Adding Depth to Canon Characters
( because sometimes it’s harder than adding depth to OCs )
i know, i know; everyone and their grandma harps on motive, but one of THE staples of a deep character is a complex motive. villains don’t do bad things for teh evulz. heroes don’t fight because they just feel like it. morality isn’t cut-and-dry, and so neither are motives. maybe the villain doesn’t believe in what they’re doing. maybe the hero simply feels obliged to. understand the surface of your character’s motives, and then dive deeper.
what reasons does your muse have for holding the beliefs they do? what are they fighting for? who are they fighting for? do they want to? do they feel beholden? maybe they just don’t have any other direction in their life. what happened to them to get them to this point? where do their values, morals, codes come from?
your muse must have some reason for why they chose who they do to associate with, to reject, to admonish. look at those characters, too. look also at the masks your muse wears around the people they know and those they do not, and to whom they show each facade and why.
in essence, look at your character and pinpoint one definitive reason for why they act and speak and think they way they do, and then search for more. there are always more.
one of the primary differences between and oc and a canon character is that ocs don’t have headcanons─ they have canons.
headcanon in an rp sense has a slightly different meaning than in fanchat sense. when a mun says they have a headcanon for their muse, what they’re really saying is that their headcanon is, in fact, canon to their portrayal of their muse─ closer to a blog canon, actually, but for the sake of simplicity, i’ll stick with the former term.
headcanons are wonderful places to delve into your muse. if you want to really get to know them, dig deep. you don’t have to reblog an askbox meme or wait for messages to start thinking, either─ but when you do, keep in mind that you shouldn’t just be tossing out superficial answers. if your muse’s favorite color is orange, why? do they have sunny personality, or did someone they love deeply wear orange a lot? if your muse is averse to chocolate, is it because they don’t like the taste, or because they got vicious food poisoning after eating a cake once?
identify first the surface of your muse, and then dive deep.
some people know themselves; others do not. muses are no different. some will known themselves well, and other not so much, and all will know themselves better in some areas than in others. this, too, will affect how they behave, think, and live.
know where your muse knows themselves, know where they do not, and know why they do or do not. perhaps they’re ignorant, and haven’t thought about it; perhaps they’re in denial. perhaps some past trauma has caused them to repress emotions, memories, desires.
remember: muses are allowed to be wrong, even about themselves.
diagnose your muse. i say this a lot, but i mean it. the nature of mental disorders means that chances are good that your muse has at least one. search for these disorders, and remember that, for a good lot of them, not all criteria have to be met─ only a number of them.
remember, too, that muses can display symptoms of a disorder without actually having it in full. this does not mean they do not suffer from the effects, regardless. do your research─ portrayal of a disorder is important to get right for the sake of respect of the real-world sufferers of it, and your research will almost certainly uncover depths of your muse you weren’t aware of before.
V. Working With & Not Against The Muse
oftentimes, writers will talk about how their character has seemingly taken on a life if their own. this can and will happen to many rpers, as well─ a muse will seem to come to life on their own accord, and like a child, they will pull at plots and direct your threads themselves. work with them, not against them─ let them run. let them make mistakes. let them live. don’t force them to follow a plot they don’t work with, and don’t push them in a given direction for the sake of a plot point or a relationship. oftentimes, by allowing them to go where they want to go, even if it’s ( reasonably ) outside your comfort zone, they will lead you to uncover things about them you’d never have discovered otherwise.
if your muse begins to flow this way, follow them. let them lead you for as long as they will run. trust them─ if and when you get to this point, it will be because you know them well, and it will not hurt to let them guide you for however long they may.
izzy806
ellievsbear
vaporwave
dededos
discoholicmusic
