Character 105: From Character to Person
Greetings and suscipient! Well you know, you are getting my sageous wisdom and that counts, right?
(Anne:) We’ve got a bunch to cover today, from helping your characters fit into broad categories to giving them quirks, making them dynamic regardless of whether they change or not, letting them be people first when it comes to inborn traits, and above all else, making them engaging. And then you just know we’re going to talk about the star of our Character series, Bob! So, without further ado, let’s get started!
(Vivian:) And she steals the show almost immediately! All while I was fixing my nails 🙄
(Anne:) I didn’t even realize Limaces had nails!
Archetypes are not clichés
(Anne:) We talk about the differences between archetypes and clichés in our post on what characters are, throwing in tropes for fun, and it’s worth reviewing some definitions!
Archetype: the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are based; a type that fits fundamental human motifs.
Trope: a theme or device that reflects pre-existing genre archetypes; a necessary story element or pattern determined by genre.
Cliché: a trite or overused expression, idea, plot, character, situation, phrase; something that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.
In general, archetypes are good, well-used tropes are good, and clichés are to be avoided unless you’re doing humor of some sort. Is that always true? No, there are exceptions to every rule. Which, actually, is one of Vivian’s rules of worldbuilding… 🤔 All of them have a reason for existing, so let’s quickly break down the main two we’re interested in, setting tropes aside for another day.
Anytime a person approaches any type of writing, whether an academic essay or a scifi novel, they immediately try to place things in terms of what they already know. In an academic essay, they want to know, at a basic level, if you’re agreeing with existing opinions, disagreeing with them, or some combination. Just that core information is enough for the reader to place your argument and get into the details.
In fiction writing, there are a lot more parts, or cogs, than just your general argument, and the way that people place things is by using archetypes. Archetypes, as stated above, are fundamental to the human experience. The same basic archetypes exist in every culture, every society. Now, not every archetype is as fundamental as those, but even so, there are some categories that seem ingrained in the psyche. So when you’re introducing a character, you want to make it clear what general archetype that character will embody.
Keep in mind that characters can embody multiple archetypes, and they can change. If you want, you can even mislead your audience into thinking your character is one thing until you reveal that they’re actually something else. That Hero you’ve been rooting for in the opening chapter? Yeah, actually they’re a horrible Villain and you’re horrible for cheering for them! (Jk, but see the last section of this post for how to make evil characters engaging).
Now, what you generally want to avoid is relying on clichés to indicate the archetype. Have your character risk themself in some way to save a stranger to establish them as a Hero, but maybe don’t have your orphaned farmer teen receive a message that they’re secretly the heir to the throne and also the last of their magical species alive. While, yes, that helps the reader pinpoint the character, it has so much precision that there’s not too many places to go, and it’s been done before. A lot.
(Vivian:) A moment of kindness for its own sake with no obvious reward is also known as a “Save the cat” moment. It helps establish them as inherently good exactly because the character has no obvious gain they can logically predict as plausible.
(Anne:) By the way, it’s good to have this kind of moment for ALL characters, even villains! In House of Cards, protagonist and Villain Francis Underwood starts off the show by murdering a child’s pet dog. Which violates so many rules that I don’t even know where to begin. But he does it to spare the animal’s suffering. So… is that kindness? Yeah, in a twisted way. If you’re setting up a Villain, or even a morally gray character, that type of thing can be great! (Although please do not kill pets in the opening because it will turn off so many readers and violate so many generally accepted rules of writing!)
(Vivian:) Also if you wanna do something like “farm boy/girl,” maybe make it more interesting in some way? No ordinary farm that humans are used to, that way it is a bit new in its strangeness yet familiarity in the cliché. I strongly support this as this includes worldbuilding!
(Anne:) The other way to do it is to lessen the number of specific details. Farm boy/girl? Great! Orphan? It can work. Secret heir on top of everything? Eh, now you’re getting into cliché territory. Also happening to be the last of their race? Okay, yeah, now you’ve done it. It’ll take a lot to salvage that. Can it be done? Sure. But your reader has immediately established them in a fairly specific place that’s hard to break out of.
(Vivian:) Any one of those alone can work quite easily, more of them together makes it much harder, and as we are saying here, there is a sliding scale of easy to pull off generic clichés and then some much harder highly specific clichés.
