Why I Won't Read Your Story, or in converse, Why I Will:

Part Four

By Mell8

My step-by-step, completely egocentric—yet strangely informative—guide ::rant:: to why I will not read your story, and conversely, why I will.

Review Responses to Part Three:

Reading your story aloud to yourself is the best way I've found to edit. This is because it incorporates more senses into the editing process (hearing and speaking, rather than just sight) and therefore forces your brain to focus that much more on each letter and word. There are other ways to edit using this idea, such as writing your story out on paper first and then transferring it over to your computer, but there are still some weaknesses with that idea.

What I was teaching was editing after your story has been put into your computer. Your fingers do not always type correctly no matter what they see on the page in front of them. So, while writing and then reading off a page and typing on the computer does utilize more than one sense in your writing process, and will probably help with grammar editing and such, it will not catch human error that occurs while you are typing. My method does.

I'm glad I could help everyone else out with their writing! You're the reason why I keep posting more chapters.

So, all the technical stuff has been cleared up. You now know how to write well and in a way that doesn't bother me. Congrats. And yet… I've just left your story because I didn't like it. Why? Well in this case it's because your characterizations bore me. Therefore I give you:

Part Four: Creating Your Characters. Why I hate the heroine, but love the antagonist, and want to strangle the author for doing that with a character.

Step Seven: Main Characters

The main character is the lead of your story. He or she (or it, for those without specific genders) is the one telling the story and the one the story follows as your plot progresses. Your character needs to be dynamic, interesting, and needs to have some sort of connection to the main plot.

Creating interesting, realistic, and believable characters is extremely difficult. The most I, as the author of this guide, can do is point you in the right direction. The best way to write excellent characters is by practicing and by learning from your mistakes. Take what I write to heart, utilize it in creating your characters, and learn from your own work!

1. Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. Raise your hand if you detest Mary Sues in writing. If your hand isn't raised then you are either an idiot or are ignorant. In my opinion, and in the opinion of many other writers with whom I have had a discussion about Mary Sues, having a Mary Sue in your story is the worst possible way to create a character.

Definition of a Mary Sue (as taken from Urban Dictionary): An original character (fem.) in fanfic or an original story, usually on the internet, who is far superior to all other characters. She is typically beautiful, intelligent, kind, and in all other ways "perfect". She usually serves as an important part in a pivotal plot element (ie: a prophecy) and becomes romantically involved with the author's favourite character in the story. The internet fiction world runs rampant with these characters.

Now, while the term is most often used in fanfiction writing, it can also be applied to many original stories I see on this site. The author creates a character that is too perfect, too beautiful, too powerful, too everything that can possibly be added to give the character perfection. The character has the perfect life and the perfect boyfriend/girlfriend. Everything the character does ends up working out in the end, and everyone except the antagonist loves the character. Does this sound annoying to you? Because just writing it is annoying me.

(And if you see any parallels to the perfect characters in Twilight I will not blame you. That story is full of damned Mary Sues and Gary Stus….oops, a rant. I guess my summary was accurate after all, heh.)

Mary Sues often occur as a literary personification of the author. The author takes what they like about themselves, removes what they don't like, adds in what they wish they were, stirs with a magic wand, and presto: Mary Sue.

I will even admit to writing Mary Sues myself. One of my earliest original stories (that is not posted on this site because I wrote it when I was ten and there was much more wrong with it than just the Mary Sue) was of me, older, more beautiful than I actually was at the time (I'm gorgeous now, duh), with an outgoing and winning personality that I craved, and with magical powers that I wished I had. She was fake, pretentious, and oh so awful, because she was perfect and in her perfection nothing could go wrong.

And that is why are Mary Sues truly awful: they are fake. Your goal, as a writer, is to create realistic, believable characters that seem as if they could actually exist in the real world, even if your story is fantasy and based in a different world than our own. Perfection is a myth propagated by magazines and television shows as fake as a Mary Sue; it doesn't actually exist. Therefore, having a character who is perfection exemplified does not give you a realistic person in which your readers can believe in.

Do your best to allow your character to have flaws, to fall down every once in a while, and even to make mistakes that are painful for them. It will take practice and it may make you, the writer, suffer because your character is suffering, but persevere and your audience will thank you in the end.

2. Name. Giving a name to a character you love is like giving a name to your own child. It's heart pounding, mind bending, and sometimes difficult to do. Here are some tips to help you out with the anxiety of choosing the perfect name for your main character.

First, let me tell you my personal secret. I go to baby naming websites to search for the perfect name for my characters. I look up meanings, nicknames, and even alternate spellings until I am satisfied that it fits my character. I would suggest you go to babynames dot com and to their "Tips For Writers" section under their search page. I will be using that page as my reference for what I want to write in this section. They've already compiled all the information about this a writer could ever want, and since I'm a lazy person at heart, I figured I might as well capitalize on their effort.

