Emma Stewart Writes

Writer, Proofreader, Editor and Cat Lady

Category: Characters

Posts about developing and writing characters in fiction. Including how-to’s, tips and advice, and what to avoid when writing your characters.

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Protagonist: I Need A Hero!

September 4, 2023 / / 0 Comments
woman holding black flag
Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

What is a ‘protagonist’?

The main character is called the protagonist. This is the main focus of the story, it is their journey we are reading about. We learn the most about the protagonist, and we witness their development as they navigate the plot. You can have more than one protagonist, of course, that’s perfectly okay to do. Especially if it’s a romance novel or if romance is a big part of the storyline, you will generally have two protagonists in your story.

So, the protagonist is the hero? Not always. Every hero is a protagonist in their own story, but not every protagonist is a hero. A hero is a specific kind of protagonist. Typically their actions save the girl/town/world/galaxy or whatever setting you have going on. Some of the best stories have a clear hero, from Odysseus and Beowulf to Luke Skywalker and Katniss Everdeen.

Of course, there has been a surge in comic book movies in the last 15 years, with Marvel and DC both bringing many of their superheroes onto the silver screen. Each of their heroes has their own stories going on, with the larger group movies intersecting these stories at different points to tie them all together.

Anti-Hero Protagonist

Not every protagonist has the typical qualities that make them a hero. Indeed, some of them actively don’t want to be seen as a hero (looking at you, Deadpool.) This is referred to as an ‘anti-hero’ protagonist, see the Wikipedia page here. An antihero will have qualities that are considered less than heroic, where they do the morally right thing but for reasons that are morally ambiguous. They often have traits associated with the ‘Dark Triad’ of personality traits.

The Dark Triad is a set of personality traits that are considered non-pathological but offensive in psychology. This includes aspects of narcissism (pride, a lack of empathy), Machiavellianism (manipulation and exploitation) and psychopathy (impulsivity, selfishness.) Some psychologists even add a fourth trait, sadism, the enjoyment of cruelty and the suffering of others.

The antihero is very popular in modern media, a lot of people will root for the antihero and it can be seen in the success of a number of movies and TV series. Modern anti-heroes include Deadpool, but characters like Tony Soprano, Dr Gregory House and Walter White are all antihero protagonists as well.

A Step Too Far? The Villain Protagonist

The next step up is to make the protagonist the villain. This is where the morally questionable actions are not justified in any way so it is clear that they are the ‘bad guy’. A good modern example is in the video game Undertale, which has a great meta-narrative about video game protagonists in general.

Usually in an RPG, you assume you fight monsters to gain experience and money. Undertale rewards you for not doing this and remaining pacifist throughout the game. You can complete a ‘Genocide’ run where you kill everything you come across and eventually no monsters come near you.

Choose to do this, and you become the villain of the story. To the point where the main antagonist supports you, and one of the major characters calls you out on it and tries to stop you. I won’t go into too much detail to spoil it, although I imagine most people know the story by now. But the game punishes you for becoming the villain, with a lot of the best content gone.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading about protagonists with me. On Wednesday we’ll look at antagonists and their functions in fictional narrative, and why they can be the more interesting characters at times. I hope you’ll join me for that. Subscribe below to get notified when a post goes live, and find me on my social media channels. If you want to read more on characters, take a look at this post here. Until next time!

green trees on cliff

Character Relationships: No Man Is An Island

September 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments
green trees on cliff

Character Relationships

Let’s talk about character relationships. As the quote in the title says: ‘No man is an island.’ What does that mean? Every single person has some kind of relationship that connects them to other people. Even a hermit living in a cave in the middle of nowhere will have relatives or something somewhere in the world. It takes two people to make a baby, so everyone has biological parents.

That’s not to say everyone has relationships with their biological parents. Adoption, being orphaned or just cutting them out of your life because they were horrible people, there’s many reasons. Outside blood relatives, we have friends, partners, people we work with, all kinds of connections with people. For many of us, the people we choose to keep around us are the most important.

“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”

Remember that? Most people know the shortened version which is supposed to tell us that familial bonds are more important than those we make ourselves, but the true quote has the opposite meaning. So, when it comes to your character, relationships are important. We need to know the kind of people they associate with and why. So it’s an important aspect of character creation.

Family

Consider your characters family. Who are their parents? Do they have siblings? Is there another family member important to them, like a grandparent or aunt or cousin? What is the relationship like now, and is that different from when the character was younger? What kind of influence did these relatives have on the character and how has it helped shape their personality?

