I take myself, charictors, and other ppl into my charictors, altough I do try to add some diffrences. And sometimes when I right, I realize.... I need help.
The only I think self-insert I made is a normal human in a world of monsters who gets beat up etc. no matter how nice he acts. Even got drilled through a rock wall by a monster using fire. One thing to say: No matter what flaws you give your heroes, try to do something to make them sympathetic ('Self-insert' in question tends to be more isolated from people trying to make a supersuit to fight monsters better (This supersuit gets destroyed in like its second use) while also typically lashing out at anyone bullying him which can get him into trouble)
Stuff 1. Don't wing it 2. Don't copy other characters 3. Don't self insert 4. Diversity 5. Add layers 6. Don't only write from your experience; do research 7. Don't have too many flaws 8. Don't treat all characters like main characters 9. Multiple people can be funny 10. Make the villain more complex
@@Dragonfruitinspace i think you just need to make it less obvious thats its a self insert, like make it a psychological manifestation of what you aimed to be or smth
I had to get up from my comfy spot with my Christmas Tree Cake to go tell my husband this exact line because I could NOT wait to tell him this masterpiece of a quote.
"But Jenna, people write about werewolves and wizards!" "That's because those authors _are_ werewolves and wizards. Duh." Fan fiction writers: *nervous sweating*
While having a diverse cast can certainly help with making your story more globally relatable, it is also important to know that a writer's job is to tell a story. It is not a writer's job to represent as many different groups as possible. In my eyes, you can even have a cast consisting to 90% of middle-aged Indian Hindu women and it would be ok as long as the characters are well-written and unique from one another.
If one has to diversify ones cast, they should know first and foremost know what their culture is and what makes them unique... or else they would sound and act like white in a different coat of paint....
@@2006HondaCivicD That's right. A Jamaican might have a different mindset than a Russian. It's an important thing to keep in mind when writing. Even in a made-up world, people from different places of it should probably have their own unique cultures. Furthermore, adding cultural details to your story can make your story world all the more rich and compelling.
Here’s something I _actually_ witnessed... Author: *Creates a best friend character who is rude, toxic and emotionally abusive towards everyone including the MC for absolutely no goddamn reason and is overall just really dislikable * Readers: *Dislikes the character * Author: *Surprised Pikachu Face*
Yo why does this remind me so much of Howard Weinerman from RC9GN? I hated that guy. I could never figure out why Randy didn’t just leave him and find a better best friend.
@Verserer Gred Yeah, sucks that people don't know what a character arc is nowadays and expect everyone to be virtuous like Midoriya from the get-go. Like damn Vegeta killed trillions of innocent aliens and people accept him and Bakugo comparatively does jackshit to anyone and people go at him.
"That's because those writers are werewolves, wizards, and serial killers." I am a werewolf. I have written werewolf fiction. Twilight appropriated my culture.
I disagree with the villain one. I don’t want to understand villains sometimes, they don’t always need a reason to be evil. Some people are just terrible and for no reason but to watch the world burn. A good “why not?” goes a long way.
I mostly agree with you. You can have villains who are just evil and still create tension. FE: Mulan vs Shun Yu. He didn’t have a story behind his character and yet there was that tension as he grew closer and closer to the main character. I think it all depends on the story you are trying to tell.
I agree that in story people can be evil just to be evil however in real life it's not that easy. People are complex and to say some people are evil just to be evil is oversimlpification
I LOVE a good pure evil villain. Give them a simple motivation like money or power (not just for evil’s sake) and let them have fun with it. Its fun to see a pure villain succeed and it’s even better to watch them fall.
There is no human is history that just woke up one day to be evil. They all have a past, they all have motives. Even if it’s simple as he has never worked for his own money a day in his life, or she plans to murder all men because they pay her no mind. Don’t make shallow villains unless you want to write a Disney story.
I don't think she meant "villains can just be terrible for no good reason" is a bad tip, but rather "you don't need to put any thought into creating villains" is a bad tip. Like I also disagree that it's unrealistic to have characters who just want power, but it's *because* they exist as real people that there are actual psychological mechanisms behind their evilness; it's not "instant magical evil, just add water". They're conscious people; if you could see inside their head, they do have actual coherent thoughts that follow some sort of logic :P Even "why not" is part of some internal narrative!
Nah, the love dodecahedron’s much better. (As long as it doesn’t involve the comic relief character who we TOTALLY dont want to shove into a pit of spikes, whatsoever)
The first half of this video got me, and then started feeling really preachy when she was like, "All of your characters are able bodied people?" like bruh.
@@OdelyxRangl, I may sound dumb and I’m not the best writer, but she seem kind of condescending. Also I’m making a universe with a self-insert of me as a hero (spider-sona) so yeah.
@robertpolito9209 I know right??? Like the beginning was SO disrespectful. Nowadays it's quite easy to get your own novel published, now matter how shitty it is, but she prides herself with it and looks down at writers that don't have a novel publsihed yet. Like yeah, it's your right to be proud about your accomplishments but please girl, show some basic respect. These writers could be fabulous and just take their time, work at their own pace and be really careful and and meticulous about their work-- but she dismisses them as if they have no skill whatsoever. Really put me off, glad I'm not the only one
mfw im writing a drafting-war-like scenario where the requirements to be in it are very similar to the military ((they have to be able bodied)) within countries (america & ussr) that have a majority of white people ((the majority of characters are white and/or male)) and i get to #4:
The bad "self insert" maybe ought to be called the "unselfaware self insert". It seems pretty common for authors/screenwriters to include characters who share traits or worldviews with themselves, and if done with thoughtful self-awareness can work just as well as modeling a character on another real person. The problem comes from sticking in a character that isn't you, but rather is the gorgeous flawlessly cool genius you imagine yourself to be. That is unrealistic and often dull, especially if you then have the character live out your own very specific fantasies that almost no one else relates to.
