How Not to Write a Book: Oh, yeah, she’s a really strong character! She’s only crying throughout the entire book!

(Whoa, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, eh? Don’t think anyone’s reading them, but it’s fun to write them out. I love rambling.)

Alright, time to look into the story-telling, and not just the characters. Yeah, okay, this does involve characterization too, but I’d like to convince myself I know other shit about writing apart from characters, so just humour me, okay?

This is mainly about portraying your character, rather than building. You’ve got a proper character built, with a good mixture of flaws, strong points and quirks. Now it’s time to think about how you’ll present that character to the reader.

Let’s think about a character named… Alette. (Alette was a name I’d chosen for a princess in my story, before I re-wrote the entire fucking thing. The character’s been binned, but I really quite like the name). So we’ve created Alette to be intelligent and learned, strong-willed and proud, fighting for attention with her seven older sisters (yeah. Really. Hey, don’t judge, they don’t have contraceptives in my medieval-era world). If Alette is a central character, you’ll want to show off her personality, since you’ve presumably put some effort into creating it.

One of the basic ways to describe your character is to have other characters describe her. Your lead character might be Kerra, one of Alette’s sisters. When we (the readers) first meet Alette, Kerra would describe her. Something along the lines of how it was obvious Alette had taken painstaking care in arranging her hair because some foreign king was visiting, and that she’d worn her best dress, or that she flipped a few pages of a book on the table. Small, little things like that.

What I really don’t recommend is you (or, rather, your character) describing her outright. We don’t want to be slapped by Alette’s character straight-off. We want Alette’s personality to reveal itself. We want Kerra’s initial feelings, and then her later feelings of annoyance or jealousy or sympathy to show later, when the situation calls for it.

So, now let’s assume, we have a change in viewpoint, and the character we’re currently seeing through is Alette. Another great way to know a character is to see how they view themselves. Alette might be humble, or she might know how intelligent and desired she is, and keep it only to herself. Think about how you think to yourself, and compare it to what you say to others. Very few people are the same inside and out.

Alright, now let’s come to a later scene. The King has come, but he’s more interested in business matters with Alette’s father, and though polite to Alette, he hardly regards her. She responds by making a scene in front of everyone, and then running off to her bedroom to curl up into a ball and cry.

Wait up. Make a scene in front of everyone? Curl up into a ball and cry? Is that what a proud, intelligent woman would do?

See, having Kerra repeatedly say that Alette is strong and intelligent, doesn’t make Alette strong and intelligent. Her actions do. Your actions have to back your character.

But don’t limit them. If you were to re-write the scene a little, you could easily have the desired effect, but keeping your character true. If the King were to openly avoid her, then the proud princess might try and corner him alone, ask him his reasons. If he were to reply that he simply lost track of all the princesses and forgot Alette was one, even if he were to say it kindly, she might just go and cry in her bedroom later. Secretly, of course. And it would suit her character. Because she hates being ignored, and her pride couldn’t take it.

Of course, Alette might not be as strong or as intelligent as Kerra believes, but it’s your job as the writer to make the reader believe what Kerra believes. We’re seeing through the character’s eyes, and we have to see the image of Alette as Kerra sees it, even if it might not be correct.

So, then, that’s it for now. More Mao pictures, coming next ;)

How Not to Write a Book: “I have four really amazing guys who all like me, but I’m not that special.”

Not an expert talking. Just a rambler.

Ah, the bane of every writer. Mary-Sues. Or, in my case, the male counterpart, Gary-Stus. So, if you don’t know what a Mary-Sue is, let’s copy-paste a description off TVTropes.com: “She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing… In other words, the term "Mary Sue" is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature.”

(I almost lost myself in there. That site is addictive.)

So she’s the vision of perfection. You’d probably think these characters would be easy to spot. They’re not. They’re easy to spot if you’re an objective reader, but it’s damn hard to realize it of your own character.

I actually didn’t realize I had Mary-Sues and Gary-Stus (oh, the fuck, I’ll just keep calling them Sues, applicable to both male and female) until I took the Mary-Sue litmus test. I recommend it. Or, you can just read through my post. I recommend that more.

