Rani Divine's Blog, page 33

*shrugs*

Well, we’ve reached the end of our week on clichéd male characters that you really ought to avoid, and I have one more guy I really want to talk to you about. And I’m going to be honest here. He’s in some of my favorite books. But that’s not enough for me to recommend writing him. In fact, that’s part of the reason why I recommend avoiding him entirely.
The Average Joe Who Does Amazing Things
Who is he, you ask?
Funny you should ask!
The Average Joe Who Does Amazing Things is… just that. He’s the most normal guy you’ve ever met, until he turns around and you realize that he’s really not normal at all. He’s awesome. And he can do anything and everything. How freaking cool is that?
How entirely overdone is that?
I’m going to use Neo from the Matrix as my primary example here. He’s the average joe, until he exits the matrix and finds out that he’s this super awesome guy who can and will do everything. That makes him really cool, except that he’s still really struggling to be normal, which makes his character fall apart by the end of the series. (I know, I know, that series fell apart for far too many reasons)
Okay, but like I said, one of my favorite series’ contains this character! So it has to be okay to write him sometimes, right? Let’s check:
Why should we read him? What’s his purpose in life? What is his draw, for the reader?
See, this is where the pros of the character really begin to fall apart. This character has been done, a lot, and done very well. So if you’re going to do him, like I’ve been saying all week, you need to find a new way to do it, a way that's not going to be the exact same character we've all read a million times.
Why? Because readers need a reason to read him, and we don’t always want to read the same character. In fact, most of us these days are looking for something new.
So maybe your version of this guy is different, maybe he is utterly unique, and in that case, I say go for it. But if he falls into the serious cliché category, it might be time to look for someone new, or to modify him to the point that he's no longer so overdone. 
Generally, I’d say find someone new. And for you, I have someone very special in mind. To be revealed, next Friday.
Woo!
[love]
{Rani Divine}
p.s. Don't forget to hop over to the RAD Blog today to check out a never-before-released excerpt from my next novel, Dwr: People in the Water! Preorders open April 1!

*pulls out credit card*

What did you guys think of the smart/sexy guy? Have you thought of some characters who fit the bill? I keep finding them, especially since I wrote the post about him. But I’ve found even more of this guy, who we’re about to talk about. Sheesh, seriously, I see him everywhere now.

You’ll know a few off the top of your heads, I’m sure.
The Guy Who has it All
Know who I’m talking about? The first ones that come to mind are comic book characters, if I’m being honest. And I think that might have been where the cliché really grew in popularity, but at this point, he’s just getting so overused and overdone.
Who is he, you ask?
Well, he’s just what it sounds like he is. He’s the man who literally has everything. He’s the rich guy who no one ever says no to, the guy no one can refuse because he literally has everything, and if he doesn’t have it, he’s going to get it. Oh, and most of the time he's also very attractive. Very.
Think of him like Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne. They have everything, to the point that you wouldn’t even know what to get them for Christmas, and they can’t possibly keep a girlfriend because they have such a dependency on their stuff that they don’t know what to do with anything else. (Yeah, I just said that about Bruce and Tony.)
He’s a problem character, if you ask me, and one that’s very overdone, these days.
So let’s look at how we can tell, if our characters are too much like the cliché:
Why should we read him? What’s his purpose in life? What is his draw, for the reader?
Again, as always, he really has to have a reason for being the way he is. There needs to be something that redeems him, something that makes him real. Because as he is, he’s not very realistic. He just isn’t.
I know, I know, there are rich people out there. But we can’t all be writing about them now, can we? And we really shouldn’t. Because there are so many of the Guy-Who-has-it-All out there, he’s getting a little old to most readers. We all know Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. We know the type. We know what he's about. And that makes him a little boring.
So if you’re going to use him, you need to have something about him that makes him utterly unique, that makes him different from all the others of his type, and something that will make your readers actually want to read him.
And that’s really hard to do, which is why I don’t recommend writing him at all. 

