New Story

So I've been working on a story idea, it's in the very early tentative stages where a lot of things are subject to change. This story is essentially the epitome of something I would never ever ever write normally, which is exactly why I'm going to do it. I plan to make it a romance not unlike that of shoujo manga. There are a lot of similarities between the set up of my story and shoujo manga. But because I couldn't live with myself if I wrote something so basic, boring, and overdone I'm going to tweak it a bit.

What I have so far is this. There are six people: three girls, three guys all about the same age. They live in the Victorian era in America (subject to change), and are all of middle to upper class (because the lower class would never interact with upper class people to my dismay >__<). But anyway, the characters are all very stereotypical shoujo manga personalities with a twist. I've read more shoujo manga in a week than I've ever read before all in the sake of research. Admittedly some arent too awful but at times I feel it is extremely repetitive and predictable. So that's why all of my characters are a little different from what you would expect even though the first impression you get from them is very...normal.

Names are also subject to change.

Joyce Treadway:Joyce Treadway: Happy-go-lucky, extraverted, friendly, clumsy but athletic, not that smart, proud, easily offended, intuitive, manipulative, attention seeker, egocentric, acts ‘cute’, spendthrift, scattered, spiteful
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Grey
Height: Short
Weight: Average
Problem: Wants everything life has to offer and cant choose one boy over another, but because she pretends to act like a ditz nobody knows the real her. She is targets boys to make them like her, but keeps them all at a “lets be friends” distance. Tries to see how many boys she can get to fall for her at once. Wants them all to herself, and is quite good at it. This results from a lack of a loving environment at home. Her parents refuse to divorce, but they cant stand each other. Joyce does not understand the concept of love and desperately tries to achieve it, but is unable to because she fears commitment. She faces the world with a happy face, so many people assume that there is never anything wrong in her life, that she has it easy. While she may laugh it off, this is totally not the case. Some girls hate her because she is so ‘simple’ and that life is so easy for Joyce, but even though she refuses every boy that confesses to her they are still jealous. But instead of bullying her they befriend her and use her as a means to get closer to the boys that hang around her. Joyce does not have any real friends that she can talk to, well at least not yet. She is quite the athlete and is a little tom-boyish, but not by much.

Kindra Legall: Reserved, quiet, polite, well-mannered, pretty, graceful, elegant, good at almost anything she does, frail, not good at athletics, intelligent, jealous, sneaky, angers easily, nit-picks, OCD-ish, punctual, depressed, indifferent
Hair: Dark brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: Average
Weight: slender
Problem: Kindra is the new ‘idol’ of the school after just moving to the city. Pretty, popular, and smart she is the girl that other girls want to become. While Joyce does capture a lot of the boy’s hearts with her vicarious nature, Kindra wins them over with her quiet demeanor and lady-like attitude. An excellent cook and a wonderful musician, she is the image of a rich young lady. She accepts everything with a calm demeanor, but this is because she could really care less. The boys who confess to her are always turned down because she cannot reciprocate their feelings. She does not disclose the fact that she has never felt ‘love’ for another person. Her family is in reality, quite poor, and all their hopes rest on her shoulders. She cares for her younger siblings, but looks at as more of a responsibility than anything. So in her world love equals taking care of others, which is something that she hates vehemently, but hides very well. Kindra is aware of her lack of feelings and feels self-loathing for her inability to empathize with others. Because she is apathetic concerning romance, she feels jealous of everyone who can actually summon up the emotions of ‘love’ or even of ‘like’. This is also why she rejects the boys who confess to her, because she envies their ability to freely feel.

Celia Adkins: Extraverted, attention seeker, self-conscious, artistic, outspoken, offends easily, imaginative, agile, lacks coordination, over confident, obnoxious, loud, butts into conversations, feels left out, immature, vain
Hair: Golden
Eyes: Brown
Height: Tall
Weight: Stout
Problem: Celia is an artistic girl, who spends much of her day staring out of the window and fantasizing when her prince charming might come. She has had several crushes over the years, none of which have been fruitful. Because of this she is constantly discouraged and seeks attention to cope with the rejection, or goes off into wild delusions in which another boy is infatuated with her, when in fact he simply pities her. Celia is extremely self conscious of her weight, height, and apperance. She’s average in intelligence and looks. She feels she has no redeeming features what so ever, and deep down thinks that no boy would ever fall for her. Yet she still pretends that she is the ‘true idol’ of the school, because she has reasoned that if she is the main character of her life’s story, she must be a beautiful princess. She still fantasizes of her first ‘true love’, Damien Mcnevin to come on a white horse and whisk her away. Celia does not do much for others aside from buying expensive and lavish gifts to show her affection. She is a very affectionate and caring person, but does not know how to show it. Her family is very rich and does not spend much time together, instead replacing family with expensive gifts. She is the youngest of three, and nothing is expected of her except to marry a decent man. Fortunately Damien Mcnevin, her ‘one true love’, is such a man.

