It's given me insight on his voice!　Lawrence is a much harder character for me because he has a lot of defenses and yet tries to stay pleasant regardless of his own feelings. He's stubborn and just... oddly enough, to try to be convincing with his voice is a lot harder than I could imagine. I've always felt a weakness playing boy characters, and he pretty much strictly identifies himself as a young gentleman. I have to take into account the world he's from and his social expectations, which is generally a huge part of his character. He struggles often with the social ladder of his society since he's just a poor farm boy going to a rich school in the city due to a scholarship he won for his school writings.
On that note, he's actually the third OC of this story I've tried to roleplay. So far, (on livejournal) I attempted Nirinel and Edel and on DW I have Samantha and Lawrence (the main characters). Edel's actually been my longest running character so far. If Lawrence is difficult with his charisma and defenses, then Edel is even more so due to his social fears and background.
For me, my main goal is to differentiate their speech patterns and their expectations and goals of life. I want their personalities to really be grounded and noticeable. Edel's a more subtle, lonely sort of character and that's not something I ever really roleplayed. It's a little harder to roleplay an original character that fears talking to other people when talking to other characters as an OC can sometimes prove itself to be a challenge. Luckily one of my friends also played at the game I played Edel and that helped a lot. (It was Splendorocity if you're wondering.)
TL;DR roleplaying has helped me figure out the voices of my characters better. Boys in particular are really... new to me, mostly because (until recently) I've never thought about the differences in their speech patterns and mannerism based on the culture they were raised. With girls, I love to understand that sort of stuff- it's really run! But boys have always been a mystery to me, whether they were more towards the masculine or more towards the gender-neutral.
In the end, it's all about making them feel alive and likable. Even if they're antagonists or grey-characters, I hope I can make them likable in the long run for their story.
Ho ho! Answers await!
On that note, he's actually the third OC of this story I've tried to roleplay. So far, (on livejournal) I attempted Nirinel and Edel and on DW I have Samantha and Lawrence (the main characters). Edel's actually been my longest running character so far. If Lawrence is difficult with his charisma and defenses, then Edel is even more so due to his social fears and background.
For me, my main goal is to differentiate their speech patterns and their expectations and goals of life. I want their personalities to really be grounded and noticeable. Edel's a more subtle, lonely sort of character and that's not something I ever really roleplayed. It's a little harder to roleplay an original character that fears talking to other people when talking to other characters as an OC can sometimes prove itself to be a challenge. Luckily one of my friends also played at the game I played Edel and that helped a lot. (It was Splendorocity if you're wondering.)
TL;DR roleplaying has helped me figure out the voices of my characters better. Boys in particular are really... new to me, mostly because (until recently) I've never thought about the differences in their speech patterns and mannerism based on the culture they were raised. With girls, I love to understand that sort of stuff- it's really run! But boys have always been a mystery to me, whether they were more towards the masculine or more towards the gender-neutral.
In the end, it's all about making them feel alive and likable. Even if they're antagonists or grey-characters, I hope I can make them likable in the long run for their story.