Writers often like to start stories by painting with broad strokes, telling the reader about the world and the characters.
Usually that doesn’t work out.
But there is one book that, despite some other shortcomings, does exactly that very well: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
Sometimes writers try to make their characters interesting by giving them a “gray” morality.
But what exactly is gray morality? And how can we use it to create good characters?
Let’s find out!
I’m a huge fan of the Japanese cleaning-up legend Marie Kondo and her philosophy about “tidying up” your home and life.
In fact, seeing her made me wonder if it was possible to apply her idea about “sparking joy” into story-writing as well.
As it turns out, yes, it is not only possible, but it works great!
Church bells are ringing. Elves are singing. Donkeys are braying for joy.
Shrek and Santa Claus are getting married!
…there’s only one problem: they can’t use the letter “E” to tell their story.
Sometimes when you’re writing a story, your characters can all seem to blend and congeal together. Their opinions, reactions, and personality start to become indistinguishable from each other.
But don’t let that happen! Different characters with different perspectives and attitudes are exactly what make stories great.
If you want to make sure that your characters are coming through strong, clear, and different from each other, then there’s an easy way to test it out: write a conversation between them using dialogue only.
One year ago on December 11, 2017 I decided to start a writing stream. Living in the middle of nowhere Japan, it was impossible to find other English writers, and I missed the groups that I had in Boston.
Thankfully I remembered that the Internet is a thing that exists.
And now we are a writing force to be reckoned with! To celebrate how awesome everyone is for helping to make our stream the best place to be three times a week, we had a celebration of writing games, announcements, and more.
Creating a compelling character that embodies traits you like is easy. You can make them the underdrog, struggling against oppression, and overcoming conflict to eventually emerge victorious.
But what about the villains? The antagonists that you hate? How can you make sure that they don’t come across as a cardboard-cutout-plot-point who exists for no other reason than to get in the way of your protagonist?
The answer is simple: make them human.
“As Yams McKenzie set down his bulbous, starchy body on the surface of the moon, he remembered his days as just a sprout in the ground.”
Nowadays, stories are all about mashups. What would happen if the characters from one universe met the characters from another?
And the gritty reboot is a big thing too. What would our favorite childhood characters be like if they were realized in a dark, mature world?
Thankfully we’ve found the perfect story that does both of those: mixing “The Three Little Pigs” with “1984.”
Hollywood, you can thank us later!
When we’re writing a story, we have to often bring in new characters. But doing so can be a bit of a challenge.
There’s a fine line between spending too much time describing a new character vs. too little. Not to mention the fact that you have to do it in an interesting way; no one wants to just read a list of characters traits and then move on with the plot.
With that in mind, here’s four general rules that can be helpful for introducing a character:
