Chapter Text
“A flyer? That’s odd.”
Wally stepped closer to the brightly-colored flyer, holding it up to his eyes with one hand. He was careful not to tear it off the tree it was taped to, of course.
The flyer was one of Sally’s play advertisements, complete with little tear-off tabs- wait.
“A play doesn’t need paper stubs. Why does this flyer have them?”
Sally’s play seemingly had no title, instead being labeled as a “Neighborhood Collaboration” piece. When Wally looked closer at the tear-off tabs, he saw that they were apparently vouchers for “one original character, or your time back guaranteed!”
“That’s an interesting idea. I’ve never written a character before...”
---
Wally held his pencil above the paper, thinking about where he could start. He had already written out a tentative set of things a character should have, for the sake of clearness.
Name:
Gender:
Appearance:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Personality:
Backstory:
Perhaps it would be best to start with the character’s favorite things? He doodled a spiral in the corner of the page as he thought of what things a person could have as a favorite. Wally himself liked apples the best, but he knew that people like Frank liked butterflies more than any fruit!
… Maybe they like oranges. That sounds like a thing that a character would like, Wally thought. The clear next step in Wally’s eyes was their least favorite thing. He tapped the pencil once, to separate each step in his mind. Suddenly, it came to him. Nobody would ever want to disappoint their friends!
Name:
Gender:
Appearance:
Likes: Oranges @:)
Dislikes: Making their friends sad @:(
Personality:
Backstory:
The next easiest step would presumably be the gender of the character… Well, he was already referring to them as they , so…
Name:
Gender: They/them
Appearance:
Likes: Oranges @:)
Dislikes: Making their friends sad @:(
Personality:
Backstory:
He was already nearly half-way done! Surely the rest would come just as easily. Wally guessed that the character’s appearance would be both one of the most important aspects and the easiest next step. After all, he was an artist. How could choosing clothing and colors for a character be hard?
Thirty minutes later, Wally was sorely regretting that thought. The hair, felt, and eye colors had been easy enough. He had chosen red hair, pale felt, and reddish-brown eyes from an autumn-themed palette set aside for this very reason. Wally was now stuck on one of the things most people never really consider; what kind of clothing would his character wear? They couldn’t just wear a shirt and pants, that’d be… it’d be a bit… without effort, so to speak. Without knowing where they lived or what they were like-
“Oh. I’m being silly.”
Wally could pinpoint his error. He had started trying to paint a piece without knowing the thoughts behind it. Silly him. He wrote down the colors he had already chosen on a separate piece of paper and set them aside for now.
He then put his pencil down to begin writing a backstory… and he drew a blank. Without a personality, what kind of life in the past could they have? He moved to write the personality instead, and he was stuck there too. How could Wally know the character’s personality without knowing what made them act that way?
At least he could always write down the character’s name.
Name: Apple
Gender: They/them
Appearance: [On a separate piece of paper: Red hair, pale felt, reddish-brown eyes]
Likes: Oranges @:)
Dislikes: Making their friends sad @:(
Personality:
Backstory:
… Maybe he would have better luck tomorrow.