WEBTOON Basics How-to: Create Interesting Characters and Relationship Networks
GCC Academy
Learning Goals To explain the power of a work centered around an interesting character To explain the characteristics of such character To explain how to deliver a story through a relationship network based on the character's desire
Learning Contents Power and characteristics of an interesting character Relationship network based on the character's desire
HAGA, Webtoonist Debut 2014 Webtoon: For the Sake of Sita Experiences Mentor at Seoul Webtoon Academy (SWA) Works King's Maker Nessun Dorma: None Shall Sleep
Hello, I'm Lee Sangmi, a Webtoonist who goes by the pen name HAGA
My recent work is King's Maker at KakaoPage
This lecture's topic is
Because characters deliver the stories
The title is To Create Interesting Character and Their Relationship Network
We will talk about how to build a character
And how to develop the character in a commercial sense
We'll first talk about the power of a character-centered work with examples
And then the characteristics of a character that differs within the same condition
Then a how-to of a relationship network based on the character's desire
Then a fun way to have the character retain their uniqueness
These are the four things we will talk about together
Power and Characteristics of an Interesting Character
A quote from a book called Drama Academy says this
To be a storyteller, you need three-dimensional characters
Having depth in the character's personality, history, environment, goal and more
This will make the characters alive, and this wil make the story
Because they will tell their own stories
Meaning, the story will unfold itself when the character can act on their own
Adding on, you should not only fit your characters into your story
But also shape them so that the readers can easily familiarize and digest them
This is because Webtoon consumption has changed in this contemporary society
Right after the Industrial Revolution, the society has enjoyed its civilization
They were past the era of making their own clothes and food
It was now the era of the ready-made's
Stable goods were distributed through mass production in small variety
However, the human society expanded further from the basic life of clothing, food and housing
Now, in order to satisfy personal preference
We have entered the era of small quantity batch production
This means that people customize their orders
Or individuals consult professionals themselves
This is what we see in Webtoon consumption as well
Many platforms do not limit themselves with big genres such as romance, fantasy, action or thriller
Black-hair or blonde-hair male character, female character who has lost her memory, the theme of regretting man
Or even specific keywords for endings, such as happy or sad
These are now included in the introduction of the work
So that people can choose on their own in consuming the work
These are the keywords of my work, King's Maker
Because there is a need for those who only want works with top rates
There is a category for the works over 4 star rates
And the male character in this work
The top-position character is an emperor
Thus the keywords: rich top, historical
BL, fantasy, SF are more keywords
Also Korean-BL, something specifically from Korea
And there may be those who want a work with a handsome couple
Or those who want a handsome top and a normal-looking bottom
So the characteristics themselves, such as hot-top and hot-bottom are the keywords here
And in my work, the black-haired character
Is a smart one who uses this ability
To bring this blonde-haired character up to the throne
And all the hardships along the journey are included
In keywords such as suffering-bottom, clever-bottom, plotting-bottom
And in prioritizing the other character's success over his own love
The keyword hurt-bottom also signifies
Such hardships in the story as a preview in the keywords list
As you see, in the keyword search page for Webtoon/Comic
Romance and romance-fantasy are two separate genres
As well as a pure-love romance and a love-building romance
Fantasy and historical are also in a similar category
Yet separated here for the readers to choose their desired keyword
Campus and School related genre were also
Grouped in one big category before
But they are now separated for the genre's background
And the usual themes: reincarnation, posession, transmigration
There are subcategories for whether it's the souls changing, time slip, or transmigrated-reincarnation
For relationship, a love triangle, with three or more main characters
From friends to lover, forbidden love, one-directional love, first love
You can choose the details of that romance
For the male character, younger boyfriend, bad boy, regretting man
These are the keywords of the stance of the male character
Same with the female character: clever, bad girl
Or all the way back, pure love, sweet, bright
All these keywords are those that describe the female character that we can choose
Als, some readers want the work to be based on a novel
Because, as you read on with the unfinished comic
You can jump back and forth from the novel
So that you can at least see the ending in the novel
This way you may want to read a comic with a original novel
Or, after reading the comics version
You may want to see a movie or a TV series based on it
So you can choose those works based on that keyword
And whether you can spend money
Or you cannot, so you can wait until they release it for free
Or whether you can pay for the whole series
These are the keywords for such
Why is there this much specialization for the keywords?
