I have characters at the back of my head that are inspired by other characters, from other stories I've seen in the media. They don't stay the same. Back then their character is quite similar to their inspirations (I'm talking about characters inspired by another character.) As I start to grow up, they start to change, to a point where they deviate from their inspired characters, from their in-depth character to their designs. I wonder if this is a bad sign for a character to deviate from their inspired character.
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Why would this be a bad thing? Are you saying you have no control over what you write? Or are you saying that you only want to copy other people's ideas?– wetcircuitCommented Aug 14, 2022 at 11:26
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@wetcircuit No, more like im scared that the inspiration isn't there or noticeable.– CrimsoirCommented Aug 14, 2022 at 11:28
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2You're worried people might think your character is original…? I'm sorry, I just don't understand the problem. Why would this be a bad thing? If we understand what the 'issue' is, maybe we can advise you in some direction.– wetcircuitCommented Aug 14, 2022 at 11:31
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1It's not a waste of time…. I think most characters need to be on the page before we can 'see' who they are (and then go back to re-write a 2nd draft so they better match the goal)– wetcircuitCommented Aug 14, 2022 at 11:55
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2Maybe you're confusing engineering with creative writing? In engineering when stuff starts doing things they're not supposed to, it's a reason to run, take cover, or at least start bug fixing. Having characters and ideas go off the beaten path is desirable in creative writing. It's likely a sign your unconscious is "fixing" inconsistencies. It's possibly an improvement. Unless it's not and then you might need to take a break and get back a bit later. You want things to take on a life of their own, even if that is scary.– ErkCommented Aug 16, 2022 at 4:32
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3 Answers
No. This is not a bad thing. It is especially not a bad thing if this deviation, or character change, happens on the pages of the story.
It sounds like as you are imagining your story and your inspired characters, that you are finding more interesting things for your character to do and think than you believe is within the character you are basing your character on. To me, this means you are making the characters your own. This means to me that you will have an easier time constructing your story's plot because you are gaining a better and better understanding of your characters' wants, needs, and motivations.
When your characters are making the decisions that change the arc of the story this is termed character driven -- as opposed to plot driven where events happen and the character react to them. Character driven stories are often much more engaging and are more fashionable than plot-driven stories because they are more immersive.
So keeping refining your understanding of your character it will only make your stories better.
It can still be just as interesting and entertaining, that would allow you to explain why they didn't remain with their first inspiration and what caused them to change, I am writing a book about a person that changed hobbies, opinions and even resented his role models after figuring out the truth behind them.
The one word answer is, no.
Are those characters meant to be the characters they are inspired by?
If you are writing a story that belongs to an existing fictional universe, for example when you are writing a collaborative work with other authors or if you are writing fan-fiction, then it is important that all those shared characters stay "in character". When a canon character suddenly acts completely different than previously established by the other authors, then that will break audience expectations and the audience will consider that bad writing.
But if those characters are merely inspired by other works but meant to be original characters with no in-story connection to their inspiration, then it's up to you as the author how close you want them to be to the inspiration. They are your characters, after all. They can be amalgamations of multiple characters from lots of different authors, they can have some traits of real people, they can have some of your own character traits, they can have some completely original traits... it's all up to you.
If you are still in the planning phase of your work, then it can be pretty common for your ensemble of characters to undergo multiple iterations and end up completely different than originally envisioned. And even if you already started writing: As long as you didn't publish anything yet, it's usually not too late to go back and rewrite a character completely.
