• In general, don't do things just for your character that you aren't willing to do for the other characters. Don't slavishly describe only your character and leave everybody as a vague entity. Don't make up new words only to describe your character. Don't decide that your character's walk across the room warrants four paragraphs while another character's heroic rescue of somebody else gets a single sentence. Balance is everything, after all. Not all of your readers will like one character, nor will they all hate another. You want to give them all something they might find interesting.
• With some experience it is simple to construct the Rolling Description - rather than a chunk of description, the character is described, feature by feature, gradually over multiple chapters. In the first chapter, she's just a young woman with auburn hair. In the second, you know she has green eyes. In the third, you find out she has long fingers. And so on.
• No Purple Prose, unless the whole story is that. Getting most of the description is akin to stealing the spotlight. Your character should get descriptions no more detailed than the main characters'.
• You can get fancy in your descriptions, like in moments that are important for character building, but only if the main characters also have fancy descriptions in such moments.
• If it's a visual story, only make your character the focus when needed. Even if the story is told from the point of view of your character, the main character should still be "in frame" most of the time.
• If your character still gets criticism, look at the kind it is. If it's insulting and not really getting at what the problem with the character is, and just a problem with you, it may be Trolling. If it's Constructive Criticism, you don't have to follow it, but at least consider their points.
• The saying goes that every character must have a reason to be in a scene. Make sure your character has an actual reason to be there, rather than just because you want them to be.
• Introduce your character to the story when it's necessary to do so, and make sure she doesn't disrupt the narrative. Your character should seamlessly work her way into the story without fanfare or attention - it's a well-written character that gets noticed, not a red-carpet introduction.
• Don't introduce your character in the first sentence, especially in the manner of
"Hi, I'm [name], and I have [insert physical description]"
• Also don't have your character look in a mirror just to "justify" sentences and sentences worth of physical description.
• Unless they are going to a formal occasion, and even then you focus on the clothes and accessories, not how muscular the character is.
•Don't spend entire paragraphs on describing your characters' clothing unless that particular clothing is for some reason very important to the overall story or if the description of the clothing is meant to convey something about the character other than her fashion sense (ex: you might convey how a bride feels about her impending marriage by giving a detailed description of her wedding dress from her perspective.)
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How to not write a Mary Sue
RandomA Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character. These characters are often irritating and cringe worthy. This book will tell everything about identifying a Mary Sue and how to avoid them.
