Amateur's Guide To Making Original Characters, I guess

The Theme

Hi ho, everyone! Assuming you've been giving my book half a chance, I hope I've been helpful so far. If you just discovered this little book and are just browsing through it, then welcome aboard. ^^

So, themes. Anesthetic, the main idea, the underlying meaning, or point.

What's theme got to do with making a character or two?

Well, a lot, as it turns out.

A theme is a subject or topic of a piece. It's a recurring set of notes. In regards to art and literature specifically, a theme is the recurring or pervasive idea of said art or literature. It's a thing that is brought up time and time again and can help define the art or literature's deeper meaning or entire being.

The themes in the music are the repeat of notes in the sounds. In books and games, it's the overarching message of the work. In a character specifically, it's part of what makes them up in their given traits and/or in the meta of their creation.

Not every character ever made has a theme- or at least not an obvious one- but when they do have a theme, it usually does give you a better understanding of the character or, if nothing else, is just another trivial part of them that makes them unique to other characters.

When talking about characters' themes individually, they may have their themes fairly obvious or partially hidden. Take my character Ahriman from the last chapter of this book. He is the Plague Deity, so he has this plague theme about him. His mask is a plague doctor's mask, his attire draws from an older time of fashion and has a deary look about it, the little bird token hanging from his jacket is similar to the bird token Eileen of Bloodborne fame gives you, the game Ahriman takes some inspiration from has plague and disease abound- H*ll, even Ahriman's name is taken from the name of the player's character in the game Prince of Persia, which also has a plague power about it. Even some of Ahriman's personality traits and quirks derive from the effects of a sickly mind, such as his lack of being able to recall things even when they're obvious or his tendency not to eat very much.

Another, perhaps less interesting, example of this is in a character I've mentioned in two other chapters so far; Caroline. If I were to say if she had a theme to her, then I'd likely just say she has an uncanny, perhaps frightfully innocent aura to her. She's stitched together with bits of metal and burlap, and her smile seems to go for miles, but other than that she doesn't really have much to her. By theme alone, she's just a life-sized, albeit somewhat unsettling, living doll of a sort.

Yes, there is usually left to the story itself rather than the characters, and that's perfectly fine. But sometimes characters themselves have to carry the theme with them or have a slight theme to them to help them pop out more or to unite them as a group better. This is why sometimes whole groups of characters will share a common theme among them, especially if they're from the same body of work (game, book, cartoon, etc). I do this myself plenty of times.

As you might have guessed, some of my characters like Ahriman, Nagini, and Orichal are living deities and nymphs, but that's not what quite unites the large cast of characters they're associated with. See, what they all share is some kind of connection to a game I've played or like. I only started doing this since I came up with Ahriman, so Orichal and Nagini don't have very many references to a game like Ahriman, and nearly any character I've made for that world does. But even then it's still there. The idea to give Orichal chain blade weapons comes from the game Dauntless where one of the 8 weapons you could pick is the chain blades. And a lot of Nagini's outfit is based on actual clothes or decals you can access in the game Fer.al. Many other characters have more obvious or more influential references to games, such as Ahriman's aforementioned Bloodborne connection.

I have two other examples of character groups with a common theme, but this is the very first time I've ever mentioned either of them publicly outside of telling friends about them. One is from something I call "Our Monstrously Human World" and the other I call "A Plaza of Peculiar Faces". I don't have any pictures of any characters or anything to show ya'll of these things- not on my devices anyway- but I'd still like to use them as examples here. Our Monstrously Human World has an underlying and not immediately obvious theme amongst the characters in that nearly all of them have some kind of gender or sexuality, like one of them being omnisexual and another being genderfluid, and they're all pretty much okay with it. And in A Plaza of Peculiar Faces, the characters all share a somewhat obvious theme of them all having different art styles or are different types of OC, such as one having a Hazbin Hotel look while another looks like they're straight from a Sonic comic.

My point is that the theme doesn't always have to stick to just one character. If you're making a whole group of characters, they can all have a shared theme. They can all be similar animals, they can have similar inspirations, they can all represent different elements- really anything can be the theme for the character or characters.

Just be careful not to overdo it in terms of the big picture. If you give every single thing in the story the same theme, it could get too repetitive and bland. Sure, it would make sense, but today people tend to want something that makes it different from the expected. That's not to say you can't do that. You can give everything similar themes if you think you can do that without making it too expected or too bland. I'm not trying to discourage you from doing it in a certain way. I'm just stating my random opinion and putting things out there. You don't have to listen to absolutely everything I tell you.

And that's totally fine. I don't listen to absolutely every bit of "advice" I hear. And that's certainly hasn't slowed me down *yet*. I like to hear different opinions on a subject, and choose which I think might work for me. And when making characters, things like themes just sort of fill in the spaces for me.

So in other words, you don't have to give your character(s) themes, especially when they already have aspects of their inspiration, personality, appearance, and other traits that make them figured out. Giving them the theme is something particularly special to give a character so long as you appreciate it for what it is even if other people don't.

Mm, this chapter seems shorter than the others, and that's in terms of word count AND lack of pictures like the others. Eh, something to give ya'll a break with I guess. Remember, you're more than welcome to ask me any questions you have regarding anything I talk about here (including my characters if you want to, I don't mind). Maybe suggest things I could talk about for the next chapter of this book if you feel like it should be brought up.

Next time, I'm probably gonna go over character personality or appearance, but until then, hope you enjoyed it! 🐉