There are so many different works available nowadays
And because of that, consumers now consider it a waste of time
To bear with anything they do not like
Now various platforms introduce in advance not only of big genres
But also of ending keywords such as happy or sad
Even those that would've been considered as spoilers
Are all mentioned in advance
Now let's move the focus to today's topic, characters
And we will see how such trend can be observed here as well
Let's draw a very simple character
Like so
The cat's eyes give us that sassy impression
So a character that is like a queen, a proactive one
May have such a characteristic set of eyes
On the other hand, a naive girl having a Cinderella story
Towards a happy ending with a prince
She will have the puppy eyes, the smiling face
And to add to that soft impression
We can add some wavy hair to her
See how these two characters have very different first impressions
This means that people expect different things from these characters
Let me take some more examples other than this simple one
As readers read a work, they relate to the character, feel the butterflies
Or experience catharsis with a grand revenge against any injustice
So a main character that looks not so special
Who goes through all events with their clever mind or kind heart
This character may have some dark hair, dark eyes, not too big or small
Meaning some common features of an Asian character
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint or My S-Class Hunters have such characters
Let me put Han Yoojin from My S-Class Hunters into simple terms
A straight hairstyle
Dark eye color, a typical Asian character
Compared to Song Taewon at the back
Yoojin has no special bodily features, such as wide shoulders or chest
This tells us that this main character is someone
We all can identify with, as someone normal
And we can guess how his inner abilities will be
The driving force of the story
For a romance, the male character must be everyone's crush
That's why many of them have some unique features
That we as readers do not see in our realities
For example, something not so familiar with the Korean readers
Blonde or unreal silver colored hair
Or the burning red colored hair could be an example
Another popular feature is exotic dark toned skin color
Now let's think of a character who provides catharsis against the unjust reality
A character against bad bullies
Who eventually succeeds with the revenge
Must have a very healthy body
However, this is not enough
Here, we could add a big scar on their body or face
Or even a tattoo with a secret meaning to it
What happened with the character when they got that scar or tattoo?
This will be the question the readers raise
For example, the character may have been saving someone weaker
Or the wound may have been from a lonely journey
Or a heartbreaking wound from soneone's betrayal
Sports is another big example of the catharsis genre
For example, a basketball player who has hurt their knee
Overcomes their injury in the story, which is an interesting touch
Dae Jang Geum, after losing her sense of taste
Lives her second life as a royal physician
Likewise, the character can have a second chapter of life
The character must be a balanced mixture of such symbolic aspects
That can smoothly deliver the important bits of the story
That was about the power of a character-centered work with some examples
We also talked a bit about the traits of a character's visual appearance
And how the message derived from that trait
Could lead the narrative
I encourage you to maximize this power of characters
By setting aspects such as color, appearance, tone of speech
That can contribute to the story-making process
Now, let's talk about some character traits that change
Within same conditions
Let's take a romance with great character building
If we're going for the traditional romance
This will have one female and two male main characters
Because these two male characters must each stand for a different appeal
The most commonly used device is to set their hair colors
As black and blonde, respectively
Then, for the female character, in order to not overlap
And to allow for room for identification, we can go with brown hair
Here, let's say the black-haired male character
Is a Northern Duke who has been unrightfully evicted
And has created his own camp
This gives us the strict, cold traits
Let's put the blonde-haired character at the opposite
Let's say he's the crown prince of a stable royal family
He can be the kind one
And who will the readers expect as the real main character?
It's easy to predict: the Northern Duke
Because, first, with the history of the Northern Duke
The readers will be able to enjoy the catharsis of overcoming the injustice
Because this character had been unrightfully evicted
The grand resolution of making things right will give us a big catharsis
And the female character taking care of this emotional wound
Will create a very special relationship between them
But let's say that these appearances stay the same
And add to the black-haired character that he is
A childhood friend?
And let's make the blonde-haired character
A bad boy with a scar on his face who had just transferred to this school
Who will the female character end up with?
