There are currently two fictional worlds I am investing myself in. The first is the world in the novelette I’m making for my school project. The second, a more vast and inventive world, is the setting of a book series I am working on which has nothing to do with the aforementioned school project. Both these worlds have their own charm and uniqueness. The world in my school project novelette is really just 1940s and present-day Indonesia (with two point-of-view characters), without much of a twist to it. The other world is more complex, since it is purely fictional and I’ve taken more time to develop it (it has also existed for almost two years, I believe).

For some reason, I find these two worlds so captivating and wonderful. I often daydream—and daydream at night, so night-dream, too—about stories set in the world. But it actually isn’t the worlds I find the most interesting. More specifically, it’s the characters.

I find the character-making process so enthralling and exciting. Everyone creates their characters differently, but for me, it usually starts with a random idea. I don’t know what exactly starts it off. Somehow a character idea just pops in my head, and I expand on it. If I like them, I’ll give them a name and qualities and how they look. The more I like them, the more I deepen them into a 3D character. They have backstories, fears, misbeliefs, hopes, dreams, quirks, personalities. Sometimes I give them an MBTI type or some other personality typing system, to help me understand them more. Then I incorporate them in the story. Or they appear in the story before I get to know them fully. Sometimes the character actually comes first, or the world, or the plot, or the system, but more often it’s an intangible mess of all that.

After some time, I get to write them and I get to know them. In some cases, they seem almost like real people, like friends. And I usually end up really loving them. It may sound very weird, but I spend a good chunk of my time thinking about these characters. Sometimes they help me in situations where I don’t know what to do, or when I don’t know what to write, I ask myself, ‘what would [insert arbitrary character] do?’. It usually helps me a lot.

There are certain characters that I feel I have more of a connection to, like a certain character who was born in 1868 (though in the story he’s eleven years old). This character, I find, is one of the most complex and conflicted characters in the entire cast of characters. The more I wrote about him, the more I relate to him. I suppose it’s because he’s very well thought-out and his personality is quite similar to mine. Writing his story unintentionally made me learn a lot (even though his story isn’t really complete yet).

There are other characters in this series whom I find intriguing and complex. I think a lot about them, too. I also really like intensifying the character dynamics, building inside jokes, developing character arcs…. The process is just incredible. And that’s only in this certain book series, the novelette school project is a whole different story.

I somehow find these characters less real, even though they are complex. I just don’t think I’ve had enough time to know them, since there is a certain date where I have to finish the book. The characters from that other book are more real to me since I’ve known them longer, and they don’t have a deadline. With all that said, different processes reflect different connections to the characters, and perhaps trying new processes is useful. Whichever process, they still brighten my day.