Things You Should Try to Avoid Doing as an Author

He/She Was A Normal Person

This chapter is dedicated to InnocentButDeadly because they gave me the idea for this chapter in one of their comments, although it was about adding it to a chapter, I felt this deserved its own section. 

I always come across books that have "She/He was a normal girl/boy..." or "She/He was anything but normal..." in descriptions, and sometimes in the story. 

Now, I have no problem with this really, sure, your character can be as normal or as bonkers as you want.

(I sense a 'but' coming here...)

But (there it is,) is that really all you have to describe your character with? Normal? Or Unique? 

Really, though, what is normal? What is unique? (In terms of a character and lifestyle, not the actual definition.) 

Normal;

To me, normal life is a job, TV, writing, reading, life. Everyday things. That's what normal life is for me.

A normal personality is someone who is positively boring, someone who never really does much past routine and is grumpy because they lack fun. Sure, they can have fun, but are mainly grumpy. Someone who is concious of what everyone thinks, and someone who is mostly fake because they live life with caution. (This describes too many people, which is why I see it as normal. A normal personality is essentialy a fake one.) 

A normal appearence is...oh, wait....there's no such thing! 

Unique; 

To me a unique, or different lifestyle is many different things really. A famous person's lifestyle is unique to me. A workaholics lifestyle is unique to me. A richman's lifestyle is unique to me. Or a homeless man's lifestyle. (I am a woman and yet I am using the term man a lot here...I have no idea why...) (Sorry, I've already said about these destracting things and here I am over using them!)

To me a unique personality is someone that is quite innocent, quirky (I'm quite quirky, or at least I think I am,) someone who stands out. 

To me a unique appearence is....oh, wait....still no such thing!

Why there is no unique or normal appearence;

(There is no unique or normal appearence because we all look normal, no matter what our scars are, no matter the size of our jeans, no matter the colour of our eyes, or the colour of our skin, we all look normal. We all are beautiful.)

Summarising what I said above;

What I'm saying is that normal is different for everyone. Unique is different for everyone. And so when you create a "normal" character, is that character really going to be normal to someone else? 

And if that character's personality isn't considered normal to that reader, then they might think that they aren't normal. (Okay, so that's a bit of a far stretch, but that could happen. There were many times in my life when I thought that I was not normal because of somethings not necessarily in writing, but things in the media and so saying that someone who is super skinny, and has perfect everything is normal, that could be harmful.) 

The same for uniqueness, when you create a "unique" character, are they really going to be unique to someone else? 

I believe that as authors we should try to avoid creating "normal" and "unique" characters with "normal" and "unique" lives. (Besides, those phrases are becoming far too cliche!) Make your characters quirky, or dull. Make them grumpy, make them shine with an inner happy light. Make your characters innocent, make them corrupted. Make them stand out, make them invisible. Just try not to make them "normal" or "unique". 

Anything you think I missed?

Anything you'd like help with? 

Would you like to suggest a topic? 

Have something to add? 

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Then please do comment below. :)

And I know, it's a miracle, I actually updated this! :)