Characters and stories loosely based on other sources, anyone use this?
Question by Checkers- the -Wolf: Characters and stories loosely based on other sources, anyone use this?
I’ve been writing for almost 10 years now, over the years I’ve got inspiration for my stories and characters from other sources such as Disney animation for example and some of my work is loosely based on movies, tv shows, etc… I loved as a kid and am a fan of. Over time as my writing has improved and changed so have my characters and their back stories. But when thinking of characters I try to make them as original as possible but I also look at other sources for ideas. Here’s some examples:
Gwendolyn (or Wendell for short) the dalmatian- my very first original character, who dates back to 1997. She was originally a fan character, to be more specific she was one of the 99 puppies in 101 dalmatians: the series (the cartoon based off the live action remake). Some aspects of her personality and character is based on myself and that of my late Beagle mix. She’s basically a friendly, intelligent and mild tempered dog. In short if she was real she’d be the type where if a person wanted to sit back and watch tv or go for a walk on the beach, like most dogs she can learn to adapt to a certain life style or routine.
Lena the collie- Lena is one of my rough coated collie characters though she’s three years old I got the idea for her back in 2001(making her about 9 years old). She’s actually my very first sci-fi based original character. Lena is a descendant of one of several dogs who survived a project launched by N.A.S.A. in the 1980s. The project involved launching shuttles containing animals such as dogs and cats to Venus and Mars and see how they adapted to life in space. When the project failed, the animals were stranded on said planets and eventually became feral. Lena is the alpha female of a pack feral dogs on Venus and mother of two pups. Originally, personality wise she was rather aggressive, dominant, and ‘ruled with an iron fist’ so to speak. Later on I made some changes and softened up Lena, now she’s more gentle yet protective, like some real collies. One thing I noticed on the 2009 remake of V, Anna the leader of the Vs puts up a front, in public she has a gentle side but when not around the general public she’s as cold as ice. Anyway I thought, ‘Geez, that sounds almost like the old version of my character, Lena.’ but the two characters are as different as night day.
Rollo the white tiger- Rollo is a white bengal tiger who performs in a circus, he started training at the age of six months and now at 2 years old he’s gone from a small time performer to being one several circus stars. Though he is a good natured cat, there are times where he tries to show off in front of his co-stars and often times he winds up only drawing attention to himself. Rollo was inspired by Lamont’s friend Rollo on Sanford and Son and Mike Epps.
I write my characters and stories with certain celebrities in mind as well as movies and TV shows I watched growing up.
Anyone else use other sources for characters and stories or base them off something else?
Best answer:
Answer by SpiritSk8
I do all the time. I read Japanese manga often, because I find that the characters are very vivid. However, using this resource makes character creation more interesting, because since they’re drawn, the artist doesn’t need to describe how they look, or how they act, because it’s shown in the pictures. Making an anime character in a book character is challenging enough that it’s fun, but you can still get lots of inspiration. Sometimes I base settings off of paintings that I see, or places I visit. There’s lots of different places I like to get inspiration for my writing.
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