Fortunately for you, next week I have someone else to tell you about, someone who'll be much better for you in the long run. 
[love]
{Rani Divine}

*puts on glasses*

Once again this week, we’re back to the clichéd characters that I think it’s time to stop using. Well, okay, you can use them, but you should really make minor characters of them, or work it out that they're not as clichéd. If you’re using these guys as primary characters, in the way most everyone uses them… you may wish to reconsider.
Today, our first male character!
The Smart and Sexy Guy
I see this guy all the time, in more movies and novels than I really care to think about. Seriously. If ever there’s a scientist man, he’s nearly always attractive. Even Leonard from Big Bang Theory, once you get him to stop acting awkward, yeah, that guy’s nice looking.
First off, as always, who is he?
Well, he’s just what you think he is. He’s the guy who’s incredibly smart, and yet somehow unbelievably attractive as well. He’s the character that every woman is going to fall for, once they get to know him, because he's both beautiful and smart, which is what most female characters are looking for. He’s also the one that a lot of female readers honestly really like, because these days we really want our men to be smart—but we also want them to be sexy.
The trouble is, because he’s both smart and sexy, he tends to lose something in the realm of realism. He’s too much of too many good things, if you know what I mean. He has everything. Beauty and brains, and usually brawn. So his flaws tend to be contrived and boring, when it comes right down to it. 
I can nearly guarantee by now that you know at least a few characters who fit this bill.
But there’s still some more questions we should ask ourselves, to find out whether or not our character is actually okay, or cliché:
Why should we read him? What’s his purpose in life? What is his draw, for the reader?
If your character has a real purpose, if he has a draw to him, then you might be okay. Indiana Jones, for instance, is the traditional smart and sexy character, but he’s also really funny and semi-aloof, which makes it almost work. But he’s still a cliché. Yes, I just said that.
Your character has to have something that makes him real, like Indiana’s humor. He needs to be someone who’s smart in perhaps one or two topics, but not in everything. Because, remember, he’s a real person—and most real people do not know everything about everything.
So, yeah, sometimes he’s usable. But I think he’s overdone, and I think there’s somebody better, who you can put to better use. I’ll tell you about him next Monday.
[love]
{Rani D.}

*glances in mirror*

This week has been fun, hasn’t it? I’ve really been enjoying this series, as I’m sure you all can tell. It’s really a joy to talk about characters, especially while I’m playing around with some new novel ideas.
So.
This week we’ve talked about the Dainty Girl and the Balanced Woman, two characters who define realism in writing, but today we’re going to talk about a character who I’ve really only ever seen in a few stories, and one who I wish would pop up more often, cause she’s a lot of fun to write.
The Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want)
Remember last week, I talked about the Vanilla Girl (who everyone still seems to want)? Well, this is her opposite, or perhaps, who she should really be.
And who is she, you ask?
Well, the Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want) is just that. See, the vanilla girl is plain. She’s the plainest of them all, to the point that she doesn’t even make sense because even she can’t see anything remarkable in herself. Boring. The real woman isn’t like that. Sure, she might be a little plain, but she has some redeeming quality.
Take Eliza, from Pride and Prejudice. She’s described I don’t know how many times as being plain, but she has a few things going for her (like her fine eyes, and wit), and she knows it. 
That, my friends, is how a lot of women are.
I don’t know why, but a good portion of us consider ourselves plain, even though we aren’t, but we do consider one or two of our features as being remarkable. Me, when I was younger, I always thought I was the plainest girl of them all, but that my eyes were stunning. I had a friend who thought she couldn’t get any plainer, but that her bum was quite lovely. Another said she had nice legs, but that was it. We just do that, for some reason, and that’s what the Real Woman is.
At that point…
Why should we read her? What’s her main purpose in life? What is her draw, for the reader?
Personally, I believe that we should read her, and that we should write her, so women understand that they’re not the only ones who do this. I believe readers enjoy her because they relate to her, because we’ve all been there, where someone has called us boring to look at, but we remind ourselves of the thing we have going for us.
Her purpose is to shed light on that, on the reality of things around her, on the reality of her self-image. And that, I think, is her draw. That’s what the world has been talking about lately, when it comes to women and their image of themselves.
So why not write her, why not read her, and remind ourselves that we might not be as plain as we think?
Next week, my friends, we discuss some male characters. I’m looking forward to it!
[love]
{Rani Divine}

