#writingcharacters

Evil or morally-gray characters are always the most fun to write about. You get to dive into the minds of the complete opposite of the hero and you: The sick freaks, the loners, the worst cases of Byronic Heroes (*cough* Stavrogin *cough), horrifically-flawed individuals (Stannis, anyone?), and psychopaths. In a way, I guess it also means you are challenging yourself, diving into the darkest parts of the human mind and getting away with things you would never do or imagine doing. There are people who are simply brought up wrong, people who genuinely want to do the right thing but end up making horrible decisions, people who do wrong and strive to become better people, and then there are the ones who simply live for chaos and the pain of others–the ones who are so messed in the head that the people around them will never understand why they’re so evil. As long as you don’t condone anything they do or say, you’re safe. … ‘kay? 

Hi! I’m @lighthearted.writer on Instagram!

From what I’ve seen, creating diverse magic systems in stories can be a pretty daunting task. We often worry that our system will end up being too similar to an already existing one, and therefore our readers won’t care or our book won’t sell (or something else along those lines). Deep down, every writer wants people to love or be helped by their story, so of course, having something like a diverse world is always going to be in the back of our heads. 

However, I don’t think we should be worrying about diversity from story to story as much as we do. You’ve heard this a hundred times before, but I’ll say it again: everything’s been done before. We’ve seen telekinesis, we’ve seen flying, we’ve seen people control earth’s elements to save their village. You can change things as much as you want, but they’ll never be completely different. 

But you can still make the effort, and that’s what I’m going to try to help you do :)

Protip: take a simple power (let’s use telekinesis as an example because I love that power) and start out with that as it is. It’s just like any other telekinetic power, the one you’ve seen been used a thousand times before in a thousand different movies and books. Now, plan just one character (not a whole race of people) that use this power. Why do they need it? What purpose does it serve for this story? How does it compliment their personality specifically and how will it be different from others? The key here is to give the power purpose. If they aren’t going to use it, then why give the ability to them in the first place? Don’t worry about anything else just yet!

Next, plan the things your character needs to interact with in the story. Write them into some scenes before (or after, it doesn’t really matter) you’ve started your drafts. For example, if your character is going to get trapped in a room with some strange villains, then write this seen. It will be good practice, and you aren’t obligated to actually use the scene. While you’re writing the scene, think about how you can have your character use their telekinetic ability to get out of certain situation. Add onto their magic as you go along.

IMPORTANT: think outside the box! 

If your character sees a large animal standing in their path, their first instinct will be to move it with their powers. It could be that simple, but what if there was a little more to it? Maybe when they go to move the animal, it knocks the animal unconscious with the force. That makes it a little different. Since this happens, it could either be intentional or it could even mean that something is wrong with the person using the power. Maybe they don’t have enough training. Maybe only few people can do this when they use telekinesis. How does this effect them mentally and physically? Now that your character has knocked someone unconscious (if it’s a person), it’s their job to hide the mess. This is gonna have some setbacks. Do they wish they could move things normally? You should also think about adding other things that your little telekinetic can do besides one “out of the box” thing. 

Let’s use another example: shapeshifter. We’ve seen a million of them. But have you ever seen one that can only take the form of someone else by looking them directly in the eyes? Seems kind of weird doesn’t it? And it makes things a lot more difficult. 

For me, it’s all about giving my characters strong powers that still make their life difficult. 

Of course there's loads more that has to go into creating a magic system, such as whether it’s a hard or soft magic system, but hopefully, this can at least get you started. 

As soon as I started thinking out of the box, of the most OUTRAGEOUS and weird powers (that made sense for my story/characters) I came up with some pretty cool stuff. 

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Before you read this post, be sure to read what’s below first! 

In no way am I trying to be discriminatory about male vs. female characters, and I apologize if any of this comes across the wrong way. I tried to write it in a way that will get my point across to everyone, but please forgive me if something I said comes across the wrong way :)

The whole point of this post (more than male introverts, which is kinda the main thing) is that I want to see a change in the way introverts, in general, are written. 

This might sound ridiculous, but recently I was watching the behind the scenes videos for the Disney movie “Chicken Little”. They said that Chicken Little was originally supposed to be a girl. Instead, they changed him to a boy because his personality was introverted and shy, plus the fact that he’s smarter than most other characters in the movie. Disney wanted to prove that not just girls can deal with bullying and stuff like that, but also young boys. And while yes, they’re totally right, I think that creators should take a break from including weak male characters for a while. (It’s not just male characters who are introverts, ya know!)

I agree with what Disney has to say, but wait:

 It’s an awesome thing to include all different types of characters with unique personalities and diverse strengths... just please hear me out. 

I think that there’s this stigma where we need to include these weak characters who are introverted, small, or have this cute and nerdy nature. By the end of the story, they’ll have grown into someone who can make a difference or something like that. Here’s the thing though:

Introverts are rarely exactly how we portray them in books! 

We all need to recognize this. Having a cute character isn’t good enough. People don’t like characters based on how the act (most of the time, anyway). It’s what the character does in the story that matters in my opinion. 

I’ve seen this happen mostly with male characters lately, and it’s gotten on my last nerve. Of course, I believe that all genders can be introverted or whatever, but why have males been targeted in this “special” way lately? 

I can’t even remember the last book I read where one of the girl characters was an introvert, save for nerdy (except Hermione, but that was a looong time ago!)

So make really introverted girl characters instead! NO, don’t do that! Well, sure, you can. I’m not going to tell you to stop writing introverts because of course, they exist. (I am one!) Just stop making them so fragile. 

Instead of making a character who is quiet all the time, make a character who’s quiet, but has a group of people they talk to. Give that character a place to spill their thoughts. A saying I’ve always liked was “The quietest person in the room is the one with the most knowledge.” Give them something to be a part of!

Here’s a little list of traits that make introverted characters more admirable ⬇️

focused

self-sufficient

observant

helpful

reliant 

trustworthy

thought-provoking

driven

keen

loyal

Use these instead of just making your introvert cute or shy. PLEASE don’t let those be their only traits!

Last thing:

Strong female characters. Awesome thing. But why are they overruling male characters these days? Let me make something clear: KEEP WRITING THEM. 

But read this too:

I’ll read or watch this really cool female character that makes all the decisions and protects a lot of people. She’ll be a warrior, a princess, a queen, one of the magical folk. But what do the guys in the story do? Absolutely nothing. They just exist alongside her.

Male and female characters should not overrule each other. All men are created equal, and so are women too... but they’re still equal to each other, aren’t they? (does that make any sense? I don’t know...)

Stop giving guys lesser roles than gals. Let both of them be the weaker one. Let both of them be the introvert. Let both of them fail. Let both of them succeed. Let both of them cry. Let both of them outline a plan that will save their people. 

Give the girls a break from saving the day, and let the guys have a go.

Anyways, just something I randomly thought of in ceramics class today :)

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