Let’s take Character A. Character A’s not that great, I mean, he has flaws– he’s cold and cruel, he can’t love anyone, and he has no problem manipulating and controlling people. Now, just try and look closely– do you really think those are flaws? How many can you look at and actually frown? Do you not secretly believe those are all really cool attributes?

You might want to try writing down each specific trait of your characters. Don’t bother separating the traits into good or bad, just write them down. Sues will usually have an unbelievably long line of good qualities, usually about how gorgeous or smart the character is.

Sues are usually characters we’d secretly like to be. For female authors, this usually means their Sue is strong and independent, sexy and alluring to men. Female authors are usually the culprits of Gary-Stus (like… me). These are male characters we’d love to date. They’re very good-looking (obviously!), intelligent and strong, with an inner romantic side. Male authors also create Mary-Sues quite frequently, though I’ve hardly come across Gary-Stus created by men. Unless they’ve been created specifically to appeal to female audiences.

Ah, fuck it. Just go to the Mary-Sue Litmus Test, because I couldn’t even recognize my own Sues without it.

Identified your Sue? Okay. Now it’s time to fix your Sue. And believe me, all Sues need to be fixed. Well, unless they’re background characters, and don’t have much screen-time. If not, time to fix.

One of the Sues I’d discovered was Rinna, younger sister to Ruki, who I mentioned last How Not to Write a Book post. She got the most points in the test, even more than Ruki (who I suspected might be a Gary Stu right from the beginning, but refused to admit it). Mainly because she falls in category A of Sues– she’s the one I’d love to be. She’s the most beautiful woman, with long, shiny black hair and purple eyes. She’s pretty enough to be considered flawless by Shay, who’s unbelievably picky and has really sharp eyes. She’s intelligent, and rich, and she’s good with swords and herbs, as she and her brother are deadly assassins– the best in the land. She’s sickeningly good, but as most of the Mary-Sues I’d encountered before were usually the strong, tomboyish type, I really didn’t think Rinna was one.

You can just decide right then which qualities you’d like to change or dump. After failing the Litmus Test miserably, I decided right then to scrap Rinna’s skill with sword. I then looked at her ‘flaws’– the nice traits about her that I’d tried to hide as flaws. Okay, so she’s supposed to be really close to her brother, and be close to no-one else. How about making her really dependent on her brother? Not just jealous for her brother’s affection or anything like that, but really dependent? Unable to properly function without his orders.

If you’re writing a Sue that you’d like to be, you should consider writing in your own flaws. You should be able to name at least three right off the bat. Prideful, lazy, bitchy… those would be my three big ones. If you can’t name even one without thinking hard about it, then doom on you. Doom on you! 

I can’t write more on this subject just yet, since I’m still struggling with it myself. If you have any tips, then please leave a comment. Thank you!

How Not to Write a Book: Let’s use a cookie cutter and make some characters!

Okay, disclaimer repeat: I am not an expert, I’m just someone who’s made these mistakes before and am putting down how I got around them.

Alright, so the last post was about reducing or boiling down your large cast, and the one point that I (and everyone) kept making was to develop your characters. And that’s exactly what this post is about.

So, the first step: actually creating the character. All characters must be created with a specific purpose. Like the last post said, you probably shouldn’t add a character simply because you like their personality. They should add something to the story.

(If you could see my face right now, you’d see me in quite a bit of pain. I hate sharing information about my story. I’m secretive like that. But I really want to get my point across. And because I’m also quite weird, I’ll be using nicknames only.) So, for me, all characters start out as one basic trait. My lead character, Az, started with the basic idea of making him intelligent. Shay was made to be energetic (and good-looking… this is actually an integral part of his personality) and Aiku (I love this nickname!) just frankly mean. Once you’ve got the base down, it’s time to start building.

Character development has always come quite naturally for me. In fact, I’m always surprised when people say that creating characters is the hardest thing for them. I’ve always found it extremely easy, though this may be because I have quite a bit of free time, and my mind is always circling around my story. I have never used character sheets– never needed them.

The best way to develop a character is to try and come up with as many scenes as possible about them. You can write them out, but if you’re lazy like me, just thinking them up should be enough. These scenes don’t have to be those influential to the story– in fact, I think the mundane ones work the best. In the fantasy novel I’m writing, the scenes that helped with the character development included campfire-talk scenes, humourous scenes that had no place in the story, and… um… pillow talk. That only worked for two characters though (since I typically suck at romance) but it worked well.

