Difficulty in writing certain characters ...

[BattleRanger]

I know that as I have wrote in the MMPR universe, I have had a hard time relating to certain characters and therefore, appropriately writing them.

For example- when writing a character like Zack, I don't really know how disillusioned to make him. I know he was reluctant to become a Ranger, but I don't really know how to be true to him as a character.

Not only is hard to write Zack's dialogue (to stay contemporary), but I have a bit of uncertainty in writing a teenage African-American character who I don't feel I can relate to much. There are some issues that can affect us all, but I don't know how to tackle Zack without writing him into a stereotype.

The same goes for Kimberly, Trini, and Billy. Kimberly could be a stereotypical mallrat, but she has dreams and aspirations of competing in the Olympics, Trini is very spiritual person, but I don't want to make her a Zen master ... Billy meanwhile is the quintessential nerd, but he has courage and maturity that allows him really lead when the Rangers as reverted back to children.

For me, I usually pour alot of myself into these characters and base the others off people I know ... but in doing so, I've taken a level-headed individual like Jason and made him a bit hot headed, like myself.

The redeeming thing there is, now that I have realized this dilemma, I can write the growth of Jason from this 'hot head' into the cool and collected individual he was in the show.

How do you, as a writer, connect to your characters? How much thought goes into it?

[yami senshi youkaiou]

I'll admit I have problems trying to figure out how I want to do certain characters in my stories.

For instance the main villain in my story is commercial/public service announcement for a big corporation in human form but has all these personalities where one is a demon overlord, one is an evil alien emperor, another is an evil cyber intelligence like Venjix, another is bio engineered mutant made from various animals, etc.

And I try figure out how that must be like. Maybe when he's a normal human he's actually a pretty nice guy like the last person you would think would be a mutant cyborg space demon, that guy you see in a lot of cartoons who's the sniveling lackey to the evil CEO, Les Fortunes from Beetle Borgs Metallix, etc.

And for that matter how are his various monster sides, is his demon side a demon from any particular culture/religion? is his mutant side feral, is his robot side all intellectual, and logical, and what about his alien side.

For that matter what does it look like to his minions? does he look like a mix of demon, alien, robot, and mutant, or does he turn into a different form when he's a particular personality, does one of his personalities try to mediate argument between the others, does he have some special power were he can cloud the minds of his minions, and make them see his various personalities as separate creatures.

And how is it for him? does he know he's all these different creatures, or does he believe his a normal person, and his monster sides try to use that as leverage or vice versa? Does he have days where he wishes something bad would happen to someone, and then the next day he finds out he actually did that as one of his monster personalities? Does he have weird existentialist moments where he wonders if is a real human anymore or if he's just the monsters using his body as an air suit to survive on Earth, etc.

[Crimson Dragon]

When I started writing my fic, I based some of the characters on people I knew, and others with the stereotypes (valley-girl, smart tech guy, jock).

I initially put myself in the role of the leader, but then shifted the character to only include some of my own traits and others of former rangers. I did the same with the others, but mixed and matched different characteristics.

For villains, I started off with the unoriginal evil alien with the motive of destroying Earth, then transitioned to the warped human with past problems. Next I'll probably have a somewhat sympathetic character thats turned to darkness by others.

To me, the easiest way to write characters is to pick the main stereotypes, then add motivations that make them more comples. EX: Arrogant jock that feels forced to succed by family.

[p!nklondon]

work with opposites... If you have a token "whatever" work against type... round the character with attributes that anyone can relate to. People watching is the best way to get a plethora of ideas for character development.

[TheOneRJS200]

Just because he's a teenage black kid doesn't mean you can't relate to him. I've never written Zack before, but if I had to, I'd just make him a fun loving kid, in love with life. He's never hesitant to be smooth with the girls, or make his friends laugh. I always figured Zack as the practical joker of the team.

[Beckoner]

Writing is something that comes naturally to me. When I get an idea to a character, he's more or less fully formed in my head, and I continue to add more to him/her as I go on. I think about their life, where they've lived, their personalities. I take everything into account, run it through my "internal simulator" so to speak, and I then write based on that.


All my characters are original. I don't like to "borrow" the characters from the MMPR continuity in that they aren't mine. The characters from the series have motivations and personalities, but they aren't terribly developed. They're very limited and 2 dimensional in my view. I like to build my characters from the ground up and develop them instead of being held by someone else's vision. For example, in the second season of my World Bender fic, I had a character who came from a very bad and abusive background, and he ended up putting up a certain exterior that irritated the hell out of the other Rangers.

That's something I couldn't write into say, Zack.

[Deka_Break]

I agree with all that's been posted here! I think since PR is a "kid's show," and the first generation of viewers has grown up, the characters deserve that respect as well. Making characters relatable to real life is what draws viewers/readers in. The ability to connect with the characters on a level, say perhaps a substance abuse problem, shows that the character is more than a pretty face with a morpher. A strong combination of sci-fi/thrill/history and good character can make-up for ANYTHING. Look at shows like Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, etc. Or writing like comic books (X-Men, Spiderman, Superman...), or authors like Matthew Rielly, Dan Brown, and others.

[BattleRanger]

For example, in the second season of my World Bender fic, I had a character who came from a very bad and abusive background, and he ended up putting up a certain exterior that irritated the hell out of the other Rangers.

That's something I couldn't write into say, Zack.

The thing is, if you're writing outside of canon, then you could. You can do what you want with the characters if you're rebooting or rewriting. I don't understand boxing one's self into continuity ... you can pay respect to it, but there's just so much you can do if you look at it as if its yours.

[Beckoner]

The thing is, if you're writing outside of canon, then you could. You can do what you want with the characters if you're rebooting or rewriting. I don't understand boxing one's self into continuity ... you can pay respect to it, but there's just so much you can do if you look at it as if its yours.

If you're going to make canon characters OOC and rebuild them, why not just write your own? It kind of defeats the purpose methinks.