This is my favorite part of the writing process! Making your audience want to love your character is most of the battle, and it drives me nuts as a beta reader to read characters that aren’t remotely likeable. You want your MC to be a villain? Awesome! But even if he’s a bad guy, I still need to find some way to root for the bastard. Deadpool is probably the best example I can come up with. He is a narcissistic asshole with a big mouth and a bigger love for violence. Yet, he is one of the most popular characters in Marvel, why? Because he’s relatable, he’s fresh, he’s funny, and he’s likeable.
So how can you make your character likeable?
Step 1: Avoid One-Dimensional Characters
So what is a one dimensional character? It’s when your character is solely focused around one thing. For instance, if I wanted to make America a one-dimensional character, I make him a hero and done. He goes around screaming I’m the hero! And saving everyone even if they don’t want to be saved, and that’s all you get out of his story.
Here’s how you add the next dimension: Why is he the hero? What compels him to want to save people? Has he ever come across someone who didn’t want to be saved? How did he react in that situation? These kinds of questions develop your character as someone with ranging emotions, goals, a background, and now America isn’t just the hero.
You can keep building up from there. If he’s the hero because of some misplaced obligation to others, where did he get that from? If he’s compelled to save people because he believes it’s his duty, who assigned him that task? Not only does it develop your character, but it also develops your plot.
Step 2: Avoid Mary Sues
Look, I’m not saying don’t make your character smart, attractive, athletic, etc. because there are actually real people in the world like that. I, personally, am one of those people who literally want to try everything. What you have to bear in mind is, they may not be the best at everything. Girls, I’m all for feminism, but let’s be honest, if you were going to wrestle with a man twice your size, I don’t care how badass you are, you will probably lose if the man is any type of decent fighter. Sure your character is incredibly smart and talented, but that probably means they are also incredibly stressed out and pressured to be the best.
What we are trying to get at here is life can’t come easy for your character because life can’t come easy for anybody. Everyone has fears, everyone has moments of self-doubt, everyone has obstacles they can’t overcome on the first try or the second try or the fiftieth try. If your character has been accused of being a Mary Sue, but you have developed them with these trials then you need to show it more in the story. Let their fears shine through. Even if they keep up a strong front with the other characters, there shouldn’t be a front with your audience. Let the readers pick your character apart. It’s our favorite pastime.
Step 3: Play with Your Character
If it’s a character I’ve fallen in love with, I am practically torturing the poor soul. A good place to start is a writing meme. Let it revolve solely around your character. Put them in a different AU. Take another character you love that they have absolutely no way of interacting with, and write out what would happen. RP with it. I love Miitomo right now because some of the questions they ask are difficult to answer unless you’re really inside the head of your character. If you come to a question you can’t answer, that usually means you have some more development to do either with your character or with your plot. The important thing is we won’t love them if you don’t love them.
Happy Munday! This is my writing advice piece for the week. Like I said, I’m no expert, but this works for me and my hope is that I’ve helped at least one person out of the writing hell of writer’s block.
So you have been inspired to write! Congratulations! You’re next question is what to do from here? Some people say there are two types of writers: those who meticulously outline and those who wing it. From someone who does both, I think it has more to do with the way you were inspired.
When I’m inspired by a setting:
I’m one of those people who have a dream, look at a piece of artwork, or read a particular world-building setting, and I’m hooked. I have an entire story idea ready to go. For example, I recently was reading the top ten most underappreciated paranormal beings and came across the rusalka. For any of you who have read my new story idea, clearly I was inspired.
I’m slow with it though because I’m in the meticulously planning stage which is usually what happens when I get inspired by something I see. Basically, I sit down and plot out each of the following:
· Characters- personalities, relationships, goals, development in general
· Interactions- when do I want them to meet, how they meet, their thoughts on the other characters
· Places- does the story take place in several different spots or one in particular? What does it look like? Do we meet any new characters there?
· Background Stories- I will plan out background stories for my most minor characters on the off-chance it’s necessary to the story because even if it’s not, it’ll help you create a more compelling character when you need to use those one scene characters.
