Writing Guidelines (The Do's and Dont's)

Topic #2: Characters & Development

Ever read the Twilight saga?

Bella Swan is often used as a Don't Character. In my personal opinion, she's incredibly bland. If you asked me to describe Bella and how her existence had bettered the book in any way, I wouldn't have much to say. She's no real interests other than Edward, and Jacob occassionally, she doesn't seem to have any ambition, nor does she develope as much as a character should. I don't really like Bella at all. The plot is pretty good and the other characters are fairly well presented. But Bella...

Anywho, now you have a great idea of what NOT to make a character, especially if it's the main character that a whole series focuses on.

A good character is individual. Sure, they can share similarities to other characters, but the big things, like goals and traits should be more unique.

A way to avoid having a bland, uninteresting, or overall sucky character is to base them off a real life person. Even yourself. All my characters resemble a part of myself. Maria Mohar/Firestone from "A Discorded Love" resembles my fangirlish side of me. Rebecca Morse from "Becca: Agent of Creve" resembles my serious, determined, yet somewhat unsure side of me. Both are somewhat interesting characters, and although they're both parts of myself, they're two different people altogether.

You can do the same. Just ask youself a couple of questions as you try to develope a character:

What's my best feature?

What's a word that someone would use to describe me? Am I funny? Flirty? Determined? Serious? Goofy? Clumsy? Sensitive? Shy?

What is my worst feature?

The list goes on and on and on. Play with some designs, and mix it up a little. Maybe your character is a bit on the clumsy/goofy side, but they're totally focused and goal-oriented when the time comes? Or they're totally serious and calm until they meet a certain group of people and loosen up a bit? Or perhaps they're a weird fangirl who overly obsesses over a certain cartoon character?

Your character can be totally normal, yet have a few quirky insecuries about them. There's many possibilities! A good character can make the difference between a good story and a bad one.

Appearance doesn't much matter in a character. Anyone here read "Fahrenheit 451"? It's an incredible book that I was assigned to read in school, and I actually enjoyed it. The author, Ray Bradbury, wrote the entire thing without one description of any of the characters. Nobody knows exactly what any of the characters look like; Bradbury lets the reader imagine what the characters look like themselves. And it's a fantastic story!

It just goes to show that you don't really need physical descriptions to have a good character.

Good characters need to develope in some way, shape, or form. There's no way that someone can go through something big and stay the same way they were before. They must grow somewhat, whether it be in their maturity, their entire way of thinking, or their lifestyle. It wouldn't make sense if a middle-schooler transitioned into highschool without gaining a new sense of maturity. Or a doctor to trust himself to do another surgery immediately after he lost a patient in a surgery hours before. A growing character is a good character.

Make the character believeable. Write a few test events and challenge the way your character would react to certain situations. Put yourself in the character's shoes and react the exact same way you would. The more creative the situation, the better of an idea you can get from having your character react from it.

And one more tip; stay away from clichéd characters. Just because a character is a redhead doesn't automatically make them a spunky defiant person. Or a blonde person being ignorant right off the back. Or an Asian person knowing how to do math after just being born. Try being more original. If you insist on making the character clichéd to their appearance, at least make it believable. Give them a backstory leading up to them becoming what they are. (That's our next topic! ^w^)

That's all I have for this topic. Anymore questions? Or have a topic you want me to cover? Comment or PM me!

Next topic: Backstories (See? Told ya!)

Stay positive and keep writing!

-Jasmine