(Anne:) Which actually brings us to one great way of breaking things up: subverting the archetypes and clichés! As I said, archetypes can shift, and maybe you want to show another side to your character that’s unusual for that archetype. Go for it! That’s a wonderful way to develop your character. This is actually where a lot of morally gray characters come in: they generally have the Hero archetype, usually at least in terms of their narrative role, but there’s a certain Villain-ness to them that often makes them more engaging than either Heroes or Villians on their own.
And this works with clichés, too. It depends on the cliché, but say you start off with an orphaned alien who is the only one of her kind in the whole world. That’s fairly cliché. Now, her personality is unique, and she’s engaging, but that basic premise is a cliché. What if she just turned out to be a mutant, though? Nothing special about her at all, she’s just one of the many mutants living in the world, and hey, her parents are alive, too!
That’s a fun way to turn the cliché on its head and subvert the audience’s expectations!
Subverting is especially great for humorous purposes, but it’s always an engaging turn of events. People tend to like it because as much as we like quickly mapping a basic understanding of who a character is, we like it more when they surprise us. Having your expectations subverted and seeing an archetype or cliché become something else is a satisfying experience, so make sure to try it out!
(Vivian:) There is an episode about Leela marrying the only other cyclops in the universe and it turns out to be a fake…spoilers.
Quirks are kinda quirky
(Vivian:) BITCH PLEASE! …Okay that is not part of my mannerism of phrasing, or you could say that is not one of my quirks. Anne, what would you say are my speech quirks?
(Anne:) Hmm, let’s see… Strange obsession with words starting with S, constantly hitting us over the head with you being an alien, and oh yeah, your annoying tendency to yell at me to add things to our list of ideas for this blog! And you wouldn’t believe this, but something I constantly have to edit is Vivian’s spelling of okay as “okey.” Seriously, if English were zhir first language I’d smack zhim! As zhi’s a Swede, though, I’ll let it slide…
On a more serious level, I can usually tell Vivian’s writing by the casual tone combined with the rather formal lack of contractions as well as the inclusion of jokes and humor. I’m almost afraid to ask, but what would you say about mine? Not including my excessive word count, that’s cheating!
(Vivian:) Fine, not the word count then! Early on I can say one quirk she had on this blog was the complete and utter lack of any personality, and I had to hound her to be less formal. We are educating here, but this is a personal blog! She still struggles with making jokes in general, but I think that is primarily because if life was an MMORPG with various skills you can level, her improvisation level would be in the single digits.
(Anne:) Hey! I… uh… insert clever comeback here!
(Vivian:) But she has improved a lot over the years I’ve known her and she’s been writing here. I wouldn’t want any other co writer even if you paid me 🩷
(Anne:) And we know I wouldn’t want anyone else to edit even if I were paid, because the pay is… minimal, at best 😂 Except in friendship, then it’s rich! I did have a slightly easier job pinpointing Vivian’s quirks because I’m the editor, so I see the kinds of subtle things that make zhir writing unique. A lot of quirks come across in the writing and dialogue of a character, especially if it’s the point of view character. If you’re in a close point of view, then every word of your narration should reflect who the character is. Maybe they prefer certain words over another, or repeat certain words or phrases. Maybe they spell okay as okey. But give them some quirks, and, importantly, make each character have different quirks.
(Vivian:) I know a word I use in English… but not the equivalent in Swedish… is ”Just.” I don’t know why I do that 🤷♀️ One example from my story Imperial Loyalty is Adva. Zhi’s more of a rural country herm so in zhir speech I do put in slightly more grammatical errors to indicate that zhi speaks differently. Not enough that it is annoying but enough that you notice zhi is less ”Proper” in zhir speech. And no there is no proper way of speaking in real life, any way of speaking that gets the message across to the other person is proper.
(Anne:) That’s one reason why dialect and accent can be important indications of who your character is. It places them within a community or setting, but still, they need to be their own unique character. And you don’t want to overdo it if your audience is going to be people who don’t also speak or aren’t familiar with that dialect or accent.
But language isn’t the only place you can have quirks! One of my characters in my Imperial Saga, Tahirah, rubs her hands on her thighs when she’s nervous (this works way better when she’s in jeans than when she’s in a dress, and she’s pretty much trained herself out of it by book four… but not entirely). Another character, Rashid, raps his fingers against nearby surfaces when he’s deep in thought (which annoys his son quite a bit!). There are all sorts of common gestures someone might make, nervous ticks they might have, little things that set them apart.
