Are your characters believable?

When writing fantasy, it's very easy to get caught up in the nearly limitless world of your imagination, and end up translating that into your characters. However, in most cases, this is something you'll want to avoid. Writing characters with supernatural abilities or bizarre personalities is a big part of fantasy, but depending on the type of character you're going for, you'll still want your audience to be able to relate to them in some way or another.

Your protagonist does not have to be a traditionally "likable" character, nor do their views and opinions have to align with yours. The important thing to remember is to give this character a believable motive - revenge? Glory? Safety? Even if your character is not human (or fully human, at least), you will want them to have qualities that make their actions believable - or else, they may come across as overpowered or invincible in a situation where they are not.

"Mary Sues" and "Gary Stus" are names given to the types of characters that are practically perfect at everything they do, never make mistakes, and everybody loves them. Flawless characters don't usually carry a story well, and often are not the most interesting to read, because you can know automatically that they are probably going to win by the end. Depending on where the inspiration for your character is coming from, try to put yourself in their situation - not necessarily when it comes to decision-making, but with reacting. How would someone with x personality respond to x situation? Imagining your setting as if you were there yourself can help you understand the characters you've put there, regardless of the similarities or differences you may have with them.

Avoiding Plotholes

Have you ever been reading a story, and have found yourself confused or misled by the plot? This is called a plothole, and it's a fairly common occurrence when first starting out especially. This is when something is unexplained or forgotten about in the story, altering its outcome.

Writers face the issue of plotholes all the time. When I'm coming up with my plot, I try to think of all the key elements I'll need: characters, setting, story, motivations, etc. Then, I try to answer all the questions a potential reader could ask, so as to have the answers covered within the story.

When writing a more complex piece of fantasy (i.e. one with its own rules of magic, etc.), it's important to know the limits of your setting and characters. What would seem out-of-character in this situation? How does this piece of the story make sense? Foreshadowing is another common literary tool, but if not done right could cause plotholes or unnecessary confusion.

Character Death

 (image from cartoonbrew.com)

Especially in fantasy, character death is quite a common occurrence. Whether it's to further the plot, set up the story, motivate your characters, or whatever else you can come up with, here are a few guidelines I've gathered over the years that have helped me.

Don't kill off characters purely for shock value! I used to do this a lot when I first started writing, and it seems to be a fairly common problem amongst beginners especially. When writing a character death, it's important to consider the impact the loss will have on the story and the other characters. Will it make them want revenge? Will it cause them to lose hope? Will it make the team more vulnerable, or the villains more confident? This is all up to you, but make sure that they don't die in vain! (unless that's the goal, of course)

"Underdeveloped characters? Kill them off!" Don't do this! If you have a character who you know from the beginning is going to be someone you're killing off, be sure that they're well-developed up until that point. If you want your audience to care that this character is gone, you have to give them a reason to. Don't kill off a character just because you're bored of writing them - if you're bored with them, re-write their personality! Re-write their backstory! Change something to make you want to keep writing them - or, at least, to make their death matter to you. If their death matters to you, there's a higher change it will matter to the readers, too.

When it comes to writing the death scene itself, the atmosphere of your story plays the biggest role. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to do it, as long as it makes sense within the realm of the story. Is their death surprising, or was it foreshadowed from the start? What is it exactly that kills them, and what element of the story dies along with them? Once you've figured these things out, your character can surely rest in peace.

Beginning, middle, end - in that order?

(image by writersassembly.wordpress.com)

When writing a story, I've always found it easiest to write the events in chronological order. Perhaps this seems obvious, but for some, it might not be. Movies are often filmed out of order, so maybe the sequence of events taking place in your story could be planned that way, too. I used to do this for a long time before realizing that it wasn't an effective method for me, and I frequently found myself confused when trying to figure out what I'd already done and what I hadn't.

More recently, I've discovered something that makes the first draft significantly easier: write out the story in a simplified way, especially when it comes to dialogue. This method reminds me almost of a screenplay, which uses keywords to describe the emotions instead of going into too much detail. Save the majority of the details for the future drafts, and focus on getting the entire story onto the page first!

Additionally, it's very, very helpful to know how your story is going to end, even early on in your writing process. Having a goal to work towards keeps you motivated, and narrows in on where you want your characters and plot to ultimately end up. However, it's also perfectly okay for you to change your mind about the ending part way through your draft. In the first draft of my current story, the ending I'd originally decided on is fairly different from what it is now. Even though the specific idea got changed, I always had something I was working towards. Having even the vaguest idea of where you want to end up will work wonders for your entire experience throughout writing.

Know Your Villain

(image from theinquisitiveloon.com)

As important as it is to have a well-written protagonists, your villain (or antagonist) must be developed as well. In order for there to be a believable threat to your characters, you must understand your villain - what are they after? What is driving them? How are they going about their plans?

It's important to note that your antagonist does not have to be a single person, or even identified as a "villain". In the story I'm currently working on, my antagonist is actually an organization who used to believe they were doing the right thing, but switched "sides" when things started to go wrong. This gave them a background for my protagonists to understand, and has in turn helped me when writing about them.

Most of the time, your antagonist will need more motivation than just "wanting to take over the world". This is a motive that has been done in the past, almost to the point of it being cliche. That's not to say it can never be written again, but finding alternate motives for your villain makes them all that much more believable and even threatening.

This page is a good resource to reference when creating a villain.