Some friends and I have been asking random questions regarding OCs. That got me thinking. Lots of OC question lists that I’ve seen have been about the OCs as people (their life, interests, habits). I want to ask meta questions about them as fictional characters.
These questions focus on the motifs and symbolic associations of a character in a narrative sense. This is more character analysis than character interaction.
What is the main color associated with them? What connections with that color do they share?
Drawing from the language of flowers, what flower would symbolize them?
What real life animal would they be represented by?
What mythical creature would they be represented by?
Which body part are they associated with? (Example: hands/arms symbolize strength.)
Which of the four seasons best fits them?
What time of day are they associated with?
Which of the seven heavenly virtues are they associated with? Do they embody that virtue or are they trying to learn it?
Which of the seven deadly sins are they associated with? Is it a negative trait of theirs or something they actively struggle with?
Are they closer to life or death?
Land, sea, or sky? Of the realms of the world, which one does the character belong to?
Are they the sun, moon, stars or something else in space (black hole, meteor shower, etc)?
Instead of your standard four elements, consider what kind of metal represents your character. (Look here for some ideas.)
Regardless of whether or not they wield any, what kind of weapon do you associate them with?
Pick an article of clothing to represent them. What does it mean?
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and anything between. What kind of dish are they?
What instrument would be used in their leitmotif (essentially their character song in this context)?
Which card would they be from the major arcana of tarot cards? (If you’re more well read in tarot, you could also do minor arcana.)
Which of the four temperaments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic) are they?
What word/phrase is central to their character? (It can be something they say or something that summarizes them meta-textually.)
This isn’t a complete list of all possible thematic/symbolic questions that could be asked. Not all these questions could apply to a character. It doesn’t matter if you associate certain things with one symbol and someone else has other ideas.
These are just some questions to get people thinking.
