Rubber Cactus' Useful Stuff- Characters

Hi there folks. So I've decided to wipe out all of my old journals and start anew by trying to be more helpful. So I've decided to put up some tips on characters, their development, what makes a character more round and more flat and of the dangers of Mary Stues and Gary Lous. You've probably already heard this lecture but it's always good to hear things like this again.

First of all, what is a round character and what is a flat character?

A round character (as defined by dictionary.com) is a character that is fully delineated by the author. This character is one who changes and develops either negatively or positively throughout the story due to the conflict or conflicts that they encounter. If a character from a fiction or fantasy novel reminds you of someone know or have heard of in real life then it's a great sign that these characters are round. Round characters usually have some kind of PERSONALITY flaw that all people can relate to.

I'm going to use one of my characters and a character from JK Rowling's Harry Potter to demonstrate.

Daniel Gray (he's a main character from an apocalyptic pokemon story) starts out as a pretty cocky guy. Due to his short stature he feels as though he always has to compensate in skill and in the size of his pokemon for what he lacks in height. His constant praise by other trainers and his mentor make him arrogant and fuel his belief that he is a better trainer than others and make him stubborn. He is also bitterly sarcastic. As the story progresses half of his pokemon team and many of his friends and family are killed while he and the other mains are on the run. Daniel's loss of his friends and family and the death of many of his pokemon team mates weigh down on his ego and he loses his confidence. He becomes protective and paranoid and becomes convinced he is a failure. At the end of the story, when the enemy has been defeated, Daniel regains some of his confidence, knowing that although he is not a failure, there are trainers out there better than him, salvaging his humility. He also remains very protective and cautious.

Side characters can also be round:

Remus Lupin from JKR's Harry Potter series starts out as a man with no self-love or confidence at all. He truly believes that he is a disgusting and spiteful person deserving of no love or affection because of his lycanthropy despite his many good traits like his understanding, humor and kindness. He is very thoughtful and is hardly ever impulsive. When he falls in love he makes a very impulsive decision to marry his wife, Tonks which leads him to become overwhelmed with guilt and self hatred. He eventually attempts to leave Tonks under the falso belief that he is hurting his wife more than helping her; he essentially becomes extremely paranoid and depressed. After being told off by Harry when Remus tries to join them, he returns to his wife and eventually accepts that he isn't a bad person and he does deserve a normal life. When their son is born, makes a complete turn around and becomes much light and a seemingly more self-confident man who is finally allowing himself to be happy.

Flat (or Static) Characters:

Flat or otherwise known as Static characters are characters who never change or develop, even when confronted with conflict. Static characters are usually side characters who show up once or twice to insert dialogue but are never really fleshed out. Flat characters are usually very un-relatable and have no real personality flaws to be noted.

Example Flat Characters:

Stan Shuntpike from Harry Potter is a flat character as he serves well for dialogue and moving the story along but we never really see him develop.

Beware of the Mary Sues:

We all know them, we've all heard about them, and now it's time to come face to face with them. The dreaded and dangerous Mary Sues and Gary Stus.

First of all, what is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu?

A Mary Sue (we'll just use her for now) is a character that has over idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, is lacking in noteworthy flaws, and is really there as a wish fulfillment or fantasy character for the author or reader. Their wonderful characteristics outshine their others until they just become flat, one-dimensional and really boring. These characters dominate the spotlight by just simply being there and they can do no wrong. Authors almost never intend to create MS/GL unless they are making a parody. Every author is guilty of making one at some point, me especially. Mary Sues and their counterparts are most common in fan fictions and role plays but they do exist in published fiction as well. The most famous published Mary Sue is probably Bella Swann from Meyer's Twilight and here's why.

First of all let's look at her name- Bella Swann

Bella- Beautiful
Swann- Self explinatory

Now I'm not saying she's a Mary Sue because of her name but typically you give names like these to beautiful characters or characters who are known for their beauty which...Bella isn't. In fact, she really isn't special at all.

She's described as pale with dark hair, socially awkward and clumsy (probably her only two negative traits) and yet every boy in school can't seem to get enough of her, even blowing off the more pretty and popular girls to be with her.

