So I’m hereby officially announcing a Soul Symphony Create-A-Character Contest. Here are the rules:
1. Keep it appropriate. Really obvious, and I think it’d be pretty hard to screw this up, but just don’t. Use common sense.
2. Try not to just make the character YOU, okay? This is a “Create a Character” contest, not a “Hey dude put me in your comic” contest.
3. Unless you have a good reason, which I’m willing to be persuaded about, try to stay away from instruments that characters already play. This means unless you intentionally want them to interact with a certain character based on section, try to avoid clarinet, trombone, electric guitar [there's leeway on this one], viola, drums [leeway here] or singing [here too.]
4. Only one character submission per person.
To submit a character, just leave the following info as a comment here or email it to me.
Name
Gender
Age (Most characters are 16 year old sophomores, Charlie is a 17 year old junior, and teachers are totally fair game because I need more.)
Instrument: List all if there are multiple, but indicate what they’re best at or play primarily.
Three facts about the character
One flaw in the character’s personality or anything negative about their life in general
BONUS QUESTIONS [not required!]:
Favorite Genre of Music
One recurring visual motif or theme to represent the character: John’s got basketball, Charlie has jesters, next chapter has spiders, etc.
Color to represent the character: Purple, Red, Green, Blue, and Orange are already taken. You can of course pick colors like “lime green” or “sky blue”
ALSO if you can draw feel free to draw me a picture of your character, if you want. If you can’t draw but you’re REEEEAAALLY enthusiastic about telling me what they look like, write a description I guess. Not required.
Submissions are due by October 31st (Halloween). Winners will be announced on November 1st.
Prize: I will pick TWO winners. TWO. The prize is getting your character in the comic, and having your username mentioned here on the site for being cool I guess. Also my gratitude and respect. If a winner is someone I know in real life their actual name probably won’t be posted here.
Name: Abella Powell
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Instrument: Castanets
1. Abella is Spanish and quite tall.
2. Abella has black hair, and has green eyes.
3. Abella is a beekeeper who has come to the school to explain about bees.
One flaw is that Abella can be very superstitious, and never leaves home without finding a four-leaved clover first.
Other facts:
Abella is having problems with her family. While trying to juggle her career, her music, and her family, she becomes very stressed. This causes problems when in the Spirit World.
Her representing colour is purple.
Also, ohaiPixie.
Also, happy (belated) birthday.
I laughed out loud, Grape. Out loud.
I like SillyGrape’s entry, he better win.
Name:Forrest Fraizer.
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Instrument: Trumpet
Interesting Facts:
1. He’s a fan of football and baseball
2. Has moved around alot
3. Is a Chauvinist
Favorite genre of music: Alternative
Motif: Football and or baseball.
Color: Gold
other facts: White, has brown hair
one flaw: Forrest is a Chauvinist- Both forms of the definition.
Okay, I take it back.
I hope you had a shit birthday.
@Grape: I didn’t say it was bad, just funny.
@Nick: Looking good here.
All of these flat characters. You need more round characters man.
That’s the point! If you can do better, which seems to be implied, throw me a bone here and help by designing one for me. Thus taking half the work off my shoulders.
I’m sure you could probably win if you tried.
Because nobody tries, am I right?
I mean regardless of how many people submit.
Name: Anthony Fennel
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Instrument: Flute
Three Facts:
1: He is Asian and short for his age. He has black hair, and glasses.
2: He speaks in a low, monotone voice, giving the impression that he is uninterested and annoyed all the time, even when he isn’t. That’s just how he talks.
3: He enjoys reading above all else, and loves fantasy.
Major flaw: Fear. He is extremely timid. He is afraid of many things, and this affects his social skills. He is bullied alot, so he tends to avoid meeting and interacting with new people. He often removes himself from situations by reading, and his family gives him alot of trouble because of this. He bottles up all of his emotions, but he can be very kind, but blunt.
Favorite Genre of Music: Showtunes
One recurring theme to represent the character: Books
Color: Ivory
I forgot to add this, but he hates Tolkien and Harry Potter for their views on magic and male main characters. He likes Tamora Pierce books.
Name: Andre Franklin
Gender: Male
Age: 42
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
1) Mr. Franklin is the principal of the high school Olivia attends. (If this role has already been filled, he could be a professor instead.)
2) He treats the school and its staff like a well-oiled machine, aiming for efficiency and practicality over likeability and style.
