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vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifta0ly | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,596,472 | 1,657,581,005 | 43 | 2 | If you want a character with dimensions, you have give those dimensions: Direction, Defects, Decisions, and Determination. Direction is the first bit. Your protagonist is going to need a reason to be part of the story in the first place. Doesn't have to be anything ground breaking, and it could be external forces pushing them that way. Defects because no one is perfect. And not just superficial sprinkling... You have to think about chain of events in their life lead to these defects manifesting. If you are going to have a defect be part of this character, you are going to really need to make sure the roots run deep. It's got to influence every other aspect and something they have to contend with. Decisions are key. Good characters make decisions of consequence and not all of them are going to be the best. But, these choices are the result of their autonomy in the world. The character picks a path at the fork in the story, and will experience what lies beyond. Determination. Why does this character continue to exist in the story? What really drives them to move forward in the timeline, despite everything else? If given other options to leave the pages for good, why do they continue to be there? What propels them down their decided direction despite their defects? Just an example of the thoughts I've had when making characters myself. Maybe it'll provide some sparks to light a way you like. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 15,467 | 21.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifta0ly | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,596,472 | 2 | 43 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | If you want a character with dimensions, you have give those dimensions: Direction, Defects, Decisions, and Determination. Direction is the first bit. Your protagonist is going to need a reason to be part of the story in the first place. Doesn't have to be anything ground breaking, and it could be external forces pushing them that way. Defects because no one is perfect. And not just superficial sprinkling... You have to think about chain of events in their life lead to these defects manifesting. If you are going to have a defect be part of this character, you are going to really need to make sure the roots run deep. It's got to influence every other aspect and something they have to contend with. Decisions are key. Good characters make decisions of consequence and not all of them are going to be the best. But, these choices are the result of their autonomy in the world. The character picks a path at the fork in the story, and will experience what lies beyond. Determination. Why does this character continue to exist in the story? What really drives them to move forward in the timeline, despite everything else? If given other options to leave the pages for good, why do they continue to be there? What propels them down their decided direction despite their defects? Just an example of the thoughts I've had when making characters myself. Maybe it'll provide some sparks to light a way you like. | 0 | 14,771 | 21.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifta0ly | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,596,472 | 2 | 43 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | If you want a character with dimensions, you have give those dimensions: Direction, Defects, Decisions, and Determination. Direction is the first bit. Your protagonist is going to need a reason to be part of the story in the first place. Doesn't have to be anything ground breaking, and it could be external forces pushing them that way. Defects because no one is perfect. And not just superficial sprinkling... You have to think about chain of events in their life lead to these defects manifesting. If you are going to have a defect be part of this character, you are going to really need to make sure the roots run deep. It's got to influence every other aspect and something they have to contend with. Decisions are key. Good characters make decisions of consequence and not all of them are going to be the best. But, these choices are the result of their autonomy in the world. The character picks a path at the fork in the story, and will experience what lies beyond. Determination. Why does this character continue to exist in the story? What really drives them to move forward in the timeline, despite everything else? If given other options to leave the pages for good, why do they continue to be there? What propels them down their decided direction despite their defects? Just an example of the thoughts I've had when making characters myself. Maybe it'll provide some sparks to light a way you like. | 0 | 12,238 | 21.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifta0ly | ifsz8kc | 1,657,596,472 | 1,657,591,349 | 43 | 2 | If you want a character with dimensions, you have give those dimensions: Direction, Defects, Decisions, and Determination. Direction is the first bit. Your protagonist is going to need a reason to be part of the story in the first place. Doesn't have to be anything ground breaking, and it could be external forces pushing them that way. Defects because no one is perfect. And not just superficial sprinkling... You have to think about chain of events in their life lead to these defects manifesting. If you are going to have a defect be part of this character, you are going to really need to make sure the roots run deep. It's got to influence every other aspect and something they have to contend with. Decisions are key. Good characters make decisions of consequence and not all of them are going to be the best. But, these choices are the result of their autonomy in the world. The character picks a path at the fork in the story, and will experience what lies beyond. Determination. Why does this character continue to exist in the story? What really drives them to move forward in the timeline, despite everything else? If given other options to leave the pages for good, why do they continue to be there? What propels them down their decided direction despite their defects? Just an example of the thoughts I've had when making characters myself. Maybe it'll provide some sparks to light a way you like. | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | 1 | 5,123 | 21.