5. Write about Weirdos
I follow Justin Bieber on Twitter. I started because I watched Never Say Never and the kid actually impressed me, and I feel like I'm part of something bigger than myself when I see that there are nearly 20 million people following him. But I continue following, not because I like his music—not at all—and not because he has anything spectacular to say—He mostly just advertises his upcoming work (which is what Twitter is all about, I suppose). I continue following mostly because he retweets hundreds of his followers' tweets every week.
I find these tweets implausibly interesting. They are incredible in their ability to be unoriginal. I sit and read them and I think to myself how these tweets could have all—every single one of them—been written by the same person.
"I love you, Justin. I've been a fan since the start. Will you marry me? I love your new album. You're the best musician ever. Retweet if you love your fans, Justin!! It's my birthday!!! RT Please? You'll make my life if you retweet!!!"
Hundreds. Every week. I bet he gets multiple tweets, literal identical tweets from different people.
What is more interesting, is the phenomenon that millions of these fans feel like they discovered Justin Bieber personally. You know the story: Biebs was basically discovered because he posted Youtube videos of himself singing and playing music. Millions of people were following him and falling in love with him before he sold a single record.
And each of these millions feels irrepressibly connected to him. They have convinced themselves that they have some sort of deep personal connection to him. Because they themselves discovered him.
Individually, they are part of the millions that helped him get discovered.
Good fictional characters come from the margins of society. This is because no one wants to read about someone who is completely normal. But when you actually think about it, no body feels as if they are "completely normal." Take a step back and look at the legions of Beliebers. It's easy to think they are a mindless mob of fans, screaming inaudible sweet-nothins and fainting and waving their home-made signs and grabbing their smart phones to snap a blurry photo or to tweet, I love you J-Boss...RT!!!!!!
But zoom in a little. You'll find millions of individuals who have their own special reason for loving him. And I'll wager they each believe their reason to be superior to the next person's.
Good fictional characters come from the margins of society because when you zoom in, when you really get into a person, get to know them, you inevitably have to realize that there isn't a single person in this universe who fits neatly into any single stereotype.
Why should your characters?
You can have all the twists and turns of an incredible plot. You can have explosions and car chases, or the most romantic love story, or the strangest world ever imagined, the greatest twist ending ever conceived, but if your characters fit neatly into any sort of stereotype, they will be boring. Flat out boring. And I—for one—would stop reading the story. I even think one ought to stop reading it; there are too many good books, with great characters, to waste your time reading boring ones.
Of course, you need a good story, but a good story doesn't come from the crazy events that happen to a character, but from the ways in which your character reacts to them.
You need to figure out what makes them react the way only they would react, what makes them different than everyone else, what makes them an individual, what makes them weird.
What makes a character stick out, what makes a character effective, is pointing to the things that make it weird. These are the things that make a character real.
So write about weirdos. Do it. And don't be ashamed of it.
At least that's what a young writer might do...
I follow Justin Bieber on Twitter. I started because I watched Never Say Never and the kid actually impressed me, and I feel like I'm part of something bigger than myself when I see that there are nearly 20 million people following him. But I continue following, not because I like his music—not at all—and not because he has anything spectacular to say—He mostly just advertises his upcoming work (which is what Twitter is all about, I suppose). I continue following mostly because he retweets hundreds of his followers' tweets every week.
I find these tweets implausibly interesting. They are incredible in their ability to be unoriginal. I sit and read them and I think to myself how these tweets could have all—every single one of them—been written by the same person.
"I love you, Justin. I've been a fan since the start. Will you marry me? I love your new album. You're the best musician ever. Retweet if you love your fans, Justin!! It's my birthday!!! RT Please? You'll make my life if you retweet!!!"
Hundreds. Every week. I bet he gets multiple tweets, literal identical tweets from different people.
What is more interesting, is the phenomenon that millions of these fans feel like they discovered Justin Bieber personally. You know the story: Biebs was basically discovered because he posted Youtube videos of himself singing and playing music. Millions of people were following him and falling in love with him before he sold a single record.
And each of these millions feels irrepressibly connected to him. They have convinced themselves that they have some sort of deep personal connection to him. Because they themselves discovered him.
Individually, they are part of the millions that helped him get discovered.
Good fictional characters come from the margins of society. This is because no one wants to read about someone who is completely normal. But when you actually think about it, no body feels as if they are "completely normal." Take a step back and look at the legions of Beliebers. It's easy to think they are a mindless mob of fans, screaming inaudible sweet-nothins and fainting and waving their home-made signs and grabbing their smart phones to snap a blurry photo or to tweet, I love you J-Boss...RT!!!!!!
But zoom in a little. You'll find millions of individuals who have their own special reason for loving him. And I'll wager they each believe their reason to be superior to the next person's.
Good fictional characters come from the margins of society because when you zoom in, when you really get into a person, get to know them, you inevitably have to realize that there isn't a single person in this universe who fits neatly into any single stereotype.
Why should your characters?
You can have all the twists and turns of an incredible plot. You can have explosions and car chases, or the most romantic love story, or the strangest world ever imagined, the greatest twist ending ever conceived, but if your characters fit neatly into any sort of stereotype, they will be boring. Flat out boring. And I—for one—would stop reading the story. I even think one ought to stop reading it; there are too many good books, with great characters, to waste your time reading boring ones.
Of course, you need a good story, but a good story doesn't come from the crazy events that happen to a character, but from the ways in which your character reacts to them.
You need to figure out what makes them react the way only they would react, what makes them different than everyone else, what makes them an individual, what makes them weird.
What makes a character stick out, what makes a character effective, is pointing to the things that make it weird. These are the things that make a character real.
So write about weirdos. Do it. And don't be ashamed of it.
At least that's what a young writer might do...
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