Thoughts on Character Creation - How Creating Characters Can Get You Invested in Other Things

Creating characters is always great fun, but sometimes you come across something that gets you not only invested into your character, but into what inspired them too. It's no surprise that I love the movie Zootopia and it would not be long before I'd create my own OC (Original Character), but what to choose?

It had been such a long time since I created a bat character and I absolutely love bats. At first I wanted to use the Grey-Headed Flying Fox, but since my earliest characters were Flying Foxes (and they look less like the bat design in the Zootopia art book), I wanted something a little different. I went through a list of all of Australia's Bats, but couldn't find a fruit/nectar eating one with the design I wanted. Yet one name kept coming back to me: Ghost Bat. My young sisters know my love for bats and over the years they have gotten me a few Bat products, the best being a TY Beanie Boo called Igor (the girls were collecting them, saw the Bat one and thus, I got a great Birthday present). But it was the little Aussie animal cards from Woolworths that the name came from, the girls having given me those cards. So I decided to research more on it.

The largest of Australia's micro-bats, the Ghost Bat is known more for their light-grey to white fur and how their thin wing membrane gives them a ghostly appearance. They are called the False Vampire Bat, but they are known to eating not only bugs, but mice and other bats. This would help shape my character and his bat family, a group of stuck up nobles, the ghost bat reputation used to invoke fear and respect. My character himself is a victim of his family and does not share their views. As I went deeper into creating my character (his first name being Bartholomew), I found myself drawn more into researching into this bat. While trying to sort out a problem for my mother at the local museum, I got into a discussion with a paleontologist there, whom also had an interest with a number of animals. I learned that up north around mid state there is a set of caves that are known to house lots of small bats and at night when they leave the caves on mass, the ghost bats strike. Apparently its like watching large groups of fish dodging a shark. Sounds fascinating. Sadly, they are dying off. This is mostly due to man and our environment destroying nature, but also partly due to something that scientists can't explain. Makes me feel sad, yet I want to know more.

Bartholomew wasn't the only named character as his family also has a rival family. From them comes his love interest, Miranda. I feel they would have a sort of accent, something french, but I hit a snag. See, being a 'false' vampire bat, I wanted their rivals to be vampire bats, but they only exist in South America, which would put the accent at odds. So I went looking for European bats that would be something similar to the ghost bat. I came across the Greater Noctule Bat. While not exactly the same, it is known to eat birds and is noted for attacking them on the wing (in flight). They are European, which I feel would be close enough for the accent I want. That said, it was even harder to find information on this bat and despite hours of research, I still don't have a big enough pool of knowledge to satisfy me.

I admit, this sort of thing is more focused on more animal anthropomorphic characters, but this could also apply to other areas. Careers are another example as if you want to write your character to have a particular job or even a combat style, doing research can not only help you write them better, but you just might find you take a keen interest in that subject.

Taking interest can help you improve the visual design and writing of a character, but that character may help you better understand the world around you and who knows, you just might find that interest turns into something greater.