For some reason that's never really explained she's the only one whose mind Edward can't read and when she is turned into a vampire, she has no real ravaging desire to drink blood while every other vampire in the history of ever seemed to have that issue. (Yes I did read this book). Also her powers are far more advanced than even Carlisle's and can block out all other powers despite the fact she's only been a vampire for less than a year. She loses her clumsiness and social awkwardness really when she's bitten so she virtually has no flaws. By the end of the series she's becomes so flat and un relatable there's no way you CAN'T call her a Mary Sue.

So how do you spot a MS/GL and how can you tell if your character is becoming one?

There are many Mary Sue and Gary Lou tests on the internet.

The Mary Sue Litmus Test found here: http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html, is an excellent test and I highly suggest you put your character through it before developing them completely.

My character, Daniel, received an overall rating of six on the Litmus test.

My angel character Icarus received an overall of seven on the same test.

Another note on the litmus test. If you story is about angels, demons, whatever where traits such as flight, healing, etc. are COMMONPLACE do not mark them on this test as they don't make the character unique in any way.

So now that we know all the different character types let's start developing a character. I'll stick with Daniel again because I've done half of this with him anyway.

First of all, what's your character going to look like?

Chose natural traits or traits that would exist in your world only (unless you're going for an elf or your own created race or whatever)

As in your character should be as natural and realistic as possible. Pink hair is fine because hair can by dyed that color but pink or multi colored eyes? Same goes for wolves and other animals, wolves are not blue or pink or red and black naturally. Unless these colors, tattooing or symbols exist in your animal world then don't do it. Remember that all people have flaws, we aren't all tall, beautiful, thin models by nature and nor are we all thin, pale, depressed vampires.

So for Daniel I chose for him to be short for his age and pale (due mostly to the fact that he lives underground). He wears average style clothes that are ripped and torn due to all the running around and escaping he does. He has dark hair and is not very clean shaven. He has gold wired oval glasses with broken lenses (also due to all the escaping and running around he does).

Second, what's their personality?

Remember, not everyone and every character has to LIKE your character and personally the characters with the least desirable traits are often my favorite. Harry Potter's Draco Malfoy provides half of the comic relief with the stupid jokes he makes on Harry, Ron and Hermione. (I'll never get the picture of him jumping up and down like a bucktoothed idiot to make fun of Hermione out of my head). For a well rounded character make sure you have a pro and a con. If your character is extremely kind make sure you have a negative trait to go with it. Remus Lupin is very kind and smart but he also has very low self-esteem and worries a lot about what others think of him. There are all sorts of different traits; kindness, arrogance, playfulness, bossiness, smugness, quietness, overly affectionate the list goes on an on. Find traits that work best for your character and remember that personalities are all likely to change due to conflicts that arise in your story so the traits you start with won't necessarily be the ones you finish with.

For Daniel, I started out with him being pretty much arrogant, carefree, opinionated and stubborn. As the story progresses he becomes paranoid, protective and self hating. At the end of the story is more responsible, protective, humble, un opinionated and kind.

How does your character interact with others?

Now that you've chosen your characters traits you can decide how he/she interacts with others. If they're stubborn they aren't likely to budge in a lot of decisions and places, if your character is arrogant they think they are better than others and they aren't afraid to show it. If your character is playful they're more likely to pick on others and if they are humerous they are more likely to crack jokes. Mothering characters are more likely to overreact to the smallest things that the object of their affections (be it children, husbands, boyfriends) do or say. Play around and see how it all works.

Daniel is conceited so we'll say that he knows he is better than others at what he does best. Here's a speech quip from Daniel and Evelyn, his mothering and down to earth partner.

“Prodigy?” Daniel replied looking over at Brigette who seemed quite eager. Bill was watching the scene bemusedly as Evelyn scoffed by his back. It seemed as though she'd heard enough of Daniel's self righteous speeches to last her a lifetime. “You must mean me”.

Evelyn rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Your modesty becomes you” she said bitterly as she knelt down and unzipped her backpack.

“Don’t be jealous” Daniel replied looking down at her as she pulled a team plasma uniform from the bag. “If you work hard enough, one day in the very distant future you’ll be half as good of a trainer as I am”.

“Although hopefully not as conceited” Evelyn muttered pulling the robes on over her clothes seeming very unimpressed.

How characters interact with one another effects how the story moves forward so this is a very important step in your writing process.

Well I hope this helped someone, I've been writing this for too long. I used my characters just because they're easier for me to throw down in a journal quick as I have quips saved. I'm not trying to be conceited or anything.

-Cactus