# Question about all these "casting" threads



## Corto (Dec 11, 2009)

I'll repeat the question here because that way more people will probably see it (and promptly ignore me):


Corto said:


> After reading this and the comics subforum, I have a question: What is up with furries and "casting" their fiction pieces? What happened to making original characters?
> Don't take this as an insult or anything, I'm geniunely curious. I don't know how the whole fursona thing works, but if you take a random already-made character/avatar and put it in as a main character in a comic, book or whatever that already has a plot and probably the specific roles these personas would play written, don't you have the risk of going against the personality of said already established character in order to make him fit the role? Or if you take pointers on the personality and behaviour of these personas, how do you make an external and existant character fit the role you need? Do you write your whole story after knowing who will play the roles? Or are all of them just gonna appear as forced cameos and namedrops?
> I could understand if you only used friends of yours or their characters in your work, but "recruiting" random characters from forums you barely visit (if at all) seems risky, needlessly complicated and a cheap way to get attention. Isn't it much more fun (and a better learning experience) just creating your own, original characters?
> 
> This isn't for this specific case, but for any writer that could answer. This just seems weird to me.


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## M. LeRenard (Dec 11, 2009)

There have been quite a few heated discussions about this issue in the Bloc.  Most writers think the way you do, from what I can tell.
I see borrowing others' characters as kind of a novice thing to do.  Like writing fanfiction, really.  You do it for fun, but if you're serious about publishing, then you need to expand your abilities a little more and start making all original works.  Because they have to work as a whole unit, right?  And you can't do that properly if you have input from so many different people (which means you start having to make compromises).  
So if you've got ideas from Joe Blow and Jane Blane and Geoff Beff all vying for time in YOUR work, you're gonna' run into issues.  It's a bit like if you gather together a brass band, practice as a group until everyone is in tune with everyone else, and then on the day of your concert you decide to recruit a flute player, an oboe player, and a cellist.  You don't really have parts for any of these instruments, so you have to force them into the group by giving them trumpet or tuba parts or what have you, and in the end all it does is add sounds that a brass band never needed.
And then there are the legal ramifications.  Suppose you publish your book with the characters of sixteen people, and then five of those people want a cut of the profit.  Since you're using their intellectual property, they have a right to that cut.  And if you don't give it to them, they are legally able to sue you for it.
It's just all around better to write your own material.  Unless, as I said, you're just doing it for fun.


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## Corto (Dec 11, 2009)

Thanks for the reply, Renard. 

It's not even about getting published or, you know, the experience you get from actually creating the characters, the problem I see is more basic than that, the simple question of how the hell does it work. Even with fanfiction you have "canned" characters and settings but you know what you're working with. Sure, it must be hard getting the tone right, but if you write a, I dont know, Star Wars fic you know the setting and the characters and the fact that they'll mix. You know, from before writing, that the main character is Darth Vader and how he'll act in every situation you create. If you take random characters you dont know and try to fit them (and their personalities) into an already written story as the main characters... it's more like preparing for that concert you mentioned and, at the last minute, deciding to have a lumberjack, a serial rapist and a flea join in instead of other musicians. As far as I've seen (admitedly not much) these people don't even worry about having, I don't know, medieval characters join their fantasy story, they just have the first guy to reply playing the Holy Imperator of the Unending Sorrow or whatever.


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## Shinzuu_Katame (Dec 11, 2009)

well, sometimes it's just a case of more characters than a creative mind. i actually started the casting because my friends wanted to create a character to be a part of it. when more people asked about it, i just decided to post to see if others wanted to be in it. I'm not asking for people's own personal works that they are working on. people just make up things out of thin air. if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. i'm glad that you were honest and that you expressed more sincere curiousity instead of bashing us who take these steps in writing a book. to be perfectly honest, i only decided last minute to try this with the whole series, instead of just one of the books because of the positive response i received. but make no mistake, the number of opposition to the idea greatly outnumber those who support it. 

i mean, personally, i know that i enjoy seeing a character i made be posted or published in a book. i've only had that experience once (actual publication), but it was a true joy to see a character that i thought up in brainstorm come to life. at the time, i was just a reader and had no idea how to write. so there may be few people like me, but there are those out there that just like to see an idea come to life, and what not.

having a character and knowing what he's going to do is fun for a little while. but to not know what's going to know what happens next gives you just a little bit more thrill. also, it's a good way of getting inspiration for actual personal characters that you're working on, y'know? a friend of mine, a few years back did the same thing for me, too. even though he never got it published, i saw a character that i cooked up out of the back of my head come to life in his comic, and it had inspired my creation of my original character, Shinzuu Katame, and it's webcomic production for a year.

though it upsets me sometimes, it warms my heart on occasion, to see the name Shinzuu pop up on a lot of fanfics and other sites. up until 2 months after my first postings (all copyrighted), the name "Shinzuu" turned up no results on any search engines except google, which linked to my comic. so i understand yall's viewpoint of stolen originalities, however, it's als good to see people inspired by your work. for weeks i had contacted the people who use that name on other sites, and they told me they were all inspired by my comic. after another month, people just use it because they saw the name on one of their sites. that part upsets me, but i'm more glad that the initial people who found that comic were inspired, and i'm content with that.


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