Isn't it strange, that regardless of sex in this forum, people tend to focus on female subjects? Of course, as a male who thinks the female figure is an absolute work of art, I can understand why. So, why not carry it further and "give them life"? As to characters, I don't write. As all of you know. I mention writing as what I fall back to since my artistry skills are lacking so much. Let me see if I can "run" out there now and extract what I said... ----------------------------------------------------- "I have often been called opinionated. Bullheaded. And cynical. (and a few other words I won't mention) Suffice it to say that I always seem to be running my mouth. Or in this case, my fingers. Those of us who dream about earning a living doing something other than what we are engaged in at the time will understand the sad reasoning for this page. If I could do anything in the world for a living and earn money enough to survive on, I'd be a painter. Where my visual imagination could manifest itself on canvas. Where there would be no limits other than the colors to choose from. Alas, I cannot paint so much as the wall of a house without leaving streaks. So, I turn to my second choice, writing. I have, upon many occasions, wondered if my thoughts were similar to the what the average person thought about. Wondered if others are cursed with thinking the same kinds of things as I do. I sometimes wondered if I could write a book about what a simple person like me thinks about and if anyone would be curious enough to read it and see if what I had written reminded them of themselves. But like so many, I lack the gift to twirl words so that the reader will be captivated. Lack the energy to expend on a pointless venture. And, like so many people in this world, lack the time to do it." -------------------------------------------------- There! The intro to my pages of writing and rants. So, back to the topic. I think, if I needed to develop a character for a story, I'd probably use a morph of someone whom I have known. Someone memorable. Tweak a few bits of the personality into what was needed and go from there. Like Ram, I spent a LOT of time "fleshing" characters in D&D. (grin) I'm afraid I would use too much personal information in developing a character, also. I suspect I'd tend to favor a less-than-handsome/beautiful person who somehow found him/herself thrust into a situation they would have ran from, given the chance. Underdog sort of character. Who wins out somehow. One whom the average audience can relate to and hope for. (the Thomas Covenant series comes to mind) The discussion above makes me wonder if THAT would be a nice exercise. To make up a character and summarize his/her personality for some sort of "target" story. Or just a character in general.