Tips on how to write better and have more people read your Star Wars stories.
I will not claim to be an expert, but I hope that someone will read this and it will help them further achieve their goal of becoming a writer. Because I mainly write Sta...
So, we addressed before that Original Characters can be problematic when developing and writing a story. But what specifically about them is such a major turn-off?
It can be mostly described in two words: Mary Sue/Marty Stu.
Original Character ideas.
When you first come up with a character, you often want to flesh out and design them as quickly as possible so that you don't forget any important details. I tend to find that your characters change and mold themselves into your stories as you write them, with only a few things staying the same from the initial brainstorming session.
Some work best by having a reference picture/s of what their characters look like, but I do not really work like that unless I have drawn the character myself. Face claims are another thing people will do, claim the use of the face of a celebrity as the face of their character/s. I personally highly disagree with this and never have and never will do this. I prefer people to either describe the character through the novel or leave it to the audience to guess what they might look like for themselves.
Who knows, it may have been better than what you were thinking anyway.
You would have probably seen authors here with OC books on their profiles, usually as an organisational reference for themselves and to allow their readers to know a little more about their characters. This is the notes chapter in my stories as I tend to keep this personal however, as I both remember the details and I feel that these kinds of details should be somewhere within the novels being written. This is my opinion only and no one way is better than the other.
Some of the most basic details that often make up a character's profile, if they are applicable or necessary, include: their name, nickname/s or aliases, gender, species, race, sexuality, age, height, weight, birthday, partner/spouse and child/children, occupation or rank, strengthens and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, goals/dreams, fears, talents/special abilities/skills, hobbies, etc. Some even include the original inspiration behind the characters as a reminder to themselves.
Fun fact, I decide birthdays of characters by rolling a 30-sided and 12-sided dice. This was how every character, other than Neeran and Zach, got their birthdays.
Next, author's will probably have their characters appearance and personality described underneath. Contrary to most people's descriptions in OC books, personality is a little more than half a dozen, often contradictory words. You will probably need a few sentences to describe why they might have these certain personality traits. Habits can be included here as well.
As a side note, a personality trait like being dim-witted and clumsy in a job that requires intelligence and sure-footedness is a bad idea as it just gives off a dodgy OC vibe that turns people away from your stories.
Ethnicity and religion can also play a role in the creation of a character. A character of Middle Eastern origin who follows the Islamic religion will have different views to a Nepali Buddhist who will have different views again from an Indian Sihk. These are all things to keep in mind when designing a character, no matter where the story is set.
You may also want to take into account this alignment chart when deciding on how a character will interact with someone and what their motives might be.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Original Character background/backstory.
How one was raised and what happened in their childhood has an effect throughout their life and should be present in the novel for readers to see. These can help determine a characters traits, beliefs, motivations, values, reoccurring feelings and ideas, their self image, behaviour, demeanour, posture, speech patterns, quirks, etc.
Their history is crucial in determining whether or not they will have certain characteristics about them, such as being attention-seeking because they were rarely praised or distrustful after being lied to on many occasions by many different people, often people close to them.
On including mental and physical illnesses and disabilities, be sensitive and do your research prior to engaging in writing a story with these kinds of characters.
In Voltron: Legendary Defender, one of the lead characters, Takashi 'Shiro' Shirogane, is a young Japanese astronaut with a physical disability that causes his muscles to fail on him, thus rendering him unable to go on missions when the illness is first hinted to. Because I am interested in pursuing a medical/nursing career currently, I have done some extensive research on disabilities over the last couple of years, mainly ones that significantly affect infants/young children and their families as my dream career currently is to become a midwife (have also extensively researched that too).
Because of this research, I was quickly able to determine that Shiro was suffering from Muscular Dystrophy, where the body's muscles just waste away to nothing, though it is never explicitly said in the show what he had. I also knew this because that was what my paternal grandmother passed away from, though not without proving all the doctors wrong first for how long she would live, outliving their predictions by ~6 years, and calmly asking if they could get better disabled parking in their car park after basically being handed the equivalent of a death sentence, scarring the doctor who had expected a breakdown from my grandmother. She and my aunt had been told by another doctor that it was what he thought it was before they'd done any testing, so they had had some time to prepare before the news was officially broken to them.
Original Character interactions (with your world/story/fandom canon).
These interactions are some of the most important in making your story more enjoyable to the fandom you are writing in. I have found that people don't really want to read OC stories because of all the pitfalls and horrible clichés attached with the genre, fandom and authors. Readers seem to prefer reading about canon characters getting together, whether they would or wouldn't have in the actual series.
Often, this is the cause of much tension when an OC is shipped with a canon character, mostly for the portrayal of the canon character.
Common complaints about these scenarios include the canon character's personality changing just for the purpose of shipping, the character already in a relationship as part of the show, other canon characters hating on OC who is shipped with the other half for petty reasons, being in unhealthy relationships, and more.
A major problem with this is shippers seem to believe that only their OC's can be with the canon characters in romantic relationships, when platonic relationships could work just as well. You have to admit that you don't see many of them around, do you?
Also, in sci-fi worlds, there often isn't much actual science going on when it is the character's occupations. Or any actual participation in any kind of occupations really... just something to think about.
And, of course, the biggest complaint of them all: God-Modding. I will almost guarantee, unless otherwise stated as a parody of these kinds of clichés, no one will read it for very long when there is clearly at least one ridiculously overpowered character God-Modding the entire universe.