Out-of-world scenes are very useful too. My favourite one is the waiting-in-bank scene. My favourite response was from Shay, who is a soldier. He’d just ask someone behind to hold his place, and then go and sleep on the sofas that you sit and fill stuff out on. One of his qualities is over-familiarity with everything.

Other scenes to use would be:

1.      A trip to an extremely crowded shopping mall.

2.      If someone were to fall sick.

3.      An interview for a job

4.      A trip to a bar. The actions of the characters both sober and drunk.

And loads more. It’s up to you, really.

After the developing the characters, try comparing them with the base; look at how many qualities they gained and how they relate to your original idea base. Az is intelligent, but he’s also embarrassed easily, generally perceptive but awkward when it comes to women, and with leadership qualities he never recognized before. Shay is energetic and fun, but superficial and flaky in relationships, vain and with handicapping fear of blood. Aiku is mean and short-tempered, but very proud with a noble air, and is very romantic too.

I don’t know if it’s happened to other writers, but I’ve found that in the process of developing characters, the bases can change. The original King written for the story was mature and rational; the current and final one is shy and has unbelievably low self-esteem. Ruki was originally noble, proud and short-tempered– he was written as Aiku’s rival, and they clashed as they had very similar personalities. He is now sneaky, clever and with a loose sense of morality– and he and Aiku now clash because they’re too different.

The King’s personality changed around the story, while Ruki’s personality changed the story. This has happened a few times in the past, in previous stories for me, and I’m yet unsure as to whether or not it’s a bad thing. I think it is.

Well, I hope this post helped someone. If not, I’m glad to just have rambled anyway. Next post: Writing Mary-Sues and how to get out of it.

How Not to Write a Book: Doc, Grumpy, Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Bashful and Dopey

My first post in my series of How Not to Write a Book, where I’ll give out tips to amateur writers. Now, I’m hardly an experienced writer, but I’ve made these mistakes before and I thought I should share how to avoid or rectify them.

Today’s post: Characterisation, specifically dealing with long lists of characters. There’ll be more than one post on characterisation, since this is, I think, my strong suit.

Right, so more than a few writers have a large cast of characters. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is how you develop the characters, and how they fit in with the ‘bigger picture’. A lot of the time, you can find yourself with a huge arsenal of characters, all playing a part in the story, and you’re loathe to let them go. Sometimes you can pull it off. Most of the time, you end up with the Seven Dwarfs.

The Seven Dwarfs is basically when you’ve got a load of characters that have one trait only. It happens when you’re afraid of adding conflicting traits to characters, and decide that instead of ‘messing up’ that character, you can create a new one. For example, you’d like to create a male character who is romantic, for some important purpose in the story (give me time… I’ll think of one). You’d also like a male character who is short-tempered and snarky. And another character is created.

I had this problem plenty of times in the past. I was afraid of making my characters copies of each other, and so I worked to give them all different qualities. Two characters couldn’t be fiery. The heroine was a simple girl who liked sewing, and of course she couldn’t be fiery either.

I got over that problem. I think the main thing that helped was to just look at life. This might be the plainest, most overused piece of advice ever, but it’s true. My sister’s short-tempered, bitchy and superficial, but she’s also selfless, giving and fun. If a person can have clashing qualities, why can’t a character? If you can work on creating deeper characters, you’ll find that you might not need so many.

I axed a character from my novel, and pushed another one further into the background. I didn’t like doing it, since I loved both those girls, but it was necessary. I’m also in the process of picking out unnecessary gods. They’re a set of seven, but I know now that they don’t all need to be equally main.

And now another problem: condensing characters. I don’t mean that literally– don’t just take two characters and mush them together, to try and get all of their qualities in one. You don’t really need to. If you develop a single character far enough, they’ll eventually cover another one’s job. (I’m trying to articulate this as clearly as I can. I think I’m failing).

I wanted this post to be a bit longer, but I can’t seem to increase it right now XD. Like I said before, I can’t quite get what I’m trying to say across. I am a failure of a writer.

The next post is going to be about actually developing your characters, to get them to fulfil their roles and more, and that post is going to be longer and more detailed. So please check back again.  :)