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifslnwi | ifsql8v | 1,657,585,288 | 1,657,587,491 | 8 | 18 | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | 0 | 2,203 | 2.25 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsql8v | ifsc8fr | 1,657,587,491 | 1,657,581,097 | 18 | 7 | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | 1 | 6,394 | 2.571429 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsql8v | ifsfepk | 1,657,587,491 | 1,657,582,501 | 18 | 4 | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 4,990 | 4.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsql8v | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,587,491 | 1,657,581,005 | 18 | 2 | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 6,486 | 9 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifsql8v | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,587,491 | 2 | 18 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | 0 | 5,790 | 9 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifsql8v | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,587,491 | 2 | 18 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Get to know them before you start writing about them. * Where were they before their story started? What is their normal life like? * How do they see the world around them? What is important to them? * Where are they going and why are they going there? * What might happen to slow them down and how will they overcome it? * How do they react to people in general? How are they about asking for help? Accepting help? Giving help to others? * Are they laid back or nervous? What makes them more nervouse? How do they relax? * What impression do they leave with the people they meet? * Will they succeed or fail in reaching their goal? | 0 | 3,257 | 9 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifszluz | iftk9g7 | 1,657,591,515 | 1,657,602,237 | 16 | 17 | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | 0 | 10,722 | 1.0625 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | iftk9g7 | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,602,237 | 12 | 17 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | 0 | 6,935 | 1.416667 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifslnwi | iftk9g7 | 1,657,585,288 | 1,657,602,237 | 8 | 17 | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | 0 | 16,949 | 2.125 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ift0m4x | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,591,970 | 17 | 9 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 1 | 10,267 | 1.888889 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsc8fr | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,581,097 | 17 | 7 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | 1 | 21,140 | 2.428571 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9328 | iftk9g7 | 1,657,596,001 | 1,657,602,237 | 6 | 17 | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | 0 | 6,236 | 2.833333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsfepk | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,582,501 | 17 | 4 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 19,736 | 4.25 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ift9gga | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,596,188 | 17 | 3 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | 1 | 6,049 | 5.666667 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsv9pk | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,589,573 | 17 | 3 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 1 | 12,664 | 5.666667 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsxnzt | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,590,646 | 17 | 3 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 1 | 11,591 | 5.666667 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,581,005 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 21,232 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsdlpn | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,581,701 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | 1 | 20,536 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsjaam | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,584,234 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | 1 | 18,003 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | ifsz8kc | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,591,349 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | 1 | 10,888 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | iftduad | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,598,485 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | Maybe your protagonist. Should do something bad and noone knows who did such a thing except the protagonist who felt justified for doing something that appeared bad to everyone but it was something we would all do if we could gets away with it in this life and the next life as well. Like kill a child killer that never gets convicted or something else a vigilante would do. Only make it a one time thing because it is personal to your protagonist. Or some kink in the otherwise dull do gooder life of an unsung protagonist. | 1 | 3,752 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftk9g7 | iftjdwd | 1,657,602,237 | 1,657,601,693 | 17 | 2 | The reason you're likely to enjoy the villains more is because they're proactive most of the time. Protagonists are often reactionary. Simply making your protagonist someone that doesn't settle and goes for his goals will make a world of difference. Give them depth. A lot of people are going to tell you to slap on a "Bad" personality trait in order to make them more complex. That's not how personality traits work. Context decides whether a trait is good or bad. Someone who rushes in head first all the time is someone who will perform well in situations where there is little time to think, where the enemies are expecting a more methodical approach, and often these characters can inspire others to move even when they're frozen. But this personality trait sucks ass in politics. Or in a situation where you do need to account for variables, where traps are laid in advance. If you can't beat up your problem, then someone who is prone to rushing into danger isn't going to be much help. They'll be a nuisance. So, put your character is polarizing situations. Ones where their traits suit them, where they perform well. Imagine how that feels for them, how do they react? Then toss them in the deep end. Where everything about them is tested because their usual MO isn't working. | The everyman. Walter Mitty. Great things are done with antiheroes. | 1 | 544 | 8.