However, again, each character needs to be unique. Watch out for highly specific or unusual language being used for more than one character. If one character waggles their eyebrows, they really should be the only one that does. When another character does it a chapter later, it stands out as strange and more like a mistake or a quirk of the author than that of the characters. Waggling your eyebrows is too unusual a behavior (that not everyone can even do) and the language itself, “waggling,” stands out enough that this really only works if a single character does it. Feel free to have them do it multiple times, though, to establish that it’s their quirk.
(Vivian:) I need to add some physical quirks to my characters, I tend to lack that…TO THE WRITEMOBILE!
Paragons
(Anne:) As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I’m a paragon of virtue, and Vivian is naturally a paragon of ebil.
(Vivian:) Throw in Worldbuilding, too, and I will accept the titles.
(Anne:) Can one be a paragon of worldbuilding, or is it limited to morality? Well, it’s most commonly used for morality. Honestly, it’s usually used as “paragon of virtue.” But you can paragons of other things, obviously. So what is a paragon? I’ll let Vivian do the definition, as zhi is a paragon of definitions!
(Vivian:) I am the Paraguay of definitions! …wait… Oh well!
A paragon is a person who embodies what is usually a good quality to such a high degree that they are to be looked up to.
I know a lot of definitions would say ”perfect” or the like, but let’s make a realistic definition as nothing is perfect.
(Anne:) I’d go more with “idealized” than perfect, since it’s often other people’s perceptions that matter. Is the paragon perfect? Doesn’t actually matter if people view them that way. For definitional purposes though, we’re avoiding perfect because that’s pretty impossible for a character to do. And kind of boring if they are perfect. No one wants to read that! (though see the last section on how to make even characters like that engaging).
(Vivian:) There is a reason why I make even supreme deities imperfect… More interesting.
(Anne:) The question becomes, can you write a paragon who’s interesting? Yes, but it’s hard, and it’s much, much harder if they’re your main character. The best strategy is to have a character that everyone thinks of as a paragon, but they themselves have doubts and moments of weakness.
If you want someone genuinely “perfect” in a good way to a high degree, it helps to have them as a side character who is an inspiration to your characters, or one who offers advice or wisdom. Watch out for deus ex machinas, however, when a paragon or similar swoops in at the last minute in a way that isn’t earned in the story.
If you want “perfect” evil, it’s generally easier, but again, not if they’re your point of view character. A truly evil villain can be fun, and if you keep reading, you can see how to make evil characters engaging for the reader, and sometimes even get the reader cheering them on despite how absolutely flawless their evil is!
Dynamic characters over time
(Vivian:) 99. Many 9s, for I am pulling this number out of my ass, % of all characters have a magnificent arc of development they have to go through. They won’t be the same at the beginning as they are at the end, and there is a steady progression. Depending on how long the series is, this can be very slow and gradual, or it can be in short bursts. But the characters inevitably are not the same as they started.
(Anne:) In a series, generally each book will have an arc for the character to go through and change and evolve, and then the series overall will have a much bigger arc that encompasses all the little arcs.
(Vivian:) That is very much the classical structure of doing that and it is a solid one. Tested and not prone to explode in your face like nitroglycerine.
(Anne:) So how do characters change and evolve in a way that makes them interesting and unique? Archetypes actually offer some good hints. Again, these are the broad structures that lay out the very basic outlines, and then it’s your job to fill in the blanks and personalize it.
One popular way to develop a character is through the Hero’s Journey. Yes, I know I talked about this in my post on dramatic structure[LINK], but it’s not just for narrative, it’s also for characters! Since I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and rewrite my infinitely long dramatic structure post, I’ll give a tl;dr from the perspective of character development, and since I’m trying to not go on too long, I’ll condense it into essentially a four act structure.
The character has a starting status quo. Maybe they’re comfortable, maybe they’re miserable, but it’s stable in some way, even if it’s stable in its instability. But oh no! Something happens to upset that balance and introduce new conflict into their life. And off they go, maybe with a little resistance.
It’s a whole new world! All sorts of new sights and sounds and gosh lots of conflict and tension too… Your character is still trying to mentally place everything in the structures of their old world, so they struggle to fit in to some degree.