One of my fave examples of this is Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. Confused? Well the author Leigh Bardugo has osteoporosis and walks with a cane, so she made a character with the same struggle. A theme in the duology is embracing your ‘flaws’ and using them to empower you, ie. how Kaz fights with his cane and it becomes a symbol for him. When people hear that cane tapping against the ground they’re scared. I feel Leigh put her emotions into his character and it shows in his depth and realism. By using struggles you’ve faced in your writing you can really benefit from incorporating the deeper understanding and unique experiences you have.
Hooray? I'm trying to make a story and I never see sensitive main characters that act similar to me so I was basing her off of me even though we ended up totally different, only similarities are well, wanting to help people but also not confident? Lol!
A character I self inserted a little I honestly just gave her a lot of my most complex/ worst traits bc I had more experience with those and it helped make her more interesting and 3 dimensional
My general advice for avoiding writing Mary Sues is to ask yourself: how do the people in your world react to your character, compared to how people in real life would react? If these don’t match up, then your character might be a Mary Sue. For example, let’s say I have a character that’s nice, pretty, and delightfully insecure that’s HATED by all. The popular girls pick on her (because they’re secretly jealous) and because of that, everyone (except maybe the love interest) avoids her like the plague. Think about that. In real life, people actually like nice people, and not every popular person is a jealous twat. And then, take the Anti-Sue. Mean, violent, and sassy, she can (and will) kill you if she wants to. Yet she’s surrounded by love interests (because a realistic story about an unstable character is too sad) and is respected by all. In real life, this character would probably be in prison. So, yeah. If your universe treats your character like it should, then it probably isn’t a Sue.
As well as that, I would also recommend humanising them and adding some (but not a lot) of human flaws. Maybe the character IS really nice, but can be a bit of a doormat. So their development would involve them learning to say no and that what they want and feel matter too. Oh. And that’s the biggest Anti-Mary Sue weapon: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Ideally we as the reader should see this character go from A to B and ultimately become a better person by the end of the story (or worse. Depends if it’s a progressive or recessive arc you’ve written). A tried and true development method is having the character acknowledge their own flaws and try to overcome them. But that’s just my little tidbit of advice.
Another trait I've seen associated with Mary Sue: they're an attention magnet, i.e. the story is all about them. Supporting characters? "I was able to become strong thanks to [protagonist name]" or maybe "Damn you villain, we are certain [protagonist name] will put you down." And of course, villain's motivation is related to history with [protagonist name] in some way or another. And it's like that for pretty much every major character. Maybe not every Mary Sue acts as attention magnet and not every attention magnet qualifies as a Mary Sure, but it's still a phenomenon that should be avoided.
@@CrazyGreenFluff I see your point. There definitely are exceptions to the rule. Saitama from One Punch Man, for example, is one of my favorite characters. Most of the OP characters that do avoid Mary Sue status tend to have really complicated personalities and flaws to make up for it. Though, I do think that Mary Sue is a valid critique. It truly can make or break a story for me, and many other people. At the end of the day, though, it’s still the writer’s choice whether they actually *care* about that advice.
Even those pure evil villains who are just evil for evil's sake have personalities. There are some key personality differences that define the Joker from Skeletor or from comics Thanos or from Megatron. You don't always need an extremely complex villain, but they should still always have a personality beyond "is evil".
Reminds me of Handsome Jack, my favorite bad guy ever. Super villainous dickbag, but he's funny and quite possibly the pettiest human being in existence.
@@WhiteBloggerBlackSpecs WHEN I THINK OF "Evil for the sake of evil" I THINK OF HIM. But honestly, I love him, and he's a great example of a great evil for the sake of evil. He's sarcastic, charismatic, I can see where he's coming from sometimes, but he's evil for the sake of evil.
Actually Thanos isn't evil just to be evil, he's an anti-villain who want to do good (save all species in Universe) but goes the genocide route to achieve this
#1.... "wing it" is decent advice for writers who hate plotting. Some writers get to know their characters through writing. The character gains depth as their story is told. The main advice for that is to then go back and give the beginning of the book the same depth as the latter end of book. You should realize that not everyone writes the same way.
I play DnD, my best characters I played were making shit up as I go, with very few characteristics. And I plan to run very open game where players can do whatever so I can't plan every character. What if they decide to become best friends with some rando from shop that I just materialized
8:56 “Treat every character, like the main character.” Me actually having a decent backstory, character design, character personality, and human emotions for 50-/+ main characters in the same story: 👁️👄👁️💧 Edit: Well warning, two people started arguing in the replies- Edit 2 (2023): To the people who want to comment, please be respectful of each other and avoid starting another fight like the one a couple of years ago. Be respectful to/of each other's way of works, thank you. I'm still working on this story, but is being left on the sidelines because I'm working on many other stories and school stuff, and yes all named characters are treated like main characters (think of it like RWBY for example), not even a single character has been removed from the roster and I think it's going splendid.
This is the comment I was looking for! I don't get why this is a bad advice... I like all my characters equally and love to know where they're coming from and what their motivations are.
@@Spidernana93 Finally someone who shares the same situation as someone like me- But I completely understand what you mean, especially in loving all the characters equally. They're simultaneously your children *and* lover, sometimes relating to that character more than usual depending om your current mood. Basically when you have multiple characters you put all your brain cells' efforts, you just can't stop thinking about them. _I mean, seriously, you can't listen to one of your favourite songs for fun because of the song that describes your character, and hey maybe the whole cast in general_
@@Spidernana93 This is a bad advice because, like in Jenna's example, did the character that only say one sentence in the entire book NEEDS that much attention? Also, if you put too much effort in everyone, you start to lose focus in the story. Also, mentioning OP, do you story really need 50 (FIFTY, OMG) main characters? Will you be able to give ALL THEM screen time? Will you have time to give ALL THEM development? How BIG will be that book? If too much characters have too much attention, the book/story lose focus and is pretty likely your readers will, in fact, feel less compelled to read. It's ok if you want to use all of them, but definitively NOT in the same book. Focusing in 2 or 3 at a time is the best option because you can work better with it.
