In embers, which characters are the easiest to write and which are the hardest? :0
oh!! a question! hehe, i love questions! let's see...
Easiest:
Characters with straightforward motivations and personalities, like Leonnius, Ptolemy, and Gorgo. Not to say they aren't complex, they just don't have POVs (yet) and their outer thoughts and inner thoughts, for the most part, are very similar.
Sincere characters with uncomplicated motivations like Polyxia and Glykeria. I especially want to get Polyxia rounded out more because she actually has a lot more quirks and hobbies, she's just suppressed them for a long time.
Characters who have a good grasp on their projected personas and aren't common POVs, like Aventurine. It also helps that I've written a couple fics about him before so I'm familiar with his tics.
Child characters like the servant children tend to have very straightforward motivations as well, especially if they are strictly loyal to a certain party or character. Not all of them are/will be like this, as not all children are honest about what they want.
Hardest:
Our two mains, Phainon and Mydei lmao. They both have very layered personalities and motivations that are explored deeply over the course of the narrative.
Mydeimos' POV was not featured for the majority of the first part as well, and he's very good at hiding his inner thoughts. I had to make sure I could capture both his controlled nature as well as the different parts of himself that he reveals to different people. He's more childish around his friends and mother, and even then, different friends can bring out different parts of him. He's most comfortable with Hephaestion, likes to tease Ptolemy, dotes on Peucesta, ect. It's just that these instances can be so subtle that they can happen in like two sentences before he moves onto something else.
For Phainon, he's got more layers than a mille-feuille, and there's a lot about him that I'm not revealing at the moment. I had to explore many parts of his personality without giving everything away, as well as control when and why he would express certain emotions when he tries so hard to keep others from seeing them. I'm actually glad to have more Mydei and Other POVs now because we get to have a closer look at how he comes off to people who can't read his every thought. He's extremely guarded, even towards Mydei, something that will be explored more soon.
Characters who are quiet or otherwise hide their feelings well and also have complex personalities, like Peucesta and Perdikkas. Peucesta will be explored more in this season, but Perdikkas has a very mature, nonchalant personality that hides a lot of his true emotions. He also frequently lies to himself, while also wanting to be in control.
Eurypon also fits in this category and is definitely one of the harder characters to write. He's a very complicated character but also very rarely expresses what he's truly feeling. Mydeimos can read him somewhat accurately, but even he has trouble figuring him out most of the time unless he gets a visible reaction. He's numbed out a lot of his emotions, and he used to have a LOT of emotions.
Some bystander NPCs can be tricky because I try to write them as very neutral. They can say something abhorrent one moment but completely sensible the next. It's a mix of mob mentality, individual motivations, and core morality.
Characters who do not appear onscreen but I am always thinking about because they will appear in the future, and I have to consider what they're doing during the events I am currently writing.
Any character intentionally ambiguous motivations.