Whelp, the lightbulb went off, and now they “get” how this new world works. Maybe they accepted the truth on a deeper level. Maybe they got a cool new spell. Whatever. They’ve come to terms with the change, and they’re ready to face the biggest challenge yet:
Themselves. Yeah, in the narrative structure this might be the villain, but when you’re looking at character development, this is where the character faces their ugliest truths and comes out the other side. Maybe they’re battered, but they’re whole. Or hey, if it’s a tragedy, maybe they didn’t make it.
So yeah, that’s briefly how it works. Status quo, struggling to adapt, learning and feeling confident, then it all comes crashing down and hopefully they can pick up the pieces. It’s a good structure, right? Yup. A classic. An archetype, if you will! But you can do almost anything with it depending on your character and story.
Other classic arcs (that can use the Hero’s Journey arc!) are the redemption arc and [SOME OTHER ARC]. I’m a sucker for the redemption arc myself. Or when it looks like a redemption arc, but then at the very last minute, the former Villain says “You know what? I am evil.” And kills the Hero or something, returning to their ebil ways.
Overall, though, most characters change and evolve. People like seeing characters change, because we the audience change with them and learn to see the world in a new way. This isn’t the only way to have characters, though.
Dynamically static characters are fine too
(Vivian:) Some stories simply do not work if the character is constantly changing. Maybe it is 900 chapters, books, stories, long, or maybe it is just not that kind of story. So sometimes, the character isn’t changing throughout the story.
An important part to think about with this is that the character is almost always not perfect. They are not paragons of virtue or the likes. But they simply do not change. And what one has to remember is that often, but not always, the main point about these characters are in fact not themselves, but how they influence others, who tend to be more dynamic
(Anne:) Going back to creating a series, if you think of sitcoms, characters may change a little over the course of an episode, but everything goes back to how it was before at the end of the episode. They never really change.
(Vivian:) A written example is the classical Sherlock Holmes series. There was a new tale every week, and you literally couldn’t have the story develop. How is the reader that missed this week's issue supposed to catch up if they are 2 weeks behind and missed buying the last papers and the like? You can’t! And that is where dynamically static characters are great; you can take any story in any order and it will work. Which is why sitcoms loved them, because you could technically post any episode in any order, and it wouldn’t matter.
Personally, I feel this kind of character has been far too sidelined in the last decade in favour of only having dynamic characters. Don’t get me wrong, both are valid, I just want more of this one again.
(Anne:) It’s definitely a fun type of character to write, and a change from the constantly evolving ones. I like the episodic nature of dynamically static characters where they seem to grow within an episode, book, chapter, whatever, but then they’re right back to square one. This lets you explore all sorts of different directions with them and never have to get stuck with a single one.
Choices and actions, not inborn characteristics, define a character
(Vivian:) A thing I have always said is that what defines a person is their choices, beliefs, and, most importantly, actions. I stand by it to this day despite changing circumstances… Anyway, that is still the case fundamentally, and this is doubly so with fictional characters because what happens in a story is what matters, not just what is.
It doesn’t matter what it is, it can be sex, gender, species, whatever parts pigmentation, ethnicity, or anything imaginable that are just circumstances of birth, hatching, emerging, or whatever other method you come into this world screaming like a stung pig, as we say in 🇸🇪. Anyway, no matter what, it doesn’t define what a character or a person is no matter what you feel or how important it feels to you. Put down the pitchforks and torches, I’ll redeem myself in a moment, I know what many of you are thinking.
It is always the choices and actions, and this includes beliefs because those influence choices and actions, that are the fundamental defining property of any person and character. So don’t think just because you tell the audience that a character has characteristics X, Y, and Z that they are now defined. They are still generic character #214321 meant to die because they are background noise and the bomb is about to explode. By saving the cat, trying to seduce the man/woman/enby/whatever other gender, we get a feel for who they are as a person. I don’t care how they look or what they have no control over, I care over what they have control over and that is their actions. It is through them that I feel a connection to them.
Now before you all kill me, yes, inherent attributes beyond one's control can radically constrain the choices a person, or character, can reasonably make in a society. It can also force them to make highly specific and quite common choices due to the views of the society they live in. But it is still these choices that ultimately define the character, it is just that the society they live in has forced them, due to said attributes, to make these choices more or less. The attribute forces them to make the choice due to society, but it is the choice that defines them. Anne, do I need a bloody diagram for this?