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifslnwi | ifszluz | 1,657,585,288 | 1,657,591,515 | 8 | 16 | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 6,227 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc8fr | ifszluz | 1,657,581,097 | 1,657,591,515 | 7 | 16 | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 10,418 | 2.285714 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifszluz | ifsfepk | 1,657,591,515 | 1,657,582,501 | 16 | 4 | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 9,014 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifszluz | ifsv9pk | 1,657,591,515 | 1,657,589,573 | 16 | 3 | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 1 | 1,942 | 5.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifszluz | ifsxnzt | 1,657,591,515 | 1,657,590,646 | 16 | 3 | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 1 | 869 | 5.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc0y7 | ifszluz | 1,657,581,005 | 1,657,591,515 | 2 | 16 | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 10,510 | 8 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifszluz | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,591,515 | 2 | 16 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 9,814 | 8 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifszluz | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,591,515 | 2 | 16 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 7,281 | 8 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsz8kc | ifszluz | 1,657,591,349 | 1,657,591,515 | 2 | 16 | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | Make sure they have a weakness that actually affects the story. Give them an interest or hobby that isn't obviously beneficial to the plot. Like a police officer that knits in their spare time or a lawyer with a deep love of all things Elvis. | 0 | 166 | 8 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | ifslnwi | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,585,288 | 12 | 8 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 1 | 10,014 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift0m4x | ift7p35 | 1,657,591,970 | 1,657,595,302 | 9 | 12 | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | 0 | 3,332 | 1.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc8fr | ift7p35 | 1,657,581,097 | 1,657,595,302 | 7 | 12 | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | 0 | 14,205 | 1.714286 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | ifsfepk | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,582,501 | 12 | 4 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 12,801 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsv9pk | ift7p35 | 1,657,589,573 | 1,657,595,302 | 3 | 12 | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | 0 | 5,729 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | ifsxnzt | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,590,646 | 12 | 3 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 1 | 4,656 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,581,005 | 12 | 2 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 14,297 | 6 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ift7p35 | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,595,302 | 2 | 12 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | 0 | 13,601 | 6 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift7p35 | ifsjaam | 1,657,595,302 | 1,657,584,234 | 12 | 2 | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | 1 | 11,068 | 6 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsz8kc | ift7p35 | 1,657,591,349 | 1,657,595,302 | 2 | 12 | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | I always see a lot of advice about giving them flaws, but I find that often can turn out a little two dimensional if you just paste a flaw onto a bland character. The real trick is making sure that the character’s decisions have real consequences. What they decide to do will push the story along, fueling the conflict. If you’re struggling, try asking yourself “what does my protagonist want and what is it about them that is stopping them from getting it?” That will be the foundation of your character development, as their struggle to overcome it will be what allows them to succeed or fail in their goal. | 0 | 3,953 | 6 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift0m4x | ifslnwi | 1,657,591,970 | 1,657,585,288 | 9 | 8 | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 1 | 6,682 | 1.125 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc8fr | ifslnwi | 1,657,581,097 | 1,657,585,288 | 7 | 8 | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 0 | 4,191 | 1.142857 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsfepk | ifslnwi | 1,657,582,501 | 1,657,585,288 | 4 | 8 | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 0 | 2,787 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc0y7 | ifslnwi | 1,657,581,005 | 1,657,585,288 | 2 | 8 | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 0 | 4,283 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifslnwi | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,585,288 | 2 | 8 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 0 | 3,587 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifslnwi | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,585,288 | 2 | 8 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Break their spirit. Deny everything they want and hurt them on a personal, emotional level they’ll never recover from | 0 | 1,054 | 4 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift0m4x | ifsc8fr | 1,657,591,970 | 1,657,581,097 | 9 | 7 | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | 1 | 10,873 | 1.285714 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsfepk | ift0m4x | 1,657,582,501 | 1,657,591,970 | 4 | 9 | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 0 | 9,469 | 2.25 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift0m4x | ifsv9pk | 1,657,591,970 | 1,657,589,573 | 9 | 3 | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 1 | 2,397 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift0m4x | ifsxnzt | 1,657,591,970 | 1,657,590,646 | 9 | 3 | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 1 | 1,324 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc0y7 | ift0m4x | 1,657,581,005 | 1,657,591,970 | 2 | 9 | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 0 | 10,965 | 4.