{"id":519,"date":"2013-12-18T22:33:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/5-character-types-people-frequently-screw-up\/"},"modified":"2014-12-09T16:12:58","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T00:12:58","slug":"5-character-types-people-frequently-screw-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/5-character-types-people-frequently-screw-up\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Character Types People Frequently Screw Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a couple weeks<\/a> attempting to convince people to edit<\/a> and finding out through reduced traffic that no one really wants to do it (could have told myself that one), I have decided it\u2019s time to branch out towards more general writing once more. Reading the work of several aspiring and new writers, I\u2019ve found that one of the big problems with a lot of writing today is how often people strive to meet certain criteria without understanding<\/span> the criteria.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a problem that haunts many. So today I\u2019m going to tackle a set of character archetypes that it seems almost everyone stumbles on once or twice and try to decipher just why they fail.<\/p>\n

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1. \u201cUnderdogs\u201d<\/h2>\n

What you\u2019re trying to do:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Inspiring, sympathetic characters that capture the struggle of the common man – the underdog is the symbol of every average person that ever had to try to take on a bigger, more powerful challenge. Everyone in the world feels overwhelmed about something eventually. So of course you want to have a character people can relate to who is facing something just as overwhelming as what a person would face in the real world.<\/p>\n

The underdog is a vital part of literature because it is the person that readers can most relate to. In fact, they would be the insertion point for just about everyone in your audience. How could that possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

What you actually do:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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People often mistake all \u201cmisfits\u201d to be \u201cunderdogs\u201d and thus put those \u201cmisfits\u201d in the underdog role by default without considering whether or not the misfit actually\u2026fits.<\/p>\n

Your character isn\u2019t an underdog if the thing that is stopping them happens to be a personal defect they have control over. In other words, your character isn\u2019t the underdog unless someone else<\/b><\/i> is stepping on their neck. Wayne from Wayne\u2019s World wasn\u2019t the scrappy underdog, he was a satirical piece reflecting the absurdity of Generation X thinking they<\/b><\/i> were disadvantaged. They weren\u2019t, they were incredibly advantaged and were just jaded and looking for something to complain about. Your character can\u2019t be jaded or shiftless unless there\u2019s something for them to be jaded or shiftless about.<\/p>\n

In Wayne\u2019s World, despite the fact his antagonist is usually better connected and wealthier, Wayne\u2019s still a flake. Think about it, why did Wayne almost lose in both of those movies? Did the other guy actually<\/b><\/i> do anything to put him down or did he do it to himself? In both of the movies, he did it to himself. He made an ass out of himself to the girl that was willing to see beyond his flaws\u2026twice.<\/p>\n

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How to fix it:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Make the opposition bigger.<\/p>\n

No, seriously, you don\u2019t need to make your character worse to make them the underdog, you just need to scale up their opposition. Case in point is Batman up there. Batman, Bruce Wayne, is a billionaire with vast resources at his disposal, superb physical conditioning and years of training in martial arts. As a part of the 1%, Bruce is pretty firmly not the underdog in any real world context. But as you see above, when fighting a god, Bruce Wayne is suddenly not the big dog in the fight.<\/p>\n

That is the point of the underdog, not the claim of oppression, the actual act of being overwhelmed and still coming out on top.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cWell-Rounded Characters\u201d<\/h2>\n

What you\u2019re trying to do:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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You want your character to be likeable, so they\u2019re going to have to have a lot of likeable traits. You\u2019re going to want to make them the outdoorsy type, but still nerdy, you\u2019ll want to give them a cultured side, but not so cultured that they don\u2019t happen to alienate people. You want to make them kind, compassionate, insightful. You want to make them just all around well balanced and capable of winning the hearts and minds of everyone.<\/p>\n

What you actually do:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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And you will name him or her \u201cMary Sue\u201d or \u201cGary Stu\u201d. And he or she will be the most perfect person of all time and will be beloved by all except for those select few haters who just don\u2019t understand the depth<\/span> of what you\u2019ve<\/span> written for this world<\/span><\/b>!<\/span><\/b><\/i> <\/span>Then someone will sneak up on you and try to strangle you as you giggle uncontrollably at the pencil sketches you\u2019ve made of Gary while gingerly stroking it and calling it your precious.<\/p>\n

How to fix it:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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When you\u2019re trying to build a well-rounded character, you\u2019re not actually trying to make them the jack of all trades, you\u2019re trying to make them more human.<\/p>\n

The problem is that \u201cwell-rounded\u201d is actually a poor descriptor of what you want to make. The truth is that realistic characters are actually jagged and uneven. Realistic characters have flaws and rough spots. The most classic characters ever weren\u2019t the perfect characters, they were the imperfect ones that reflected some of the insecurities and imperfections of the audience.<\/p>\n

A recent example is Breaking Bad, a show that gripped people so effectively that there was an outcry over people possibly spoiling the end to it. And part of the reason was that Walter White, the protagonist of the series, was both sympathetic and incredibly messed up at the same time. People were intrigued by this common, simple man in a horrible situation being drawn into dark places so easily when under pressure.<\/p>\n

He was a mess and didn\u2019t know what to do when put under pressure\u2026 just like the rest of us.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cThe Smart Guy\/Girl\u201d<\/h2>\n

What you\u2019re trying to do:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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It\u2019s a complicated world with complicated facets that you just have to get a character to explain. This character has to be able to solve the mysteries and explain the things that keep your plot moving along. Maybe you need a hacker to explain how other hackers are controlling the world\u2019s power grid. Maybe you need a forensic scientist to point out that a very special bullet was used to kill your victim. The smart characters make the world go round and you need one now. So why wouldn\u2019t you put one in?<\/p>\n

What you actually do:\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Unfortunately when you think of \u201csmart\u201d characters you actually think of socially inept and dysfunctional characters who hide in basements and haven\u2019t talked to a member of the opposite sex in a casual conversation in 20 years.<\/p>\n

Stereotypes are bad in almost all cases, but for a long time this one was accepted because the mainstream culture was separate from nerd cultures and thought that just acknowledging these people were smart was enough to make them positive figures. But place yourself in their shoes and consider what you\u2019ve just said about people who happen to know how the world works.<\/p>\n