I can see how the blonde character will be more popular
The scar with an antisocial touch makes his history interesting
And the keyword, newly transferred student
Adds a new change to the daily life
Likewise, even with the same appearance characteristic
The result can change by combining different aspects
Also, when creating various characters
Remember how we made the female main character
Have brown hair so that she can be easily paired with
Any of the two male characters
Always keep in mind
The balance between and among the characters
Let's take an actual example
When The third Wheel Strikes Back
That is in service right now
As we can tell right away from the title
The third wheel in the center is our main character
This character was supposed to be
The third wheel of a fiction where there must be
A happy ending between two main characters
And the story begins with this character entering into this fiction
Therefore, in order to make it look natural
For her to be paired with either of these two
In terms of a balanced color chip
The female character here has pink hair
This makes the two male characters
Differ in property with hair color
And it also provides some highlight effect
To the third wheel character with the blonde color
So even if the original romance comes true
Between these two, pink and black
Makes a nice pair, right?
However, this third wheel character's
Blonde hair and this pink hair also make
A nice pair as well
Not only this, the eye colors
The black-haired character has
A very fierce look with red colored eyes
Meanwhile for our third wheel character
In order to add the softness to the blonde hair
He has violet-colored eyes
The reason he did not get the usual
Green or blue eyes for the blonde hair
Is because the female character
With the pink hair is to get
Light blue-colored eyes
This makes another set of pairs possible
With their eye colors: red and violet
Violet is a netural color that makes a nice pair
Even between light blue and violet
Light blue has a cool hue
That matches the neutral tone of the violet
With these, we can see how clever the character design
Has been done here
For the characters we've built
They had blonde, black and brown colored hair
Here, let's say that after we build the characters
The two male and one female characters
Now we need a rival or an enemy character for the female character
Here, what colors do we have left?
If we choose red for these three characters
I think this color won't overlap with any of the three others
Red is associated with fire and burning
Which brings out that passionate, emotional and fierce impression
So this enemy character may look like she is more emotional
And less patient than the female character we have built before
But let's say that this red-haired character
Is not an enemy but the main character of this work
The story will turn into something completely different
Even for the same romance, this main character will be
More of a passionate, queen-like character
And because red is genetically rare in color
This also has a property of being an outsider
This is because people consider any rare property
As connected to some unique features
Consider Ariel of The Little Mermaid
Unlike her sisters, she has the curiosity for the outside world
Also she is geeky, interested in the dangerous human culture
Or what about Red-Haired Anne?
She considers her hair color that of a carrot
And she wishes to have brown colored hair
This is why she bought fake dye
From a peddler
And ends up losing her hair
With a well built character
The properties of the character are enough
For an additional episode
The readers look for their favorite combinations
And will eventually reach your work
One thing is, you cannot only have these formulae
And build characters only based on keywords
If you focus too much on the character properties
The character is beyond predictable, even too obvious
For the red hair we've talked about
This color is usually used for powerful and decisive characters
Red colored hair, espeically curly one
This female character is called Maximilian Calypse
The background and traits of Maximilian Calypse
Does not start with our usual knowledge of this color
The burning passion or queen-like traits
Instead, she has some very different traits
Maximilan Calypse had been
Raised by an abusive father
Which made her very timid
And even with her first love, the relationship had been forceful
And it was smeared with misunderstanding
However, the usual and expected traits of
The red-haired character
The decisive queen-like trait is in her as well
This timid, shy and stuttering
Poor Maximilan Calypse overcomes her wounds
As well as that of the male character
And she eventually develops into an autonomous magician
So if this character was built
Only based on the usual red-haired character frame
This character wouldn't have had such a twist
We need to design the character traits and appearance based on the reader's needs
Yet we need to add a surprise element
Or at least make sure we are not immersed into the frame
So that we can build a very unique character
Without further ado, let me draw one myself
And do a character building
A very normal character
A short hair
Brown color, very normal-looking character
Also some usual eye color
Brown hair, green eyes
This color keyword is used for a not so special yet reseved beauty
And this alone will not be interesting enough
If this boy with these keywords
Get some round glasses and a lightning-shaped scar?
