Odd? Yes. Impossible? No.
I propose that we take a month to work on building characters for future use. Every day, just think up a person, write down a little bit about them, and save it. Then by the end of the month, we'll have a catalog of characters to choose from when we need them.
Now of course, we won't be able to completely develop the character in a single day. But what I can come up with in a day is something like this (*makes something up on the spot*):

Suzanna Temples
Human, female
16 years old
5'5
Blond hair, green eyes, pale skin, slim figure
Lives on a houseboat
Is obsessed with cats
She's afraid of the dark and of being alone
Parents divorced; she lives with her father

And so on and so forth. I just did that much in less than five minutes, randomly, off the top of my head. Surely you awesome people can do the same as, or more likely better than, me.
So let's see what y'all can do! But first we need to decide when to hold this event, and work out any questions, suggestions or comments you may have. Feel free to post them.
(Note: The event has not started yet. Just post questions and/or comments, and/or whether you think you'll be joining in.)

Could I post one now anyway?

These characters are up for grabs for anyone, yes?

Ooh, interesting goal. I might try doing this in January.

Aratrea, I'm joining you on January 1.

Y'all want to do it so soon? I guess you could do it whenever, but I really meant it to be everyone who wants to do it, all doing it at the same time, and I have a few people who can't do it in January. But if y'all want, I guess that's fine.

@Meow, no, I meant for them to be for your personal archive. If you want your characters to be public domain though, that's fine. Just work out a system so that multiple people don't adopt the same character.

Oh, I had no preference for when to start it. I just assumed that since it was in a month we'd be starting at the beginning of January. But I'm good for whenever pretty much.

My scenarios tend to build characters of their own, but I'm willing to throw a few into a free bunch of 30 or more.

Cool. Alright, then maybe you should make a new thread linked to this one with all the characters on it, and people can post the ones they want to use, and you can edit the "claimed" status into the characters' posts. Either that or we can have a list of public-domain charries in my initial post up there ^ and cross them out when they're taken. We'll have the charries somewhere else and put links up there in the list. What do y'all think?

Index at the top, definitely.

Okay, so where should I make the thread for the public domain characters? Should that go in Quests, too?

Probably in the Forge, in the "Character Development" subforum, I would think.

This is a great idea, but I don't know if I will have time to do it in January.

Yes, that's what I was thinking as well.

It seems lots of people are busy in January. I want this to be a group event, and sort of a big thing if possible. Do y'all think you could recruit any other HWers?

I'd do this, but already having 200+ characters for various novel genres, I don't think I need to... XD

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Then again, it might be fun... oh, decisions, decisions...

What a brilliant idea! I have quite a horde of characters I would like to create and develop. Starting the new year with that for a writing goal sounds absolutely smashing. I'm up for it!

You could make us some public domain charries...


Fantastic!

I'd be willing to try this, I guess. Might be mostly public domain characters, since I'm not immediately thinking of any characters I need for my stories, but we'll see.

What if we just forget the start time. Everyone starts whenever they like, and tag their entry whatever day it is for them? That way it can be a decent ongoing thing.

@Elizabeth: Sure, I can make public domain characters.

I guess that could work... But then there might not be more than one person doing it at any given time, and I think that would provide less fellowship and encouragement and stuff. I hope you know what I'm trying to say, because I don't know how to say what I'm trying to say.
Awesome.

A good character developer NutCracker. But I don't know when to do it.

I know what you mean, and I really like this idea, and I think we should post about it on the HW blog. That would be a way for everyone to find out about it.

Not only would it be less lonely and more supportive to have it a challenge for a specific month, but more people would probably do it. Think about it, if people had been left to decide what month they were going to do NaNoWriMo, who would ever get around to it, realistically?

I have one idea. Could we make it so that there is a supplied form to fill out, which would make it easier to do one a day real quick and all that, but not make it mandatory? I don't make characters based on a form like that. I don't make characters based on any kind of form at all. I did something sort of similar to this awhile back, and every single profile was completely different -- history of nicknames for one character, a general intro on one specific aspect of personality for another, an overview of habits for another, a particular incidence, what the people around the person thought of the person, and so on.

Yay, Juliet's here!

I'm glad you like the idea. I'll work on getting a form thing ready. A blog post sounds awesome. I'll try to snag one of the People de Blog.

Yes, I'm of the mind that everyone doing it at the same time would be better overall, as well.

NutCracker, can you describe people you already made?

