Emma Stewart Writes

Tag: characters

  • Five Tips: Creature Creation

    Creating Creatures? Here’s a Few Tips

    Creating your own creatures? Flora and fauna are an essential part of worldbuilding for any writer creating their own universe. There’s a lot to consider, and of course you need that suspension of disbelief to keep your reader invested. Things that make no sense will be jarring, so you need to have an in-universe explanation for things. So, here’s five tips for creature creation. At least, it’ll give you a few things to consider.

    Creature Creation Tip One: Nighttime, Day time

    Animals can be active during the night (nocturnal), daytime (diurnal) or in early morning and evening (crepuscular). Why does it matter? Usually, it’s about food. Either their food is more readily available at that time of day, or the animals that eat them are less active. It’s a bit of evolutionary give and take.

    Ectothermic, or ‘cold-blooded’ animals may be more active in the day when it is warm, basking in the sunshine to raise their body temperature. Rabbits are crepuscular, as it is easier to feed and hide from predators during that time. A lot of herbivores are more active in the daytime, while carnivores tend to hunt at night. If your creature is based on a real-world one, it’s worth looking up details like this and apply it to the world you’re creating. If large, dangerous predators prowl at night, most prey species will probably want to be hidden away safely in a den when it gets dark.

    Creature Creation Tip Two: Water, water everywhere

    One thing that is common to almost all living things, at least, the multicellular ones, is the need for water. We all need it, but some species can survive without it much longer than others. Fish, as a rule, don’t last more than a minute or two out of the water. While desert living mammals such as camels can conserve their body fluid for weeks if necessary. Most species can’t drink sea water as the salt content is too high.

    Amphibians and aquatic animals will need to have better access to water than camels or gerbils. A water dragon (the mythical kind) would be the same. So, think about the environment your creature lives in and how important water access is, or what strategies they might employ to conserve water and stay hydrated. Same goes for you, when you’re writing! Drink your water.

    Creature Creation Tip Three: Social Life

    Animals vary massively in terms of social structure. A lot of animals are solitary, living alone and only coming together for mating season. Bears, as an example, live alone. Which is great, if you’re an introvert. Many predators will live in small family units, hunting together co-operatively or on their own.

    Other species can have large and complex social structures. A lot of prey species will live in large herds, employing the safety in numbers strategy. As well as the ‘those who fall behind, are left behind’ strategy. Yeah… it’s how it goes in nature.

    This means that animals will respond differently when encountering another of their species. It can also impact how easily an animal can be trained or domesticated. Powerful predators that live solitary lives may not be easy to tame and train, like bears or dragons. I like the way polar bears are depicted in His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.

    In Lyra’s world, the bears can speak and reason, they’re known for their craftsmanship. But they are different from humans, and they know it. They have a king, but most of the time the bears go off and live their own lives, only coming together when needed. They don’t work for humans, but as we see with Iorek Byrnison, if you earn a bear’s respect, they will defend you.

    Creature Creation Tip Four: Food and Resources

    When inserting living things into your world, you need to think about food. What do they eat? Are they herbivores, carnivores or omnivores? Can they only eat one very specific type of fruit that only grows in one place?

    You also need to think about whether the species is hunted itself. Does it provide good meat, eggs, milk? Are the horns magical? Do the hides make good leather for protection? Is there a reason for the people of the world to hunt these animals or domesticate them? What purpose do they serve?

    Pretty much all domestic animals were kept for a purpose. Livestock for food, dogs to protect and manage herds and settlements. Cats domesticated themselves but they were good at keeping mice and rats at bay. Horses for transport. If the species is domesticated, think about why and how this benefits or harms society.

    Creature Creation Tip Five: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

    The most important thing, that ties everything together, is the environment. What I mean by that, is that all living species have adaptations to survive their native environment. Polar animals put on thick layers of fat under the skin and have thick fur coats to cope with the cold. Desert species can cope with very limited water supplies.

    A lot of people have strong opinions on the Theory of Evolution. Remember a scientific theory has been proven by scientific evidence. It’s not a question, a theory is confirmed. The evidence for evolution is everywhere in our world. Evolution happens over millions of years, but how species evolved and changed was largely dictated by the environment.

    Availability of food and water, temperature, landscape and climate all must be accounted for when deciding what animals live in an area of your world. If winters are harsh, do a lot of species hibernate, hidden away in caves until the spring arrives? If it’s a thick rainforest, most animals will be arboreal, living in the trees. This means they’d be good at climbing and jumping, to get around.

    It’s also worth considering what happens if a species is forced to live in an environment they’re not suited to. Can they adapt and cope, or are they going to struggle? Will they survive? For example, if we look at two crab species found on the Atlantic coast of the USA. The Atlantic blue crab and the horseshoe crab. Due to increasing temperatures in the water, the horseshoe crab population is declining, while the Atlantic blue crab is thriving in the warmer ocean. For more information, check out my videos on the Mirelurks of Fallout.

    Thanks for reading!

    I hope you found these five tips for creature creation useful, if you are populating your own fictional world. I will have more soon! Just remember, that animals have adapted to their environment, the climate and the kinds of food and water available to them. It’s all about survival and having access to what they need to survive.

    Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to be updated whenever a new post goes live. I’ve also got blogs for gaming revies and book reviews, which I will link below. I talk about lore and science in games on YouTube, specifically in Fallout, so you can check that out there. Follow me on my social media channels for regular updates on my writing journey. See you next time!

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  • Mary Sue Syndrome

    Mary Sue Syndrome

    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

    Characters Have a Mind of Their Own

    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

    Introducing your characters

    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!