[decided to make this rebloggable]
Oooh, good question.
I’ve had many personas over the years, and they all fit those time periods. (I have changed a lot over the years, so the characters change)
Basically, my #1 rule for making personas has always been Make them for yourself, not others.
Which should be true for all your characters, really, but especially for something you want to identify with. It takes practice to break out of the “well if other people don’t like it, then I won’t!” mindset. What you have to remember is that if you make something that pertains entirely to your own interests, people WILL like it, you just have to find the people who will. And really, the people that like the things you are really passionate about are really the people you want to talk to.
So yeah step one is to get over trying to appeal to other people. This is about YOU. You’re awesome, even if you don’t believe it. You’re awesome because you like awesome things. How do I know that? Because YOU like them and liking the things you like and knowing the things you like are awesome is the first step to liking yourself.
And liking yourself is a big part of making a persona that will fit you.
So, once you figure out “Hey, I like things!! And it’s ok for me to like these things!!”, try to track down EXACTLY what you like. What really appeals to you, in a sexual and/or spiritual/creative way?
When I make characters I always make sure they appeal to me 100% (unless they’re suppose to not appeal to me (like villians), but that’s a different matter).
You’ve probably heard the phrase “steal like an artist” before. And that is such an IMMENSELY GOOD MOTTO. Nothing is original. Everything has been done before, in one sense or another. Basically, to make something “good” you have to make what appeals to you. Trust your tastes.
Look at art and inspirational things daily. I try to fill my free time observing inspiring and beautiful artwork, because it makes me function as an artist. I see the things I like and make a mental archive of the things I like. And it doesn’t have to be whole things, it can be certain things, like cyclops eyes or fingers that’s a different contrasting color to the body or the certain way a foot is drawn, or maybe a certain style or color of clothing, or even someone’s voice!
Take these things, and let them swirl around in your head. Let them form a melting pot of creativity in your brain, all these things you like, and it’ll form into a delicious stew.
Next rule is: Don’t force it. Never force character creation. I’ve tried it before. It rarely works. Basically, to make a good character, you have to feel inspired by something. Think of it like this.
You’re a clam. You have a piece of sand stuck in your shell. That’s the grain of inspiration you have! It can come from anything, music, art, a smell or taste. Anything. This grain of sand will rouse you and make you think and want to create. So meditate on this piece of creative debris, and slowly coat it with the stew of ideas you cooked in your head to form a more and more solid idea (the pearl). If you don’t have a grain of sand, how will you make a pearl?
Usually this proccess comes naturally. Like I said, don’t force it. Wait for the inspiration to come to you. Sometimes you’ll go through periods without having any good ideas. It happens.
You can, however, excersize your creative muscle by using some character generators. Like the monster generetor or objecthead generator. They were going around tumblr for a while! IDR the link but I can try to find them if you want.
Basically, use a generator and create a character to a prompt that appeals to you, and use this as a base for a creative pearl. You can keep this character, but you don’t have to. It’s for fun and practice!!
And speaking of fun… remember, character creation is about having fun. If you’re forcing yourself to make a character and you’re not having fun through the process, than that character won’t appeal to you in the end.
I try to have fun with my character creation process, and as a result I become very emotionally invested in most of them I make.
Good luck friend!!