Originality and Relevance: These are the two most key things to think about when deciding on your character's name. Choosing the most obscure and unheard of name you can find may sound like fun, but does it fit with your character? The name Shaniqua should not be given to a white skinned, red haired boy. It just doesn't fit no matter how much you love the name. Find a name that fits with your character's personality and appearance. Also, think about the time period. Shaniqua is a fairly recent addition to the name pool and would therefore not be found in medieval Europe. Therefore, you should not name your Rapunzel-like damsel-in-distress-who-will-be-eventually-saved-by-a-knight character Shaniqua.

Something to keep in mind is that boring names don't help your character stand out, nor does it help your readers remember your character. Bob is a boring name. So are John and Joe. Why? It's certainly not because they're bad names. It is because they are names that are used everyday by your peers in your real life. They are not memorable in a story because your readers relate that name to someone they know in the real world. That isn't to say that having a character with one of those names is bad, but try to come up with something memorable for your main character.

One thing to remember that babynames puts quite beautifully and bluntly: "Exotic names are for romance novels, soap operas, and strippers." If your story exists in the real world then chose a name that your character's mother would chose in the real world. If you google a name you're thinking of using and it comes up with porn websites, then you might want to reconsider…

Meaning: Name meaning can be very important, particularly in fantasy stories where a character's name can define who they are. Ivy can be a name for an earth using magician or someone with an affinity with plants. However, the name Bob does not give off the same earthy vibes. Sometimes making a name that obvious can detract from your plot. The name Ivy will automatically tell your reader to think earth and will ruin a surprise in the plot. But, if you think you're being clever and name a water user Ivy, you may get glares from your audience. Originality is key, but when name meaning comes into play you want to think carefully and plan accordingly.

Also, name meaning may help you build on your character's personality. If your character's name means strength then maybe they should be a strong, outgoing character, rather than a timid mouse. If your character has the strength and power of a king, give them a kingly name like Arthur. And vice versus. Use the name meaning to build your character and to have a bit of fun with it!

Fantasy Names & Nicknames: You're writing a fantasy book and you want to go the traditional fantasy name route with apostrophes, too many consonants/vowels, and long and illegible names. I would suggest reconsidering. Give your character a name that doesn't make your reader feel the need to skip their eyes over the name because they can't pronounce it or even read it. Having a complicated name may make your character forgettable, but more likely it will just annoy your reader and they may move on to a different story.

You can still go the traditional route of apostrophes, but make the name short and sweet so everyone can pronounce it. Or, if you absolutely have to write a long and illegible name, give your character a nickname that is used more often than their full name so your readers still have something they can pronounce. (An example of a good, short fantasy name is: F'lar or F'nor from Anne Mccaffrey's Dragon Riders of Pern series.)

This can also be true of names in regular stories. If your character has a long name that may be difficult to read, give your character a nickname. Also, if you think about it, ninety percent of your friends have a nickname. Why? It could be because they have long names, like Christopher or Alexander, that, despite the fact that they are easy to read, are difficult to say over and over again. In real life these names are shortened to Chris and Alex, so shorten them in your story as well.

3. Background. Your character is not a one-dimensional creature caught in the vortex that is your story. Instead, your character is a three dimensional person with all the issues a regular person might have. To give your character all those dimensions you need to expand on what you know about your character. What events occurred in your character's past before the book starts? Traumatic things can effect how they act in the present. Happy things can effect what makes your character happy in the present. If your character had the best third birthday party a toddler could ever want, but also discovered that he was afraid of clowns at that party, then this could make your character both excited and reticent about going to parties in the present of your story.

You should think up all sorts of facts about what happened to your character. You may not end up using most of the specific details from them, but how your character acts now is absolutely effected by their past, so knowing how your character fared way back when will effect how you, the author, write him now. You may also be surprised when you add in details you thought up about your characters past for fun into the story as you flesh out your character.

It's also a good idea to know where your character is going in the future. This mostly effects the ending of your book, but knowing that your character is going to end up working at a bookstore twenty years later might give you the idea to make your character always have a book with them in the present.

4. Personality. This is one of the hardest parts of your character to write. You don't want your character to become predictable and completely redundant, thereby causing your character to be boring and forgettable. To avoid that you have to give your character a dynamic personality. However, giving your character too dynamic a personality may make them seem annoying. Finding that balance takes practice, and it takes some research. Study the people around you. If you're writing a mother, look at how your mother and your friends' mothers act in different situations and use what you see to create a realistic character. If you're writing a bully, watch how other bullies act and who they go after and why. You can learn a lot about the people around you and their societal labels by paying a bit of attention to the real world that you can then transfer into your story.

(Just remember that you're trying for originality, so mix together a couple different people. What would your local schoolyard bully think if he read your story and found out your main character kills a character eerily similar to said bully… The All Persons Fictitious Disclaimer is something you do not want to fight with.)

