How much time have you put into your character(s)?

[Sky]

Call me curious, I suppose. I find it funny how people sometimes only put in a few hours or so for their mane ones, then spend a day working on a bad guy, or support character.

For example, I've spent about twenty, total on Hazel. Roleplaying, redeveloping, rewriting, and just sitting down and thinking until my head hurt. She started out as a cop who was raped, and is now a scholar who was caught in a collapsing building, has two prosthetic limbs, and no family, among other things. I even have her death mentally written.

Sky Blue, however, I've spent about thirty hours, although a few of those were figuring out Discordian Lore and theories on all kinds of magic, from Vocal to Symbol. As well as figuring out HER death, since it's vital to the creation of Cael Tempesta, her... Uhh... Technically her daughter, technically.

Canna Belle, however, the third of my mane three, I've spent about six hours on. Her story is simple, her character is straightforward with a few subtleties, but otherwise, she's rather simple.

And yet my antagonists, like Bunsen Burner, I've spent about two days or so on, mainly figuring out where he comes from, the lore surrounding that place, and so on. (I count stuff like that as working on the character themselves, because it's required for the character)

So yeah, it's funny how much time we spend on some things, even if we either never use them, or rarely do. How much time have you guys spent?

[RarityDash]

No idea.

Probably a lot. I've been RPing on Canterlot for almost three years now. What it transfers out to among the characters themselves, I have no real clue. Writing a character app can take me an hour or two if I'm really inspired and more if I'm less so, so there's that. That's not to go into how much time I spend mulling over the ideas before I draft the app either. As for actual RP time though, I wouldn't be able to give a good estimate. A long post can take me upwards of an hour to write. For some of my more used characters, like Radiant Steel and Snowfall, I've probably put days into. Even more time has been spent on the mane cast I play, since they usually end up in more immediate threads; it'd be interesting to know just how much of my time I've invested in writing RP posts for Gilda and Rarity.

As for the difference between antagonists and other characters, I don't know if it's varied too much in the development phase for me. Arcana, Brenda Razorclaw, Luxuria, Slick Noir and such took as much time for me to develop as the rest for the most part. I've, definitely, however, used them all less in RP thus far. That might just be because of how the game at Canterlot is organized though; it's easy for the nice ponies since most threads are social and positive in tone. Now with Canterlot Chronicles that might change; I haven't been playing her long I've already logged a few hours with Chrysalis I'm pretty sure.

[Dio]

I've lost track of the hours I've spent crafting characters. They start with a core concept that is developed and polished over time. I almost always make multiple revision passes, as being meticulous is firmly ingrained in me from my upbringing.

I do not have any true villain characters. Even my more rough cut characters like Argyrus and Roshina and decidedly amoral characters such as Valerian Titanclaw are protagonists in their own storylines. If you cannot have the characters convince themselves that they are doing the right thing, then it makes it extremely difficult to write for them.

I'll be the first to admit that many of the characters I've created recently have not been used yet and I apologize for that. Real life stuff comes first, but I'll always try to make time for my little ponies on this board

[moonshineTheleocat]

So far the only one I own?

So many hours on it that I have actually fell behind in my school work over the break. But then I got caught up!

SO I BROKE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS! POW-shot

But yes, so much time, that I haven't even added a new avatar image on this forum.

I am... the faceless pony! *play dramatic music.*

[QuickLime]

I have 40+ Characters

Wanna try to figure out how long?

[Sky]

Probably a few weeks in total. Since, back when I had a normal amount like forty, I'd spent a few weeks in total.

I miss those days.

[QuickLime]

A few weeks would be incorrect 8D

[Sky]

Too high, or too low? I know that around the time I hit a hundred, I'd been working for three months. Unless you put more time into yours, individually?

[Slazer]

I find I do spend more time on my antagonistic characters, when drafting characters for fanfics or RPing in general. Memory Lane was revised three times and built upon for days in his original fanfic incarnation; oddly, his far nicer retool for WoE was done over the span of hours.

That being said, my protagonists can be time-and-creativity sinks, too. I guess I'm like Rarity; everything depends on my inspiration for something. Crescent Quill, the lead character for the fic that Memory Lane originates from, took me far longer to create than either Lane or any of the supporting cast simply because I had no idea where I was going with her for the longest time.

[Ashton]

Depends. Some characters just pop into my mind fully formed with a personality and then get expanded through RP (mostly on sites that dont require apps) while others take me many hours to complete (especially since I spent YEARS in the "development through RP" group where you just get the basics and let the character grow and change like happens to a person IRL)

For non-app "develop through RP" I'd say I spend at MOST an hour, for those I have to fully develop in the beginning as an app I'd say anywhere from an hour or two to 10-12 hours spread out over several days. (Even ones who are based on existing characters often go through extensive changes)

[PrinceKeptu]

Far too much time that I could ever count seeing as I am constantly adjusting the good majority of them.

[Bellosh]

I don't really keep track of how long I take to write apps. I will say that as I've gotten more confident with the system, the less time it takes me to work on something before I feel happy with the result. Sometimes, things prevent me from finishing apps right away; sometimes I can think about an idea for a month or more without typing anything down.

As for the time it takes me to write posts, my general rule is to spend more time on conflict-based RPs than meet-and-greets. That means that on average, my villains and antagonists get lengthier posts while other ponies, even cast like Derpy Hooves, I feel comfortable with skimping out on. It's not fun for me to pad out posts where the actions being performed are rote and mundane.

[CDiscord]

Not a whole lot. I didn't bother nor care to have a character for the longest time, my first year and a half in the fandom. Finally made one on a whim. Spent a few hours total on design and cutie mark, wrote a minor wall of text for his info, got a generator image for him, got a nice commission for him, and...that's about it xD Because I don't roleplay and I barely write, he hasn't gotten too much action yet.

[soundwav3]

I imagine the process to create a new functional character is much longer and arduous when compared to analyzing an existing character with set personality and source material to draw from. Not saying that the latter is easy by any stretch of the imagination but it is more concrete. I've rp'd as many existing characters from multiple Transformers continuities (the most fun and favorite being Starscream). Is easy to put him to paper just by having seen one or two episodes but creating my own bot... I just stare at a blank screen and I dont even know where to begin half the time ...

I say Transformers because while I have kind of a pony character I spent days on him and just couldn't figure out how to make him feel functional.