... Is 'Mizaharian' even the right word? I'm not convinced myself.
I've been on this website, on an on-and-off basis, for a few years now. I've had a few different PCs over that time and none of them has stuck with me in the same way Amelia has managed to. It's not that she's the best developed PC I've had, or the one for the longest time, or the one with the coolest storylines or even the one with the highest post count.
I think it's because she's fun to write as.
I love writing. I always have. As a kid, whenever I went out to a pub/restaurant with my parents, they would come equipped with a pencil and little booklet for me to write a story or two in. I would usually write about animals, and I remember when I was around 10, I wrote a 15-page story for my best friend about a horse because hers had recently died and I wanted to make her feel better. It took me around a week to type on Microsoft Word (Windows 95 #tbt) and I think all that happened was this bloody horse went for a walk down the road on it's own and the owners went out to find it or something equally as mundane. I also wrote poems, and had a couple of published in a book and in a few magazines. My granddad used to carry my poems with him because he was so chuffed with them, which made he really happy (side note: I once wrote a poem about a discarded used tissue that lived under a bed, which sounds so much more disturbing now I'm adult and aware that used tissues under a bed are not always linked to colds).
I still love writing, but as an adult it's harder to write. RL gets in the way, and sometimes I just can't be arsed to write for whatever reason. This usually makes me feel frustrated and grumpy and I then do this thing where I say 'oh sod it then, I won't ever write again' and deprive myself for a couple of months/years.
In my RL life job, I'm an assistant Psychologist who works with kids. I love it, it's fulfilling rewarding etc. etc. but I've found it pretty useful to help me keep my life on track in the direction of where I want my 'good life' to be. It's helping me get back into writing, which includes me coming back to Mizahar to rekindle this relationship.
And when I made that decision, Amelia was the only PC that I knew would stick. She's the one that takes me back to being that weird kid writing about used tissues, which is a nice (if not slightly bizarre) feeling.
So. Onto the purpose of this scrapbook entry.
When I made Amelia, I had just watched Gone with the Wind (whilst in the bath, where I do most of my serious TV/movie watching). Scarlett O'Hara is one of my favourite characters in literature/tv/film because, for me, she treads that line between being so likeable and being a little shit-head. I think we all exist on that line one way or another, and how we feel about a person tells us whether they're more on one side of that line or the other.
When I made Amelia, I had a series of characters lifted from various sources that I wanted to use as inspiration for some dimension of her character. And I think it was this which has also helped Amelia stick as a PC for me.
Because the reality is, Amelia is not an original character. She's a combination of all the bitchy, prissy, self-absorbed, driven, stubborn, antagonistic, controlling, manipulative and superficial characters that I've seen in a book, film or TV series. Not even the cooky series or films that are shown in really small cinemas or have a really small fanbase, but big bloody blockbusters that every man and their dog has seen.
But again, for me this has really helped. It meant that I could easily think of a pre-creation history for Amelia, as well how she might react to the hundreds of weird and wonderful PCs and NPC on this website. I always think of her as my pre-made cake mixture PC, because the way I made her meant that I really only needed to add in the eggs and water to the base that was already there in order to get a functioning and fun PC to write. I don't know that makes me lazy, in-genius, or a bit of both.
I don't want to do an injustice to myself as a writer or Amelia as a PC, however. So recently I've tried to flesh out the ready-made bits of Amelia to try and make myself feel a bit less guilty and bit more creative. This post is the result of that. I've had a look into the characters that Amelia is inspired by, and wanted to be a bit more specific about the aspects of their characters that are present or absent in Amelia as well.
I figured there might be someone on here who might find this a useful idea as a thing to do with their own PC, but if not, then it's useful for me to have on file for if I ever get stuck or lost with Amelia. So. Onto the characters:
I realise there might be spoilers for some people if they haven't seen/read the things listed below (though most of these films and movies are hugely popular and probably seen by most people. But, warning nonetheless!!)
the rest will follow later today. I'm about to make pasteis de natas for the first time and i think I've procrastinated enough.
