For this project, I am taking a different approach as I want to create a story to my characters. I really love creative writing and character development is something that I take pride in as it helps to almost become your character through the amount of thought one can put into them. In this case, as the character is an embodiment of myself, this development and narrative is even more crucial. This step is in fact entirely like creating a muse.
For the story of my character, I used facts about myself that are true and facts that weren't but I can still imagine being true.
At 14 years, a Rem girl wants to understand. She doesn't like boy bands as much as the other girls in her class. Her parents brought her up on oldies from their childhood and classical music. Her music taste is her family’s music taste. She was probably mistakenly introduced to Rem after sneaking into her sister's bedroom to read her copy because she wanted to see what all the older and intimidating A-Level art students were reading. Her wardrobe consists of every colour under the sun and every hand-me-down from her sister. She likes vintage clothing the most. She’s coy and meticulous, cunning and brave and perhaps even boisterous at the worst of times. She's inquisitive but naive. At 16, she doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up but she knows she has to be realistic. She thinks painters like Peter Paul Rubens and John Constable are the greatest artists that ever lived. She falls in love with the pretty pictures in Rem, even if she doesn't understand them yet.
At 18 years, a Rem girl wants to be intuitive. She wants to learn but doesn't want it to come from a book because a picture speaks a thousand words. She dresses up in a-line miniskirts and shiny patent boots because she's either still obsessed with the 80's from her parents' influence or because she's found a new obsession with Wes Anderson films and the character of Suzy Bishop from Moonrise Kingdom. She's seen things that make her upset. One of her friends had an eating disorder. A girl in her art class is depressed. Her music taste is refined, she doesn’t like listening to the charts much. She’s caring and likes going for walks at night whilst chatting away on the phone and her favourite feeling is the excitement she gets when receiving her prints of the photos she took on her disposable camera. At 18, she's independent on her travels and loves nothing more than exploring a new city to satisfy her curiosity. She still loves the pretty pictures in Rem- but now she also understands them.
At 22 years, a Rem girl wants to see more than what’s given to her. She's something of a wanderlust, the aftermath of having traversed the world at a young age. She wants to visit Macchu Picchu, Salar de Uyuni and Shicheng, to name just a few. She joined the feminist society in university, even if she didn't actually end up attending any more than one meeting a term. Her interest in the arts lived on through university and she wore her pyjamas into class more than once on purpose. At 22, she is mature for her age- a city girl with a countryside heart even though she's still scared of opening the AGA without a pair of oven gloves. She’s just moved into her own rented flat and spends too much of her time daydreaming about IKEA and The White Company. She had a minor breakdown choosing her refrigerator and freezer and a major breakdown picking out which sofa she wanted for the living area. Her housewarming party was a success but that's no surprise really. She also tends to snack on grapes.
At 27 years, a Rem girl wants a holiday. She likes fine wine and good food and she's still friends with her high school gang. She's tired and wants a break from the busy bustle but she's still got time for the people she loves. Her unpopular opinion is that she's not too keen on Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso but she loves Piero Manzoni and Hiroshi Sugimoto. She’s still captivated by Vincent Van Gogh and she’s also still paying off her student loan. She’s still taking photos on an analogue camera and still likes Wes Anderson films. Her job pays her enough to live somewhat comfortably. It could be better, it could be worse. At 22, her boyfriend thinks she’s nuts for spending money on Rem but he does like the pretty pictures. Sometimes he also understands them and other times he doesn’t. She chuckles at that. She still picks up Rem from time to time for it’s slow and quiet content but mainly, and perhaps most importantly, she picks it up for the memories of her youth past.
