Constructive Advice on Wattpad

Powerful Characters

This is, in my opinion, something essential for a good book to have (although some readers may disagree with me). I will first point out an example you might have heard and now of. Ms Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. The very thing that keeps the story going and does not kill all the other characters is Scarlett's determination, as we can see in one of her quotes:

  "As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!"  Scarlett O'Hara

There is, of course, luck that drives the plot, like the fact that Melanie survives and the soldier does not kill her but I will not go into more detail in the film. I just pointed out this example to show that a character's traits are best shown in times of difficulty and a weak character, one that has no will and succumbs to the wishes of his superiors (I am talking about the regular "rich boss poor regular Jane case") then the story will not have any interesting plot developments that happen because of the characters and that grip the reader exactly because the character is passive, a marionette in the hands of fate. 

Fate might be a compelling driving power, and a great one in many romance plots because, say two lovers meet again after not having met over a long time, but there are two downsides to this. Firstly, excessive use of fate may just... bore us if you will and not let us sympathise with the main characters because there is nothing to sympathise with. Secondly, a powerful character gives a completely new angle to the book and makes even the craziest of plot points seem believable (although it would be nice not to go to the extremes, that's for another time)

I think, I hope rather that you would now be willing to consider putting stronger characters in your stories. 

How do you do this? 

It is, of course, much easier to have your main characters being flawless Mary Sues or passive regular Janes than to conceive and plan a believable, down-to-earth, powerful character. The best place to start would be to plan.

To Plan is to make a detailed outline of all of your character's traits and flaws. You might think this is a lot to plan ahead and a burden since you are writing for fun but there are thousands of websites that might help you with that and, especially if you are writing a story with many chapters, it can help you develop the plot based on actions of the characters that will ultimately be judged by their personality. Do not be afraid to add in your character some negative traits: arrogance, pride etc. 

These will, of course, make some people dislike the main character, but others will love it because it will be something realistic and new. You might also compensate for an arrogant main character by adding a very nice sidekick. And it is much more rewarding for the reader to discover some of your character's weaknesses and things he/she wishes to (for example) hide from his love interest, things that he/she is too proud to admit than to know the character's weaknesses already.

Even though everything is planned, when writing, try to surpass and surprise yourself. You do not have to always stick to the planning and can make some character more angry than usual. As in real life, people may just not be in a good mood.

In conclusion to all this, please make at least your main character a flawed, dynamic character. This will add a tone of originality to your story because YOU will have determined your characters' traits, they will not have been chosen for you. Feel free to experiment with heavily flawed characters' to see the public's response to it.

As with all writing, however, you will have to choose a side:

Do you write for yourself or for the others?