Need a little help with writers block.

[EldritchFire]

Hello EldritchFire here with a bit of a problem I've been having for the past few days. I've come to a realization that has left a cold chill in my bones and a sour taste upon my tongue. I'm a bad guy. Now I don't mean I personally kick puppies or push cripples down stairs, nothing that horrendous. I just mean I excel at making evil or at least morally gray characters. So when the need arises for me to make a 'good' character I tend to struggle a little.

My character Eldritch Tome was supposed to be up three days ago, complete and ready for review, but I kept running into minor problems that my writers blocked mind feels are much bigger than they are so I stop. The main one I'm running into, and will clear the way for me to finish him, is the matter of his occupation and aspirations.

I want my just and righteous little pony to be involved in law enforcement of some kind, and if possible to become part of Equestria's military forces in Staliongrad later, through roleplay if that is possible. My hitch? I read that reserve military forces are used in administration and law enforcement. Does Eldritch have to be part of the military to be involved in the enforcement of law in Stalliongrad? If so it kind of puts a damper on my plans.

Now while I'm sure I've misread something that I just can't find again or I'm just over thinking this. Either way I need a little help. At most a few suggestions, at minimum someone to tell me I'm over thinking all this.

[8bitIcecube]

Aha! Maybe my random gibberish can cast a new light on how you look at your character.

Let me say, the more details and background you already can put into the character, the more direct flow of ideas you get from people here.

Try to specify his personality, his ideals, his history. And figure out a plan from there. If you really want him to be involved into military, I'd suggest studying that here, or somewhere else.

Now for some ideas:

Your character screams PRIVATE DETECTIVE to me. Something along the lines of Rorschach (he's a tad grim for this).

Or bounty hunter near the borderlands. Or any kind of inspector.

Try to work some more details in your character:

• What does his cutiemark mean?
  
• What type of magic does he specialize in?
  
• Does he like cupcakes?
  
• What makes him seek to bring justice.
  
• Why didn't he save that little filly from those bandits?
  

The more you give us, the more we can give you.

Hope this rambling helps even a tad.

[Noctriix]

Another option you could do is to say within your application is that he DESIRES to pursue some sort of law enforcement career. So that way, you can implement this desire through roleplay, rather than writing it down directly, and forcing it to be held up by rules. That way, his occupation could even change during different roleplays. Unless you have a character that you already plan to be doing a certain job, it is much easier to simply suggest what the pony wishes to do, and what motivates him, so that way, you could build his career through fun and exciting roleplay, rather than just sitting and *mumble grumbling* through all the little details. If the block stays with you, then simplify things, being overcomplicated with your own character sometimes is the biggest cause of writer's block. Just let it... flow?

Hope that helps /:

[Lux]

A great way to develop a character is to think of what they want and not give it to them. Sounds strange? Let me explain.

Character development is evolution, moving them from one norm to another. A stagnant character isn't really interesting and could easily lead to role play burnout.

Say for example you have a character who wants to become a good artist. Well, maybe if you add a flaw to the character where he/she takes all criticism as negative, thus preventing him/her from improving. Now that character has to overcome that problem to then get to solving the main problem. note that you shouldn't have something that makes a character impossible to get their desires met. And not giving a character what they wan shouldn't be forever. It's just a temporary problem.

When not giving a character what they want right at the start, other characters can help the pony overcome this problem and maybe lead the character to another way to get a goal met.

[Rosewind]

If you're facing writers' block, rather than force yourself, do the opposite and take a break. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and when it strikes, you'll definitely know it.

[Noctriix]

name='Rosewind' timestamp='1341245476' post='229021']

If you've facing writers' block, rather than force yourself, do the opposite and take a break. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and when it strikes, you'll definitely know it.

Incredible advice right there ^^

[EldritchFire]

My problem stems from lack of knowledge, not of my character but of the situation he's going to be in. I didn't know whether or not he had to be a part of the military to be a police officer pretty much, that's kinda how the VSS border of battle made it sound. Which seeing as I wanted him to be an officer before a soldier would kind of complicate things.

Try to specify his personality, his ideals, his history. And figure out a plan from there. If you really want him to be involved into military, I'd suggest studying that here, or somewhere else.

Your character screams PRIVATE DETECTIVE to me. Something along the lines of Rorschach (he's a tad grim for this).

Or bounty hunter near the borderlands. Or any kind of inspector.

Believe me, I've nommed my way through the REA and VSS Orders of Battle so I'd know what I'm getting into.

Inspector is pretty much exactly what I was going for but a PI might be a nice alteration. Eldritch PIe!

I have more experience playing an investigator than a officer anyway.

If you've facing writers' block, rather than force yourself, do the opposite and take a break. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and when it strikes, you'll definitely know it.

Eh this blocks been there for almost a week and a half. I gotta push through it. I'm about to start a new job and once that happens I won't have time to to set around and think about my character , but it seems that coming to you all was a good call....again. I've actually started writing again