It’s worth detailing this in the early history section, but I also like to add a section dedicated to important relationships in my character profiles. For example Shaine, my protagonist in my current novel, had a great relationship with her parents. Her upbringing was full of love and support and she learned a lot from both of her parents. Alonso on the other hand, never met his parents at all. His father was a ‘client’ of his mothers, and his mother died shortly after he was born. Another character introduced later on has a sibling he has lost contact with and wants to find.

I’m not suggesting you build a huge family tree and go back ten generations (unless this is important to your plot!) but if you really want to, you can. At the very least though, you should have at least the relatives your character has met during their lifetime and a little bit about the relationship, how they got along, if there was any conflict there, that kind of thing.

Friends

Friends are important. They are the family we choose, in a way. Even the most introverted person will have a couple of people they consider friends. Most of us will have different kinds of friends. Close friends we can trust with anything, work friends we get on well with at our jobs, more casual friends we hang out with in groups. Your characters should have the same thing. At least a couple of people who really matter to them.

Depending on your plot, you might not include these friends within the story but they could be there in the background. If they are involved, it’s a good way to demonstrate certain aspects of your main characters. Of course, there’s always room for your main character to make new friends along the way, and also for them to outgrow old friends as the plot changes them and makes them shift their priorities.

It’s okay to let go of old friendships if they no longer work for you. That applies in real life as well as in your characters lives. People change, life happens and sometimes you need to move on. I have had to make this decision in the past, and it’s tough but sometimes it’s best for both of you.

Romance and Love

Not everyone has to have a romantic partner. The single life can work perfectly well for some people. Others will have a partner, or have had long term partners in their past. Some people may have had a number of short casual relationships. All of these are valid. Bear in mind that not every relationship is going to be what some people consider ‘conventional’. Polyamory is a thing in real life, so it can absolutely exist in fiction. Different sexualities and relationship types are always a good thing to incorporate but make sure you understand what you’re doing so that you can represent these relationships accurately. Polyamorous relationships, where there are more than two partners, are built on trust and open communication. It should not be used as an excuse to cheat without getting into trouble for it.

It’s okay for your main character to have an established romantic relationship of some kind at the start of the book. Even if you are writing a romance. It’s also okay for them to be single and looking for a romance, or not looking. It all depends on the genre and plot. Obviously for romance stories, the development of a relationship is the whole point of the plot. In other genres, a romantic subplot of some kind adds some interest for the reader and it’s realistic. Even in a fantasy novel, a group of adventurers spending weeks together travelling for example, feelings can develop and it gives your readers something to root for.

Back to my current novel in progress, I haven’t decided if Shaine is going to find a romance subplot or not, but Alonso’s history comes back to bite them. He is pansexual, and he was in a long term relationship with another assassin. They had quite a messy breakup, and Alonso moved on, but his ex comes back to surprise him. It’s a minor detail, but it impacts how the surprise is handled and affects the characters. He may also find himself interested in a strapping young man they stumble across. We’ll have to see!

Conclusion

So remember to have a think about some of the important relationships in your characters life and include it in your characters profile as well as dropping it into the story where it makes sense to do so. These character relationships are important. The key thing for your readers is relatability and realism. Characters that are like real people, respond in ways that while maybe not optimal, are understandable and are relatable are the ones your reader will get really excited about.

That’s all for this week. Apologies that this one is a day late, but starting next week, I’d like to look in depth at some character archetypes and what they can bring to your stories, so hopefully you’ll join me for that. Subscribe below to get an email when a new post is live and follow me on social media for updates and behind the scenes. Until next time!

This is who I am

Personality Traits: Getting To Know Your Characters

August 30, 2023 / / 0 Comments
This is who I am

Personality Traits

Every character is a person (even if they’re not human!) and that means they have a personality that is uniquely theirs. Just like in real life, everyone has a handful of personality traits that dictate how they behave, how they speak and how they react to situations. For your main and supporting characters, you need to flesh this out quite a bit to make them real people that your readers will love, or love to hate, or feel some kind of way.

There needs to be a balance too. Personality traits can be generally divided into positive and negative traits. Every character should have some of each kind. Yes, your good guys need to have negative traits, and yes, your villains need to have positive traits. Don’t treat this as a box-ticking exercise either, the traits need to feel realistic and make sense in the context of your character’s history.

Where Do I Start?