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ift0m4x | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,591,970 | 2 | 9 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 0 | 10,269 | 4.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ift0m4x | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,591,970 | 2 | 9 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 0 | 7,736 | 4.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsz8kc | ift0m4x | 1,657,591,349 | 1,657,591,970 | 2 | 9 | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | Typically a plain character is reacting to their environment in predictable ways. A complex character both reacts interestingly and creates their own plot | 0 | 621 | 4.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc8fr | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,581,097 | 1,657,581,005 | 7 | 2 | Make your protagonists extravagantly atypical. Never cast Zeppo Marx in a leading role. Too normal. Cast Groucho. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 92 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ift9328 | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,596,001 | 7 | 6 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | 1 | 6,917 | 1.166667 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9328 | ifsfepk | 1,657,596,001 | 1,657,582,501 | 6 | 4 | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 13,500 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsv9pk | ift9328 | 1,657,589,573 | 1,657,596,001 | 3 | 6 | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | 0 | 6,428 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsxnzt | ift9328 | 1,657,590,646 | 1,657,596,001 | 3 | 6 | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | 0 | 5,355 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9328 | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,596,001 | 1,657,581,005 | 6 | 2 | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 14,996 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9328 | ifsdlpn | 1,657,596,001 | 1,657,581,701 | 6 | 2 | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | 1 | 14,300 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ift9328 | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,596,001 | 2 | 6 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | 0 | 11,767 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsz8kc | ift9328 | 1,657,591,349 | 1,657,596,001 | 2 | 6 | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | This harkens back to “the hero’s tale”. A story telling method that starts out with a plain, ordinary person who has one surprising thing that makes them potentially extraordinary. The story would be boring if that extraordinary person just did something extraordinary and then the story was over. The story is taking this plain, normal, slightly off person and making them extraordinary. Basically stories are journeys. A lot of people relate to starting out completely normal, young, stupid, naïveté, etc. Many authors try to relate to their readers by giving them a familiar starting point. From that point on, readers and the author enter an agreement to suspend reality. The author lays out the ground rules of the world, and the reader says “yeah, yeah, tell me more” and as long as the author doesn’t break the rules of the world, the reader will accept those rules as written. Now that the author has the reader at the start of their journey, they can take them on a wild ride about a familiar theme of growing up and becoming a complex individual. That is the hero’s journey in a nutshell. All of story telling is at its core, a person’s change over time. (Look at the engineer making a calc joke…) So if your character is 90 years old, the obvious change is from the immortality of middle age to accepting that the ride is coming to an end. If your character is a new mom, then the story is about how she goes from an individual to a symbiosis. Most authors wright about experiences that they have gone through. Love, loss, painful growth, joy and tragedy. Finally consider this, is your character experiencing the story or driving the story. Patricia Briggs (great author) said in a workshop, “your character must drive the story. When I was writing ‘A Hob’s Bargain’ the main character was boring. She didn’t do anything the story couldn’t move forward. I kept throwing these awful things at her and torturing her. It wasn’t until she was locked in a cellar listening to everyone die that she made a decision, and began to drive the story. From there the story move forward….” (I’m paraphrasing, I did this workshop in like 2015 so bear with me) So ask yourself if your character is making any decisions or if they are simply experiencing the world around them. | 0 | 4,652 | 3 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ifsfepk | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,582,501 | 7 | 4 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 1 | 20,417 | 1.75 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ift9gga | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,596,188 | 7 | 3 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | 1 | 6,730 | 2.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ifsv9pk | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,589,573 | 7 | 3 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 1 | 13,345 | 2.