So I’m editing my first chapter and I’m wondering how much cc is enough and how much is too much.
I am for sure having the 3 main characters customizable (MC, LI, and another important character), but I don’t know if having the family customizable is something people want.
I personally like it, but I saw a lot of people who didn’t like customization, so… At first I was going to have the family automatically change, but I realized some people who have different textured hair for the MC wouldn’t have their family also have that. Is that a problem for people?
If not, I will just have the family members change automatically because the MC has 4 immediate family members which is quite a lot of people to go through.
This isn’t all that helpful: but tbh honest, it depends. A lot of people say no because to them, it seems like the author is being lazy in not putting in the code which allows the family to change along with the MC. At the same time, other people think it isn’t practical: what if someone wants their family member to have different skin tones, eye colors, hair textures, etc?
You don’t want your family to look like clones.
I think limited CC for family members would suffice, just in case some of the features don’t match up like lip shape, mouth color, hair texture etc.
Although, you could have it as an option, so if people think the family looks fine as they are, they can just continue the story, but those who don’t think they match have an opportunity to fix it.
I think the option to customize the family should be available if the family plays a huge part in the story, but otherwise it just feels like a waste of time when you’re customizing everyone and they only show up for a few scenes.
Tbh I like to CC main character and LIs, maybeee a BFF is she is around a lot and very important for the plot, but everything other than that is too much in my opinion and makes me kinda irritated if I have to lose 10 minutes just to customise everyone. I like it when authors put the option that skin tone and important facial features (eye shape/colour…) are automatically changed as we change the MC.
Maybe limited CC. Like to choose the hair options skin tones… maybe lip shapes just in case and eyes maybe (I don’t know how CC works when authors code it into their stories…) but I don’t really find it to necessary. I like to customize them sometimes just for fun and to match them with my characters so it goes along with the story better. But go with what YOU want is how I see it.
This might get super confusing because I suck at explaining anything, but worth a shot right?
WARNING: If you choose to do this, know it’s VERY, VERY time consuming depending on how many people you want to customize at the same time–
What I did: Having the family members being customized off-screen but without the reader having to customize them too.
What I do is add more characters in the CC template that Dara Amarie provides in her website. For example, if you take a look at her script and website it says to use Control F, then click all, yaddie-yaddie and then change the name to your MC, or the person your trying to customize. Underneath every, single, family member I just add “@EMMA changes into so and so” and it changes the family members at the “same time” and off screen. Here’s my script:
I only added @CHARACTER under the MC’s specific customization for the features that I want them to have exactly. Like, I won’t add the @CHARACTER changes into ____ after my MC’s customization feature if I want my MC and her sister to have different eyes. --Only adding this is if I want them to have the same eyes, if the reader chooses a certain feature.
thanks for mentioning this! I was planning on doing this instead of customizing everyone because there were quite a lot of people if you include the family, so thanks for explaining this method!
Yeah I think it’s a great idea. It’s pretty time consuming on your end, but it hopefully should be worth it to your readers right? Your welcome, and good luck!
I find it quite tiring to custimise so many characters at a time. Would rather use the code which customised family members along with you in Dara Amarie’s guide
I used the code were you put the family memebers in the MC’s customisation and gave a choice to customize your family afterwards. I think it is good so people can change anything if they want to but the people who find it tedious can skip it altogether.
There’s a way in which when you customise the MC the family members adopts their features, for example, if the user decides that MC has green eyes the mom will have them without the need of customisation😁