@@MidoriKyun I get your meaning now as you explained. What Jenna says in the video though is: not to chart every character, not even the villain or the love interest. My point is: you can chart the characters and only actually write what is relevant to the story. I don't understand how you can have a villain in your story and NOT chart them? I think their character arc has to be touched upon somehow 🤷🏻♀️
Is not bad... But as someone who has a lot of characters and I pay too much attention to them. It IS a bad advice. Focus on the main ones, don't waste energy and creativity on the characters that won't have much screen time or will appear one second.
Same. I had planned my main protagonist and my main antagonist, but everyone else I just made up as I went. Somehow I managed to keep them consistent overall, though I did have to smooth out some scenes.
@@narwhalwriter I have two villains (three technically but this third one is just muscle and toughness that my main protagonist can't easily take out), and they all work together. I plan on only having one villain for the sequel story though. As for the type of superhero story, its dark and serious. Think Batman combined with Punisher and he's also a Catholic priest. I thought it was an awesome concept, a priest by day, vigilante by night. :)
Frankly, those are the characters that I enjoy reading the most; the ones that are human, because the author has written a bit of their soul into the character.
I would say that’s a good thing. Jenna said not to take “write what you know” to extremes, but you have to do it a bit to make the characters convincing.
Same, What I usually do is that I exaggerate those features or just make them less relevant depending what they are or if they are something that can define/ is important to shape my character and those around them, so to some extent, each one of my character is me just more traumatized or less.
I write fanfiction a lot, and when I do I add in little pieces of me to the characters I write. It makes it easier for me to write them than writing the cannon parts only.
I think that it’s irrelevant if a character is gay, straight, white or black, because if you base the entire character around those things, they will end up being a very boring and uninteresting character
It can factor in, if it’s a plotline in a particular time period or setting. In modern day settings though, it’d just be a tertiary trait that probably isn’t commented on. And if you do comment on it, it’ll probably be tacky.
Yes, inserting diversity in the story just for the sake of it is just as bad as all the other nine advices put together. While I get what’s she’s trying to say I would elaborate better because it sounds like it’s a mandatory step when actually it depends on a lot of factors.
@@CrazyGreenFluff Yeah. I felt kinda attacked when Jenna talked about self insert characters like they're trash. My main character is a self insert. The story is going to be a what if scenario (what would my life be like if not only was I different in the sense that I'd be queer, neuro divergent and had magical abilities). How much more difficult and also easier would my life be, being born different in the middle of an abusive family system? That's the whole premise of the book series that I'm planning.
@@kevinbaltarejo1114 The only problem I think about self inserts is that the writer would most likely be prone to making the character a little too special. To the point that the character gets what he/she wants with minimum effort. It is much more fulfilling for a reader to watch a character get his/her goal if they got along through their struggles and hardships. A self insert is less likely to go through rough roads. As long as you let your character develop naturally through believable problems, I think the story wouldn't be affected; even if the protagonist is a self insert.
ok, but, if your villain is INTENTIONALLY just evil to be evil, it can DEFINETLEY work. I know this video is old but like, Jack Horner in the new puss in boots is a great example
The most important writing tip of all: Take all writing tips with a grain of salt. Its a suggestion, not a rule. Don't limit yourself or worry too much about all the "rules" and "tips"
ADVICE! 1) Look, you’re ALLOWED to write assholes into your story. When done right, they can be engaging and layered. But remember this: to make a lovable jackass you NEED to give the audience reasons to care about them. A-holery can not- repeat can NOT- be their one personality trait. Believe you me, that gets real old real fast. Give them a few redeeming qualities: maybe they secretly really care about the other main characters but feels like expressing that adoration is a weakness. Maybe they love kittens and puppies and other fluffy baby animals. Maybe they’re insecure and act the smart Alec to protect themselves. I don’t care what traits you choose, just please add some so that we don’t get a one-note douche. 2) Humanisation is important. Empathy and relatability are your BFFs when it comes to writing likeable and engaging characters. Try to implement these whenever you can. Granted, these should mainly be used for main and important secondary characters. The side characters and extras don’t need much fleshing out. Whenever you’re writing your protagonist(s), think to yourself. What flaws and/or traits can you give this fictional character so that they feel more like a person? This can be done either by making them relatable or making them sympathetic. Relatability is usually good for MCs, since they’ll be the set of characters we’ll be spending the most time with. Try to add some traits or flaws that are somewhat realistic and easy to relate to. Maybe they’re short tempered, or mumble to themselves, or get easily embarrassed. Sympathy is EXCELLENT for villains and antagonistic characters. It helps us feel for the character in question, and fleshes them out beyond a fictional character. 3) Tropes are your friend, not your enemy. While it is true that it usually isn’t the best idea to pump your story full of reused ideas and tropes, that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily BAD. When used correctly, tropes can help spice up a story. It’s cliches that you need to look out for. A good idea when using a trope for a character is to take the basic idea of the trope, and see how you can put your own spin on it. For instance, maybe for the Mean Bully and Airhead Follower trope you can have it that they’re really good friends but the bully is going through a lot of messed up stuff at home and is acting out of character and the follower is just being a good friend and staying by their side for support.
I did a weird thing to one of my main villains and I'm still not sure if I was initially trying to make it easier for ME to relate to him to make writing him easier, or if I just wanted to make him suffer because he's an awful human being, OR if I simply wound up projecting onto him because I was under a lot of stress when I added that in to his character. Specifically I gave him OCD, which is a condition I also have, and a lot of his mental struggles with it are based off my own dealings with it. So I CAN relate to him on that, but I also wind up mentally cackling: "SUFFER! FEEL MY PAIN! YOU'RE HORRIBLE SO YOUR PAIN PLEASES ME!" He's still a competent villain mind you, but it is something that slows him down a bit and really adds to his overall stress level. (And gets worse the more stressed you are because OCD's self-perpetuating like that)
Amy Oh no. That’s good. Like I said, adding human flaws to characters makes them more believable. And frankly I think a villain with OCD has awesome potential. I doubt you’ll fudge it like I’ve seen other authors do when writing mental disorders/conditions, since you’re speaking from experience and know the inner workings of the disorder. So I say go for it.