Damien Mcnevin: Courteous, quiet, mysterious, athletic, sensitive, smart, good looking, charismatic, arrogant, sexist, proud, greedy, vain, perfectionist, driven, confident, capable, reliable, perseverant
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: Average
Weight: Average
Problem: While he is surprisingly average on paper, Damien’s appearance is everything but. He is quite good looking, and is quiet, mysterious, and reserved. The girls confess to him on a daily basis but he rejects them all with the façade that if he dated someone the other girls would feel poorly. The girls fall head over heels for this smooth talker. In reality he just doesn’t feel that any of them are worth his time. He will only have a girl who is beautiful, graceful, quiet, reserved, rich, intelligent (but not too smart) and will obey his every whim. Basically he wants a trophy, and Kindra fits the bill. As the son of a failing business, there is much pressure on him to succeed. His father died when he was younger and his mother is completely incapable of anything. While his mother is beautiful and well versed in the arts and music and embroidery, she is a complete ditz and is extremely immature. Damien needs to take over the business before his conniving uncle tries to usurp him.

Joseph Hallaway: Studious, serious, smart mouthed, rude, harsh, direct, blunt, honest, outspoken, dry sense of humor, verifiable well of information on anything, shy, not good with electronics, nerdy, anti-social, perceptive
Hair: Red
Eyes: Brown
Height: Tall
Weight: Thin
Problem: Joseph doesn’t like bullshit, and he doesn’t take it either. He is very perceptive of the world and the people around him. He hates people, but finds them to be interesting. Surprisingly there is a small group of girls who find his personality attractive. Joseph lacks eye-hand coordination, but is surprisingly good at martial arts. Not enough to be the best, but good enough. Normally one would think of him as the type to be the top of the class, but in actuality he is nearly failing everything. He dislikes making an effort, and is extremely lazy. Nevertheless he attends classes regularly and on time, and the teachers find him to be an incredibly bright student, but he never takes much interest in what is being taught. Joesph is very literal usually on purpose to drive people crazy. He spends much of his time observing the other five. While he may not be completely aware of it, he really wants to be able to help the others through their troubles. He knows that nobody else in the entire world understands them as well as he does and in his own weird little way tries to help them along. Joseph tries to help others because he needs help himself. Abandoned as a child he now lives with his adoptive mother and father, they are a caring couple who never had children of their own. Joseph is immensely loyal and considerate, but only to people he feels deserves it.

Thaddeus (Teddy) Wilkes: Average, nickname teddy, dense, thick headed, average in school, sports, and work, strong sense of justice, gullible, persuaded easily, extremely active, considerate, caring, cant say no, friendly
Hair: Light brown
Eyes: Grey
Height: Short
Weight: Stout
Problem: While Thaddeus doesn’t have any internal conflicts he creates many external ones. Because of his honest and open nature many of the girls find him ‘adorable’ and because he cant say no he is often dragged into situations where two girls end up fighting over him and he ends up making both of them cry. Thaddeus does not really understand is very slow at recognizing that someone likes him. He wants everybody to be happy, and is good at cheering people up, which is also why girls find him attractive. Thaddeus has a bit of a weight problem, but he enjoys eating and refuses to diet. He lives and enjoys it, even when the world seems like a terrible place. He tries to please everyone because he’s afraid of rejection. He wants people to like him for who he is, but he doesn’t want to go against anyone causing him to take on the persona he has. In reality he doesn’t really know what he likes or dislikes, Thaddeus is afraid to have an opinion of his own. He really admires Joyce because she is so like him, but is able to voice her opinions freely and be accepted.


And that is my ridiculously in depth creation of my characters. I find it really fun to figure out why people act and think the way they do. Taking a psychology class this quarter has been really helpful ^__^. Regardless I havent fine tuned everything about them. Like their relationships and who falls for who and what feelings change and stuff...ugh this is going to give me a headache. Dont get me wrong I like figuring out relationships and the social networking of people's lives (yeah I'm a little odd), but doing it with the lovey-dovey romantic-ness makes me shudder. But I realized that I dont think romantically or extremely girly that I'm missing an entire class of people who do think that way. Not good if I want to work on character development. I only think in one way (my own) so all my characters all veer toward that and the development is very bland.

But yeah if you guys have any ideas for me let me know. I've been researching Victorian society the past week or so, any info on architecture, etiquette, entertainment, society, etc. would be appreciated. Oh pictures too if you find any post them, especially floor plans. I'm a sucker for floor plans.