FA+
Shop
Characters and their meanings.
13 years ago
A couple of days ago, 
saetia posted a journal about what each of her characters meant for her, and in that journal she asked other people to explain their own characters as well. I started to answer, but realized my response would likely require a bit more than a brief response and I didn't want to flood her with a huge reply. All of which is to say, she had a neat idea and I decided to steal it for my own amusement rather than simply replying to her. So here we go.
Almost all of the characters I actually created were made for one story or another. So, except for Megan, none of them were ever specifically meant to represent me in any way. Still, they say that a writer puts something of herself into every character she creates and this is certainly true of mine. Some of my best characters, or at least the ones I like the best, got more than most.
Megan Bryar:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8382000/)
Megan is "me", or close enough. She's weird, perverted, awkward, obsessed with legwarmers and an irredeemable nerd. Granted, she's a bit more extroverted than I am, and you'd never catch me going out in public without my pants on, but you can't have everything. In other words, she's as much a fantasy as any sort of reflection of reality, just like most furry characters really, but I flatter myself that she's mostly grounded in reality.
Niamh Lohan:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6482197/)
A lot of what I said about Megan can be applied to Niamh as well. For you new folks, I used Niamh as my first character for a while and the reason I picked her was because she was easily the one character I created who was the most like me. She still is, too. The trouble is, because I created her as a story character instead of a personal representative, she ended up having a life of her own that didn't in any way reflect mine. She's even got a wife, and I thought that made things too complicated. So I decided to create Megan to be "me" and let Niamh go back to being her own person, as it were.
Ciara Lohan:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6393072/)
Ciara was the only other character I considered using as my "self", and she's the character who, I think, embodies my "hero" self. She's not classical hero material, as I have no illusions on that score, but she's the part of me who would rush out to save the world and who would do all she could to protect those she loved.
Cassandra Cooper:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5239906/) NSFW
I actually created Cassandra as nothing more than a joke. After all, if you're going to have red fox colored rabbits, why not a rabbit colored red fox? Still, she has grown to be one of my favorites and I think, if anything, she represents my embrace of my having always been outside of what most people would think of as ordinary society. Everyone makes up their own definition of "normal" anyway.
Jessamine Bryar:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4668201/)
Jess has evolved quite a bit since I first created her, to the point where the Jessamine who shows up in my second novel and the one most people are familiar with are practically different characters. Still, in what I guess you'd call her true form, Jess does a pretty good job of embodying both my cynicism and my stubborn refusal to give up. She was also a great deal of fun to write for.
Questions about these or other characters are welcome.
saetia posted a journal about what each of her characters meant for her, and in that journal she asked other people to explain their own characters as well. I started to answer, but realized my response would likely require a bit more than a brief response and I didn't want to flood her with a huge reply. All of which is to say, she had a neat idea and I decided to steal it for my own amusement rather than simply replying to her. So here we go.Almost all of the characters I actually created were made for one story or another. So, except for Megan, none of them were ever specifically meant to represent me in any way. Still, they say that a writer puts something of herself into every character she creates and this is certainly true of mine. Some of my best characters, or at least the ones I like the best, got more than most.
Megan Bryar:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8382000/)
Megan is "me", or close enough. She's weird, perverted, awkward, obsessed with legwarmers and an irredeemable nerd. Granted, she's a bit more extroverted than I am, and you'd never catch me going out in public without my pants on, but you can't have everything. In other words, she's as much a fantasy as any sort of reflection of reality, just like most furry characters really, but I flatter myself that she's mostly grounded in reality.
Niamh Lohan:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6482197/)
A lot of what I said about Megan can be applied to Niamh as well. For you new folks, I used Niamh as my first character for a while and the reason I picked her was because she was easily the one character I created who was the most like me. She still is, too. The trouble is, because I created her as a story character instead of a personal representative, she ended up having a life of her own that didn't in any way reflect mine. She's even got a wife, and I thought that made things too complicated. So I decided to create Megan to be "me" and let Niamh go back to being her own person, as it were.
Ciara Lohan:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6393072/)
Ciara was the only other character I considered using as my "self", and she's the character who, I think, embodies my "hero" self. She's not classical hero material, as I have no illusions on that score, but she's the part of me who would rush out to save the world and who would do all she could to protect those she loved.
Cassandra Cooper:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5239906/) NSFW
I actually created Cassandra as nothing more than a joke. After all, if you're going to have red fox colored rabbits, why not a rabbit colored red fox? Still, she has grown to be one of my favorites and I think, if anything, she represents my embrace of my having always been outside of what most people would think of as ordinary society. Everyone makes up their own definition of "normal" anyway.
Jessamine Bryar:
(http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4668201/)
Jess has evolved quite a bit since I first created her, to the point where the Jessamine who shows up in my second novel and the one most people are familiar with are practically different characters. Still, in what I guess you'd call her true form, Jess does a pretty good job of embodying both my cynicism and my stubborn refusal to give up. She was also a great deal of fun to write for.
Questions about these or other characters are welcome.
The only exception might be Bleu, my adopted wolf girl. She's really struck a chord with me, somehow.