft has no great phobias to speak of, his fears are very rational ones. They largely revolve around his family, and his greatest fear would be to lose a brother, especially due to his overlooking something he should have noticed, or something he could have prevented if he'd been a bit better. Sherlock is his main concern, but Trevelyan is certainly not ignored. He can count on Trevelyan not to purposely put himself in danger, but he is in a profession where many people would like to see him dead, and Mycroft has a great fear that Trevelyan is largely unaware of that. Sherlock is a constant worry, and Mycroft does it like one checks the rearview mirror--instinctively and often. To a less extent, he fears losing his mother, though he realizes that will happen one day and there is nothing he can do about it. He fears that he will miss her too much, and he isn't sure how he'll deal with that--or help his brothers deal with it.

Sherlock

4. What is your character reluctant to tell people?

There is literally almost nothing Sherlock is reluctant to say to anyone about anything. He has no qualms voicing his thoughts, whether there is someone there to hear them, or whether they are polite or wanted or appropriate. However, he is extremely reluctant to voice any sort of affection toward anyone, regardless of what he feels for them. Even his 'I love you's to his mother are rare, and he has never said it in so many words to either of his brothers, nor did he ever say it to his father (something other people might regret, but Sherlock doesn't, just that he didn't have more time with him to make it clear without having to say it). John is possibly the only person besides Mummy who has ever had it directly said to them.

9. What is your character afraid of?

There are two great fears that Sherlock has: losing his ability to reason in some way--either due to illness or dementia or a head injury--, and failing to solve a problem when it really counts. Failure is something he isn't very accepting of in everyday instances, and his boggart from Harry Potter would probably be a pile of cold cases. But what he really fears, what really makes him panic, is being faced with a life or death situation and making the wrong choice.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Trevelyan

4. What is your character reluctant to tell people?

In his profession, Q is forbidden from telling most everything, so it's not so much reluctance that stops him. Even when he dates, he makes it quite clear from the beginning that everything he says is going to be a lie, and if he or she isn't cool with that, then he doesn't pursue it.

However, what he finds very hard to tell people is that he needs help. He hates needing help. It's not so much failure that he dislikes, failure is just a way to learn what not to do. But implying in any way that he is incapable of dealing with a problem by himself is extremely hard for him to do. It stems very much from his father's death, and not wanting to bother anyone with anything, and only cemented itself when Sherlock went off the rails, and he felt that adding to his family's problems was just selfish, so it was best to deal with it by himself. In most cases, he does very well at this, but there are times when one or more brothers has to step in. He doesn't mind Sherlock so much, but he always feels bad bothering Mycroft with anything. Mycroft being disappointed in him is something he hates.

9. What is your character afraid of?

Flying is Q's big phobia. He dislikes giving up control to someone who he doesn't know and trusting them to hurl a metal tube from one place to another without incident, while he sits in the back, fully aware of the multitude of ways it is possible for someone to kill them all. He does not consider this a phobia, as phobias are irrational, and dying in a plane crash is not an irrational fear.

Also, unlike his brothers, Q is aware that he doesn't care as much as other people, and sometimes fears that he's missing out on something by not feeling things to the same depth. Falling in love isn't something he cares about either way, as he's quite happy with or without companionship ,but he does sometimes worry that he can't fall in love, which is a concept he finds a bit off-putting. And one the rare occasions he has thought about children, he's a little bit terrified that if he should end up with some, he wouldn't know how to love them.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so interesting! I especially feel for poor Q, worrying that he can't fall in love or wouldn't love his children. And I love Mycroft worrying over his brothers. So sweet. I'm glad he had his genetic heart condition worked on.

Thanks very much!