Think about the characters role in the story. Are they a protagonist, with a goal to reach by the end of the plot? What is their goal? What do they need to overcome to achieve this goal? Then you can think of what traits they should have in order to attain this goal. Are they determined, so they will stop at nothing to reach their goal? Are they analytical, meaning they will assess and calculate the best plan possible? If they need help from someone, are they friendly and charismatic enough to convince this person to help them out?

Remember that even positive traits will have some downsides. Someone who is very determined can also be stubborn, refusing to change things based on new information or advice. Someone who is very friendly might not endear themselves to someone who is very antisocial and wary of strangers. Relate it back to the character’s history as well. Why are they so determined? Why are they so suspicious?

Negative traits can also have upsides. A character who is very suspicious and mistrustful will be harder to take advantage of or fall into a trap by trusting someone. The downside is obviously that they are very guarded and find it hard to form relationships with other people. This kind of trait comes from a past where they have been betrayed by people they trusted or mistreated by a parent or partner.

How To Show Personality Traits

When you’re writing prose, you obviously don’t want to list the traits of your character when you first introduce them. Remember what I talked about before, about introducing a new character. This is where the old ‘show, don’t tell’ advice comes into play. Personality traits will come with associated behaviours and responses. A mistrustful person will ask questions and not take what people say at face value. They will keep people at arms length and avoid revealing much personal detail in conversations.

Someone who is friendly will make small talk with people. They will speak kindly, offer up some information about them freely and make a point of remembering people’s names. They will smile a lot and have open body language, keep their promises and stop to help someone without being asked.

Tone of voice and language choices will indicate personality traits in dialogue. People who are shy will speak quietly, hesitate and use filler words or sounds a lot more and will avoid speaking up in a group situation. A character who is surly and grouchy will snap at people, use one-word responses and commonly be sarcastic and snarky.

Remember that your characters may change over the course of the story and this should be reflected in how they act. One of the major plot points should be your protagonist overcoming a major character flaw in order to reach their goal. It might also be a big thing for your antagonist to overcome their negative traits in some way and see the error of their ways.

Resources and Methods

There’s a ton of good resources out there to help with this aspect of character creation. There’s also a few ways to approach character creation, so you should find the one that works best for you. It might help to plan out the character’s background a bit first. Then you can make a list of their positive and negative traits, relating them to early experiences and even making notes on behaviours and how they speak which will show these traits. You can then refer back to these notes when you are writing to make sure you are staying in character. It’s also important to compare these lists for your characters to highlight possible sources of conflict or relationship development between them that you can include in your writing. Because it’s not fun if the characters get along perfectly well all the time!

A few resources I have found are readily available online. There’s a series of books available as ebooks called Writers Helping Writers, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. The Negative Trait Thesaurus and the Positive Trait Thesaurus are both really useful for this. There are chapters discussing how to write and use these traits for your characters and how to build characters, as well as a huge list of traits with definitions, possible causes, behaviours, thoughts, emotions, positive and negative aspects and examples. They also cover how a character can overcome a flaw and how a trait might cause conflict with other characters. These are so useful, and they have a bunch of other books covering settings, emotions and obstacles. I highly recommend them. You can check out their site here and find links to purchase their books. (Not an affiliate ad! I just really find their books helpful.)

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I hope this has been a helpful introduction into personality traits and how to choose them. A good well rounded personality makes for a great and engaging character to read about. On Friday, we’ll take a look at relationships between characters, because as the saying goes, “No man is an island.” Subscribe below to get notified when that post goes live. Until next time!

greyscale photography of skeleton

Character Backgrounds: Skeletons in the Closet

August 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments
greyscale photography of skeleton

Character Backgrounds

This week, I would like to talk about character development. As an author, you should know your characters inside out, everything about them and all the skeletons in their closet. The best way to write genuine, believable characters is to make sure you know them inside out. For today, we’re going to look at character backgrounds and history.

Everyone has different methods, however, a lot of people get bogged down in their name, their appearance and a list of merits and flaws. That’s all important stuff, don’t get me wrong, but it is important to know their background. Every single one of us has a unique personality and pattern of behaviour. Our experiences shape who we are. All the good and bad things that happen to us, shape us into who we are. With every new experience, we change a little bit more. We learn from what happened before and we choose our behaviour accordingly.

What Happened To You?

One thing I like to do with my characters is write out a full and detailed bio for them. I’ve done this for years, I spent a lot of my early adulthood writing fanfiction and written roleplay. Anyone who has been one one of these roleplay message boards will have done a character application. The longest section should be the history section. A breakdown of the important events in that characters life, and the effect that these events had.