3) Although he is has a very serious, rigid persona in public, he loosens up when he listens to jazz alone in his office.
Flaw: Many years ago, Andre attempted to drop out of school and become a famous jazz musician. His parents, thinking the career would run him into the ground, forced him to quit pursuing his dream and got him back into school. Since then, Andre has constantly striven for effectiveness over everything else. He tends to dislike or avoid any “fun” activities that distract him from his busy schedule.
Favorite Genre of Music: Jazz
One recurring visual motif or theme to represent the character: Robots/machines, which represent his desire for control and efficiency as well as his overly strict persona.
Color to represent the character: Lemon Yellow
Picture: http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7334/imgpi.jpg
Name: Anabel Heartsford
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Instrument: Piccolo (it’s not a tiny flute damn it!)
Three facts about the character
1. Always wears a hat when able to. ALWAYS. Hat varies by day of the week AND mood. As such there is an Angry Tuesday hat and an Angry Wednesday hat, for example.
2. Is Jewish (not too big a deal, but hey it is something that shapes your outlook on life.
3. Is allergic to cats, dogs, bunnies, chipmunks, gerbils, hamsters, etc. If it has fur, she sneezes, even if she can’t see it. (hint hint)
One flaw in the character’s personality or anything negative about their life in general
For $500 dollars the answer is: She suffers from a total lack of self-esteem.
BONUS QUESTIONS [not required!]:
I’m doing them anyway.
Favorite Genre of Music: Originally Blues, but then Country
One recurring visual motif or theme to represent the character: Blindfolds, broken/fun-house mirrors, blank masks, etc. Basically things that won’t let you see the truth about yourself.
Color to represent the character: Originally black, but changes to PINK!
Sadly, I have no ability to draw.
Heh, I was thinking the same thing you were before I even got to the “even if she can’t see it” part of the sentence.
Really good stuff!
Welp, I first thought about doing submitting a teacher, but I then I went with students after all. :/
Anyway:
Name: Wayne Gate
Age: 17
Instrument: Contrabass (Primary), Drums (Secondary, that’s okay, right?)
Fact 1: Is into weight lifting, and is very strong because of it. He’s also quite tall, outgrowing even Mr. Dalton.
Fact 2: Joined the Football Team and usually hangs out with a small group of jocks.
Fact 3: Very open, and quite friendly to other people.
Flaw: He’s unorganized, and juggles too much with various stuff in his life. It doesn’t help that he has a hard time saying no.
Favorite Genre of music: None, if he likes a song, he’ll listen to it.
Motif: Dumbbells
Color: Teal
Name: Geoffrey or Geoff Twomey (pronounced “Two-Mee”)
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Instrument: Alto Saxophone (primary) or Soprano Sax (secondary)
Three Facts:
1) Is in a ska band at school with some friends (called “Not Very Small Fishes”)
2) Has a laid back, quiet, but optimistic personality. Goes with the flow of everyday life and doesn’t let the things around him get him down.
3) He’s on the track team at the school. He’s very fast physically, and that’s also how he loves to play his music.
Flaws: A major klutz, who trips/falls over nothing. Always tries to look on the brighter side of things, even when things are tough…which blindsides him from the true peril around him.
Favorite genre: Ska
Motif: Thunderbolt
Color: Yellow/Gold
Name: Cassandra Lafayette
Age: 16
Instrument: Cello
Fact 1: Detests sports, due to her father’s obsession with them.
Fact 2: Tends to make “rhymes on a dime”, many times unintentionally.
Fact 3: Has a habit of doodling on everything that can/will be wrote on.
Flaw: Holds unnecessary grudges against people who had wronged her for long periods of time ( years).
Color: White.
Oh my god, that rhyming quirk is like a challenge beckoning me.
I guess I’ll take a crack at this:
Philomena Fletcher
Female
51
Harp
She’s very focussed on manners and proper behavior. Not in a sexist way or anything, she just makes sure her students act politely and behave in her class. This also covers proper spelling and grammar. She DISPISES chatspeek (as in “u r so fnny lol”). She also dislikes when people pepper their speech with “like” or “uh.”
Despite this, she teaches History, not English. She has an idealised view of earlier times, and loves to read novels like Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, and Gone with the Wind. She leads a book club themed around such books, in fact.
The reason she’s so stict is due in part to her naggy, overbearing mother whom she’s never stood up to. Even at her age, Ms. Fletcher is still burdened by her tough-as-a-stump mother who never ceases to invade her personal life.