It's not difficult to think of Harry Potter
Here, the plain green eyes acquire a bigger meaning
That connects him to his loving mother in the past
The scar is a curse from Voldemort
As well as an evidence of his parents' love toward him
Which is a very important aspect in the story
Let's take another example
This is Allen Walker from D.Grey-man
A very unique lightning-like scar on the face
As well as this star shape on top
This makes a huge mark on his face
For this character, this scar is from a demon in the past
Notice how when we think about evocation
The ritual with the candles and all usually uses that pentagram
This pentagram, a demonic trait, is on his face
Because this is a scar from that demon
That's the character design behind this
With this very unique scar
Rest of his appearance stays not so unique
Straight hair, usual colored eyes
That's the list of keywords this character design has
And this scar isn't from any demon
When Allen was a child
He brought back his beloved stepfather
From death into a demon
And this father who had been blaming Allen for this
Gave Allen this scar himself, which is a very important background
This is Naruto
Naruto's face has the signature whiskers
The whiskers come from inside Naruto
Where a monster, a fox with the power, is locked
That's why Naruto has the whiskers
Like a scar from that monster
With this pattern on his face that no other characters have
This brings him to the unique position as a main character
As well as some character trait as a connection to
The monster, the fox
This character is Todoroki from My Hero Academia
The most characteristic thing here is
The halved hair color
This character has power properties of both ice and fire
This is Shanks from One Piece
Shanks is a very strong character
He is also among the very important
Four Emperors in the work
Which is a very strong narrative
And what big event has caused this character
To be damaged this much, to lose his one whole arm?
This goes back to the volume one, where
He sacrificed himself in order to save Luffy, the main character
This narrative is embodied in this entire loss of an arm
Like so, an interesting character embodies
A very strong narrative even with their appearances
Which adds a lot of unique trait to the work
When you create your own work
In order to deliver into the work
Please utilize any outside appearance or
Something that counters the character's traits
In order to make the work more interesting
For the readers through these aspects
When you design a character
Consider all the aspects such as hair or eye color
The shape of the eyes or the speech tone
In order to more effectively design your character
Relationship Network Based on Character's Desire
This is the third part
Where we'll create relationship network based on character's desire
The relationship network requires not only the looks
But also the desires
And the resources within the work for all the desires
Are always limited
Meaning, not everyone can have their wishes granted
And it's this process of clashing, coexisting and co-prospering desires
That create interesting relationship networks and push the narrative forward
Everyone has big desires such as being happy
Or being able to achieve some dreams
But we need a more specific goal than that for a character
For example, a desire to avenge someone who murdered my lover
Or to collapse a corporation that has unrightfully cornered me to death
In my past life in poverty, something specific like these
Let's take an example
Say that we have this work in plan
Where dragons and humans are against each other
So here is a normal human
And here is
With a horn
Big wings, thick tail
And sharp claws
This is team dragon
And they are playing a sort of a hopscotch
Where each resides in a section
Let's keep it simple and make it rectangular
With these two sections of land
We will make two representative characters
One human, one dragon
Let's color code this
Blue for team human
And red for team dragon
Because these two teams live on the same land
If humans first take these three sections
For team red, or team dragon
They will take this side of the land
And for some sections
The two teams may live on the same section
Like this, every time they meet
They keep battling each other
To take the section of the land
And if our two main characters
Are one human and one dragon
For the human, he is a bookworm
He loves to read, wears glasses
He is a reserved, quiet and peaceful man
Maybe a bit timid, short and with freckles
Let's give him this chestnut-like look with the freckles
And the dragon character will be the opposite
Let's say that this dragon is a general
With a big flag in his hand
Very big, with the traditional red scales
Very aggressive, loves to fight
He's like a war hero
And because these teams live on the same land
Let's say that a big war breaks
Between the two teams
This will hurt some of the characters during the battle
They will become each other's enemies
They will be mourning over the deaths of their friends and family
And the conflict deepens
And let's say that this work has a big
Plot twist at the end
Let's say that dragons and humans used to be friends
Not just any friends
Let's say that their urge to break into each other's territory
Is because of their hidden and instictive nostalgia
And let's even add that if humans and dragons become a team
There will be a huge synergy
That's why they are drawn to each other
Which ended up invading each other
Let's say that this is the secret
When we make this into a Webtoon
How would the human character react?