(Anne:) Maybe not a diagram, but how about one other thing to keep the pitchforks at bay! It’s important to notice that beliefs fall into this category, and that includes a character or person’s perception of themself and of the world around them. People view the world differently if they have certain characteristics, usually those that are highly visible and targeted or discriminated against in their society. HOWEVER. Simply viewing the world that way isn’t enough to make an engaging character! They have to act on those beliefs and worldview. It can be enlightening to people not in that group to see how that group thinks, but if they don’t also see how it impacts their choices and actions, it isn’t enough.
(Vivian:) A belief or view you do not act on is in fact not a belief or view you hold in your heart.
(Anne:) And yes, in a book with internal monologue, the action of thinking often counts. It doesn’t have to be physical actions, just the action and choice of what you’re thinking.
(Vivian:) While that is most definitely true, I’d say other actions are probably required, unless there are good reasons to not physically act on it. I know there are places I would not act on A LOT of things I believe out of fear for my life. But you know, kind of a crappy story if there are no stakes and risks.
(Anne:) I swear we’ll get to it, but this is often what makes an engaging character, and it’s a huge difference between characters and people.
“Write what you know”–Really?
(Anne:) No, not really! I mean, if that were true, the only thing people could write would be autobiographies or memoirs! We write about people and places and things we don’t know intimately all the time, and this is especially true in speculative fiction. However, there are good ways to do this and some very, very bad ways to do it, as well as some hilarious ways.
Let’s start with the hilarious, because it shows a lot of the flaws of writing outside your experience when you’re trying to write something you know nothing about. What wonderful thing am I going to bring up? Why, men writing women, of course! For whatever reason, a lot of men think women are this bizarre thing that’s almost completely unknowable. As a result, they rely on stereotypes, but not not stereotypes with any basis in reality. Just stereotypes that they think might be true. Vivian, want to give us some fun examples?
(Vivian:) No, I’ll just boobily boob my way breastly down the stairs. Honestly these men have this strange idea that women are fixated about the boobs possessed, or write so hyper focused about the breasts it is absolutely insane. This is a scifi/fantasy novel, not a fucking erotica.
(Anne:) And even in erotica, boobs aren’t usually prehensile and conscious objects that move and think and act on their own!
(Vivian:) Mine only jiggle when the phone gets a call…
(Anne:) Okay, so that characterization is clearly true 😉 But this is a case of a person writing about a group that they, for whatever reason, don’t really view as human, so they rely on stereotypes without trying to add humanity. Or xenanity if you’re writing aliens. The first thing to remember when writing about any group of people is that they are people first, with all of the same instincts and complexities and quirks, it’s just that the little details are different.
Women writing men is also a thing, and I’ve had complaints about my books because my male characters aren’t constantly drooling over the female characters and this is somehow unrealistic (Really? Are men really that obsessed with sex? As an asexual person, this just boggles my mind). But yeah, I view men as humans just like women, and I may not always respect the differences as a result. Luckily I’m not as bad as some!
(Vivian:) I also always assumed men, women, aliens, were just people…somehow that is strangely wrong yet correct at the same time.
(Anne:) It’s an interesting thing. You have to start with the foundation of respecting everyone as human (or alien), and then build on to that foundation with knowledge. Not stereotypes, but actual knowledge. And that requires research. Yup, you’re going to have to go out and actually learn about the groups you’re writing about!
Sometimes it’s easy. I talk to men all the time, so I have a (decently) good feel for them. The “men writing women” men don’t talk to women, I can almost guarantee. Or they don’t listen to women and try to understand them at the very least. This applies to all groups. If you’re writing about Black Americans, you’re going to have to meet some and interact with them.
You might not be able to learn everything firsthand, and that’s where the bookish part of research comes in! Yes, hit the shelves, climb on the web, hop on Black Twitter (well, not anymore…) because it’s time you learned about the communities you’re writing about! Sometimes you just can’t go out and meet people for whatever reason, but there are alternatives and you really need to take them.