No, this is for creating new characters, not showing off old ones. This is for you personally to make and save characters that you can use in the future.

Not really... Maybe I'll actually 'be here' a bit more now though.

I would love to take part in this. I'm just not sure I can do it. But I'll try.

That's all we can ask.

I'd be willing to do it, but most likely not everyday of January as I am pretty busy

I don't think we'll be doing it in January anyway. I hope you can join us, whenever we do end up doing it.

If the form thing doesn't work for you, Shorty, let me know and I could try. *has some ideas*

Oh! Right. *headdesk* I've been so busy, I totally forgot about that. Go ahead and make one, if you want to

Okay, I'll give it a shot. So on the form, based on your example, Shorty, it would be like this (Go ahead and make suggestions for changes! This is mostly an idea still):

Name:
Race:
Gender:
Age:
Height:
Phyisical Discription:
Lives:
Passion(s):
Fears:
Family Situation:

I like it, Iza.
What if we do this:

Name:
Race:
Gender:
Age:
Height:
Physical Description:
Location:
Skills:
Passion(s):
Quest (optional)
Fears:
Immediate Family (parents, siblings, spouse, children):

What do you think?

That's good! Thank you, I knew it needed some work.

One more thing, should "flaws" be on there, or perhaps make that "fears/flaws"?

Awesome, yes.

Name:
Race:
Gender:
Age:
Height:
Physical Description:
Location:
Skills:
Passion(s):
Quest (optional)
Fears/Flaws/Insecurities:
Immediate Family (parents, siblings, spouse, children):

Can anyone think of anything else to add?

Looks good! We also don't want to make it so long that it's not easy to fill out quickly in a day.

Yeah. I think it's good the way it is. *highfives Iza*
Thoughts from anyone else?

I think I liked 'family situation' better than what it is at present...it is more generally applicable. Some people don't have family...some don't have family they know about...etc. What do you think?

And should height be separate from physical description?

Hmm, you're right, Juliet. I guess it would be harder if we had to think of families for each character as well, eh?
Okay. We'll do the "family situation" one.

And I think height would probably be included in physical description, now that you mention it. Thanks for your help.

Name:
Race:
Gender:
Age:
Physical Description:
Location:
Skills:
Passion(s):
Quest (optional):
Fears/Flaws/Insecurities:
Family Situation:

My apologies for not working on this... I was gone.

But anyway, I need you guys on this thread to help me figure out if this works. Please let me know if it does not, and I'll see if I can figure something out with google docs.

To use:

Download the attached "30 Characters in 30 Days" doc to your computer.
(Optional) Move it from downloads to documents or something so you can find it again.
Open the document, and if Microsoft Word gives you the option to enable editing, do so.
(If you plan to reupload to HW for public use) When you save the doc, rename it to "30 Characters in 30 Days (HW Username)"
(If reuploading to HW) At the end of the 30 days, click "Choose File" while typing the forum post and then find the completed file you renamed. Then post on the forum.

And at some point we shall figure out where you would post the finished documents in the Forge.

Does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. Thank you, Rose, that's great. *is getting excited*
I'm going to make a thread in The Forge>Character Development for the characters up for adoption.

Although I'm wondering whether it's wise to re-upload a whole doc with 30 charries and expect people looking for characters to download everyone's doc and look through them all. I think for the characters who are up for adoption, their profiles will go on the thread and I'll have another thread where they can be claimed, then I'll edit in "ADOPTED" when a character is adopted, so none of them are used twice.
I hope this makes sense. XD

Clear to me.

* waggles head at the Tall Person * I was going to say that, but you're a faster typer, apparently. Either that or you got a head start. * grins *

Feel free to say it too, if you really want to.

I'm excited for this! Do we already have a set date when we will begin?

So, we just post our character description in this topic?

I have a blog post planned, that should be up soon.
We're doing it from the first of March until the thirtieth.
@Mop: No, you write your character descriptions in a document and save it on your computer. I'll have a thread where we can post characters that other people can "adopt." But I'm not making the threads until the event starts.

Okey.

This sounds really fun; right up my alley! I hope to join y'all in March!

I was going to suggest starting in March and was also going to suggest getting a blog post under way.


That might work better... I was just thinking if people wanted to have the banks of characters of their computer, but that works too.

Shorty, when you get to making the announcement, I can do the bit about how to use the doc if you like.

Haha! Brilliant minds think alike, eh?


I've already submitted the blog post. When I make the threads, I'll attach the doc so people can download and use it.