During the war, he used to hate to step forward
And he never took proactive moves
But after the secret has been revealed
He proactively works to mediate the battle
And he will put in a lot of effort
For reconciliation, speaking his voice out
He will act very differently here
In contrast, for the dragon character
He used to be very proactive during the eary battles
Becoming the hero
But now that more people wish for the peace
He would end up being isolated
Maybe he will collide with some of the other dragons
In the same team
This could have three potential endings
One, all sections of the land unite again
And humans and dragons live and work together as partners
Two, because they could not get over the conflict
They move on from their past
And decide to never invade each other
Their non-aggression pact is strengthened
And they live on their own, respectively
Three, one side ends up
Definitively conquering the other side
These three are the main potential endings from this storyline
Once we have strong enough characters
We could have a fourth ending
Where the dragon character leaves and becomes a mercenary
This could continue later on this new land
Because this new land is the new background for this mercenary dragon
What if these two characters fall in love with each other?
If there is a mixed child between human and dragon, this could be a new hope
So the pact, once broken
Will change into a hope with this newborn child
This could be another possible branch
I actually like this last version
Should we add more details to this?
I told you how characters move based on their desires
And all desires comes from wants
Because you don't have this, you desire for this
And because you couldn't, you desire to achieve something
So what is the desire of this chestnut boy?
This boy likes peace
And he may not have been against dragons from the beginning
His desire is the end of the war
And probably a stable cohabitation
Then, what is the desire of this dragon?
Because he's a general, he would've wanted to proteect his friends and family
And because he's big, he may have wanted more land
Same as our chestnut boy, he wants the war to end
But not just any end; he wants a victory
With these character developments
Let's imagine that their souls change
And with this change
Let's say that these characters are isolated in an island where they can't survive alone
First, the body of the dragon where the chestnut boy is in
So the chestnut boy is here
And because he is not used to the big body
He would continue to ruin the resources, which are limited to begin with
In contrast, the dragon's soul in the boy's body
Still considers himself strong
And he tries to fight wild animals
And falls in danger
And because of the difference in their diet
They may be surprised to see the change in their taste
They can tell each other what their body likes to eat
And teach one to hunt with the big body
And another to do some meticulous work with human hands
And this will make both understand each other a bit more
And once the secret of their world is revealed
The ending could change a bit, right?
Maybe these two can work together for the peace
And they could be the two leaders of that movement
This is how a strong, interesting character works
Just by imagining a situation, the characters make the stories themselves
And this story will be very well delivered to the readers
This is how a good character design can
Contribute to the story you have in mind
We have seen that in this example
And now let's move on to the four fun ways of
Adding uniqueness to the characters
Since we've been looking at theories
Now we'll look more into the interesting and the fun
One of the ways to check whether your character is strong enough is
As I have been doing
You could build each of the property yourself
With all the calculations
But you can also make a character first and then
Add the properties later
For example, try and add your character in another fiction
This is one of the great ways to distinguish your character
One of the most popular is the four houses in Harry Potter
The four legendary magicians built this school
And in Gryffindor
The goal was to teach magic to the bravest students
Thus the symbols are courage and lion
Lion is their symbolic animal
Slytherin's goal is
To teach the pure-blooded, noble magicians
Thus they represent nobility
And things like elegance
Serpent is their symbol
And for Ravenclaw
The goal is to teach the smartest students
Ravenclaw
So intelligence and rationality are their symbols
As well as eagle as their animal
Finally, Hufflepuff
What are you all saying?
A school should not discriminate!
