Writing a Cloud Cuckoolander

Okay, so I've got an otter-bat hybrid who's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a Sweet Tooth and a bad case of Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! She's a character in a webcomic I'm trying to make. Every time I write dialogue for her, though, it comes across as rather Pinkie Pie-ish.

I created her before the first episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic aired, so I'm wondering — how can I make her not seem overly like an Expy of Pinkie Pie?

Just write her as a lunatic and tell anyone who accuses you of stealing to fuck off.

Writing a crazy person is tricky, so the first thing I'd recommend is to stop looking at it with tropes. The key is to make them unpredictable, something that is easy to miss if you are basing the character around tropes.

As one of the few people on the planet with only a tangential knowledge of Friendship is Magic, I say that you shouldn't worry too much about whether or not your character is like another. People are going to make comparisons (yourself included), and the best thing you can do is soldier on and keep writing.

That aside, think carefully about what your cuckoolander can offer. How does she speak? (As in, does she have a verbal tic? Speaks in a way that contrasts with her age? Maybe she makes up words?) What sort of mannerisms and body language does she have? Since it's a webcomic, you can add lots of visual cues and flourishes easily. How do other characters react to her? Is her oddness something to be laughed at, annoyed by, or even afraid of? By extension, what kind of reaction do you want your audience to have?

Basically, just keep asking yourself questions about what you can do with this character, and what this character can do for you. I will say this, though: in my experience, the more random and — as arcsquad said — unpredictable you make them, the better off you'll be.

Stay up unusually late, to the point that you are half-drunk from exhaustion, and write out a little monologue from her perspective. Mild to moderate sleep deprivation is possibly the best way to experience borderline automatism without either the euphoric impairment of mind-altering substances or the hellish discomfort of true sleep deprivation. Once you get in that frame of mind—speaking one's mind regardless of appropriateness, yet also in a very particular character—it becomes much easier to write from that kind of perspective.

Now if you excuse me, I am going to take a nap now...

Honestly? Don't worry about it. Try and look up other C Cs, take inspiration from them.

She can say "Oh man, look at that guy there, he's such a thing, that's pretty great."

edited 27th May '12 1:30:40 PM by Twentington

One suggestion that I've heard on writing Cloudcuckoolanders is that their seemingly bizzarre lines should make sense to them, sometimes even in a way that can seem like Insane Troll Logic. I actually think like this sometimes. For instance, your Cloudcuckoolander is in a conversation about birds. They hear birds, and might think 'bird > bird shit > the white part of bird shit is actually their urine > ranch dressing looks kinda like bird urine > you dip vegetables in ranch dressing > broccoli is a vegetable', therefore, they talk about broccoli.

I do that. My trains-of-thought are usually less gross, though, if more morbid.

edited 28th May '12 2:47:10 AM by JHM

I dunno, I just came up with that off the top of my head. Sure says a lot about me as a person, doesn't it?

You can also practice with a little scene between your Cloud Cuckoolander and another character, or a group of characters. Going back to what Voltech said, you can see how she responds to them, and vice versa.

Normally, I would say don't worry about similarities, since people will always be able to find similarities between your characters and some other character. However, since that's already been said several times already, I'm going to suggest something completely radical and I'm not entirely sure how well it'll work. I just came up with this right now.

Try writing your character and Pinkie Pie in a scene together. Make it non-canon and allow anything to happen, but force the two characters to interact with one another, with the focus of identifying their subtle differences. I some how get the feeling that by putting your mind into both characters and having them play off of each other, you may be able to find differences between your character and Pinkie Pie's, thus allowing you to figure out how you can write this character as an individual without seeming like an exact duplicate of Pinkie.

But if that doesn't work, just write the character you want to write and don't worry about comparisons.

http://caiel.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4vrecb

I've been told that Pie is one of these, feel free to take from it what you will, or not..

I've never really tried writing existing characters before. I can never seem to write anyone else's characters — I just can't make it seem like it's them. Like, picking up on what they do, how they would talk vs. another character, etc.

