Writing Tips

Tip #3: Characters. Big selling point, easy to write them wrong.

Tip #3: Characters. Big selling point, easy to write them wrong.

1.      Avoid the Mary Sue. She can be the death of your book in less than a blink. What is a Mary Sue? Mary Sue is a perfect character. Superman is a Mary Sue (in guy form) because he has no faults. Seriously, he can do everything and he’s got a great personality. Today Mary Sues are usually the pretty girls who see themselves as plain, are always right, people like them, they get the guy, blah blah blah.

2.      Writing is therapy. Hard things sometimes won’t seem so big if you’ve dealt with them on paper. Give characters problems, because real people have problems—Mary Sues, however, don’t have problems. But don’t go overboard on the issues. Give them a human amount of personal demons. If you’ve gone through something rough (mine would be fear) throw that in there for them! Make them shake! Make them cry out for help with the same issues you’ve dealt with.

3.      Okay, with that advice above about adding a bit of yourself to the character, don’t go overboard on that. It’s easy to pick out a character with the same dreams and desires, the same tastes, likes and dislikes as the author. If there’s something you just want more than anything or want to say to someone but never get the chance (a very common example is a girl explaining to a boy how painful a period is—yes, I am a lady too, but there are more important things going on in my book than that, and chances are if the vast majority of teen fiction is romance, a guy most likely won’t be reading it, especially if the MC (main character) complains a lot), don’t say it, or say it in a way that isn’t so completely obvious. Make it a theme in your book, a central message. If a writer is very passionate about how a girl doesn’t need a guy to be happy, they won’t have just one little rant about it at a sleepover. They’ll make it a theme, a story about a girl who tries to find happiness in boys, but can’t no matter what she does.

4.      Avoid too much drama. Characters that are too dramatic can get to be annoying. If they get angry way too easily, or take things way too personally, it will make the reader roll their eyes after a while. An example of too dramatic would be something like this: main character sees significant other walking with rival (i.e., my boyfriend is having a conversation with that cheerleader). Rival walks away, MC (main character) walks up to significant other, angry, and screams “I hate you! You were talking to that person, you cheater!” Significant other says, “Babe, I was just asking her for homework.” Then the MC goes on to scream and sob and choke and die and yell and scream and sob some more until significant other starts yelling and screaming and shrieking and yelling some more and they fall apart and boo-hoo big ol’ sob story. And while I understand that the MC had a reason to be upset and the writer had to have a big fight because it was important for the plot, there are better ways to get the characters into a tussle. Using any of the words above in bold and underlined can usually lead to a character over-reacting. Don’t use them unless the character has a serious reason to be pissed out of their shorts (i.e., someone close just died and they’re not dealing well; they’re falling down a dark hole; they’re in a significant amount of physical pain). Relationship issues usually do not merit a scream-off unless it’s some dire situation like someone cheated, everyone knows they cheated, and they’re telling their special other to be cool with it and that they need to chill out. Be realistic. Characters that are in their later-teens very mature and most likely won’t get into a giant screaming fight in the middle of lunch. Look back and think “would that really happen?” If the answer is yes, think again, “would that really happen?” And if you’re super sure it would, ask it again. View your story not as the writer, but as a reader who hasn’t read it before.

5.      If a character is in a tense situation with lots of emotion, their inner thoughts probably won’t be terribly sarcastic. If they were just accused of murdering their best friend’s father, they won’t be thinking gosh, my BF hates me so much, I wouldn’t be surprised if they dangled me head first into a ravine. Oh well. They’d probably be thinking more along the lines of I wish I could make this better some way or trying to come up with ways to go back and imagining what they could have done instead of let that person die. If the character is guilty, good writing says the reader should feel guilty.

6.      Also, beware of the laughy characters.There comes a point in a book when the characters are very happy. Things that aren’t even funny make them laugh, and they laugh. All. The. Time. This, too, is annoying. I’m not saying don’t have happy characters, I’m just saying show it less. We get the point. I was guilty of this too, in my early writing.