Besides her mother, she has two cats to keep her company, Wolfgang and Johan. They’re very tame, domestic cats that she tends to pamper. She won’t feed them any new brand of cat food without tasting it herself first.
She very much dislikes young children, because of how rude they often are. She never wants kids of her own. Her mother is not happy about this. Her emphasis on manners can be rather excessive. It’s not the cliche that if she ever solves her issues, she’ll let loose and forget manners completely, but she’d certainly be less grating about them. She’d even be comfortable enough to use some slang every so often.
Her favorite genre of music is opera, and she loves going to the theater. Don’t even insult her by calling rap a genre of music.
A motif for her would be an arrow, referencing her last name. She also happens to practice archery as a hobby. She has an arrow mounted on her wall, the first arrow she ever hit a bullseye with.
A color to represent her is red-violet. She has a red-violet ruby necklace that she wears fairly often, and she has a few red-violet dresses as well. The necklace was a gift from her dad before he passed away.
I could try to draw her but I’m not sure I could recreate your style very well. She doesn’t wear glasses, has shoulder-length wavy gray hair that she sometimes wears up, and pasty skin since she doesn’t go out in the sun very much. She wears modest dresses that border on old-fashioned, is about 5′ 8” and is just a tad bony. She likes to use a pointer stick that she smacks surfaces with to emphasise a point.
…Um, I guess that’s everything. I hope I did okay.
Glad to see you finally took a crack at it, Alectric. Good to have ya.
When you say she doesn’t like young children, does that include her teenage students? That’s a pretty big deal in terms of how I’m picturing her personality.
By young children I meant younger than teenagers. She’s fine with her students, as long as they’re respectful. I also noticed that you could combine a harp and an arrow for a sort of arrow-through-the-heart symbolism.
It’d be sweet if you picked my character, but I sense that you’re favoring Miss “sneezes when Carl’s around” and Miss “rhymes on a dime”. Well, here’s hoping I make the cut.
Kay, thanks for the clarification bro.
Haha, you’re the first person to actually comment on their competition here. Honestly, I’ve put serious consideration to like half of these, and your’s is one. The decision is still up in the air. I really like all the ones I’ve thought about seriously, and which ones I end up choosing will mostly revolve around whether I can/want to bring some more attention to teachers, like you and Dave’s submissions, or continue to focus more on kids.
In general, I like the submissions with more effort put into them, and obviously your’s ranks among those. It’s gonna be a hard choice, and I’m not just saying that to be nice. It’s gonna depend more on my writing ability to incorporate them into the characters I’ve already planned.
As a shameless attempt to improve my chances, I’ve gone and drawn my character. But…I can’t find your email address anywhere!
The one I got for this site is kyle@soulsymphonycomic.com, but I don’t ever check it, so just send it to pixelpro20@aim.com
Drawing the character doesn’t really improve chances at all, but whatever, send it anyway.
Name: Jennifer Anthony Malinowski
Age: 17
Secret: She is actually the byproduct of a nuclear missile accident the Russian government has covered up and it has caused the fusing three unlucky siblings! She looks like a normal person though so you won’t notice anything…
Instruments: organ, èrhú
She’s the socially awkward kid in the class (because she radiates radioactive waves that interfere with the brainwaves of the people around her and nobody approaches her). She’s an overall smart kid (radioactivity gives you +50 intelligence) and doesn’t like to do what others do explaining her choice of instruments (organs have especially proven to sound better under influence of radioactivity). She’s also getting bullied by the mean girls in school (the radioactivity she radiates is like a magnet for meanness). She has no friends and can’t wait for high school to end and to begin college (but this still takes aggravatingly long because the radioactivity around her has altered time-space and a day takes thrice as long in Jennifer’s mind). However, she has actually found a new reason to live (being radioactive automatically means you lose all previous meaning of life). Recently, she found someone in her school who was not a judgemental person in John (the theory goes that he’s to stupid and has no brainwaves to be affected). She’s a bit shy (but her cheeks don’t get red because she’s shy but because of the radioactivity ofcourse) so she ends up being a bit stalker-ish towards John (recent studies have indicated an increased level of stalkerism with radioactive people). But since John is pretty popular (?) and gets approached by all the hawt girls (like Olivia right? btw, all girls look hawt to Jennifer due to the radioactivity disturbing her line of sight and the neurons connecting her eyes with her brains) her inner heart is like a raging whirlpool of nuclear fission.
