rainyrealms:

Tips For Writing Better Human/Humanlike Characters Who Are Really 700 Years Old (Give Or Take A Few Centuries)

emptymanuscript:

rainyrealms:

Because we’ve had enough 1000-year-old elves, vampires, and Asgardians who act like randy teenagers.

:/ I’m iffy on this one. On the one hand, it’s advice that is going to get you a character that’s better than dirt (let’s face it if your character is 1000 years old and entranced by a high-schooler they are either really poorly developed or really not a good person), it is only going to get you better than dirt. I hate to say it but the old jaded I’ve-seen-it-all-but-I-know-better-than-to-rock-the-boat character is an overused stereotype as well.  Especially in RPG’s thanks to WoD.

What will probably serve you much better is trying to equate the ancient character to a real human age. Someone who is 16 is not the same as someone who is 22 and neither are the same as someone who is 35. Up it a decade and even it is the same person, the way they see the world is not going to be the same. Instead of writing the old jaded 5000 year old master vampire. Think about how they would act if they were an 80 year old in good health with all their mental faculties. How would an 80 year old stranger treat your 16 year old? Alternatively think of Let the Right One In - however old the vampire is, she’s never really grown up, she’s still a child and still relates to everyone as a human child of that age, she gets very little mental benefit of her vastly extended lifespan. This is the same analogy with a different age. Don’t think 5000 year old vampire, think 15 year old human. That 15 year old stranger may be very impressed with your 16 year old high-schooler but they’re going to be just as impressed with the next one too. And when your high-schooler finds themselves in their mid-20’s how happy are they going to be with the still 15 year old vampire who still thinks exactly the same way?

The problem tends to lie where you try to have it all ways. They look 16, love 16, are impressionable like 16, but think 5000, command respect 5000, and demand to be treated 5000. 

Thanks for your criticism!  I hadn’t meant to evoke the “I’ve-seen-it-all-but-I-know-better-than-to-rock-the-boat” character, so I changed the text to what I hope will better reflect what I meant - that the character has probably seen something so many times that xir reaction to it will probably be fairly blase or unimpressed.  (Sort of how where younger people are at large impressed by a new movie, but older people like “Yeah, whatever, I saw that movie forty years ago when it was called (insert title here).”

I also edited it so that it’s clear that it’s talking about characters who are supposed to be adults or think like adults, and added a bit to deal with characters who do get into relationships quickly.

Oh, hey, had no idea you were on Tumblr (Edit: I suppose I should say that I did not realize that rainyrealms was the same as the author of the tip). XD. That’ll teach me. Anyhoo, this does seem much improved now. And yeah the movie example actually makes it make much more sense to me without it suggesting being unduly jaded. So cool. So for everyone else, check it out. Good advice. Especially if you’re trying to write in the urban fantasy genre. And thanks for taking the criticism well, especially as I was probably harsher than I should have been in my phrasing now that I’m rereading it.