Author Topic: Teen witch character help  (Read 9447 times)

Offline Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1684
    • View Profile
Re: Teen witch character help
« Reply #30 on: January 12, 2009, 10:58:52 PM »
How intelligent is this bunny character?  I mean, when i hear fluffy-bunny "hug's can heal everything" type, my mind goes immediately to the airheaded moonbeam slightly vacant look in the eyes stereotype.  If she is too dense it will be hard for her to follow his rational long enough for it to seep in (but that might give some humorous opportunity for him to have to internally force patience on himself; counting to ten, etc)  but if she's too smart, she may have already worked up a more elaborate justification system for herself.  

She's basically a well-meaning kid who doesn't know any better at this point, think of Molly tweaking with her friends' free will before she found out it was Anything But the Right Thing to Do, or like Susan trying to get an interview with a vampire, not knowing that "the vampire jumps across the table and bites you before you even get the tape-recorder turned on" (I know I'm munging that quote. :: laughs:: ). She's intelligent, but not brainy, a little smarter than the typical teenaged airhead witchy-wannabe, with the potential to grow, even if at times she's not fully willing or aware that she is.

Offline Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1684
    • View Profile
Re: Teen witch character help
« Reply #31 on: January 12, 2009, 11:05:54 PM »
Hmm.. I like it.
May I keep it?

Hee, go right ahead! Your execution of the concept is yours, and my execution is mine. Concepts really aren't copyrightable, though the executions thereof are. Case in point the crazy story of Sophia Stewart suing James Cameron (of "The Terminator" fame) and the Wachowski Brothers (who created the "Matrix" series) because they'd written robot apocalypses that dimly resembled a robot apocalypse she'd written (and then she neglected to show up for the hearing on the case). And for that matter, the robot apocalypse idea dates back to the 1920s and Czech writer Karel Capek's stage play "R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)"; haven't heard of his estate taking umbrage with subsequent stories that deal with the same concept.

Offline Quantus

  • Special Collections Division
  • Needs A Life
  • ****
  • Posts: 25216
  • He Who Lurks Around
    • View Profile
Re: Teen witch character help
« Reply #32 on: January 13, 2009, 02:06:10 AM »
She's basically a well-meaning kid who doesn't know any better at this point, think of Molly tweaking with her friends' free will before she found out it was Anything But the Right Thing to Do, or like Susan trying to get an interview with a vampire, not knowing that "the vampire jumps across the table and bites you before you even get the tape-recorder turned on" (I know I'm munging that quote. :: laughs:: ). She's intelligent, but not brainy, a little smarter than the typical teenaged airhead witchy-wannabe, with the potential to grow, even if at times she's not fully willing or aware that she is.
Cool.  Then yes at some point your skeptic will have to sit her down and (if he were me) ask her to explain her beliefs, and then start pointing out the contractions (much like harry to murphy on the bible in the beginning of wn).  Once he has shaken her loose from her adolescent infallibility, she will be much more likely to be receptive to guidance.  But I do agree with the others that it will probably take a screw-up on her part to make her willing sit down and really examine things like that.  Basically, life shows her that she went wrong, skeptic explains to her where she went wrong, and then they just have to figure out what the right way is.
<(o)> <(o)>
        / \
      (o o)
   \==-==/


“We’re all imaginary friends to one another."

"An entire life, an entire personality, can be permanently altered by just one sentence." -An Accidental Villain

Offline The Corvidian

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 987
  • I like crows and ravens.
    • View Profile
Re: Teen witch character help
« Reply #33 on: January 13, 2009, 03:34:52 AM »
Cool.  Then yes at some point your skeptic will have to sit her down and (if he were me) ask her to explain her beliefs, and then start pointing out the contractions (much like harry to murphy on the bible in the beginning of wn).  Once he has shaken her loose from her adolescent infallibility, she will be much more likely to be receptive to guidance.  But I do agree with the others that it will probably take a screw-up on her part to make her willing sit down and really examine things like that.  Basically, life shows her that she went wrong, skeptic explains to her where she went wrong, and then they just have to figure out what the right way is.

It would also be neat when the creature shows up again, she can see if for what it really is, and she works is over.
Clarke's Third Law: Sufficently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Niven's Converse to Clarke's 3rd Law: Sufficently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.

Offline Tribblechomper

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1738
    • View Profile
    • Photoshoplifter Dan
Re: Teen witch character help
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2009, 05:27:56 PM »
I'm trying to figure out a way for the polite skeptic to bring our girl back down to earth, in such a way that it doesn't look like I'm bashing Wicca...
While she does a good job describing things in terms teens can understand, every level-headed Wiccan friend of mine has called it "how *NOT* to teach Wicca to young people"...

Right there is the answer...write it the way your gut tells you, then set up a panel of Wiccan beta readers to constructively criticize your story; don't be afraid to ask if they have come across their own fluffy-bunny Wicca Wannabes or worse...those whose only knowledge of Wicca comes from watching Bewitched or Charmed.
November 15, 2008-A day that will live in infamy...let's hope I'm not in the hospital THIS birthday!!!
Ah done an' went an' gots me a WEBSITE, y'all!!!
www.photoshoplifterdan.com