How to Survive Camp NaNoWriMo and Daily Writing

July Thirteenth

Written by: Shyla, admin of Writers Coming Together to Write.

Let’s talk characters!
        When you’re creating your characters, the number one rule is DO NOT make your character a Mary Sue (perfect character)! One of your goals as a writer is to make your characters believable. If your characters are “perfect” and have no struggles, no worries or the usual problems people face, it could aggravate and lose the reader’s attention. If you want to keep an interesting character, don’t go for Mary Sue. That’s not interesting. It’s highly boring.
        Another rule for creating characters is to have them COMPLETELY ESTABLISHED. Even if there are things you’re not going to put in your story, write them down somewhere else. Know your characters inside and out! Know their weaknesses, strengths, favorite drink, favorite color, pet peeves, and every little detail! Although it might not come up at all in the story, having complete characters will help you write. And if you get new ideas and you need little details such as those, then you’ll already have them there at your disposal!
        Finally, don’t over dramatize things with your characters. They should have some conflicts, but not too many. Too many can make it over dramatic and it can get just as annoying as a Mary Sue. Adding something to your characters, such as being ADD or Bipolar is fine. But you don’t want to get over dramatic or make it too personal. Making your character Autistic is fine, but don’t go overboard and say they were raped and had an abortion (Unless it’s part of the story).
        Happy Writing Everyone!