Uncle Mike’s Ramblings: Changes
When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful
And all the birds in the magical trees
Well they’d be singing so happily
Joyfully playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach how to be sensible
Logical responsible practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical intellectual cynical
- The Logical Song by Supertramp
People change. Over the course of your life your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, hair, teeth, and everything else will change multiple times. Hell, in the course of a few years you’ll probably notice changes in your mind and body. Ten years ago, I was semi-religious and a registered Democrat. Five years ago, I believed that most players in Major League Baseball were clean. A year ago I had full extension in my left hand. None of those things are true anymore. None of them were overnight changes- they were slow, gradual evolutions of thoughts and abilities. Just like everyone else, I’m changing, growing, re-evaluating…
So shouldn’t your character evolve as well?
I’m not talking about changing entrance songs, or ring attire, or getting a new haircut… although all of those can help. I’m talking about minor changes as well as major changes- attitudes, beliefs, desires; everything should be up for grabs. Nothing gets boring faster than a character that doesn’t change over time. There are people I’ve watched roleplay for eight years that are writing the exact same character as they were back in 2001. It’s boring to me, and I can’t believe it’s not boring to write.
In my own character’s arc, he went from a devoted family man just trying to get a break in wrestling to someone so obsessed with his place in wrestling history that he doesn’t care about anything else. It didn’t happen overnight, of course, but through a series of minor changes. When you say the starting and end point like that, it seems jarring. It seems like something done for the sake of change. Over the course of a decade, though, it just sort of happened.
Just letting the change happen is important. Change needs to be organic for it to work. Sure, there are probably some people who discover their Jamaican roots in their mid-twenties and immediately start wearing dreads and embracing island life… which a character in a past fed did… but isn’t it more likely someone would discover they have Jamaican heritage, learn more about the culture, rebel against not being who they thought they were, and then slowly incorporate the dreads and such?
Physical changes are the ones I see rushed most often. People go from a hundred and eighty pound cruiser to a two hundred and fifty pound brawler in a week and a half. Fighting styles change from purely power to nothing but technical in two weeks. Personally, I changed Snake Eyes dramatically physically over the decade I used the character. He started as six feet, five inches tall and two hundred and forty pounds, a pure brawler. When I retired the character, he was six feet, four inches tall and weighed two hundred and eighty two pounds. He was also an accomplished technical wrestler. The changes took years, though… and were accomplished by mentions to his insane work-out schedule for adding the weight, and obsession with getting better and training for the technical skill. Growing six inches in a week and gaining eighty pounds of muscle is something that just isn’t going to happen, and it will stick right in the craw of the reader.
Another bad example… a guy in a previous federation decided one day his white, suburban character was actually a black man who lives in the ghetto. Yes, that’s a pretty significant change, and sure, change is good for the character… but how many people have changed races in the middle of their life? One, and he molests children. Of course, this guy took it a step further and became half black half Mexican a few months later when the fed held a show in Mexico. And then started using a British accent.
Could those changes have been made to work? Maybe. The white to black switch is just a bit too out there… but finding out you’re half Hispanic? Not impossible. Especially with the show being in Mexico- you could do a series of roleplays where the character keeps seeing an old Mexican man wherever he goes, and eventually confronts the man. Maybe the man is holding a picture, and the picture is of the wrestler’s mother. Bam, you’ve now added half-Mexican to your racial mix, in a logical manner that works, at least by wrestling standards.
And the British accent? Well, have the character spend some time in England, and let it develop over time. Taking time and letting things happen in something that resembles a natural timeline makes it easier for the reader to accept, and a lot less jarring when they realize what a major change has taken place. My favorite example is also my favorite ewrestling character- a man who went from a foul-mouthed sadistic heel trying to make ends meet to someone with transvestite tendencies in a romantic relationship with his sister raising his nephew as his son… who was also a foul-mouthed sadistic face. And it made complete and total sense. It took four years for the character to move from point A to point B, and because it was done slowly and smoothly I didn’t find it odd until a friend joined the fed and said “What the fuck is up with him?”
People change. The change is usually gradual, and minute. It’s about baby steps. Change is necessary for survival, though- both as a human and as a character. And the more logical and natural you make the changes, the more material you get, and the more likely it is for the change to be accepted by the readers.