(Vivian:) One thing to be aware of with a lot of this is…unless it is the comedic thing about boobs being semi-conscious autonomous body parts or the likes, a lot of how people think/are is culture/context sensitive. So if you write fantasy or scifi, how Black Americans do things is not how a black person would do 700 years from now or 700 years ago.
(Anne:) Or 700 lightyears away, for that matter!
I have a character with dark skin in my Imperial Saga, but she isn’t “Black” the way Americans or even Africans are. She’s from the north of the continent in the steamy jungles around Madi Anova, and she has her own customs and culture. Did I research Black culture to make sure I didn’t do anything insensitive? Yup. But did I try to mirror her experiences off of the experiences of Black Americans? Definitely not, because her people’s history is completely different.
The one thing you don’t want to do, and the reason I might actually agree with the reverse of “write what you know,” aka “don’t write what you don’t know,” is to tell the story of a group that you are not part of as if it is your story. ESPECIALLY if you are from a privileged group! We do not need more wealthy white Americans telling us about the Black experience! (I know I’m talking about race a lot, but hey, I’m American, it’s a big issue here, and it’s the thing that gets asked about most with the “write what you know” thing at conferences I’ve been to).
Publishing is full of books from privileged authors, and if a privileged person is telling the story of disadvantaged peoples, that’s one less book by a disadvantaged person about their own experience that might get published. In traditional publishing at least.
(Vivian:) As someone in multiple groups of bullshit disadvantage, I can say this as my personal opinion. I’d rather have a privileged author write about my groups very competently and well done, than someone from my disadvantaged groups write about them incompetently. The difference is that the privileged one CLEARLY did a lot of research and work, and the latter was an idiot and thought just because you’re in the group, you can do it well.
(Anne:) Yes, even if you’re a member of the group, YOU NEED TO RESEARCH. You can’t assume that your experience reflects everyone like you. Again, start with the premise that people are people, research the group or groups (even if it’s your own!), then write with understanding and compassion. But leave space for people to tell their own stories if they tell them well.
(Vivian:) So in short, you can tell any story if you do research, and if you can’t be arsed to do research, do like me: ALIENS!
Engage the consumer
(Anne:) You know what engages the consumer when it comes to truly evil characters? LINES!
(Vivian:) And if we have two lines intersecting, we can start doing math!
(Anne:) And if we have three lines intersecting, you’ve got yourself an interesting character! Well, actually, you just need one line for that, but multiple lines does make things interesting as the audience tries to anticipate how the character will react to various events. Still, we’re going with one line for the purposes of this blog right now!
Oh right, not everyone will be a good person and go read the post on villainy and honor, so we’d better explain what exactly we’re talking about, because despite Vivian’s enthusiasm, we’re not talking about math! Vivian, wanna get a little definition going?
(Vivian:) Always falls on me!
A line is something that, for some reason, a character refuses to do no matter what.
What the reason is can differ. Killing babies can be a line because the character thinks it is too easy, no fun in that. Or it can be that the character refuses to let cats come to harm because they are a cat person reigned over by the mewty Queen Lily! Or maybe it is something as small as that character refusing to ever lie.
(Anne:) You can get a lot of mileage out of refusing to lie as you get to come up with creative ways to have your characters be as misleading as possible without actually letting a falsehood cross their lips.
Why are we bringing up lines? Because they make characters engaging. This is true of all characters, but especially of characters who are morally more on the evil side of things.
(Vivian:) And one of the best things about a line is… the one instance they will break it. Makes me think of Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, never lied… except once, or twice depending on how you count. He lied about never lying and that the character he was saving and him would be safe, but he did sacrifice himself because he finally got what he wanted, insert emotional sob stuff that he did want but never realised that he finally got.
(Anne:) That moment when things look darkest and everything will fall apart unless the line is crossed is always a fascinating one, and usually occurs at the climax of the story, or in the dark moments right before. Remember the mini Hero’s Journey I described? This is when your character faces their ugliest side of themselves and decides what is truly important to them. Is it worth a lie to comfort someone else while you sacrifice yourself? Or is it more important to hold to the line no matter the consequences?
This is what makes a character engaging, and it’s how you can make the most evil Villain into someone that audiences root for, because they want to see how the Villain will handle having the line pushed, and pushed, and pushed, until it will break or they’ll be defeated.
(Vivian:) Makes me think of my character Markaxht, not quite the villain but definitely not a goodie two shoes. He does a lot of bad stuff, but his line is definitely that he will never do anything sexual toward anyone, regardless of gender, even if it would give him what he wants.
