Comments on: Want to be a Guest Writer?

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:11:47 +0000

Sorry on the article stall. I should have it up this week.

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:39:43 +0000

iv sent it

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:35:49 +0000

I can’t guarantee I will run it, but I’m not sure without seeing it.

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:52:48 +0000

hey B.mac i was thinking i could try and wrigt an articel on doing backstorys for none superhero chraters what you think?

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:00:33 +0000

No. The program I’m working in offers a chance to win a new computer. I think I’m pretty good in the running to win, too. Wish me luck.

“Hey RB, how’s your peice on writing about clothes designs and such going?”

As for the article, I’m still tweaking it. I think it’s good, though. I’m thinking of doing a general article and then a more specific one to easier organize the information. Because I’m never usually on the the same computer it may be a while before I can send it. But I think I can have it up by next week.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:57:56 +0000

Pardon? I can’t even afford to buy a new computer for myself, let alone anybody else at this point.

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:52:07 +0000

B. Mac offered to buy you a new computer? If it wasn’t him it was his evil twin, Big Mac.

Mmmmm, Big Macs.

By: Wings

Wings — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:45:45 +0000

Sigh…I’d love to do this, but I’m still locked in my Wings-sized birdcage with no actual computer. Curses.

- Wings

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:18:48 +0000

I'll let Tom take first crack at this, but if I were doing an article on something like "using yourself without creating self-insert characters," I'd recommend tips like the following.
1. Give the character a defining flaw that bothers you. That'll help create authorial distance.
2. If a character HAS to have a job similar to the one you have or want, please have him perform the job in a way you do not approve of. For example, a purely awesome/commendable journalist would be pretty boring in one of my books, because that character would obviously be a stand-in for me. In contrast, if he were incompetent or shady or otherwise flawed (like the protagonist of Transmetropolitan), he'll feel like a real character and not like the author.
3. If there's any romance involved, please give the character a lot of romantic obstacles. Part of the awfulness of Twilight was that it feels like the author wrote a book about herself being the heartthrob of pretty much every major guy in the story. That's pathetic. If the character gets too close to home, I'd recommend giving him more substantial romantic obstacles. Make him work to win the love-interest. Give him flaws that he has to overcome. Etc.
4. DO NOT USE ANY MENTAL ILLNESSES YOU HAVE. Unless you're doing nonfiction, I think this is more or less inexcusable. It's very, very hard for someone that has a mental illness to empathize with how the audience will react to a character with that illness. One recurring problem is that audience members tend to be less sympathetic to the rationale/excuse that the mental illness justifies unheroic behavior. Also, using any mental illnesses you have will probably make any criticism of the character feel more personal than it should.
5. If a character has a defining trait that you identify very strongly with, give it a different spin or origin. For example, I'm pretty clever at solving literary problems, and any clever editor I wrote would probably sound a lot like me. But a clever engineer or doctor would probably feel very different. I'm pretty competitive, which derives from an almost manic self-confidence. But I could make a competitive character feel distinct by giving it a different origin. Perhaps he comes from a place where competition is the only way to survive. Or perhaps he has major issues with his parents and wants to make them proud, etc.
6. Let him make mistakes. Every major character should. If you are too bothered by concerns like "but I wouldn't make a mistake like that!", you are probably too close to the character.
7. Bottom line, you're probably not as interesting to us as you are to yourself. If you really are so interesting that people would want to read about a character that is essentially you, why not just write an autobiography?

By: David

David — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:33:56 +0000

hey RB hows ur peice on writeing about cloths dezines and such going?

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:28:08 +0000

Yeah, you’re probably right about the self-inserts, Marissa. I was being facetious, anyway. Although, I’d say so far Adrian’s doing pretty well, despite being what he is. I avoid Mary Sue-isms as much as possible. In fact, Adrian’s going to get a pretty bad punishment for skipping school to search for aliens. No free passes for you, little mister insert.

By: Marissa

Marissa — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:49:44 +0000

Self-inserts are bad enough that an article on doing them correctly might cause more problems than it would solve.

I think that self-inserts should be avoided, just like Mary Sues or mirror-appearance scenes.

It’s possible to draw on one’s own experiences to write a character, but once it becomes a self-insert, that suggests it’s crossed a line. The 1% of successful self-inserts that might come out of any such article are not even close to a match for the 99% that will say “SEE, I FOLLOWED THIS ADVICE SO MY SELF INSERT IS FINE AND YOU CAN’T SAY OTHERWISE” even though they actually suck. Nothing against the article’s writer, of course. It could be the best advice in the world, but it’d still probably promote the bad sort.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:43:32 +0000

The point I was trying to make is that self-inserts aren’t necessarily bad. Of course, I’d be lying if I said that in an overwhelmingly high number of cases it IS bad.

Speaking of Shyamalan, his latest project? A film based on my favourite animation of all time, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hopefully he won’t appear at the end and kill the Fire Lord by himself in a huge Deus Ex Machina.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:54:44 +0000

I liked Citizen Kane, but here’s a possible counterexample. Director M. Night Shyamalan cast himself as a deus ex machina in Signs. (Spoiler)– he pops in to tell the main characters that the aliens can be killed with water. (Umm, I’m hardly the first person to bring this up, but what was their plan to deal with rain?)

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:30:08 +0000

Fun fact: The titular character in Citizen Kane (considered by many the greatest movie of all time) was played by Orson Wells, the director.

So yeah…