The one about a white cast really lost me. What if I have a cast of 4 characters and they’re all white? What? I have to make one of them black or gay? Well isn’t that just winging it and focusing more on diversity than the actual characters? Its not impossible to relate to a character of another race. Apparently I need to make a Hispanic character that only Hispanics can relate to. Stupidest shit ever.
I feel like she completely accidentally called out "Terrible writing advice" and "Mother's basement" in the intro, lol. Edit: It was a joke guys, both are very good channels, Jesus.
5:53 ...seriously? You think "white" people aren't diverse? That irish, scottish, french, german, spanish, slovak, russian, italian, swedish, finnish, dutch etc etc aren't diverse for you? That's like saying 'wow the entire cast is asian/black/indigenous' as if they don't have racial subgroups? Smfh, seriously....
"do you know 20 cis white males without disability in one place", well, I can't speak on disabilities because we don't always see struggle, but yes, I've been to church before.
Like what church? That's a country club. I can't recall a single church I've been in that wasn't at least 60% female ruled by the cane and walker crew.
ruclips.net/video/s8JArJzgN04/видео.html Last days in Nagorno-Karabakh war (a few months ago). In 24 minutes of videos, you can see tenths of people, how many non white, non cis male,or with disabilities can you spot?
About the point of "self insert" I'd make some exceptions. Inserting yourself (or who you believe yourself to be or an idealized version of yourself) into a fictional setting can be a great way to explore your own desires, your wounds, your wishes, things you lived through... Self-Inserts can be eye-opening or at least alot of fun to write. Indulging in the fantasy of what you would do in a universe with your favourite characters or how it would be, if that one meeting with your crush would have been different, can be great for you. Imagining yourself in certain situations and writing about those feelings and impressions can lead to some pretty good scenes and stories. So yeah, if you want to write a book, basing every character off of yourself or your power fantasy will be pretty boring for your readers, but if you just want to write your daydream in a private word document, sure do so.
I'd go one step further and say there is nothing wrong about self inserts at all, as long as you DON'T write cheap wish fulfullment fantasies and as long as you fit into the story respectively make the necessary adjustments to your character (which is no problem if your character is an everyman character in a contemporary novel, but if your fictional self insert character grew up in a significantly different environment and/or has significantly different skills and tasks than real life you, you need to reflect how those differences might affect your personality)
@@chrisrudolf9839 Agree with both of you. My main character is a self-insert in that he has a pretty similar personality type to mine, but on the other hand, he's male whereas I'm female, less than half my age, and partially of a different racial background than I am. Some parts of his life are what I would have wished for for myself, but others are things that no one would have wished for themselves--as in, he was abused when he was younger. I gave him a good singing voice, which is something I would have liked to have had, but I didn't go the route of making him a Gary Stu who can't do anything wrong, which seems to be the aspect of a lot of self-inserts that people dislike in the first place. They want to read a story, not someone's private masturbatory fantasy of themselves as some kind of Demi-god. I suspect that Jenna would have no problem with this character.
Agreed. I'm currently writing my self-insert in the TfP verse (I blame my sister for its typed existence). My self-insert (named Addie) has flaws. She has problems that she has to deal with outside of the show's plot. And there are times when the good guys are so appalled at some of her actions, they refuse to talk to her for several weeks. The head honcho bad guy tells her to her face that she would be an excellent addition to his crew, and sometimes enjoys talking to her because of some of her views. (Lily-white, my character is not...) She has a few abilities that I do not possess, yes (and boy, what I wouldn't give to be able to learn a new skill in less than 5 seconds in an information download), but there are constraints on how they work, and there is an actual explanation for why she has them (and it's not just because I thought they were cool). Addie lives, she laughs, she struggles. Aside from her abilities (some of which are aimply exaggerations of my own traits), she IS me, flaws and all. And those are the characters that I enjoy reading the most; the ones that are human, because the author has written a bit of their soul into the character.
Yes... there are definitely no settings in which people of the same racial and societal background are grouped together... gotta have those token black, Arab, and Hispanic people in my story set in medieval Russia.
As a neuro**A**typical person I can confirm you must include them in your protagonist gang, how else are we supposed to feel included in the story? Not like its still humans beings and we still are human beings and can relate in other ways!
I am one as well. It always is a turn off for me when there is a character who is supposed to be neurodivergent. Such a vague term, characters could be just “eccentric” without putting on a label and dealing with all the problems that occurs. Easy to make the characters mental aspect overshadow the character themselves
Tbh I like a villain that is just evil. This can be successfully done and has been many times but they have to have a personality that makes the readers enjoy having them in the story instead of a villain with motives and a rich backstory.
5:46 Diversity quotas. Don't forget to add your token black guy. Every book needs a token black guy. And because it's the current year, I strongly suggest you also add a token gay person, a token disabled person, and a token woman in a high position of power.
@@KiKekkosa Why so shallow? Why aim for diversity of body type instead of diversity of opinions, personalities, world views, or mannerisms? Case in point: *F.R.I.E.N.D.S* 6 able bodied people of the same race, age group, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. 6 _distinct characters._
Unwanted opinion on LGBT+ diversity: LGBT+ friend groups are common and normal. They happen in real life all the time. Most of the time, it’s not at _all_ on purpose, and just happens because people with similar interests attract each other. By similar interests, I am referring to alt culture and subcultures + fandoms that LGBT+ people commonly partake in. The same thing can also be applicable to POC (although not so much with subcultures I think). Although completely unintentional, I as an asian (ironic considering my name and pfp), have a lot of Asian friends and acquaintances. With cishet white people, the same thing can also be said, however if a story has mainly cishet white characters, you can still diversify their appearances. You can still include LGBT+, POC characters in your story that are outside of your cishet white friend group. I’m tired of people calling any and all diversity “forced” or “pandering” or “too political.” Sometimes it can be forced, but it’s very clear when diversity is forced, and most of the time when diversity is accused of being forced, it’s simply not true. Just let people and characters be, our existences are not inherently political, and you shouldn’t have to have a reason (to a degree, if you have a POC person in a secluded area with mostly white folks, there could be some reason) to include us. White, non-LGBT+ is *not* the default.