However, watching a lot of Raocow does kinda put me in a thing with a thing where I get all non-sequitur-y and buffy-speak-y with words that kinda bend around like weasels because you know, the mustelid family is so long and skinny that you can tie them up in knots and it doesn't even hurt them or anything.

edited 28th May '12 12:49:53 AM by Twentington

Okay, seriously, how do I make an otter-bat and never think of what she's like in flight?

For the record, Cloud Cuckoolander's offset by a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, also female. I've decided they're roommates and play off each other.

That said, how do I make a jerk not overly jerk-y? I don't want her to be a Complete Monster, but I just can't think of what situations, etc. would show her softer sides, or how well said softer side would be hidden.

[petpeevetropemisuse]

There's a lot more to being a Complete Monster then a 'jerk'.

[/petpeevetropemisuse]

Jerks are impolite, but they are human beings. Complete Monsters are so irredeemably evil that they cease to seem like a rational human being. It is also possible to be evil enough for accusations of Complete Monsterness to not be completely baseless without being impolite.

edited 1st Jun '12 7:50:36 PM by CrystalGlacia

But under what situation can a jerk be legitimately happy? I don't want her to be like "I'm not happy unless I've beaten someone to a pulp".

...under most normal scenarios. Most people who are jerks do not see them as jerks.

Yes, it's true that jerks can be cynical people. Some people become jerks because they see little merit in showing kindness to other human beings, usually due to one too many failings of human interactions. Maybe the jerk was treated differently, and that's why they're a jerk, but they see somethig different or even admirable in the cloudcuckoolander. Maybe they find the cuckoolander's honesty with who she is admirable, or they have some kind of a common interest in something. Common interests and other similarities are where mutual respect and friendships spout and take root.

That's what I had imagined. That they have some common bond, like they both like a certain food, both are good with computers, whatever. I imagine the jerk having a lot of Pet the Dog moments toward the cuckoolander.

Do you just not know any jerks or something? If so I envy the heck out of you because I'm intimately familiar with the subject on account of there being jerks all up in it over here.

But yeah there's 3 main kinds of jerk that come to mind: firstly accidental jerks, who genuinely try to be nice but just don't understand why things that make perfect sense to them always seem to end up hurting others - that's me, I think. Then you have jerks who are jerks because they deliberately like to keep people at a distance, usually because they're afraid of being hurt, or they've just got tired of dealing with people's bullshit. 'Heart of gold' jerks are usually these. Then you have actual Jerkass jerks who could be nice if they tried but just genuinely don't give a crap or actively enjoy your suffering. Fuck those guys.

But if your jerk is either of the first 2 types, it's often just a matter of getting to know them since once you're past the 'barriers' they can actually be pretty good company. Perhaps your cuckoolander's natural obliviousness and enthusiasm meant they were the only one that stuck around long enough to actually get to know the 'jerk' for who they are rather than the image they project. I've seen that happen more than once IRL.

Not to mention that sometimes the jerk is the only one who'll put up with the energetic person's craziness, because they like playing the Deadpan Snarker and secretly enjoy the attention, when others would just find it annoying.

edited 4th Jun '12 6:35:15 PM by Kesteven

The jerks I knew were mostly in high school, which was 10 years ago. I graduated at 15 and don't get out too much, at least not to the point that I see any particular person who isn't related to me for more than an hour or so at a time. I don't have any means of transportation, and my town doesn't have any "hang out" places for people my age — no mall, movie theater, arcade, music store, whatever.

One thing that I see forming here is an arc of their friendship growing from "remember, cuckoolander, the only reason you live here is because you're saving me on rent" to "like really close sisters" — like you said, because cuckoolander keeps chipping away at jerk's usual stoic exterior.

Experienceproject.com, the group titled "I am a cloudcuckoolander". I take a good part of my inspiration for my less-than-sequitur characters from there. You might need an account to read any of it but it's free and takes around a minute to make. There are such exemples as a exchange of tips of how to better spread drool across a car window with your nose.

Pair him with a Big Eater and a Karmic Trickster. Hilarity Ensues....

Perhaps if the Cloud Cuckoolander and Jerk with a Heart of Gold had a common enemy that forced them to pool their resources...? Of course, I'm of the old "if-all-else-fails-drop-a-boulder-on-the-problem" school of writing....

edited 22nd Jun '12 9:25:21 PM by HaggisMcCrablice