I will take all the students you did not take and be fair
That's the philosophy behind this house
So for Hufflepuff
Equality, fairness
And mongus as their animal
For these four houses
Gryffindor uses red
Which resembles the burning image from blood or fire
The living, puslating image
Slytherin uses green for their noble and beautiful image
And there is a saying that
Jealousy is a green-eyed monster
Like so, green has a tone of negativity, of a villain
So that's what Slytherin has, noble, beautiful yet a bit dangerous with green
And Ravenclaw, blue
Blue goes against red
So this is a calm, rational and still color
That's blue in Ravenclaw
Hufflepuff has a yellow color
With the image of equality, the bright sun that shines upon everyone
As well as an image of peace, like of a flower
These are the four houses and their representatives
With this setting in Harry Potter
And let's bring back our two characters
I think the dragon character will join Gryffindor
And our chestnut boy, I think Hufflepuff
Now, since we have one Gryffindor and one Hufflepuff
If we are to add our sidekicks, characters in the sub-category
And they will be in different categories
Each in Slytherin and Ravenclaw
So that they don't overlap with our two characters
Let's take another example
The 16 personalities test is very popular
The MBTI type
Since our focus is character building
We won't go too much into what MBTI is
But let's just take one example
Between E and I
The pair of extrovert and introvert
Gives us a contrast of an outgoing extrovert and a calm introvert
But the test says that this contrast does not
Come from thow they look from the outside
If one gains energy when with others
And re-energizes oneself when spending time with others
This is extrovertedness
And an introvert re-energizes when alone
And they require some time for this re-charge process
And this is introvertedness
Let's take our characters
Let's call them Chestnut Boy and Red Dragon respectively
From the outside, Red Dragon is the extrovert
And Chestnut Boy the introvert
But what if, for Red Dragon
Say he is just under some ethnic responsibility
That drives his proactive reactions
And let's say he's actually an introvert
In order to charge up his energy
He needs to spend some time in his dragon house, his own shelter
This will make him very interesting with this twist
In contrast, Chestnut Boy is not a proactive person
And because he doesn't speak out, he is seen as an introvert
But let's say that though he doesn't lead his group
That he needs some time with other people
That gives him joy and allows him to move forward
So say he is an extrovert
This will make a more interesting character building
Like so, you can reconsider your characters with such tests
Which will double check whether your character building is done well
And this could be one powerful way
Let's take another method
Where we check for character buliding with the moral alignment system
Here's neutral, which is not drawn towards
Any of the good, bad, lawful or chaotic
They sometimes lack their own belief and stereotypes
But they could devote themselves to neutrality in terms of philosophy
Meaning, when something happens
A character that tries to stay neutral, even mechanically
is a neutral character
And the good has three categories
Lawfull good, neutral good and chaotic good
Lawful good has some moral traits and actions
Fights for justice, follows the law
And hates to see the bad
Not being punished
So what's the difference between the three?
Chaotic good does believe in the good and the rights
But considers law and regulation useless
Does not follow any rules, but still kind
So for example
Let's say a wild animal is crossing a street with traffic lights
But animals can't check for traffic lights
When one says that still law matters
And they should follow the traffic light, this is lawful good
And if the traffic light doesn't matter
And that the law doesn't really matter
Yet, because the wild animal could be hit by a car
If the character can risk being unlawful to save this animal
Then this is a chaotic good
Same with the evil
We have lawfull evil, netural evil and chaotic evil
It's not just simply evil
Lawful evil follows tradition, loyalty or order
Yet does not care about human rights or lives
They follow their own rules but has no mercy or sympathy
For lawful evil
A villain within a group, like a gang or Yakuza
Even if the laws aren't what the society says are right
They find the order or rule of their own group very important
And for example
I am a villain who is evil, who hurts people
But because I used to be abused as a child
I never hurt minors
But for adults, I feel nothing breaking their legs
Or even their whole lives
This is a typical lawful evil
Which is very unique
The other end is chaotic evil
Which is driven by their own greed, hate and desire for destruction
They are unpredictable, merciless and cruel
Meaning, laws don't matter
And the only goal for this character is to achieve
Their own joy and desire
And even within the same category of good and evil
Whether the character follows rules for their goal
Or whether the character continues to be good or evil
Without any laws or order in play
These are some things you can add to your character
To see if they are strong enough
I have a fun image with this alignment system
