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When writing stories such as scify and such do we sometimes put in so many rules about ones character that we end up bogging ourselves down with said rules for the sake of the story?
By this I mean as we begin to formulate the story we put in some rules that we don't want to break, which is understandable. But when you put in to many rules does it seem to take the fun away from the writing that you decide to give it up or perhaps revamp the rules so that you have a bit more flexibility?
One example is a character that I was working on. I re-looked at him and why I haven't touched the story for over a year. Re-looking at my worksheet on what he could or couldn't due I found that the rules I was implementing was turning me off of the story. Yes he could be a John or Mary but I think in reality no matter how hard we try we will always have some form of Mary Sue or John due to the nature of writing.
There are those that complain about any character being a Mary Sue or John to some extent. It cannot be helped. I think its more of a prevalence on our determination of our character that determines how much of a Superman/Superwoman we're going to make.
Yes we can still dig ourselves into a corner and that to me is when a writer ends up bring out a Mary Sue to help get them out of the situation so he/she breaks the rules to fix their error.
But back to my original question. Do we bog ourselves down with unrealistic rules when writing that it takes the fun away?
Ibi
Comments
A suggestion.
A good way to avoid mary sues and martin sues, is to study those people in your daily life.
If you write characters in the boundaries of people you know in real life. Their personalities, their histories, their hobbies. It will help you prevent such problems, because you can point out that you know someone in real life with similar traits.
And I am not saying copy people, but borrow traits. And mix and match those traits to create you characters in your stories.
Personally, I like to write about crazy people because I know a number of questionably sane people in my life.
I hope this helps.
Too Many Rules?
It's possible that you have an instinctive vision for the character, and the rules don't fit the character. Try striking out some of the rules, or even forgetting about them. Maybe at some point, the character will try to take over -- or your mind thinks as if the character's trying to take over. Let him. I don't mean take over the story, but rather take over his own behavior.
There's always revision later -- unless you post parts as you write them, rather than waiting to complete the story.
You want your protagonist to marry the handsome prince? Maybe she doesn't want to.
Also, there's the perspiration part of writing, where you have to force yourself to write something. You have to fill in the gaps, or add the appropriate dialog, or something. It's probably similar to post-production in movies: you have bits and pieces to fill in. Nothing particularly creative, so the second-unit with its own noname director does the job.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
Rules? Wot rules?
My characters always start with a blank sheet of paper, and they tell me about themselves by showing me what to write.
If I'm surprised by what my characters suddenly do, then hopefully my readers will be just as surprised.