Favorite genre of music: As long as it’s music (so no hardcore or rap), prefers something alternative
Recurring motif: Melons, and I don’t mean those melons, but actual melons.
Colour: Radioactive orange.
The readable version:
She’s the socially awkward kid in the class. She’s an overall smart kid and doesn’t like to do what others do explaining her choice of instruments. She’s also getting bullied by the mean girls in school. She has no friends and can’t wait for high school to end and to begin college. However, she has actually found a new reason to live. Recently, she found someone in her school who was not a judgemental person in John. She’s a bit shy so she ends up being a bit stalker-ish towards John. But since John is pretty popular and gets approached by all the hawt girls her inner heart is like a raging whirlpool of nuclear fission.
Happy?
Oh man my grammar sucks. I wrote this in a jiffy.
Name: Lindsey Vilarti
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Instrument: Bass Clarinet
Three Facts:
1: She used to play clarinet, but her 8th grade band teacher asked if she would switch to bass clarient because he didn’t have anyone to play that part in his band. (She used to be in the same section with Oliva in Middle School.)
2: After school she cares for her ailing mother, Her mother has cancer and with no father in her life, she tends to her mother as much as she can. Her mother refers to her as her “little angel”.
3: Lindsey doesn’t have many friends, but she does enjoy watching movies and writing. She likes to live out her dreams in some of the stories she writes. She writes for the school literary magazine.
Major flaw: Lindsey’s good quality, selflessness (see switching instruments and caring for her mother) is also a flaw because she has constantly put others needs before her own so much she rarely does anything for herself. Many school acquintances seek her advice when it comes to writing and relationships, but she has no one to go to. She doesn’t get a chance to do much outside of school because she needs to help her mother.
Favorite Genre of Music: Classical
One recurring theme to represent the character: Angel wings or a bright light around her head, like a halo. The wings could be symbol on her notebooks or locker, and maybe on the back on a jacket her mother gave her.
Color: white – a pure, angelic tone.
Additional facts – Lindsey has short brown hair and brown eyes. She only has a few friends from school. She likes her “alone time” because she spends most of her day helping others. Lindsey is very insightful and sees the good in others. If she can’t pursue a career in writing, she would like to be a nurse or psychologist so she could continue to help others. Her father passed away when she was younger. He was an officer in the Army, He was in Afghanastan. He was a war casualty. One musical memory Lindsey has of her father is his love of a good Sousa march. He used to play the trombone in his high school band.
WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD.
AT A GLANCE
Name-??? (I’m not very good at coming up with names…)
Color-Navy Blue
Gender-Male
Race-African-American
Music Genre-Blues
Instrument-Harmonica
Hometown-New Orleans
VARIOUS INFO
He’s like a grandfatherly figure, and is always kind and usually slow to anger.
His face would be kind of like ol’ grandpa Sakai’s face, with a mostly full head of hair, but has a few streaks of grey in it.
An old veteran who served in the military (he was drafted), and tells his students about it; thus considered one of the “cooler” teachers by the students.
He also got a leg injury in the war, and has a limp because of it.
Even with the limp, though, he’s still pretty tall, and at first glance is imposing.
When he came back from the war, he found his wife and daughter killed by a hurricane, which he is part of his main problem; he feels that he should have been there.
Tends to be nostalgic.
He sports a somehow sad smile.
Main problem-feels that he should have been there for his family and friends; his wife and daughter haunt him especially.
Occasionally has minor breakdowns because of it.
The harmonica he plays was a gift from his daughter, given to him with a letter when he was serving in the military; as it was the last message he ever got from either of them, he keeps both the letter and the harmonica with him.
Sorry dude, the contest ended last November and I already chose 2 winners D: I’m also not accepting any more fan-characters :/ Turns out I’ve already got more characters than I know what to do with.
Thanks for the submission, though! I like it. It could have totally worked if I had room for a new story arc. With a grandfatherly character like that, I could’ve totally did a story arc with Olivia or Charlie learning to appreciate helping others more, or John learning to appreciate music even more. Also harmonica’s an awesome instrument.
Unfortunately I’m already cutting out a lot of plot ideas that even I came up with :[ Sorry bro, but thanks for the thought. I really did like it. I probably should have made it clearer that this contest was wrapped up.
D’OH!
I feel stupid now.
No problem, bro!
Doh! XD
waaaaay totatly missed it…… oh well, this stuff is fun reguardless… XD