*stands straight*

All right, so last week we talked all about the Strong Woman. And as I’m sure you could tell, I get very annoyed by how often that character is portrayed. (Click Here if you haven’t read that post yet – you’ll want to, trust me)
See, the Strong Woman is overdone. She’s everywhere. And really, she’s not realistic at all. Which is what bothers me about her. She’s one note, strong and only strong, and it’s better that we have someone like…
The Balanced Woman
Okay, so it’s no superhero name, but hear me out.
Who is she?
The balanced woman is a real woman. She’s strong in some senses, and weak in others. I like to think of her as a business woman with a husband and kids (although that’s usually not her role, I’m just going to use it as an example). She’s fully capable of getting up in the morning and making sure the kids are ready to go to school, of going to work and doing her job despite the stress of it all, and coming home and being vulnerable with the man she loves.
She’s balanced. She’s well rounded. She struggles sometimes, because we all struggle sometimes. She allows herself to be silly and slightly insane from time to time, and she never thinks twice about being herself in front of the people she loves.   So now that we have the basics out of the way, here are our other three questions, for consideration:
Why should we read her? What’s her main purpose in life? What is her draw, for the reader?
In my experience, people like to read the balanced woman because she’s normal. She’s a real person, and not an ideal. Women especially are drawn to her because we don’t feel like she’s something we would have to struggle to attain. She’s reachable, she’s relatable, she’s understandable. Men are drawn to her because she's lovely in her own way, without being the perfectly always perfect woman.
And that’s a big draw, for the majority of readers. 

The balanced woman, unlike the strong woman, is real. She’s not an unattainable thing, an ideal that male authors seem to strive for in their female characters, while women look on and wish they could be those characters.
No, the balanced woman is what women really are, deep down. And that's what makes her a really good character to use.

[love]
{RD}

*cutesy smile*

Happy Monday! This week, I believe, is bound to be full of new and wondrous things. As many of you know, I completed the final novel in the Druid series last week, which means this week is a lesson in finding something new to write. And it’s been a great many years since I’ve really done that, let me tell you. (don't worry though, Dwr is only the third in the series, and I've just finished the sixth)
But even though I’ve now completed my fifteenth full-length novel, there are still a lot of things I have yet to learn. Especially about characters.
Last week, if you recall, we talked about the girly girl, as our first point. Click Here if you never read it. You’ll want to catch up.
And now, I present to you, the character I think you should replace your girly girl with:
The Dainty Girl
Who is she, you ask?
Well fancy that, because it’s the first question we wanted to look at anyway.
The dainty girl is the cousin of the girly girl. They’re similar, but the dainty girl, I believe, is more well-rounded and far more real, at least in terms of relatability. She’s a girl who’s girly in some ways, but really, she’s just cute and dainty.
She’s probably one of those girls who keeps her voice a little quieter and a little higher-pitched, but not enough to annoy. She walks at a slower pace, and she observes the world through eyes of innocence, because she’s so darn dainty that she couldn’t be anything but innocent, could she?
And that’s where the fun comes in.
Here are our last three questions, to keep you on track with the discussion:
Why should we read her? What’s her main purpose in life? What is her draw, for the reader?
See, the thing about the dainty girl is that she’s not as obvious as the girly girl. The reader doesn’t always know right away, what she’s about and what she’s going to be like. Because the girly girl is always just that, girly. But the dainty girl is dainty in varying ways, depending on the character.
We like to read her because she’s interesting and cute, the sort of person many of us are drawn to in real life. She draws us in by the fact of her being gentle and innocent, even if that’s not what she is on the inside.
Often enough, for the dainty girl, that’s all we need.
And that’s why I recommend blending her into your story in place of the girly girl, to make your character stand out much better, and make your character less of a cliché. 
Dainty > Girly. 
[love]
{Rani D.}

