TnT: Varied Characterization

[pipisafoat]

Congratulations again to pippin for winning the 4th contest!

Your topic for the first Challenge Contest, Tear Down The Wall, will be open until 5 pm GMT Saturday - stretch yourself into something new in 500 words or less!

Don't forget about your assignments, editors, which can be found at this link along with a question for the community as a whole.

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One of the greatest challenges for an author is to write believable characters who are from a variety of backgrounds and not just a cookie cutter of themselves, or of the self you wish you were. Depending on the story, this can mean characters of a different time period, geographic location, culture, socioeconomic background, race, gender, or even height and weight - you wouldn't believe the number of people who fail to take into account that a 4'9" character simply can't reach the spices over the stove without a stool or someone else's help.

Think about all the character-fails you've seen. Don't share them except in the most general of terms, and don't link them to any specific author, but rather think about what knowledge you have that the author didn't that made you recognize them as fails. Share that knowledge here to help other authors do it right next time! If there's a type of character you've not seen enough of in other people's works in general, let us know about their characteristics and how to present them believably and without offense.

As always, please remember to keep a respectful tone here, to authors who have been misinformed as well as other community members sharing their insights with you.

Comments

[thblackflame]

Well, first thing you want to look at is how many people who read what you write know what you look like? We wouldn't have known you were short and curvy if you did mention it. Second, body type does not a Mary-Sue make. It's the personality that creates a Mary-Sue. Take my character Kylynn for example. Kylynn by definition of the universe she comes from is a Mary-Sue. There is no possible way to not create a Mary-Sue in that particular universe. Kylynn comes from a fic-verse that my sisters and I created in which we Authors go into fics and save cannon characters from badfic. She cannot be anything other than a Mary-Sue, so it works for the universe.

But, that means that she is me. She is an expert fighter. She has black voids in her sleeves so that she can bring whatever modern convience she wants into a non-modern world. She can speak several languages. She always gets to hop into bed with the cannon characters. Everyone loves her even though she has an abrasive, obnoxious personality. She turned evil at one point but was brought back to the side of good by her soulmate, a soulmate by the way that she can't stand to be in the same room with for longer than a few minutes and he feels the same about her. She always manages to save the day by herself. And to top it all off, because she's an author, anything she can't already do with her wide range of talents, she can write into existance. Oh, and she could do all of this by the age of seventeen.

That is what you want to worry about when avoid creating a Mary-Sue. lol. Now, the only reason all of that works is because by the very rules of the universe we created for these Author characters, there is just no way to avoid creating a Mary-Sue Kylynn also happens to be the comic relief in the stories, so eyah. Also, Ky is now twenty-five and has far more faults and limitations in her most recent incarnation than she did when I initially created her at seventeen.

Now, ways that I avoid creating Mary-Sue's now is two things. A set of gaming dice and http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm I use the dice to randomly choose the basics of a characters looks, talents, personality, etc. and then I check it on that quiz.

[msmcknittington]

Well, first thing you want to look at is how many people who read what you write know what you look like? We wouldn't have known you were short and curvy if you did mention it.

This falls into the "things random people cannot know" category, but I talk about sewing/knitting my own clothes and standards of beauty/feminism in my personal journal all the time, so quite a few people know what I look like, because I write about it. In a topical way! I don't just write entries about what I look like. :P

It's probably not a rational worry, but I do find that it impacts my writing, and I think it probably has a lot to do with what pippin says about misogyny in fandom. People are so ready to whip out that Mary Sue card for pretty much any female character who has something vaguely good about her.

[thblackflame]

That is the kicker. And ain't that a kick in the behind? People pulling out the sue card on a female character who actually manages to accomplish something. It's almost like saying any woman is a sue when she manages to accomplish something.

I think perhaps there is a sue menace. Every strong will, independent woman in the world must be a Mary Sue! They couldn't possibly have any good personality traits otherwise.

*insert heavy irony* Don't mind me. I'm just laughing at myself. ^_^;;;

[msmcknittington]

I think perhaps there is a sue menace. Every strong will, independent woman in the world must be a Mary Sue! They couldn't possibly have any good personality traits otherwise.

The other part of that is if she's too strong and independent, then she isn't "womanly" enough. But if she shows weakness, then she's too weak.

You just can't win. I will endeavor to write what makes me happy and to hell with the rest.

[thblackflame]

Me too!