Currently, in Creative Writing, we're practicing writing round characters. I decided to ask my teacher how do you know if a character is good or not, causing her to think about it. Later, when I asked my College Readiness teacher, he said a level of autonomy from you as the writer is required to make a character good. So, my question is, how do you know if your characters are good or not? Personally, I believe that you'll never know whether or not a character is good until the public deems them as a good character. Example, I don't think ANY of my characters are good, but I've often been told otherwise.
If they are well rounded, back-storied, details, making a character good is not making a mary sue but giving them a history you find interesting and a personality that is tolerable. I have to agree with needing to be told tho.
Personally, I think a good character is a character who's not a Sue. Also, giving a character a good backstory, motives, relationships with others, and other traits could help as well. Like I have some characters who have magic powers, but to stay out of bad territory, I add complexity to them in other fields. (Like two characters who work together and one not wanting to face each other because of her guilt for leaving her best friend behind to pursue her foolish ambitions. That's a pretty non Sue backstory.) I do have to agree that someone needs to say "this isn't a bad character." Everyone assumes their characters are just THE BEST and you usually need unbiased outside input for true judgement.
I agree, a Mary Sue character is horrible. I don't think any of my characters are particularly good, though. I think a good character is one with motivation and backstory, one that you can connect with and care for. #MissingNo
There's no real way to know, and it's a fine line to walk especially if you're inserting them into a known universe (fanfiction basically). A good character has real interaction with real consequences. When you write them they are, for all intents and purposes, real and part of that world now. One thing to keep in mind is how they fit into the setting. You wouldn't put a dull character into a fast paced setting unless that was the point, just as you wouldn't put a demi-god in a quiet cafe/school/whatever setting unless that was the point. Now making these characters likable is something else, a real juggle of flaws versus base personality.
Since I'm writing my novel, I aim to create "grey" characters. I never want to get close to creating "Mary Sues" or "Gary Stus", which are perfect characters in every aspect. A majority of my characters aren't human, so I have to try to integrate relatable qualities in order to make the story more interesting. It's also best to avoid cliches in characters, especially for a fantasy book, one in which I am writing. For instance, I want to avoid putting my character in situations such as "from rags to riches" or "being the chosen one".
I think there are many things that make a good character. The most basic being a defined personality, flaws and strengths. But something that's often overlooked is the motivation of a character. What do they want? Why are they doing this? As well as that, characters that are shown to not be fully 'good' and 'evil' create a greater sense of realism. As well as that, readers love a character that doesn't make dumb decisions like taking a shortcut through a dark alley or not telling the rest of the cast a game-changing secret. Basically, the character makes logical decisions that a normal human being (or whatever else they might be) would make.
A good character...that's a hard one. I would say that a passable character would have all the boxes checked like backstory, personality and so on. Sometimes you don't even need to check off every box. For example, if their personality is good enough, you can have a lack luster background or no background and readers will enjoy them all the same. To make a stellar character though, the best thing any writer can do is to give them time. Time to be in the foreground, time to shine, time to fall, time to grow a connection. Too many times potential characters are made but never are given the time to do anything. Too me, there's no such thing as a merry sue, just a character that has no effort put into it. A good character is one you dedicate time and energy into crafting no matter who or what that character may be.
Depends on what u need. Certain nes yo want their story revealed b other people and just hints given off
@[member="UnstoppableGamer"] Sometimes I repeat myself "Do not sell your character from the beggining". Save something, an incomplete past is always a good way to catch public's attention. BUT there are conditions that you will know after asking you questions like: Am I preparing a real main character or going to raise one in base of this one? Does this character deserves a lot of effort at its design? Is it going to die? Do I want to see the public crying or expressing more or less emotions for this character? How much participation is going to have? Should I create a question around this character to make my pubic often ask me about the answer? if I am going to draw this character at some moment, will I make it fit with its personality? And many more questions that you should list to get somewhere. After all you have to question yourself while you question the character. Or you can even "talk" with your character. Knowing you and knowing your character can end on a conversation that can show you what would happen if you meet the character that you create and also do some investigation while planning their dialog with other characters. There are lots of possibilities to think about that will be getting limited by your history and the resources that you can use to define your character but in the end always need someone to read your story before showing it to the world xD
I don't really know what makes a good character. I know plenty of things that make a bad character, but pinning down things that will make any character good, that's hard without being extremely generic. I do agree that someone saying a character is good is what really makes it good. But I think the source is also important. The characters in my first stories are super cringey, and while not Mary Sues (as far as I know), they are definitely poorly made characters. But I never got criticisms on those older works outside of, "Show don't tell", and did receive compliments. However, when I was told recently, that a character could be better if I fixed ___, ____, and ___ with how I was showing them, I felt like my character was good after I fixed those things. The other thing that tells me if a character is good or not though, is if I have fun role-playing them, or discussing how they'd interact with other characters. If they aren't fun to play around with mentally, then they aren't worth having for me.