When one has to mark a book
True neutral says
You use a normal bookmark
Which is the textbook way
If we go to lawful good
They only use the bookmark string attached to the book
And do not allow for any other thing to be added
So good is for not destroying the book
For chaotic good
They don't destroy the book either
But they use anything they have on their desk
Could be a receipt, something not a normal bookmark
Some snack wrapping could be used too
That's what this says
Now for evil
Lawful evil does not mark anything
In order to help them know
Where they finished
They just memorize their last page
Meaning, they don't damage the book
Yet have their own rules
Chaotic evil folds the corner
Which damages the book
And has an influence to others who will read the book later, which doesn't matter
Because their own fun and comfort is the priority
That was a fun image of this system
Other than what I used today
Although they are not based on any scientific evidence
Things like horoscope, zodiac signs, or even blood types
Are some popular ones
With these categories
If you have no trouble categorizing
Your own character
This means that this character is alive enough
And embodies a narrative
That is strong enough to drive a story
The final thing you should consider in character building is
Naming yoru character
These two are the two main chracters of my own work
And their names are
Wolfgang and Shin Suhyuk, respectively
And these two names are
One Korean and one non-Korean name
And this difference is clear
Because the readers get access
To the content through a very visible medium of Webtoon
Even names should be clear enough so that
Readers do not get confused with the differences
These two names have different origins
And none of their syllables sound in overlap
And for female-targeted BL work
If it is a beautiful-top and buff-bottom combination
The top needs a very soft-sounding name
While the bottom gets some strong sounds in the name
So that the two characters do not overlap at all
In their looks, traits and even their names
Let's then apply this in opposite
And when some characters should be grouped
We can use this formula in an opposite way
In fact, for a new family to appear in King's Maker season two
Has all characters with one overlapping syllable sound
Roselia Ryleo and Lily Ryleo
They overlap also in hair color, appearance and traits
Both have pink toned hair
While the mother has a deeper pink
And the daughter brighter
Still the pink overlaps
And they both do not look timid at all
The daughter is also very straightfoward in character
As well as her elegant and straightforward mother
The names of these characters are
The daughter in the Ryleo Family, Roselia
Lily Ryleo
They both have the r-l sound
Which is an overlapping Korean letter
So that even aside from the looks
Readers can easily remember their mother-daughter relationship
A particular example of excellent names
Is a web novel, My S-Class Hunters
Because web novels must be remembered only through text
The naming work requires a lot of effort
A guild where Sung Hyunjae is in
Is called Seseong Guild
And his name in Another Universe is
Sigma in the city called Sollemnis
Notice how all the names have the overlapping s sound
Also Han Yoohyun from Haeyeon Guild
Human name Han Yoohyun and guild name Haeyeon
And in Another Universe called Alchates
He is also called Alpha
As Sung Hyunjae has the overlapping s sound
Han Yoohyun has the h and the a-y sound
In Han Yoohyun, Haeyeon, Alchates and Alpha
Also Delta of Drosia
And Lambda of Lanchea
All these double names
Or the guilds have the overlapping sounds
I mentioned in the beginning how most readers read Webtoon in a mobile environment
Meaning a mobile phone, which is a volatile environment
And because readers read many works in a week
It's advised to use this method to make the names more memorable
Like this example, distinguish them enough yet
Make the groups clear so that the names themselves have thier own character
And deliver the story in clarity
Today we looked at building interesting characters
And with the relationship among the characters
We also looked at how to deliver a story with it
Even for a complex story
I hope you now can use character properties
And add your own touch to them
Thank you
Summary Power and Property of Interesting Characters Small quantity batch production in Webtoon consumption Webtoon platform with various keywords to choose from
Not only big genres such as romance fantasy, action or thriller But also by themes, love relationships, whether there is an original fiction or a dramatized version for keywords
How to Build Strong Characters Combining symbolic properties Brainstorming for color, appearance, speech tone and more Beware of making an obvious character by only using keywords to build one
Relationship Network Based on Character's Desire Setting a relationship based on character's desire Limited resource in the work to realize the desire Adds specific goal and idiosyncrasy to the character
How to Add Characteristic to Character Adding one to other's world of fiction, e.g. Harry Potter Trying personality tests, e.g., MBTI, horoscope, zodiac sign or blood type
Trying alignment system, pure neutral, lawful neutral, chaotic neutral, neutral good, lawful good, chaotic good, netural evil, lawful evil, chaotic evil Visible names