What this should do is explain their traits and their behaviours. Someone who has been bullied or abused early in life is not going to trust easily. Someone who grew up sheltered and hidden away from the world is likely to be gullible and easily led astray. What led them to the career choices they made? Why are they good at fighting? Were they trained, or did they learn by having no choice but to fight for survival? Do they have secrets or skeletons in their closet?

The history should lead up to who the character is at the beginning of the story. You then continue this throughout the story, shaping the character as the experiences of the plot continue to shape them. A lot of what you will write in the history section will not be included in the book, but little mentions here and there will make your character feel real to your reader. If it helps explain why your character does something a particular way, or why they react to a situation in an unexpected way, all the better. Here is a little bit from one of my character’s background in my current WIP.

How Alonso Became An Assassin

The young elf had spent his whole life in this brothel. He had been born here, his mother had died a couple of days after he was born. The women raised the orphans as a group, putting them to work in some fashion as soon as they were capable. At age seven, Alonso was responsible for cleaning, basic food preparation and clearing up dishes from the bar room.

The owner of the brothel was a horrible man, He was loud, temperamental and violent. Alonso hated him, as did the majority of the brothel’s inhabitants. One of the girls was cooking the owner’s meal in the kitchen one night. Alonso had been collecting glasses and plates from the bar room and was standing on a crate by the basin, washing them.

The owner had been served his meal, but was not happy as the bread had been burnt a little on the edge. Alonso could never understand complaining about food, unless it was rotten. The brothel owner cared. Alonso winced as the door flew open, banging loudly against the wall.

“How dare you burn my food, wench!” the man’s booming voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

The girl screamed and begged, and Alonso turned, he couldn’t help it. Big blue eyes widened in shock as he watched the man grab the girls wrist, holding her hand in the fire until her skin began to crack and blister. She squealed in pain, begging for him to stop, apologising, struggling. The man held her there for what seemed like hours, although it was really less than a minute, before letting her go and storming out again. One of the other girls ran to her side, helping her up and taking her outside to put cold water on the burn.

Alonso’s eyes narrowed, tiny fists clenched tightly. His heart was racing, his chest felt tight. A voice came from the doorway, and it took him a second to recognise his own name.

“Alonso, boy, fetch the master’s drink,” the barman called.

An idea came to him, and Alonso followed outside, trying not to hear the poor girls sobs. He looked around, finally finding what he was looking for. There was a plant that grew outside, it had looked tasty enough, but Alonso had made that mistake once. It was poison, not deadly, but enough to put a child like him in bed for a week. He ripped off a few of the leaves, sneaking back into the kitchen and grinding them up, adding the sap to the pitcher of ale the master used before filling it. He took it out to the bar, and one of the others took it up to the master’s room.

Alonso went back to work, finishing washing the dishes and taking himself to bed afterwards. The master was absent the following day and the next few days were peaceful and pleasant. All seemed well until one night. He was shaken awake in the early hours of the morning, to find the old matron kneeling over his pile of rags.

“Come on, boy, wake up. Quickly now!”

“What’s going on?”

“Pack your things, boy. I saw what you did, but the master will find out when he recovers. I’ve been watching you, young one. If you come with me now, you can make something of yourself. If you don’t, he will put you out on the streets, if he doesn’t kill you first.”

Alonso shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“You will. But you must leave with me now, boy.”

“Okay, Matron,” Alonso said, gathering the handful of possessions he had, a knitted blanket his mother had made, a book of children’s stories and a handful of coins he’d managed to save, delivering letters. Little did he know, this was only the beginning of a colourful career as a deadly assassin.

Alonso Cabiella’s history, by E stewart

Discussion

You don’t need to write it as prose like this, I just thought it would be fun to write it like that so you could see it. You should know these details. Even if you don’t explicitly mention them. Having a summary of important events of your characters past will help you keep them genuine and figure out how they would respond to the situations the plot is going to put them into.

The example above; is the story of how Alonso was recruited by the Assassin’s Guild is the example. In my world, the guild like to acquire them as children, should they show good potential. They go to a boarding school for education and training until adulthood. After that, they are apprenticed to experienced assassins to begin work. The old matron works as a contact for the guild, and she had already suspected Alonso fit the bill, the incident where he poisoned the brothel owner as revenge for the girl was what confirmed it. The quick thinking, resourcefulness and using his own knowledge and experiences to decide what to do.

Conclusion

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and if there’s any particular examples of this that you really like. Look out for more on character development later this week. For more, subscribe below and follow me on my social media channels for more updates. For other posts covering characters take a look at these: here and here.

