PJO Magazine Issue #8 - June 2016

05 | Words of Wisdom

So Percy Jackson and the good old Olympians, eh? By far my favourite series of Rick's. I mean, I've only read two but let's not dwell on that. I knew immediately what I wanted to write about but I wasn't actually all that wisdom-y about it (ironic, huh?) so I went to the best person there is possible to help me out.

What may be the wisdom I'm spreading with you today be? Well good reader it's 'How to keep your PJO characters in character!'

A simple task that every fanfiction writer will know, many will think is easy and many will get it terribly wrong. Keeping characters in character is arguably the most important thing to do in fanfiction; if your fanfiction isn't true to those character's origin, you can hardly call it a fanficition, and this becomes especially vital in canon fics. If you're like me, and write mostly AUs then you likely won't face such a problem but I personally think that even in AUs, your characters should be as true to their canon selves as possible (I also know that I'm not very good at this).

You may now be asking, who the heck have you asked? Well we'll be getting to that shortly, first I want to give you three easy steps to making the best canon-true character you possibly can. I call it 'SOB'.

S: Stupid.

Don't be stupid about what you're doing. This step is broken up into two parts. The first; look at each action, each line your character is about to say and think back to the books. Think for even half a second, would my character really say this? Really? And the second half; don't over exaggerate what you know already about the characters.

Sure, Percy likes blue food a lot. You might even say he loved it because it reminds it of his mother and Percy is such a mama's boy. But he's hardly going to bathe naked in blue golden syrup and blue waffles. Yes, Nico can be gloomy and even a little bit depressing, he holds grudges (and to be honest his canon character is always changing) but that doesn't mean he walks around with a horde of shadows, reading poems about death and threatening suicide at every other line.

O: Online

If you haven't heard of 'wikia' before you my friend have been living under a rock and it's high time we save you from such a stony demise. Riordan Wikia is basically this treasure trove of everything Uncle Rick; everything you could possibly want to remember or use in your fanfictions. Of course it covers the main series, but from personal experience, I've found that there's a lot more information on PJO than the other series due to them obviously being out for much longer.

So if you're ever stuck for what to do or what would make sense for a character to do, you're in the middle of 'S' and want to be extra sure that what's about to happen would be true to their canon character, just hop on over to this glorious little website for a quick read. For a top tip just google whatever it is you're after with 'wikia' after it. For example; Nico di Angelo wikia or Coach Hedge wikia.

B: Books

The greatest place to work out whether your character is in character is of course the books this character came from. So dust off those PJO books and have a little flick through, refresh your memory and get into the feel of the series and the universe once again, and the characters of course.

Now I'm not saying to re-read the whole series (though you could) or to do this every single time you want to write anything in your fic (though you could) but I suggest you at least have a little look into these books before you start a new story. Even if it's just a quick scan of the first paragraph of The Lightning Thief.

Now to finish, I want to share some amazing advice. Remember how I said I went to a friend? Yes well that glorious senpai is none other than Miss Chilea. I now give you just a small fragment of the character information she gave me. So without further ado, here you are!

Perfect Percy & Amazing Annabeth

~Percy isn't some hot, confident and sassy guy. He's rather awkward and often those snarky comments aren't intentional; he's merely sarcastic in nature without even realising it (sometimes).

~Annabeth is not a know-it-all. She can be very snarky herself (especially in TLT) though more aware of it then Percy, and while she does like Percy and architecture, she can talk about more than that. She's a very strong character and incredibly smart with fast thinking and plan devising.

~Percy and Annabeth are NOT obsessed with each other and their relationship. They tease each other a lot and Percy screws up a lot as a boyfriend, though can normally make up for it in some way or another.

Naked Nico

~Nico's character changes a lot in even the canon books so getting him in character is incredibly hard! He's not some nerdy 10 year old kid anymore; the fangirls don't need to protect him. He's not always broody and dark and sexy, nor is he lovesick over Will all the time.

Classy Clarisse

~Clarisse is not a big bully obsessed with weapons. Clarisse may be tough on the outside but she is incredibly loving and soft really, best seen with Sirena (most tend to completely overlook their bond) and with Chris, how much she cared for him no matter the odds ought to be addressed more by the fandom. Clarisse is Chuck's godmother (Hedge and Mellie's son)

Unfortunately, the rest of the tips she gave me were for HoO characters, though I do really want to share them with you all. Tell me in the comments if you want more (don't worry, I stalk the magazine enough to see them) and I'll see if I can get them into my little section in the future.

I hope my tips here help you to create better canon characters, if not...then we keep on trying. Good luck with the fics guys, stay groovy!

See ya'll next month.