pipisafoat: image of virgin mary with baby jesus & text “abstinence doesn’t work" (interpretive word-dances)
🎭 pip ([personal profile] pipisafoat) wrote in [community profile] inkstains2010-09-01 11:04 am
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TnT: Varied Characterization

Congratulations again to [personal profile] 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.



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.

[personal profile] ex_pippin880 2010-09-03 12:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh man, once during a creative writing unit, my critique of someone's story included a comment something like "the main character did nothing to show she cared about her dog -- in fact, she seemed to actively dislike the dog for the first half of the story -- so I didn't really buy her being so pleased the dog survived the surgery".

So I finish up my critique and then she says that it was an autobiographical story and gives me this look of pure hatred, as if I'd accused her of strangling her dog.

Awwwwwkwaaaaaaaard.
azuire: (obligatory monty python)

[personal profile] azuire 2010-09-03 12:07 pm (UTC)(link)
OUCH. My policy is generally to not request critique on autobiographical stories, or to offer critique on them, precisely because I'm too objective an editor, and I wouldn't want to be too cold towards someone who's obviously trying to talk about themselves in a safe capacity.