My first post about my personal rules for what makes writing -- whether it be games, movies, stories, etc. -- good or bad did really well, and a lot of people seemed to think I had good advice, and good points.

Well, of course I'm going to take a chance of mucking all that up by adding more!

Honestly, this is something I've been meaning to add for a while now. I've been reading a lot, and occasionally I'll come across something that will just make me say "that's not right...." and I'll set it aside in my head for inclusion in one of these. It's been a long time coming, and this is FAR from all the nit-picks I've got, but I figure five at a time is more than enough for most people to deal with, so here we go!

Keep in mind that these are just MY rules. Yours may vary, and that's perfectly fine: not everyone has the same tastes or goals with what they produce/read.

6. Overpowered Character Is Overpowered

Let's start with the one that actually comes from a recommendation made on the last post I did of these. Overpowered characters can be a big problem in stories, and is an all-too-common occurrence nowadays. You see this most in action movies/books/games, where a character's abilities continue to improve to the point where the only way to give them any kind of challenge to overcome it to amp up their opponents to obscene levels. This is most often seen in the form of actual physical capabilities, but the disease stretches to other areas as well. Too much money, too much intelligence, just plain too much luck, all of these are examples of times when a little forethought and planning for the long-term can go a long way to giving your story a lot more freedom to explore different aspects of your characters and their capabilities.

A character doesn't have to be the strongest, or the smartest, or the most creative or anything like that. In fact, the best characters are often none of these things. Instead, great characters are never the ones who are the best at anything, but instead are the ones who apply what they can do to the best of their abilities. I would go so far as to say that, for a main character, or any major character, the best strengths lie in a character's weaknesses, and what they must do not to overcome those weaknesses, but to work with them.

Let's have an example, shall we? For a popular example of What Not To Do, take a look at the ever-so-popular anime series Dragonball Z. Goku's stairsteps in power -- and the enemies who always show up immediately after who are yet more powerful -- perfectly exemplify why building a story based on what a character can do rather than who they are will always come back to bite you in the bud. Characters in Dragonball Z aren't, well, characters: they're sports teams, at least in the way they work. The series foregoes silly notions like balance or plot in exchange for always trying to one up everything done before.

This, my friends, is very poor management of characters (not that the series has much in the way of those to begin with.) Anime has a lot of examples of this kind of faulty progression, and it all boils down to relying on a character's "whats" rather than their "whos."

7. Accuracy Is Less Important Than Character

Yep, you heard me right: when it comes to storytelling sometimes it's less important to have all the details of a world correct than it is to portray a character well. This is also a bit of a personal condemnation of stories that claim to be romances or character-driven stories then spend more time focused on world details than they do on who those characters are in that world.

A big example of this is historical novels and movies. It's very easy when constructing such things to get caught up in the mindset that absolute accuracy in one's portrayal of the time period or behaviors of the day is necessary in order to make your story successful. In truth, though, let's face it: nine out of ten members of your audience aren't going to care whether you understand the details of middle-age sewage management or not if your characters end up falling flat or relying too heavily on the world to create them rather than letting them create their world.

When it comes time to make interesting and relevant characters, it's okay to fudge the rules of a setting or even historical details. This is the reason so many biopics are based on the true story of a person rather than completely faithful retellings: because it allows the characters to be made more sympathetic or likeable if you see Ray with his long-time wife at the end rather than watch the destruction of their relationship, for instance. Also applicable to fantasy novels, wherein the sewage example used above is a very strong point to be made in many cases.

Settings are important, and can even be the main drive of a story. But, when a story's focus is characters, then let the characters come first.

8. You Can Be Your Own Worst Enemy

There are two ways this rule applies: one way for authors, and one way for characters. We'll start by tackling the author side of the issue, then move on to characters.

As an author, it's easy to be your own worst enemy. Perhaps you overanalyze what you write. Perhaps you don't analyze it enough. Maybe you feel that your story is strong enough that punctuation/grammar/syntax are merely details, easily thrown to the side. Then again, you might just edit your story to the point that, while technically perfect, it loses all sense of personality as your quirks and idiosyncracies are removed.

It's important to find a balance between these methods. Ideas are important, but so is conveying them clearly. Likewise having a grasp of what message you want to send with a story and are sending with it is equally important, but that doesn't mean that every word has to be carefully considered and weighted for maximum impact. Writing has two parts: the organic and the academic. As a writer, you need to be able to make use of both parts to tell an effective, personal, and most of all entertaining story. Too much of one or the other will almost always leave your work deficient in some way.