I actually don’t have a lot of Asian friends even though I am Asian American, however this probably has to do with growing up in a very white area. At my first week of college I saw droves of (mostly East) Asians hanging out together, getting boba, etc. I really wanted to join but wasn’t sure how to approach (also I’m veeeerrrry white washed which makes me a little self conscious when approaching Asians and I have no idea why)
It is forced and pandering when it is literally done for no real reason than to have tokens among the cast. People advocating that are forgetting that most of the world is not, in fact, USA, and you'd be had pressed to find any PoC in, say, Poland, just as it would be hard to find an asian in Uganda. And, well, that SHOULD extend to fantasy imagined up worlds either. Because, guess what, they're imaginary.
It's pandering when you have every single sexuality, race, etc. in your story just to say you're inclusive without showing any of their personalities on the page. It's more than just about labeling someone as their race or sexuality. These things need to be shown.
Exactly, there isn’t an excuse to not include an lgbt character because lgbt people live all over the world, just because your novel is set in the 1400’s doesn’t mean everyone is white and straight, I’m tired of people making excuses
@@damijinadu4184 "just because your novel is set in the 1400’s doesn’t mean everyone is white and straight" But if your character is homosexual then you're better to provide some serious justification to why they weren't persecuted or murdered yet (Or if you are writing fantasy, then do worldbuilding that explains why nontraditional sexuality is tolerated in your society, and they you will need to think about all of the implications of your justifications). You can have them just _casually_ be gay with no consequences. If you don't like that, then well better to not write story set in the damn dark ages where they could burn people for simply having red hair?
Character's absolutely must have flaws, literally no one is perfect and I mean NO ONE. Take my character Calvin as an example, he's a good person at heart but he's done some shitty things along the way, he tries to make up for his mistakes but doesn't always go about things in the right way. Flaws are a very nessicary part of empathizing with characters, because it makes them seem like real people.
yeah...I've seen the CA discussion brought to the extreme conclusion: "only write what you know"... like... if you ASK someone from a minority and they tell you "Yes, write about me, I want you to, talk to me and listen and write that." and STILL some "helpful" people giving author advise say: "no, you do not have the experience to write that person that you are talking to, even if you do research, even if they tell you to, even if you listen. you do not have the right!" and then they shit on other people that do the research, that listen to a multitude of different minorities and try to get it right, because they " inherently do not have the right to write that" because they are straight or cis or white or rich or whatever.... I wish this phase in important questions like equality in the writing community... would move on into something more... good and... something that is actually being asked for.
What matters is context. Where is the setting. Africa? Asia? South America? If so, I'm going to be *pretty* suspicious if your cast is almost all white. When is your setting. Are you in the early-1400s? The late-1800$? 3091? During the past, immigration was scarcely a thing; in the future (I hope) skin tone wouldn't matter that much. The when also matters for sexual and gender minorities. It's identical to the previous. How is your setting? Is supernatural? Is just mundane reality? If so, then gender/race/sexuality wouldn't be such a topic because there are literal vampires and werewolves running about. Especially if the paranormal is publicly known. Context is paramount.
@@colt9836 Immigration was a massive thing in the past, that's how countries were made basically. My country has had constant immigration since before it was even a nation. 13000 years ago, then about 7-8000 years ago again, and then in bursts during the viking-era where a lot of people traveled with vikings back to Scandinavia as slaves or just willingly travelling.. a lot of business was made with the Islamic world even if that wasn't even a thing yet... then in the 11-13th century there was just a mishmash of different native Scandinavian and European people on the land people just kept on moving.And the very IDEA of a nation as something so important isn't even old at all, not in my country, that was not a thing until about 1900 ish.. This idea that immigration is modern, that colonialism is new, it feels very... american, and it feels very... lacking in history. And It doesn't really do anyone any favors. So yet again, I must say, the discourse on the subject is lacking. Still though, this is not really what my point was about. Research is always important. But people WILL tell you that you are writing stuff wrong, even if they are actually right, if it doesn't match their idea of what should be true. Because some people don't care if its true... they care about who the author is not about the truth of the story.
I think the write what you know thing is often misused. Even wizards and werewolves have to make sense in the context of your story world. Or if you are writing contemporary fiction and your character is working minimum wage but owns a penthouse in Manhattan you can't just handwave it away and think nobody will notice. This is going to look absurd and amateur hour and not a great idea unless you specifically want your reader to wonder where all their money comes from for a reason.
the "only white characters in a book" thing doesn't even really hit me bc I just think the other decided not to describe people's looks all that much. it really hits you when there's exactly 1 non-white character, bc they will hit you with those "skin the color of nutella" or "she could see as much as me, even though her eyes were slanted" or whatever
I think it's okay to have only white people (or only people of any other race) if it fits time and location, and especially when long distance travel is much more limited than in modern time. Traditionally countries had mostly the people of their ethic group. How common do you think a black, Mexican or Asian person would be in Russia (okay, maybe Asians) or inner (not by coastline, but even then) Norway or Sweden during medieval or earlier? I dont really agree you need to have diversity for diversities sake. Besides you may not make it obvious what their race is as you said. And for things like sexuality, you dont need to highlight everyone's sexuality either, sometimes none at all.
@@zakosist I thought Jenna's comment of 'I don't believe there can be 20 cis white males without disabilities in one place' was really bizarre. I live in England, which is supposed to be a multicultural globalised nation, and my school is 98% white, all my friends are male, and I don't know a single disabled person. So, it's pretty believable to me.
@@Nicator_ What she said was that she doesn't even know ONE, which is definitely a headscratcher. Regional norms ARE a thing, especially in non-Western countries. If your story is set in China, for example, probably close to 95% of the cast would Chinese, even in the modern age. Or, if you're in Canada, for example, about 99% of the characters will have heads that swivel up and down at the corners when they talk, rather than a normal head. It's just common sense. (Okay, the last sentence is obviously ridiculous, but I'm hoping somebody will get a laugh at/understand the reference.)