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ifsxnzt | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,590,646 | 7 | 3 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 1 | 12,272 | 2.333333 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,581,005 | 7 | 2 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 21,913 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | iftlbid | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,602,918 | 2 | 7 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | 0 | 21,217 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | ifsjaam | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,584,234 | 7 | 2 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | 1 | 18,684 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsz8kc | iftlbid | 1,657,591,349 | 1,657,602,918 | 2 | 7 | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | 0 | 11,569 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftduad | iftlbid | 1,657,598,485 | 1,657,602,918 | 2 | 7 | Maybe your protagonist. Should do something bad and noone knows who did such a thing except the protagonist who felt justified for doing something that appeared bad to everyone but it was something we would all do if we could gets away with it in this life and the next life as well. Like kill a child killer that never gets convicted or something else a vigilante would do. Only make it a one time thing because it is personal to your protagonist. Or some kink in the otherwise dull do gooder life of an unsung protagonist. | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | 0 | 4,433 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | iftlbid | iftjdwd | 1,657,602,918 | 1,657,601,693 | 7 | 2 | One thing that I’ve done in a couple of my works is that my main character while advancing through the main plot they also have a bit of a journey of discovery. Basically it’s ok to start a bit boring because most people regard themselves that way. Often in life you’re not aware of what makes you significant until you interact with others who point out that significance. Or perhaps there are revelations in their identity or past that they were unaware of at the start of the story. Another piece of advice that im sure you’ve heard a million times, write from your experiences. Another thing that has helped me is doing in depth research of whatever setting you choose: who are the regular populations, what religions/cultures exist and interact here. Once you find out those things take care to deeply and respectfully research those elements | The everyman. Walter Mitty. Great things are done with antiheroes. | 1 | 1,225 | 3.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc0y7 | ifsfepk | 1,657,581,005 | 1,657,582,501 | 2 | 4 | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 0 | 1,496 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifsfepk | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,582,501 | 2 | 4 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Preventive apology: English is not my first language. My greatest complain when we are talking about "plain protagonists" are their total lack of ambition. Almost all the main casting in any story have some short of goal, gimmick, idiosyncrasy, or anything else, but almost always the protagonist have... Nothing. If you are making efforts for your audience to care about the actions, decisions and thoughts from your characters, the protagonist should have the most important goal, be the emotionally compromised character, or their wishes have the bigger long term consequence in your fictional world. If you find yourself writing a character living a boring, anodine life without anything worth talking about, IMO you are not writing about anyone worth to be the protagonist at all. If you believe that the other characters, friends, relatives and companions of our protagonist are more interesting that him, try to become him in a nexus capable to interconnect all the other stories. Even if, at the beginning, their personality does not bright that much, the experiences lived through the plot and the interactions with the other characters would give you, as the author, the opportunity to mold their personality to one more awesome. | 0 | 800 | 2 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9gga | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,596,188 | 1,657,581,005 | 3 | 2 | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 15,183 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ift9gga | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,596,188 | 2 | 3 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | 0 | 14,487 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ift9gga | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,596,188 | 2 | 3 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | 0 | 11,954 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ift9gga | ifsz8kc | 1,657,596,188 | 1,657,591,349 | 3 | 2 | Seems like an easy fix. Just give the protagonist role to your side character, or give your side-characters character to your protagonist. | I have this problem too. Everyone else but the actual MC has interesting situations and difficult decisions waiting for them down the road. So now I'm trying to create depth for the MC. It could be a problem that they are dealing with; maybe it hasn't happened yet but they're trying to prevent it, maybe it has already begun so they're trying to fix it. Either way, just something minor in the grand scheme of things. Then introduce that final straw that would make them snap, something that will push them into a proactive state for the rest of the story. And there you have character agency. Also, if the MC is already as complex as they are, maybe it just needs to be shown through the narrative. I experimented with switching POV depending on whose stakes are higher in a scene, it also helps to show how the MC is seen in the eyes of other characters. Sometimes that's all you need to realize that your MC already had so much on their plate, you're just too close to notice it. | 1 | 4,839 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsv9pk | ifsc0y7 | 1,657,589,573 | 1,657,581,005 | 3 | 2 | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | 1 | 8,568 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifsv9pk | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,589,573 | 2 | 3 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 0 | 7,872 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifsv9pk | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,589,573 | 2 | 3 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Flaws, flaws, flaws. My favorite protagonists are bad at something. They struggle. They have a defined point of view. If they are only a window onto the story, without a perspective they may as well be left out. | 0 | 5,339 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsc0y7 | ifsxnzt | 1,657,581,005 | 1,657,590,646 | 2 | 3 | Reading things written before can give you a good idea of how unusual or unlikeable a character can be before you go too far. If you have a brainstorming partner, maybe come up with some situational problems and see how they react to them. Real people are rarely plain in every scenario. Play some DND Stepping into someone else's setting and making bold decisions seems like useful practice! Plus, if the problem is actually that you're scared to make a bold decision, having fun with friends can help. Just some ideas good luck with your block brother. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 0 | 9,641 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsdlpn | ifsxnzt | 1,657,581,701 | 1,657,590,646 | 2 | 3 | Give them a flaw, a darker side. Something they don't want people to know but doesn't necessarily require you to rewrite your story. Maybe your main character is an alcoholic and even though they are sober now it's still always there. Or maybe they get panic attacks, have ptsd from their messed up childhood. Dark, traumatic pasts make characters more interesting and if you want a likable character then sarcasm/cynicism are great helps. Another great way is change how they dress, don't make them dress like everyone else. Have them be a bit more alternative or flashy. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 0 | 8,945 | 1.5 | ||
vwv9fd | writing_train | 0.96 | How do I stop my protagonists from being so plain? A recurring problem I've noticed is that everytime I work on a storyline with multiple characters, the "main" one always ends up being rather bland and forgettable. The problem is I've seen this in a lot of media too. I always end up finding side characters and villains far more interesting than any "main protagonist" character, and the works where the main hero is my favourite character can be counted on one hand and none spring to mind as I'm writing this. The cynical part of me presumes that it's due to focus groups and marketting reasons; executives force the work to have a character that appeals to the widest demographic. I'm sure we've all heard the complaints about every Hollywood movie or video game staring a straight white cis-man at this point. The more idealistic part of me thinks it might just be an innate side-effect of writing multiple characters. Your main hero is always going to be much more "vanilla" than the others because they're the one that'll be interacting with the rest and serve as a baseline your other characters bounce off of. The point is, because this is something I see so often, I don't actually know how to avoid it in my own projects. Does anyone have any ideas? | ifsjaam | ifsxnzt | 1,657,584,234 | 1,657,590,646 | 2 | 3 | The more relatable they are the less plain they will be. Less is more. | Sounds like your main needs a flaw | 0 | 6,412 | 1.5 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i878ghi | i877d0g | 1,652,285,590 | 1,652,285,160 | 26 | 1 | Honest answer? Write more. I have the same problem, where so many things are so cool, and I want to put my own spin on them. My suggestion is to take the disparate elements that don’t work together and give them their own space. I have a series of novels I’ve been working on, right? Most of my energy goes into working on that, but I have a lot of ideas that don’t fit in its story or the themes it’s developing. So I don’t have space for them in my novel, but what I do have is a notebook (okay, yes, *several notebooks scattered about wherever*) with ideas written out. Some have turned into their own novels or novel ideas, some have turned into short stories, and most…have never found a home. Maybe they will someday, maybe not, but getting them out of my brain onto a few pages where I have a detailed concept/synopsis also helps me refocus onto the topic I’m actually writing about. | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 430 | 26 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87khph | i879kxr | 1,652,290,230 | 1,652,286,028 | 16 | 11 | You're writing *a* story, not *all* stories. You don't have to use everything you think of all at once. | I recommend the "huge pile of crap" method. When you go about your daily life, or read or watch something, do make a note of things that strike you as cool and inspirational, but don't try to connect it, or fit it into, any particular story just stick it in the pile and let it sink to the bottom. Eventually, when the pile is big enough, it's going to start producing ideas all on its own. Something is going to connect to something else, and lead to something you forgot, and all of a sudden you have a great idea made up of all your favourite things. Neil Gaiman calls it compost. It's there fertilize the imagination and let flowers grow. | 1 | 4,202 | 1.454545 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87cphv | i87khph | 1,652,287,225 | 1,652,290,230 | 8 | 16 | So, I do this too, but in the pre-writing stage only. I’ll spend years formulating ideas for a story, taking elements from this and that as they inspire me. But once I commit to an outline and start the first draft, it’s basically locked in against any additional outside influence. | You're writing *a* story, not *all* stories. You don't have to use everything you think of all at once. | 0 | 3,005 | 2 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87jl07 | i87khph | 1,652,289,881 | 1,652,290,230 | 2 | 16 | I totally get this and it’s a big reason why one of my longest running projects has changed so much. The influence itself isn’t bad! I think you should make notes of all the things you love in a good story, because that is what will fuel you. Have a list to go to, I guess, when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, but see what you can compartmentalize: if you have an idea, think of influences that would complement the original idea, or until you have a strong concept already and are confident in writing it (and you like want to weave in subplots later), then try to filter through it as much as you can. I don’t know if that makes sense, sorry. Also for me, having a sense of story structure helps me decide what ideas will be helpful