Remember, perfection is not what you or your reader want. If you are writing a character that is super strong, personality wise, then give them a weakness too. It's particularly good to give your character a personality weakness that they don't know about or that they are trying to overcome. It adds some more depth to your character and makes your character that much more realistic.

5. Reactions. How your character reacts to things is important too. At a surprise birthday party where your main character sees the much loved cousin who has been overseas fighting in the war for the first time in five years, you, the writer, do not want apathy to be your character's response. Or, if your character has just been raped and their world is ending, don't stop with the angst after a five-minute cry and have your character bounce back to full health. Allow for your character to feel and allow for the appropriate amount of time for those feelings to occur.

Again, this is a good time for study. Watch your friends. If someone cracks a joke, see how your peers react. Some will laugh, some will smile, etc., but they will not laugh for an hour or even a full minute and often they will interrupt their laughter with talking or more joking. Try to make your characters act realistically and your readers will find your characters that much more realistic.

6. Physical Features. Is it too cliché to give a character blonde hair and blue eyes or red hair and green eyes? Is it too boring to give a character brown hair and brown eyes? No. Physical features are entirely dependent on your likes. Some writers may think brown hair is hotter than blonde hair, so if they're building a drop dead gorgeous character, she may have brown hair. In this case there are only so many combinations possible, so feel free to use whatever colors and descriptions you, the author, want.

If you think about read life, humans have a conglomeration of different colors making up their features. Allow for your characters to be brown haired and blue eyed, but also allow for the brown on brown and the blonde on blue, because all of that can occur in real life.

Also, except for fantasy stories, giving a character blue hair had better come with a reason. Why did your character choose the route of dye? It had better be for a reason other than because you, the author, felt the need to be original. Hair dye and colored contacts can be excellent windows into a character's personality, but they can also be redundant and can take away from the likability of your character. Make sure there is a well-established reason for the odd colors before you decide to give your character violet eyes and green hair.

7. Change. Your character is not static. Throughout your story different things will be occurring that will change your character from who (s)he once was into something new. Maybe your character is just growing up… Yet one thing to remember is that all that your character experiences will influence him/her in some way and that will change them.

This means that who your character is in the beginning of your story should be different than who your character is in the end. People change as their lives progress, and, while it could be something as simple as a hair cut, your character needs to reflect that in how they act and in what they do.

Step Eight: Secondary Characters

Your main character would be nothing without the rest of the cast in your story. One person cannot hold an entire plot up. They need a sidekick, a mother, a best friend, a boyfriend/girlfriend, an antagonist, etc. These characters create plots of their own, they support your main character, and they are generally important to your story.

Therefore, you should go back up to Step Seven and re-read, except this time read everything from the perspective of a minor character. From Mary Sues through to the end, all that I taught you about main characters can absolutely be used to create your lesser characters.

Remember, secondary characters can sometimes take on a life of their own. I often see stories that are spin-offs of a larger world in which the author thought a secondary character needed an entire story to themselves. Therefore, you should make sure to flesh out the rest of your characters too. Not only does it make them more realistic, it gives you the opportunity to incorporate them fully into your plot. Every person in this world has a life of their own with their own problems and accomplishments. Use what you know about your secondary characters to create people who can fully support your main character in all the plots you can come up with.

My Own Personal View on Reviews:

As you all know, reviews are those fun things that readers can send to respond to your writing. They can be good, bad, or neutral. Every writer loves them, but not every reader gives them. However, not every reader gives good reviews.

I, as a writer, love reviews. I love knowing that there is someone out there reading my story that cares enough or likes my story enough to send me a review. Every review is special, even the one-liners that say, "I love this," and nothing more. But, what did you like? Try to be specific. Tell the writer what you liked or didn't like and why.

This website is a place where first time writers and long time writers go to hone their skills in order to become better writers. Many of those authors will go on and try to get published. Therefore, it should be your honor to aid those writers in any way possible, the best way being through reviews. Tell the writer that their grammar sucks and that their character is fake and pretentious. If you don't tell them then they will never improve.

Many times, when I find a story I cannot read due to something I've gone over or have yet to go over in this guide, I will write a review telling the author why I cannot get past their first paragraph, tell them what they should do to fix their story, and generally do what I can to help them improve.

So, to sum up: One line reviews are not bad because they tell the writer that someone cares enough to read and review the story. However, it would be better to give a more in depth review, even if it is only two lines with more specifics than the one line.

This site says on the review page: A well rounded critique is often the most rewarding gift a reader can give. Please use this golden opportunity to offer a well deserved praise and/or tips for improvement. So follow directions and give a great review!

So, did I get everything? Is there something I forgot that you feel needs to be said about characterization? There is so much to say that I really feel I left quite a bit out on accident. Please tell me if there is something about a main character that bothers the heck out of you so I can add it in too!

What do you think I should focus on next chapter?

Thanks,

Mell8