I've been on this website, on an on-and-off basis, for a few years now. I've had a few different PCs over that time and none of them has stuck with me in the same way Amelia has managed to. It's not that she's the best developed PC I've had, or the one for the longest time, or the one with the coolest storylines or even the one with the highest post count.
I think it's because she's fun to write as.
I love writing. I always have. As a kid, whenever I went out to a pub/restaurant with my parents, they would come equipped with a pencil and little booklet for me to write a story or two in. I would usually write about animals, and I remember when I was around 10, I wrote a 15-page story for my best friend about a horse because hers had recently died and I wanted to make her feel better. It took me around a week to type on Microsoft Word (Windows 95 #tbt) and I think all that happened was this bloody horse went for a walk down the road on it's own and the owners went out to find it or something equally as mundane. I also wrote poems, and had a couple of published in a book and in a few magazines. My granddad used to carry my poems with him because he was so chuffed with them, which made he really happy (side note: I once wrote a poem about a discarded used tissue that lived under a bed, which sounds so much more disturbing now I'm adult and aware that used tissues under a bed are not always linked to colds).
I still love writing, but as an adult it's harder to write. RL gets in the way, and sometimes I just can't be arsed to write for whatever reason. This usually makes me feel frustrated and grumpy and I then do this thing where I say 'oh sod it then, I won't ever write again' and deprive myself for a couple of months/years.
In my RL life job, I'm an assistant Psychologist who works with kids. I love it, it's fulfilling rewarding etc. etc. but I've found it pretty useful to help me keep my life on track in the direction of where I want my 'good life' to be. It's helping me get back into writing, which includes me coming back to Mizahar to rekindle this relationship.
And when I made that decision, Amelia was the only PC that I knew would stick. She's the one that takes me back to being that weird kid writing about used tissues, which is a nice (if not slightly bizarre) feeling.
So. Onto the purpose of this scrapbook entry.
When I made Amelia, I had just watched Gone with the Wind (whilst in the bath, where I do most of my serious TV/movie watching). Scarlett O'Hara is one of my favourite characters in literature/tv/film because, for me, she treads that line between being so likeable and being a little shit-head. I think we all exist on that line one way or another, and how we feel about a person tells us whether they're more on one side of that line or the other.
When I made Amelia, I had a series of characters lifted from various sources that I wanted to use as inspiration for some dimension of her character. And I think it was this which has also helped Amelia stick as a PC for me.
Because the reality is, Amelia is not an original character. She's a combination of all the bitchy, prissy, self-absorbed, driven, stubborn, antagonistic, controlling, manipulative and superficial characters that I've seen in a book, film or TV series. Not even the cooky series or films that are shown in really small cinemas or have a really small fanbase, but big bloody blockbusters that every man and their dog has seen.
But again, for me this has really helped. It meant that I could easily think of a pre-creation history for Amelia, as well how she might react to the hundreds of weird and wonderful PCs and NPC on this website. I always think of her as my pre-made cake mixture PC, because the way I made her meant that I really only needed to add in the eggs and water to the base that was already there in order to get a functioning and fun PC to write. I don't know that makes me lazy, in-genius, or a bit of both.
I don't want to do an injustice to myself as a writer or Amelia as a PC, however. So recently I've tried to flesh out the ready-made bits of Amelia to try and make myself feel a bit less guilty and bit more creative. This post is the result of that. I've had a look into the characters that Amelia is inspired by, and wanted to be a bit more specific about the aspects of their characters that are present or absent in Amelia as well.
I figured there might be someone on here who might find this a useful idea as a thing to do with their own PC, but if not, then it's useful for me to have on file for if I ever get stuck or lost with Amelia. So. Onto the characters:
I realise there might be spoilers for some people if they haven't seen/read the things listed below (though most of these films and movies are hugely popular and probably seen by most people. But, warning nonetheless!!)
Glinda, Wicked :
Regina George, Mean Girls (film and musical) :
Elle Woods, Legally blonde (film only) :
the rest will follow later today. I'm about to make pasteis de natas for the first time and i think I've procrastinated enough.