*sits down*

Well, we’ve made it to the end of the week. Blissfully, if you ask me. The last few weeks have been longer than I expected, and I’m so ready for the weekend. Even though I’ll still be working over the weekend, because I enjoy what I do just that much.
Yeah, maybe I’m weird.
Today, as the last post of the week, I’d like to talk to you about the other most common of female characters, the one who shows up in more romance novels than I can count, and more science fiction novels than you’d think possible. She’s the girl who every woman thought she would grow up to be, because most of us really didn’t think we were all that cool, deep down inside.
Nope, we thought we were…
#3: The vanilla girl (that everyone still seems to want)
I guarantee you know who she is, don’t you? But we’ll still start out with the first question of the hour:
Who is she?
Well, she’s the plain jane, the average joe, the girl just walking down the street who just so happens to catch the eye of every single man who passes her by, even though she’s not much to look at. Why? Because they all think she’s gorgeous, even though the writer described her as one of the plainest people known to mankind, someone who wouldn’t get noticed by anyone, for any reason.
And yeah, that’s why I think she’s overdone. 
She's too plain. She's plain to the point of being obviously plain, which makes her not plain at all — and not very real, if you ask me. 
But here’s those last three questions, just to get your head in the right place:
Why should we read her? What’s her main purpose in life? What is her draw, for the reader?
See, it’s hard to really find a reason to read her, isn’t it? Because she doesn’t make any sense. She usually has nothing about her that really makes her interesting. She’s very normal, just like we imagine everyone else to be. Nothing special, nothing unique in the slightest. And yet we write her all the time, because we don’t know who else to write. 
She's the girl that many young women thought they would grow up to be, yes, but you know what? She's not what most of them actually grew up to be. And realistically, most of us don't catch the eye of everyone who walks past us. That's normal. That's life. That's real. 
The vanilla girl, if you ask me, is not real at all. 
But fortunately for you, I have someone else to take her place. You’ll meet her next week. 
[love]
{Rani Divine}

*bicep flex*

Happy Wednesday, everyone!
I hope you’re excited to see where this series takes us—I know I certainly am. There’s a lot for us to discover, when it comes to character creation. None of us ever get it perfect, but I really believe it's a lot of fun to try. People are just so complex...
So today, here’s another common character you really ought to think through, before you include her in your story: (you guessed it: I'm focusing on female characters this week... and I honestly didn't intend for it to coincide with women's day. Didn't even know that was a thing, and I'm a woman.)
#2: The Strong Woman
If the girly girl is everywhere, then the strong woman is her sister. She’s everywhere too, even in reviews. And some people will tell you that she’s the character you should be making, when you make female characters. Why? Because for some unknown reason, it’s the only things most people can think of that makes a good female character.
Well, I think that’s bunk. It’s dumb. It’s stupid. Don’t believe what they tell you.
Women don’t always have to be strong, to be a good character. Women aren't just strong. Sometimes we're weak. Sometimes we struggle. Sometimes we're annoying. Know why? 'Cause we're people. 
Digressing again, aren't I?
All right, so let’s look a little deeper into this character...
Who is she?
Well, the strong woman is Arwen from the Lord of the Rings movies. She’s Katnis from the Hunger Games, and Jean from X-Men. (I'll admit it right now, I've never read the Hunger Games, so forgive me if I lumped her in the wrong place). 
She’s the woman who’s one note, strong, and that’s it. She doesn’t know how to be anything else, doesn’t know how to exist as anything else. All she is, is strong. And she's the main type of female character you'll ever see on the big screen, because she's what a lot of writers think of as a good female character.
She stands up for a fight, she puts up with nothing, and she deals with everything in stride.
And you know what? Sometimes, she can be really boring, and very overdone.
So here’s those last three questions, for our consideration:
Why should we read her? What’s her draw, for the reader? What’s her main purpose, within the story?
And you have to think through each of those, in order to make a strong woman that we actually want to read. Because she’s done in every other book, we really have to work hard with her, to make her into something dynamic and interesting—and these questions will really help with that. 
We need to have a reason why she's strong, something that defines her as more than just strong. Readers need to feel a draw to her, something that pulls them in time and time again. And she has to have a purpose, other than just being strong when nobody thinks she can be. 
Why? Because real people are dynamic, and our characters long to be real. 
If you ask me, there’s another character who will work a lot better for you. I’ll tell you about her next Wednesday.
Yeah, I’ll be leaving you hanging a lot this week. It’ll be worth it, trust me.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