@Swiftbow true but I think she meant if the story takes place in some fantasy world or the west it wouldn't make since if everyone was one color and one sexuality
Not gonna lie, I'm a bit guilty of number 8. It's just fun to develop that one random guy who sits two seats to the right of the MC, even if he only has five lines
Me too. It can be bad because you have too many characters and not enough, or characters end up doing stuff that seems totally because I didn’t have time to explain their character growth
But Jenna, my book takes place in an area that is 94% white! Seriously, not a joke. Skin color of characters should not even be an issue. Also if you were in the military you meet a ton of able bodied strait men, it is kind of the norm. I love your videos and I think #4 is the worst of the bad writing advice. It is basically saying "You can wright what every you want, but it must conform to our standards for diversity."
It is one of the very few points Jenna repeatedly made that I disagree with. The reason is probably that she is a narrowminded US citizen who is only vaguely aware that countries outside the US which are largely different than the US even exist. There are many parts of the world that are NOT a melting pot of all different races. Depending on where your novel is set, including Asian or Black people can feel awfully forced and unrealistic. Likewise, if your novel is set in a rural part of China, including ANY non Asian character would be very odd without a good explanation what that exotic white or black stranger is doing there. As for LGBT+ people, they make up about 10% of the population and not everyone of them is open about it. Again, there are countries where it is still considered indecent to reveal a "deviant" sexual orientation openly or where queer people are even prosecuted by law. If your novel is set in any Arabian country for instance, chances are that a character or two of your cast might be lgbt+, but the main character and consequently the reader will never know, because they don't show it and don't talk about it to just anyone. Include "minorities" in your story when it is realistic and when it fits your story. Actually, give it a good thought whether such characters could make your story more interesting, more realistic or more layered, because quite often including such characters in a realistic way so that they organically fit into your story can actually make your story better than sticking to an all white all straight cast. But never include them just because you think you must check some boxes for proper representation. You can't pacify the SJWs anyway. If you don't include diverse races and lgbt+ people, they'll rage at you for no representation, if you do and don't make a big issue out of it, they'll accuse you to write token characters, if you do make an issue about it and dive into the conflicts that are created by those traits, they'll claim that you are not allowed to write about it because as a straight white person you can't possibly understand what it's like. Not always the same SJWs, of course, but there will always be a significant amount of them who will hate you no matter what you do.
@@chrisrudolf9839 Actually, Jenna is making that point about fictional worlds that you create, not a fantasy/sci-fi story that's set in the real world, and I know where that's coming from. If the story is set on the real version of Earth, then naturally you'd follow the ethnic and sexual demographics of the region. She's talking about worlds like Narnia and Wonderland, where despite the story being set in a different world or an enhanced world, 99.9% of the characters will be white and light-skinned. It has become a hard and fast rule that Elves are always white and caucasian in appearance and features, for example, or otherwise an unnatural colour like blue or green but never brown, black or have Asian features (which only hit me when I watched the Witcher adaptation on Netflix) But when you have a book, where even a single, background character with one line isn't a POC, you clearly have a problem. A Song of Ice and Fire is a good example; while most of the Main characters are caucasian and similar to English and the Vikings from actual history, you have Kingdoms like Dorne where Hispanic people live, a whole continent called Essos that has Dothraki, Braavosi, and Asshaians, etc. which are tanned, brown and varyingly featured, some reflecting cultural practices that aren't "white". It's also frequently mentioned and discussed by the characters, even from the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, because in a real world, people exchange stories and tales, even about countries that aren't allied with them and there are characters in Westeros that are originally from Essos and vice-versa. If your whole world is only white characters talking only about your own kingdom, its not realistic and can put a lot of people off. At least that's what I got from Jenna's point. Even from a business perspective, you have a better chance of widespread consumption if your content includes people that actual people from different parts of the world can relate to.
The *only* project I have that is technically a self-insert is inspired by different parts of my life...by no means am I fulfilling fantasies, however it has proved to be good with coping with losing people close to me
Yes, because almost no one by that description exists, most people are neurodivergent, we just have people who are undiagnosed or who know how to hide it.
I can't wait for my story based on Welsh and Norse folk lore that has a predominantly white cast be labelled as racist, because everyone knows how much diversity was in medieval Britain and Scandinavia. Tons, definitely. Honestly the mental gymnastics of getting Arabic-inspired horse archers to the scene of the plot felt like tokenism already, but alas, Arabic horse archers are too neat not to rip off and put in not-Wales.
@@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps Perhaps to some extent, but it's not like Roman Britannia was one of the more important provinces, it was still very much on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, most government officials or soldiers would be recruited from the local population after the province had been adequately conquered. It would be very unlikely for, say, a north African legion to make it's way to Britain, as they would be dealing with their own issues in their own provinces. Not saying that it isn't possible, but definitely not common. Also I found some vague in-universe ways to justify more diverse people showing up, it's a contrivance I don't personally think enriches the story all that much, but it's not really up to me.
@@Catullus_J_5 It wouldn't be a north African legion but it wouldn't be an Italian one either and yes, Brittania was "the edge of the world" to the Romans.
Writing tip: while giving flaws make sure they make sense with already existing character traits. Like maybe you have a showmen character maybe they could be self absorbed or over confident
Overall this is funny, but the skin tone thing is really based on the place it takes place and the world the person makes. Our skin tone is based on our ancestors homes based on how close the sun is. So overall it’s understandable if there’s a whole cast of whites, blacks or whatever. And it doesn’t really matter.
I mean...if the character is well written, why should their gender, race or sexuality matter that much? Not to mention that some IRL places are...you know...not really that diverse? Also, why is an all straight, cis, white male cast mentioned _specifically?_ Wouldn't the story have the same --non-- issue if all of the characters were gay, trans, black women? I'm not saying that having minority characters is a bad thing, I'm simply questioning why _not_ having them is automatically a bad thing? Don't people relate to the struggles more then the superficial appearances? Like, I'm white, and most of my favorite characters are Asian. Hell, one of my top 3 favorite characters of all time is a black guy. Again, I'm _not_ saying that minority characters shouldn't be included in more stories. In fact, I whole heartedly welcome the prospect. I just feel like it should be up to the writer. If they want an all white cast, fine. If they want an all black cast, fine. If they want an all gay cast, fine. If they want an all non-binary cast, fine. They shouldn't be forced to add any type of person to their narrative because... _because._
Because white people are unwanted, apparently? I dunno, this tip has so nothing to do with the good\bad character design it really stands out in a bad way.