Punctuating and Formatting Dialogue

August 18, 2023 / / 0 Comments

How To Format Dialogue

You’ll remember that before we talked about breaking the rules of grammar within dialogue. That’s totally okay to do but when it comes to how we format and punctuate the dialogue itself within the text, there are important rules that must be followed. This is essential for making sure your dialogue is easy to read and follow. You don’t want your readers getting confused on who is saying what. So here’s the rules and tips for formatting and punctuating your dialogue.

Paragraphing

When writing dialogue, it is essential that the dialogue starts in a new paragraph. Even if it is just one or two words. After that, each new speaker gets a new paragraph. This applies whether you have two speakers or ten. So for a conversation between three characters, let’s call them Dave, Steve and Karen, you would format it like this.

Dave

Steve

Karen

Steve

Karen

Dave

This way it is clear that a different person is speaking for each line of dialogue. This also means you can reduce the use of dialogue tags a bit.

If a character is saying a lot at once, a longer monologue, you may choose to break it up into paragraphs. In this case, you should open each paragraph with quotation marks but only the end of the dialogue on the last paragraph should have closing quotation marks. This makes it clear that the preceding paragraphs are part of the same dialogue.

Quotation Marks

Direct dialogue must be enclosed in quotation marks. The general convention is to use double quotation marks – ” – these ones. Although in UK English it is also correct to use single quotation marks – ‘ – for direct dialogue. Either method is correct, but whichever one you use, make sure you’re consistent with it throughout the text.

For quotes within dialogue, these should be enclosed in quotation marks that are different from the ones you use for dialogue. So if your dialogue is contained within double quotation marks, you should use single quotation marks for quotes within dialogue, and vice versa.

“He literally said, ‘That’s not what’s going on.’ That’s what he said to me.”

or

‘He literally said, “That’s not what’s going on.” That’s what he said to me.’

Commas

When introducing dialogue, you should use a comma before the opening quotation marks. If you are ending the sentence containing the dialogue with a dialogue tag, the comma goes at the end of the dialogue before the closing quotation marks.

Steve said, “It wasn’t me.”

“It wasn’t me,” Steve said.

Remember that dialogue tags are part of the sentence. If the word after the closing quotation mark is not a proper noun, it does not need to be capitalised. Even if you end the dialogue with a question mark or exclamation mark. If you are not adding a dialogue tag at the end after the closing quotation mark, then the dialogue should end with a full stop (period) not a comma. Unless it is a question or requires an exclamation mark. You can see this in the above examples.

Interruptions and Trailing Off

During natural conversations, people will trail off or interrupt each other. That’s normal, especially during conversations that are emotionally charged. How can you show this in written dialogue, especially when you need a new line for a new person speaking? Two pieces of punctuation can help with this.

For interruptions, the best thing is a dash. Not just any dash, the em-dash. The em-dash is called this because it is the longest dash, the width of a capital M. They’re not easy to find on most keyboards, because they should be used sparingly.

They look like this: —

The keyboard shortcut is ctrl + alt + dash key. There may be different ones on different software programs.

“So, then I—“

“Hey! You better come quick!”

For trailing off, where the speaker stops speaking because they’ve realised something or lost their train of thought, you need the ellipsis. The infamous triple dots…

Depending on the style guide you use, there may or may not be spaces between the dots. The Chicago Manual of Style uses spaces between the dots . . .

Ellipses should be used only where necessary. It’s not uncommon for them to be overused. That gets tedious to read very quickly, and if they’re used too much, they lose their impact very quickly.

Conclusion

So that’s how to format and punctuate your dialogue. I hope you find it helpful. Go forth and write your dialogue effectively! Thank you for reading. Next week I’m going to start with some writing analysis posts, taking a look at some of the themes and subjects covered by pop-culture and examining how the writing explores these themes. Starting with one of my favourite TV shows of all time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the spin-off, Angel. I’m also planning to challenge myself a bit with writing some short stories and flash fiction to get the creative juices going as I work on my novel.

If you want to be notified when the next post goes live, subscribe below. Follow me on my social media links for updates and behind the scenes ongoings. As always, I’m available for proofreading and editing work, so if you want to chat about working with me, get in touch here.

Mary Sue Syndrome

July 31, 2023 / / 0 Comments

What is Mary Sue Syndrome?