(Anne:) The Emperor in my Imperial Saga protects his family at all costs, even if they’re plotting a wee bit of assassination against him.
(Vivian:) What’s a bit of assassination between family members? Sounds like any holiday gathering.
(Anne:) Exactly! And you know what holiday gatherings are? Engaging! Not always pleasant or fun, but you’re either engaged or you’re zoned out in front of the tv waiting to leave. Which your readers will not be!
Par Quintus Summa Bobi
(Anne:) Okay, Bob time!
(Vivian:) NOT THE BOB!
(Anne:) MWAHAHA! Anyway, to our brave hero Bob, a citizen of Aermundi who is trapped in an abusive work relationship with his boss but has just been approached by a pilot looking for an engineer for the ship’s SME (space mana engine). But you remember the story, don’t you? No? Well, you can read about his childhood here, the various traumas Vivian and I inflicted on him here, and [something else] here!
(Vivian:) I always just like SME as a word, it sounds funny :D
But enough about the past, we’re interested in the here and now. First, let’s look at some archetypes. Up until this point, we’ve casually referenced Bob being the protagonist of the small story we’re inventing, but really he’s just a character we’ve been developing. He’s never had his own story, but he’s about to get one. So, to start, what kind of archetype should he fit?
Well, among all of the possible archetypes, one stands out: Explorer!
But he’s not some conquistador out to conquer new lands, or even a happy child learning Spanish. …Those are clearly the most clichéd types of explorers, right? Everyone knows Dora is the premiere explorer these days!
Nope, he’s got a little Hero in him, since he stands up for what he believes in and the people he cares about, and a little of the Innocent, since he’s just so damn naive. And those quirks, how about them? Vivian, what would you say is the quirkiest thing about Bob?
(Vivian:) BAH! HUMBUG! …You know, why not have that be one of his quirks? One of his quirks is that he does use ”humbug” as a word when saying people are not telling the truth, or bullshitting and the like.
(Anne:) I think in general he doesn’t swear at all, but has a colorful and quaint collection of words he’s learned from various travelers over the years. Just don’t tell him what some of them mean!
(Vivian:) I am usually not one to avoid swearing as I think it makes one realistic but I have also always said that there is a scale. Some people swear a lot, others swear very little, but everyone swears. So I am fine with Bob being predominantly on the lower end, and when he swears, you know that shit’s hit the fan.
(Anne:) It goes with his partial Innocent archetype, too. But he’s an Explorer! Bold, brash, and something else with a B! Boring? Yeah, I think he can drone on sometimes. But that’s okay, we can use exposition and skip over him putting the crew to sleep. And sometimes, he can use that talent to save the lives of his crew when he needs to stall for time and keep the enemy asleep–er, distracted!
Is he a paragon? Yeah no, not really. But he looks up to one of the heroes in the comic books he read in his childhood before his wealthy parents died in that mana fire and left him penniless and homeless. His wealthy friends sometimes managed to sneak him a new copy, of course, as they supported him as best they could.
(Vivian:) He aspires to be a really good person but naturally falls short because life is messy and as the protagonist, life is even worse because we’re sadistic as writers. So he has to do things that are less than good and he sometimes beat himself for.
(Anne:) Poor Bob. It’s a shame he’s a protagonist or he could live a perfectly happy life like his wealthy friends whose only trauma is having a friend like him to constantly look out for.
Okay, now for the really fun part: his development as a character! Yes, Bob is a dynamic character who grows and changes throughout the story. What kind of story is this, you ask? A book, a series, a sitcom? Well, that’s none of your business, is it! All you need to know is that he follows the classic hero’s journey as abbreviated above and explained here:
Bob’s status quo is trapped with a boss who gives him the worst jobs but claims he’s family to her so of course he’ll help her… right? And he’s so desperate for family connection after the deaths of his parents that he buys right into her bullshit. As I said, naive. He starts as a pretty solid Innocent. But then, what’s this? A pilot at the space station is looking for an engineer, just for something small, and but when she sees how good Bob is at SME repairs, she offers to hire him on the spot. Could this be the call to adventure?