· Timeline- Everything from the earliest background story to the ending gets placed in a timeline
· Plotline- Make a summary for each scene using your timeline. This will give you a more complete outline. It certainly doesn’t have to be five pages worth of prose either. That will come in your actual story. Just one or two sentences to remind you of what is supposed to happen at that moment in time.
· Maps- If you do use a lot of fictional places, you’re going to want to know where point A and point B are and how the characters go about getting there.
· Anything else that’s going to help you in creating this story, get it plotted out. I was working on an AU where all the Disney kingdoms were linked together in a steampunk universe, and I felt like it would help me get into the story by making their costumes. You don’t have to do this. It’s easier for me to write if I have a visual of what I want.
PROS and CONS
Pros: It’s done. Writer’s block will never be an issue because all you have to do is copy down exactly what you have adding in the minor details and dialogue. It may change as you write the story and that’s okay! Your story will develop a mind of its own the more you delve into it and really see how your characters interact.
Cons: It’s done. Sometimes my motivation at this point goes right out the window because essentially I’ve already written the story. In my head, I’m ready to move on to the next one. If you are like me and feel complete after this part, set it down. You wanted to write it for a reason. You love these characters and plot. Just like the Harry Potter books, you will want to pick it up again. Leave it alone, and come back with a fresh mind, and it becomes much easier.
When I’m inspired by a scene:
So this is where you have a conversation with somebody or you watch a funny line of dialogue, and this scene runs through your head and you construct an entire story around this scene. I’m always bad about having mental conversations, and think “that was a great comeback no one will ever hear”. Sometimes it may be events in my life that I think, that would be really cool if this character was doing that instead. Alfred falling out of the tree in my AmeBela drabble was one of these events.
Now with this kind of inspiration, I want to knock out as much of the story as possible. I write a whole bunch of scenes in no particular order, and then go back to try to piece them together. In my notes it may be something like (outline from my Lost Revolution):
· (America gets taken by France into the resistance.)
· America greets Great Britain.
· Canada asks for America’s help.
· (Great Britain shows up to America’s house.)
· ….
The ones in parentheses are already written out, and the one liners just remind me of what I need to add to really make one scene flow into the other.
PROS and CONS
Pros: Flexibility. There’s a freedom to how you want to write it that doesn’t require you to sift through your outline like in the first method. It keeps it exciting and new in your mind which helps with keeping it alive.
Cons: Flexibility. Once you get the parts that are in your head down, I have the worst writer’s block when it comes to filling in the gaps. It part of the reason why part 2 of anything on this blog is a major timeskip. So my advice on this is similar to my earlier advice. One, plan out the parts in between better to make it something you want to go back to, and two, leave it alone for a while.
I have a ton of “abandoned works” that just sit in a file on my computer waiting for me to pull up again. Some of them will never get revived and I keep them solely for the learning experience. Others, I pull back up, remember how excited I was, and find a way to improve them and get me back into them. The main idea to pull away from this is to just write. I have to remind myself constantly that the only way anyone can see the awesome world I built is if I put in words for them because I am crap at public speaking. So that’s out. Don’t worry if your way isn’t like mine or another writing blog’s. Find something that works for you, that gets yourself organized, and create something magical.
Sorry guys for having not updated in a while! We're moving so I've been busy with packing and throwing crap away. So I had a thought, and I've decided on Monday's rather than do the usual about the mun posts, I was going to give writing advice.
Now I am by no means an expert, but I've certainly picked up enough do's and don't's in the years I've been writing to pass it along. You can certainly ask me about anything I post if you want to know more about it, and if you disagree with anything I post, cool! This is just stuff I've found that has worked for me, and if you want to debate it with me I'm all ears.
If you don't want to hear my ramblings, I'll tag it as #sunnysadvice and you can blacklist it. Of course, I'll still be open to Munday stuff if you guys want to ask personal questions. Hopefully I'll get back to posting more stories soon. Thanks guys, and I'll see you tomorrow!