The term ‘Mary Sue’ is one that has been used to describe a character archetype that is too perfect. It originated in the Star Trek fandom in a parody fanfiction. It is an archetype that is especially common in fanfiction. Essentially it is a character, usually the primary protagonist, who has amazing skills, is extremely attractive, has unique abilities and no weaknesses. They have no real flaws, any flaws mentioned are usually meaningless and inconsequential.

The archetype is generally considered a ‘self-insertion’, a character that represents an idealised version of the author themselves. It’s common for them to be female. Although you do see male characters too, often named Marty Stu or Gary Stu. Again, this is a generalisation but they are often written by adolescent authors, especially in fanfiction, as a way to insert oneself into a fictional world.

What is Wrong About a Mary Sue?

These characters are a sign of poor quality writing, and most people don’t like reading them. There’s a number of reasons for this. For starters, these characters are perfect, unique and all powerful. They have no real weaknesses, win every fight easily and can pass any challenge with little difficulty. If they have flaws at all, they tend to be pointless things, like being too trusting or being too modest despite being so brilliant at everything. It’s boring to read.

One of the reasons that many characters are loved is because of their flaws and weaknesses, and the character development they go through during the story where they overcome these things. You can’t learn and grow, if you’re already perfect. When the challenges posted by the plot are so easily overcome, there’s no tension or excitement. It becomes predictable, when the Mary Sue can just pull a ‘deus ex machina’ out of thin air for every potential issue.

Unique and Special Appearance

Their appearance is incredibly beautiful and otherworldly, unique and often with unusual eye or hair colours and an elaborately overdesigned outfit. Everyone else will see how beautiful she is but her, because she is so modest and shy. The descriptions are on another level as well, often falling into what is termed ‘purple prose’. Excessive descriptions with minute details, paragraphs of adjectives to the point where it becomes tedious to read.

You can spot these situations easily, as only the Sue will merit this kind of description. Other characters will be lucky to get more than two lines to describe how they look. All the other characters are mundane and average, with little to set them apart. Any physical flaws will only enhance her beauty, or remind her of her Dark and Traumatic Past (which they always have but are rarely actually affected by).

How to Spot a Sue in the Wild

You’re probably already sighing and rolling your eyes at some of the points I’ve made. That tells me you’ve read this kind of thing before, and certainly if you’ve read fan fiction at any point, you will have seen it. You’ve probably written it at some point, let’s face it, most of us have. It’s fun, to insert yourself into your favourite fictional world and interact with all the characters you know and love. Well, it’s fun for you. It’s probably not as interesting for other people to read.

Even so, there’s plenty of characters in pop culture that could be considered Mary Sues. It is often a matter of opinion and debate. Many people will cite Bella from Twilight, Anastasia from Fifty Shades of Grey and James Bond as clear examples. Personally, I can agree with that. Anastasia goes out of her way to be described as plain, boring and unremarkable, yet this millionaire tycoon with a skewed view of a BDSM relationship is enthralled by her.

Obviously, plenty of people enjoy these stories and these characters, and that’s okay. It’s not to my tastes, but it’s not up to me to judge other people for what they like. Some characters Sue statuses are hotly debated online, like Rey from the Star Wars sequels or Arya Stark in Game of Thrones (TV) being the big hero in the end, when it was set up for Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen.

Not Every Self-Insert is a Mary Sue

This is an important fact to remember. Not every author self-insertion is automatically a Mary Sue, or a bad thing. The point is that most people will want a bit of realism, even with the protagonist of a story. People who are realistic are easier to relate to. We want to be able to cheer when they succeed, but also sympathise when they fail. People like to read characters that are like them, in essence, not perfect. Most of us struggle to see our positive traits and tend to focus on the negative things about ourselves. Seeing characters overcoming these negative traits reminds us that we can do the same. The key is balance.

This is absolutely a matter of opinion in some cases, and realistically some genres almost require your protagonist to have some Mary Sue like qualities: look at Superman and many other comic book heroes. Superman has all the superpowers, strength, speed, ability to fly, invulnerable, laser eyes, and whatnot, including the ability to apparently fool everyone by putting on a pair of glasses. We do want to read about protagonists who are interesting, and a bit above average in some ways.

Further Reading

There is a lot of information out there about this trope, and a lot of discussion. So I’ll share a few links where you can read more. One of the best known fanfiction examples is ‘My Immortal’, a notorious Harry Potter fanfiction. I’m still convinced it is a parody of the entire trope, but who knows.