He at first refuses, but who are we kidding, of course he’s going to go! His boss catches wind of it, so Bob has to sneak out with the help of his friends, who are glad to see him finally get out of that relationship and wish him luck. We won’t see them again for a looooong time.
Off he goes into the new world! He has all sorts of adventures and meets all sorts of new people, and fully embodies his archetype as Explorer with an insatiable curiosity and need for new things. There’s just one problem: he still really wants other people to love him, and he’s desperate for their approval. This puts him in more than one awkward situation, until…
(Vivian:) That one fateful day… at the ice cream shop. All right, not an ice cream shop, albeit that would be a hilarious noodle incident. Said pilot takes him on some bit of adventure, but she was not a young pilot and died during one of the journeys.
And after that, the rest of the crew turned extremely hostile toward Bob. Turns out the crew were anything but liking humans, and the one thing keeping them at a distance was the pilot. What Bob thought had been friendships with them were anything but. Sure, they still needed him, but all sense of comradery was gone and he managed to FINALLY figure out that they would never love him and toss him aside the moment his usefulness was over.
(Anne:) I guess it turns out the workplace actually isn’t your family!
(Vivian:) No, but workplaces can be fantastic… Just not this one.
(Anne:) Oh yeah by the way there’s this whole thing with a space pirate who’s after the pilot of his ship and yada yada decides to go after Bob instead. That’s act three. On to the climax!
Pew pew and all that, space pirate is taken care of, but Bob doesn’t kill them because that’s a line Bob will never cross. After the deaths of his parents, he’s determined that no one will ever lose a loved one as a result of his actions. Wait, I got to his line too quickly, I have to talk about his inborn characteristics first!
Uh, gotta wrap up his character arc! Okay, he loves himself and feels confident standing up for himself, and he returns home and exposes his former boss for her abusive practices, saving the girl who had been hired to replace him, and his friends cheer him on. I told you they’d be back eventually! The end, everything wrapped up.
Naturally, there’s room for another adventure after this, but while there will be some repetition and some static-ness to the adventures, there will be overall growth. The first story needs to be read first, but after that, you can generally read them in any order. I won’t go into all of those stories though, at least not right now. You can imagine, and if you have good ideas, put them in the comments below!
Okay, now for his inborn characteristics and whether Vivian and I are qualified to write our little beloved Bob.
Well, Bob is from Aermundi, but he can’t use magic, which puts him at a bit of a disadvantage. People like him aren’t exactly discriminated against… officially, at least. Let’s just say that his parent’s wealth shielded him from a lot when he was a child, and there was a reason he was kicked to the curb after their deaths. As I said, it’s not uncommon to not use magic, but not great either. Still, while it impacts how those around him treat him, it doesn’t impact his choices, so we’re not counting it.
(Vivian:) Lack of de jure discrimination does not mean there is no de facto discrimination. People are assholes after all.
(Anne:) One of Vivian’s favorite sayings!
So, can Vivian and I write Bob’s story? I mean, he’s a man, and we’re not! How dare we even attempt such a feat!
(Vivian:) He is… (puts on an inverse Ferengi voice) MAAALEEEE! Doesn’t sound quite as funny, but eh.
(Anne:) Yeah, we’re both fine writing men. Why? Because most protagonists of stories are men written by men, so we both have a huge body of knowledge of how men think and act. Plus there’s the whole fact that we, ya know, have met real live men and interact with them daily. They’re hardly a mystery and if we have a question, there are plenty to ask. So our research is essentially a lifetime of knowledge plus a willingness to ask questions.
(Vivian:) Most of my pals are men, we can even say allocishetmen, albeit that is one hell of a word.
(Anne:) As bizarre as men are, they’re people, they’re knowable, and we’ll treat Bob respectfully. Which about wraps up this little section about the man who has become a true Explorer!
Summa Summarum
(Vivian:) What have we learned today? Well, my dear Anne still hasn’t lost her touch on writing a lot, but that is why we love her, isn’t it? 😊
(Anne:) Okay, I was going to say that in my defense this isn’t that long a post, but then I looked at the word count. So I’m just going to shut up now and just wish you all fun creating characters that are unique and wonderful!
(Vivian:) I hope you all learned a lot! Because I sure did learn some!
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Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as character archetypes, the Hero’s Journey, and the basic principles are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as Aermundi, Bob, his story, and all mentions of individual creative works as well as any language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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