*hair flip*

Welcome back, to Too Many Books to Count!! Today is the day I’m sure you’ve all been extra excited for, as today is the day when we finally start this month’s series. Woo! It’s a series unlike most everything I’ve done before, and I hope to give you some pointers along the way, within it. Though really, that’s my usual goal here, isn’t it?
One thing we, as writers, really need to be good at is the creation of characters. But that’s also one of the hardest things that we’ll ever have to learn, when it comes to writing in general.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about this month. It’s all about characters, and how to make ones that aren’t the same as every other out there.
First up, this week I’m going to describe for you three of the most common characters I’ve noticed in today's books, and ones that I’ve honestly grown tired of, for how often I’ve read them.
#1: The Girly Girl
Oy, she’s everywhere, isn’t she? I’m sure most of you are tired of her as well. She’s in nearly every movie, and in far too many books. She’s either there as the main character, as the sidekick, or as a minor character, and you know what? She’s not very realistic.
But that’s not what we’re talking about today.
Today, we’re going to talk about the girly girl, and how to recognize when you’re writing her.
Who is she?
She’s just what it sounds like. She’s the character who’s unbelievably girly, who literally does every single girly thing under the sun. She always wears skirts, she does her makeup perfectly every morning, she wears heels and giggles whenever she’s around the guy she likes.
Okay, maybe she’s not that bad, but you get my gist. She's so girly that it's hard to forget she's a girl, and really, we want our readers to think of her as a person. Not just a girl.
Now, here’s the part you really need to pay attention to, the questions I’d like you to ask yourself, when you think you might be writing the girly girl:
Why should we, your audience, read her? What’s her draw, for us? What's her main purpose, in the story?
These are the questions you need to ask yourself, in order to determine if you’ve written a real girly girl, or a female character who’s far too girly for the story.
See, it’s okay to have a girly girl. It really is. Some girls really are extremely girly. But for a story, she has to have a good reason for being that girly. And if she doesn't, you might just have fallen into a character cliche.
Maybe we read her because she’s somehow compelling, beyond the girlishness. Maybe her draw is that she doesn’t really know who she is, and that she’s girly because she doesn’t know another way to be. And maybe her main purpose is to learn about herself, and discover who she really is. You have lots of different ways you can spin her girlishness into a positive, if you do it right.
But if you can’t give a solid answer to even one of those questions, then you may have a problem.
Check back next Monday for my advice on how to fix it. 
Yup, I'm making you wait a whole week. Don't worry though, I'll still be here on Wednesday, with another character type to help you watch out for. 
[love]
{Rani D.}

CM

Hey, it’s Friday! That’s cool. It also means that I only have one cool thing left to talk to you guys about, before we start up on our next series.
I realize now that that make it sound like our next series isn’t cool, which isn’t true. I’m super excited for the next series, and I’ve really just been biding my time through this week so I can start on it. I think you’re really going to like it, especially since I’ve had so much fun putting it together. No, I’m still not going to tell you what it is yet. :)
For now, let’s look at the last “cool thing” I want to talk about this week. It’s a website, where I probably have way too much fun.
This one, my friends, is for the creatives as a whole, maybe more for the graphic designers. Maybe. We’ll see.
Creative Market
It’s a website. Feel free to click the link and check it out. It’s where I get a lot of inspiration for what I want to do with Mavguard, and where RAD Writing has found a lot of the details that we use in Mavguard and on book covers. Yup, I’m telling you a trick of the trade.
The really fun thing is, Creative Market usually has fun free things every week or two. So if you’re a hoarder of fun graphic design stuff, fonts, and backgrounds, this is the place for you.
As an author, I’ve found it very helpful for me, to get an idea of what my book covers might look like. I can look up professional pictures, not just the usual drivel that’s all over Google, and find something really cool that’s very exemplary of my work. If you’re working with a publisher, a lot of them really appreciate it when their authors come to them with a cover design idea, as long as it’s something more professional like this.
Really, it’s just a fun site where I get a lot of creative ideas and get to play around with things I wouldn’t normally see. Maybe not super useful for a lot of you, but also hopefully of great use to several more of you! Their prices are great for nearly everything, and their terms are amazing even if you’re wanting to use their stuff for commercial purposes.
Perfect, for the authors out there.
Check it out, at the very least. Give it a look and see if you have as much fun with it as me.
My friends, enjoy your weekend, and look forward to our new blog series, starting on Monday!
[love]
{Rani Divine}