  • TV Tropes: an extremely thorough analysis of the Mary Sue trope, the variations and examples.
  • The Original Mary Sue Litmus Test: a test produced by Dr Merlin way back in 1997 for evaluating your own characters. This isn’t new!
  • PPC Wiki Litmus Tests: a whole list of litmus tests, some adapted for specific fandoms.
  • My Immortal Wikipedia Page: all about the infamous ‘My Immortal’ HP fic, it is possible to find it online although the original posting on fanfiction.net is no longer there. It’s quite… something. I read it in its entirety back in the day.
  • My posts on Characters: introducing your characters and when your characters develop a mind of their own. More to come soon!
  • Finally, my post on cliches, which often come into play when we’re talking about Mary Sues.

So, hopefully you found that interesting, there’s a lot to read on the subject and a lot of debates and discussions to be found online. Keep an eye on the blog as I will be covering more topics in characterisation and writing characters going forward. Subscribe below to get notified whenever new posts are up. Follow me on my social media channels for more little bits and if you want to talk about working with me on your writing, drop me a line! Until next time!

Characters Have a Mind of Their Own

July 21, 2023 / / 0 Comments

So, you’ve got your book idea and you’ve started writing it. You’ve produced an outline and set up your plot, you’ve gotten to know your characters and how they are going to develop throughout your story. Great. But for some reason, your characters have developed a mind of their own.

What if they decide to do something different though? Does this happen to anyone else, or just me? It’s something I have dealt with a lot over the years, from my early days writing fanfiction to now. My characters, especially the well developed ones, seem to have a mind of their own. They do their own thing, sometimes reacting differently to what I expected.

It’s not unusual. Even if you are an avid plotter, someone who likes to have everything planned out before you start writing your story. Once I get into the zone and the words are flowing, things can change unexpectedly. The question is, do you go with it? Or do you try to force things back to your plan.

Can you be too rigid?

I would say yes. Your outline is just that, the outline. Having a plan and knowing the ending is a good thing, but as you go you might deviate from your original plan. No matter how much planning you’ve done for your characters, how much you’ve already developed them, sometimes you can’t really be sure how they will be affected by the events of the story. When you are writing your first draft, you are still getting to know your characters, and how they go through the storyline. If a new direction is flowing freely, I would say go with it.

Remember you can always change it later when you are editing, if it doesn’t quite work. If it works, stick with it. Trying to force it back to your original plan could make it awkward to read, or it could result in your characters responses feeling out of character or unrealistic. If you force it, it could feel forced and your reader will pick up on that. It can jar them and bring them out of your written world.

What if the plotline takes off on its own?

This can happen too. Your plot starts off in line with what you had planned, but partway through a scene, a new idea comes to you. Again, I think it’s worth going with the flow in this case too. It depends on your writing process and how you like to work. Some people can jump around the timeline, writing scenes wherever their inspiration takes them. Others prefer to stick to writing start to finish and in order.

If you have an outline, keep it. Don’t remove anything from it, add your new ideas if you like. This means that when it comes to your first revision of your writing, you will be able to see how it fits with the overall story and if you still have your original outline, you will be able to assess if your new idea works better or if your original plan is the better option. Then you can rewrite or insert scenes to suit it.

What should you do when your characters take on a mind of their own?

Go with the flow is my advice. Even if you are a thorough plotter and you like to have a clear and detailed outline for your writing, it’s okay to deviate from that at times, if that makes more sense. Writing fiction is like any other form of creative work, you don’t want to stifle your creativity too much by sticking rigidly to rules and plans. Sometimes you are telling your characters what to do, sometimes they are telling you what they are going to do. It’s part of being an author, having all these little voices in your head as you write. At least I hope it’s something others experience, is it just me?

For more on characters, see this tag here: characters. I plan to cover a lot more on this subject in the next few weeks, from avoiding Mary Sue Syndrome to how to develop well rounded characters.

Introducing your characters

July 14, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Introducing Your Characters

So you’ve got your characters and you are ready to start introducing them. Great! Where do you start? A lot of newer writers can fall into a trap when it comes to making the first introduction of their characters, especially the main character. Starting off your first page with a huge infodump of every detail about your main protagonist logically makes sense, but is it interesting to your reader? No, probably not.

Part of the fun of reading a story is learning about the characters as they go through the plot, picking up details along the way and watching them grow through their development arc. You want your reader to get enough information to be intrigued and want to learn more, but there needs to be more for them to learn later in the book so that they will want to read further. So here’s a few pitfalls that new writers can fall into.