Because that is the world we live in. Most of the world isn’t all white. And yet you have hordes of low key racists complaining that tv shows like the Witcher have any minorities in them all. The poor Witcher author had to step in and remind people that his book was a fantasy and not a medieval Polish documentary. That is why you need to mention that your characters shouldn’t be all white.
@@DarthBiomech That depends. Are those works going to be sold exclusively in Thailand or Pakistan? Are they in those countries’ native languages? Or, are you trying to sell something like that in Canada or the US?
"character charts... for every. single. character. or I'm calling the police. Me: sitting here waiting to see your character chart for the jester or I'm calling the police.
Personally, if I see a hypocritical character, like a character who judges people for something while also doing that thing, I will absolutely loath them. Many people also hate character who can like turn people against your protagonist by manipulating the crowd and playing the victim
Number one best tip for writing characters: Don't listen to writing advice. Write your own characters. Make them heroic, make them fat, short, thin, tall, hirsute (never did Chewie any harm), make them old, make them young, make them disabled, make them pregnant, make them without child. Do what you want, it's your story or novel. I can't reiterate this enough.
About the all white cast... I am writting a Japanese fantasy story, it's hard to see an Africanamerican in it, unless I refer to Yasuke, the African samurai (real story)
I agree, she was not very inclusive of different circumstances in this advice. Different countries have different kinds of people sure, but say your book is set in Africa, it would not be out of place to have the whole cast be black, otherwise if the book was set in say America, there would probably be a few different races included
@@ravenfrancis1476 I'm not a racist, if that's where you're going, I just happen to lack that information. I never believed all Japanese people are necessarily white/pale, I always thought that there are people who are not pale, for example I know a guy from Greece (born and lived there) and he was not white or pale, he was Africanamerican (I don't to use any other word to identify his skin color that might make me look like I'm a racist)
So I bought your books: Savior's Champion and Savior's Sister. The parcel arrived today, after two weeks journey from USA to Poland during pandemic. And I'm not allowed to read them, cause it is my Christmas gift and I will unpack them on 24 Dec. Waiting is a TORTURE! Also I hope you will become so popular, that your books got translation in all languages. :) I believe that book is the best in its original language, but here in Poland we have some pretty awesome translators. Polish versions of Terry Pratchett's books are iconic. Don't you worry, if you decide to hit Polish book market your precious babies won't be butchered. :)
So you're saying that all white communities never existed? What if I tell you that my brown culture has always been brown till white people came along? Of course it would be a blend eventually but it is a fact that all brown and all white communities existed in history. Don't be daft.
@@notyetdeleted6319 its effects on genetics? You realize we still have basically homogeneous societies today. Take the two Koreas, for instance. You don't have white or black koreans. Just Koreans. And its homogeneous enough for most people to be able tell the difference in Koreans, Japanese, Chinese etc.
I think self-inserts within your definition are bad, but Luke Skywalker is a self-insert and several people loved his character. I think it's ok to base a character off of your inner monologue or a part of yourself, but yes within the definition of just perfect wish fulfillment it is a badly written character.
“He used to be The Witcher, but now he’s an incel!” If I had a penny for every book I’ve proofread that is just Witcher: Attack of the Feminists, I’d have three pennies. Which isn’t a lot but wild that it’s happened three times. Anyway I hate it here.
Except self inserts aren't always terrible, that description more fits Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. I've read books with self inserts that were excellent. It's the Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus that are not good characters.
On another note, I absolutely went to a school of 100% white people, like to the point that when we had a black transfer student, they lost their minds. So actually yes I can believe a full white cast. Sad, but true, and it was in Idaho. Granted, they weren't all male nor were they all hetero or cis, but they were all white. Growing up in Germany, however, there was a lot more diversity for sure.
Pointing out another thing she mentions, not all your characters in your book need to be fleshed out. This is subjective. If you're making a series like Harry Potter, where you do have a set number of characters that push the story, but not all of them, the filler characters do not need their own depth. But if you're like J. R. Ward or Sherilyn Kenyon, fleshing out side characters or background characters of one book usually means you're gonna see them in another later book as a protagonist, because they create book series that are part of a whole universe but each book is a different character.
Honestly, the only type of self-insert that may be enjoyable to read is what I call "the anti-self-insert" Basically, take all your worst traits, shove them into the character, upgrade them a bit, and let them deal with it. No one expects the a-hole to be actually inspired by the creator, so no one usually recognizes it (especially considering those are the traits you usually hide from people), and because it is, on the core, a projection of yourself, it kinda avoids the pitfall of not giving the character any nuance. Pick your implicit bias to pity yourself and use them to something good.
Aw man. I spent multiple weeks planning out my character arcs and backstorys, along with giving them all unique personalities, but most of them are wight. Guess I'm an uncreative hack because I think about actually developing my cast and actual good writing instead of forcing diversity, so I pretend to be woke.
I have a reason, my characters are from a alternate Russia, where most people are white. This girl doesn't really think of how the setting can effect the ethnicity of a character.
--"all of your characters are cis hetero able-bodied people..." yes...because not all stories need to have a fucking freak show of modern American diversity in them.
Ah, yes, being disabled makes you such a freak show when literally every human being becomes disabled provided they live long enough. Cry harder that people are different from you, babe.
One of my best tips for writing characters, one that I sometimes don’t focus enough on myself, is GIVE THEM HOBBIES. Not just one, multiple. Give them things their good at. Decide which one’s their favorite. Maybe they love doing something that they’re totally shit at. Decide what their bad at. Giving characters these things make them seem more human because every human gets bored and therefore will have picked up a hobby or two. Give them INTERESTS. You don’t have to paste them all over your book but make sure they’re there.
in regards to the "cast so white" thing...there are lots of reasons why the cast could be entirely white, even today. Maine (I think, i know it's one or two of the north eastern states) has a population that is 94% white, for example. If your novel is set in most parts of europe during most time periods, it was 100% white. If your novel is focusing on certain religious groups past or present, their populations are nominally 100% white depending on location and branch of that religion. As for the example of "twenty characters, two of which are women, all of which are cis-het neur-typical" that is entirely possible. For example, one could be writing a sci-fi novel focusing on a military unit of a colony created by whites, where medical technology has successfully reached the point of curing mental conditions.