to include in a story. I’m in a stage with my current project that I’ve only finished a quarter of a very short draft (just to get a feel for the book), and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas for specific scenes that I’m putting on digital notecards and labeling, etc. to have while I’m writing the rest of the draft (keeping overall story structure in mind). | You're writing *a* story, not *all* stories. You don't have to use everything you think of all at once. | 0 | 349 | 8 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87khph | i877d0g | 1,652,290,230 | 1,652,285,160 | 16 | 1 | You're writing *a* story, not *all* stories. You don't have to use everything you think of all at once. | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 5,070 | 16 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87khph | i87947k | 1,652,290,230 | 1,652,285,849 | 16 | 1 | You're writing *a* story, not *all* stories. You don't have to use everything you think of all at once. | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 4,381 | 16 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i877d0g | i879kxr | 1,652,285,160 | 1,652,286,028 | 1 | 11 | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | I recommend the "huge pile of crap" method. When you go about your daily life, or read or watch something, do make a note of things that strike you as cool and inspirational, but don't try to connect it, or fit it into, any particular story just stick it in the pile and let it sink to the bottom. Eventually, when the pile is big enough, it's going to start producing ideas all on its own. Something is going to connect to something else, and lead to something you forgot, and all of a sudden you have a great idea made up of all your favourite things. Neil Gaiman calls it compost. It's there fertilize the imagination and let flowers grow. | 0 | 868 | 11 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87947k | i879kxr | 1,652,285,849 | 1,652,286,028 | 1 | 11 | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | I recommend the "huge pile of crap" method. When you go about your daily life, or read or watch something, do make a note of things that strike you as cool and inspirational, but don't try to connect it, or fit it into, any particular story just stick it in the pile and let it sink to the bottom. Eventually, when the pile is big enough, it's going to start producing ideas all on its own. Something is going to connect to something else, and lead to something you forgot, and all of a sudden you have a great idea made up of all your favourite things. Neil Gaiman calls it compost. It's there fertilize the imagination and let flowers grow. | 0 | 179 | 11 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87cphv | i877d0g | 1,652,287,225 | 1,652,285,160 | 8 | 1 | So, I do this too, but in the pre-writing stage only. I’ll spend years formulating ideas for a story, taking elements from this and that as they inspire me. But once I commit to an outline and start the first draft, it’s basically locked in against any additional outside influence. | You have a lot going on, but it all means a lot to you. So, get it all down and try to make it into a cohesive story. | 1 | 2,065 | 8 | ||
und52d | writing_train | 0.82 | how to stop adding so many elements to my story and being influenced by literally everthing ? yeah i know a weird question, and very contradictory too, because we do need to be influenced and inspired by many pieces of media and writers to have richier writing skills, but man my adhd makes things so complicated and i just go overdrive and keep adding so many elements from other shows, games, anime, etc that i like into my story that in the end of the day is just an amalgamation of plot threads that barely complement each other and my original idea is nowhere to be found. so a few years ago i saw an interview with the creators of back to the future and they explained their writing process, they will have an overall story/pitch and come up with random scenes, characters, plot lines, put it all on a board and try to connect those loose elements into a narrative, or something like that, it has being a while, so i decided to start using this writting style as i often come up with a random scenery in mind and work around it, but that´s the problem i´m very influenced by things that i like and want to add their elements to my story but end up making a mess and loosing my original idea along the way, here´s an example: so let´s say that i want to write a medieval fantasy novel, okay i came up with some characters and individual scenes that i think are very cool, so far so good, let´s see what else i can add... \*watches attack on titan \- oh militarism and giant monsters would be cool \*watches encanto \- intergenerational trauma and powers ugh ? neat \*watcher mandela catalogue \- yeah the story needs evil doppelgängers \*watches jojo´s bizarre adventure \-fashion and ghost powers to the list baby and so on and so forth, and when i notice my original idea and scenaries that i was so fond are nowhere to be found because i changed the story and genre so much to conform to those elements, is unique now that´s for sure but is so much complicated and things don´t make sense, when i try to go back to the beginning and see what plot threads can stay and go i end up getting anxious and just abandon the project all togheter, so does anyone have some advices on how to focus more and to stop adding so much things ? | i87cphv | i87947k | 1,652,287,225 | 1,652,285,849 | 8 | 1 | So, I do this too, but in the pre-writing stage only. I’ll spend years formulating ideas for a story, taking elements from this and that as they inspire me. But once I commit to an outline and start the first draft, it’s basically locked in against any additional outside influence. | Don’t overthink it. Take the elements that you like, and make a chapter out of each one that highlights a significant piece of the story and that element. A chapter should be able to stand on its own as a solid chunk of entertainment, and so this would be like if the element was the chapter’s “main star” so to speak. Thereafter, smaller recurrences of those elements peppered into other chapters will resonate amplified by its starring chapter | 1 | 1,376 | 8 |
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