Infodumping

It can be tempting to just write a few paragraphs about your character. Listing all the details of their appearance, followed by a list of their traits and skills. It’s like you’re writing their CV or a dating profile. It is too much detail at once, and can be overwhelming for your reader. To start off, we need to know their name, a little bit about who they are and what they are doing. Their personality traits and flaws can be revealed as you go, how they respond to situations and people will reveal this in an organic way. How they face challenges and work to overcome them to achieve their end goal will tell your reader the kind of person your character is.

The character should be changing with the story, they learn and grow, their experiences will shape their personality. The beginning of the story and flashbacks can show who they are at the start. Your reader wants to follow them as they go through these experiences and see who they become by the ending. That’s difficult to do if you dump it all at the start. It’s a journey of discovery, for your characters and for your reader.

The Mirror Monologue

This is a common trope and one that rarely works well. Your character wakes up in the morning and goes to the mirror to get ready for their day. They spend time looking at their reflection and having a long internal monologue about what they look like. The thing is, people don’t really do this in real life. They know what they look like already and they won’t mentally list every feature every day. It’s not realistic to do this.

What do you look at when you look in the mirror? Take some time and really think about what you look at and what you focus on. Maybe you like the way your hair is styled, or you don’t like your eyebrows. Perhaps your outfit makes you feel confident, or you’re unhappy with the colour of your shirt. We know our appearance in the mirror, so in real life we focus on things that we like or don’t like. We won’t think about every part of our bodies and every feature. Especially when it comes to body parts.

Gender Issues and Descriptions

This is particularly an issue with writing about women, I have seen excerpts where a female character spends two paragraphs describing the shape and size of her own breasts. It’s quite jarring to read, because most of us do not think about ourselves in that way. We don’t really notice the weight of our breasts as we walk, because we’re used to them. We don’t try to decide which fruit accurately represents their size and shape. It’s just not a thing that women do. We might think about how a certain bra or top makes them look, or if a top is too low cut. I imagine there is an equivalent of this for male characters, but I cannot comment on the real life experience of that, and it is much more common with female characters.

When you are dealing with characters who are outside the binary genders, it may be different. Again, I haven’t lived this experience so it’s difficult to really know how it might be. What I have learned from trans friends and trans creators online is that part of the reason someone does transition, whether this is medically, surgically or by using clothing and make-up to change their appearance, is to better reflect who they really are.

If you are planning to write a trans or non-binary character but you don’t identify as such yourself, it is worth finding someone who has lived experience that is willing to give you some advice and feedback to ensure that you are accurately representing them and not feeding into misconceptions or misunderstandings. Obviously, each individual is different, and it is usually better not to write about such characters if you don’t understand what they might feel and experience. Especially if you’re not willing to learn and be respectful.

How To Introduce Your Characters Better

You obviously need to introduce your characters and describe them to some degree. You need your reader to be interested. So here’s how to tackle it in a way that will get the job done well!

  • Everything you mention at the start will be considered important by your reader so mention the key aspects first.
  • Pick the most notable or memorable details of their appearance and highlight those. What makes them distinctive and memorable.
  • Don’t make the descriptions too complex and go easy with the adjectives. One or two for each feature is plenty. The reader will use their imagination for the rest.
  • Their behaviours should reflect their personality traits. This is where ‘Show, don’t tell’ comes into play. An outgoing person is likely to be talkative and willing to engage with strangers.
  • Describing behaviours, clothing, accessories and surroundings can give insight into your characters background as well as their personality. A messy workspace could indicate laziness or a lack of care about being tidy. Sleeping on a tatty old mattress on the floor of a rundown apartment will show that your character is in financial hardship.

Inclusivity and Stereotyping

  • Be mindful of unintended racial bias and harmful incorrect stereotypes. It is easy to get this wrong. Even if it is not done on purpose, aspects of characters can end up causing harm. Ensure your language and word choice is appropriate and inclusive. If you want to include a character who is a different race from you, or has another aspect that you don’t, it is very important to make sure you know how to handle it properly. That means research, listening to people who are living that experience and making sure your language reflects it accurately. If in doubt, leave it out.
  • If you are using real world contemporary characters, it might be better to be more ambiguous with race and leave it up to reader interpretation. This is clearly still relevant given the discussions around Disney’s live action “The Little Mermaid” remake and the casting of a POC in the lead role.
  • Representation matters, and everyone should be able to see themselves reflected in media, whether it is books, films, video games or comics.

I hope this helps you out in nailing those introductions. Happy writing! As always, I love to hear what people think and encourage respectful discussions in the comments below. If you are unsure about how you are introducing your characters in your writing, get in touch and I will be happy to help you out!

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