Now, how does this also apply to characters? Well, in two ways. The first way is essentially an extension of the above criteria, in that it's very easy to destroy a story by inclusion of an overly introspective or genre-savvy character. Sometimes these characters can be fun or necessary, but oftentimes they do more to showcase the flaws in a story's structure or plot than they do to provide plot development.

The second way this can be applied is the more interesting of the two, and could (and probably should) be a section on its own, and that's this: sometimes the best antagonist you can have in a story is your own protagonist.

People are dynamic, and rarely if ever do they exemplify only one -- or even only two or three -- personality traits or behaviors. People can be hypocrites, they can be indecisive, they can be fickle. These are great elements to use to provide conflict within a story, since they can allow an author a lot of freedom in terms of overall narrative while, at the same time, allowing them to keep a narrower focus on deeper characters, if not as many.

Examples here would include the fervently dedicated religious figure who faces a moral dilemma when their church or faith conflicts with their own feelings, or the abused but headstrong character who struggles to overcome their own self-sabotaging ways. Such characters can prove to be both their story's hero and villain, since external actions and overall narrative can be used as a focus for how their internal conflicts influence or are influenced by their actions in and with the world around them.

9. Own Your Happy Accidents

Greatness can sometimes come from an unexpected, even accidental, source. As an author, it is important to learn to recognize these situations when they happen, and to embrace the wonderful things that can come of them.

Personally, this is one of my favorite rules to embrace, simply because it's one of the best ways to add depth and dynamicity (real word? Well it is now!) to a story simply by letting the story's details write themselves. Ruby was never meant to become a major character in my Princess For Hire stories, yet as I wrote them she became far more important than I'd ever imagined, providing a convenient mirror off which to play Beck's own views and feelings.

Sometimes entire stories can erupt from these happy accidents. A misplaced word, or a bit of dialogue that doesn't fit in-character but is too good to lose; these can be the impetus for entirely new ideas, at times more successful ideas than the source itself!

So, always be on the look out for that little detail, that nibble of background or character personality you just happened to throw in, that can, perhaps, become something much more. Often times, these will be the details that matter the most, and provide the longest-lasting impressions on your readers if you learn to use them well.

10. Criticism Is Constructive

Nobody likes being told they've done something badly. Nobody likes being told they're wrong. Nobody likes being made a fool of, or being corrected in general.

You know what, though? No matter how negative it might be, criticism is almost always constructive in some way, and learning to use that criticism is probably the single most valuable skill an author can have.

I see a lot of new and experienced authors alike on the site who treat every negative response or criticism they receive on their works as personal attacks. Sometimes they are. As a writer, though, it is our duty to look at and consider the experience others have had with our work, and think about how we can take that experience into account when working on future stories or even the development of the story at hand. You might not always agree with a criticism you receive, but understanding why someone would give you that criticism can help you grow as an author anyway by giving you greater insight into who reads your work and why.

Nothing is above criticism: not writing style, not spelling, not story content. Embrace what criticism you receive, and use that to improve yourself, whether the person who supplied that criticism intended for it to be used that way or not, and be sure to keep in mind that most of the time that IS why someone criticizes your work, not out of a desire to hurt or offend you, but out of a desire to either help you improve or be a part of the story.

When in doubt, always remember that criticisms only come from people who have felt your work impactful enough TO criticize, and use that to inspire yourself to keep aiming to be impactful. There's nothing wrong with needing to improve your spelling or syntax, since both things can be improved with time. Storytelling ability, likewise, improves with practice. So long as you have that spark, that idea that they find enticing enough to be worth talking about, you can use what they say to improve everything else.

--That's it!--

I've been trying to write this follow-up article since only a couple of months after I wrote the original. I hope that these recommendations and bits of advice prove helpful to some people here.

I'm not the greatest writer ever. I'm not the greatest writer on BC, even, not by far. But, I HAVE been a part of the TG writing community for about ten years now, and in that time these are some of the things I've learned, both through my own writing and reading the work of others. Your mileage may vary, but I consider all of these rules worth reading, worth considering, and worth sharing.

Thank you for your time.

Melanie E.