I hate to be _that_ person, but what's up with the #4 one? I get what you mean, but it seems so oversimplified that it wraps around itself and becomes a piece of bad advice behind the comedic veneer. Like, if the story happens in the Americas or modern Europe (Western Europe's big cities mostly), then yeah, you can't really go with an all-white cast, but what if you're writing about Vikings in their era? What about Medieval Europe? It has to be a pretty specific plot to bring a black person up there. It _could_ be a very interesting story, but what if it's not the story you want to write? Just have one non-white for the sake of it? Sounds like tokenism. And what about male-female quota?? What if someone wants to write an all-guys group going on an adventure? What's the problem? The way some people talk about it, it almost sounds like it's just not allowed under _any_ circumstances. I really don't get this.
History's a lot more diverse than the bigots would make you kind of believe. And if you want to write an all-male cast, you should probably examine *why it is* you want that so badly that you get upset when you're criticized for it?
@@ravenfrancis1476 My question is _why_ is it so wrong? Why would anyone _get_ criticized for it? What's the difference if it were an all-girl cast instead? If one is wrong, the other is also wrong, no? But what's the problem? Seems more bigoted to say that there _is_ a problem with it. Also, what do you mean with diverse history and bigots saying whatever? I always have to ask, because I genuinely don't know what this mean _exactly._ Some elaboration would be appreciated.
@@MayannHanna It’s different in that women are largely underrepresented in most non-romance genres. If a man wants to find a book where the main protagonist is a man he doesn’t have to look very far, but women have to actively look for representation. I mean that bigots tend to think that a lot of places were xenophobic ethnostates but in reality if you actually bothered to do even bare minimum of research nonwhite people are basically everywhere at every point in history.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I don't care about moral relativity. Both are the same to me. Women aren't 'underrepresented', people write what they know and what they like. I don't see a problem. Most romances are written by women. I don't have to look far at all, a lot of YA books have a female protagonist, there's a torrent of them, and most women aren't so shallow that they need a _merely_ female protag to identify with, as if 'female' was all that defines them. Seems like a silly, shallow concern. And oh man, here we go... (there's a TL;DR at the end) Of course 'nonwhites' were in most of the world, they're the majority, silly. But please don't ignore ethnic lines and pre extensive access to travel through the most difficult area which is the middle east and the sea. Non-Europeans in Europe were a rarity, exceptions, just like Europeans in Africa in pre-colonial times were _also_ a rarity. This happened all over the world. An example would be the black samurai in Japan (interesting stuff, look it up). But in that one case, would one say blacks are part of Japanese history? Or that one black can _be_ Japanese? Or that they were seen often enough that an _Edo era_ story would have one without the _specific_ exception being the main focus? Of course not. An exception doesn't make the rule. Most of history was very ethnically divided, and it's had some relatively clear lines. Irish and English have mixed up here and there, but both recognize each other as _different,_ so much so that Irish-English history is what it is. Mixing up mostly with similar-looking neighbors and travelers (who could only travel so far, btw), with exceptions sprinkled in. There are specific exceptions, but let's not pretend it's what you meant. Moors in Iberia for example. They actually interacted because they're so close, but that's not the same for the rest of Africa, let's say. The thing with Arabia and the Ottomans is another interesting one, so here, don't forget that religious wars were a thing, and drawing visible ethnic lines was an immediate subset of that. 'Nonwhites', the many African tribes, Arabia, Anatolia, they all have so much history, so many groups and tribes with their own distinctive histories, I really don't see why racists _insist_ on ignoring it all in favor of _shoving_ them in histories they clearly weren't really part of... Inclusion through _lies_ is not a good thing. But, it's not like I'm going to convince you of absolutely anything because people just do that irrelevant of the veracity of their argument. I know that. You'll just rationalize away. So let's just leave it at that. *TL;DR* You're wrong but I can't convince you of that so whatever. 90% sure you didn't read this whole thing anyway. This is a waste of both our times.
@@MayannHanna All I See is a bunch of bullshit propaganda made up to justify pretending your racism has basis in history. And yes they are underrepresented. Representation is important.
6:00 what if my story task place in medieval Europe during a time when immigration wasn't common. Littering your stories with diversity is political advice for be a responsible creator. NOT writing advice. Kingdom come deliverance isn't a worse story for being mostly white. And black panther isn't a better story for being mostly black.
-make self insert
-beta readers complement you on how many flaws you gave him
-cry
DEAD
Feelsbadman
That's rough buddy~
I take myself, charictors, and other ppl into my charictors, altough I do try to add some diffrences. And sometimes when I right, I realize.... I need help.
The only I think self-insert I made is a normal human in a world of monsters who gets beat up etc. no matter how nice he acts. Even got drilled through a rock wall by a monster using fire.
One thing to say: No matter what flaws you give your heroes, try to do something to make them sympathetic ('Self-insert' in question tends to be more isolated from people trying to make a supersuit to fight monsters better (This supersuit gets destroyed in like its second use) while also typically lashing out at anyone bullying him which can get him into trouble)
Terrible Writting Advice:
"Finally , a worthy opponent, our battle will be LEGENDARY!!"
Finally, a worthy opponent, our battle for Sponsorship will be LEGENDARY.
@Wy Siona it's actually a Kung Fu Panda reference
Faolan All according to plan!
All this needs now is a _love triangle_
@@minty7945 But who will be in the love triangle? 😏
"That's because those writers *are* werewolves, wizards, and serial killers."
As a werewolf writing a werewolf book, can confirm.
I can confirm this as true, I’m the werewolf they’re writing about
As a wizard I can confirm that this is true.
As a serial killer, can confirm
(C'mon, you know I had to)
@@fullmetaltheorist I am average, normal, real, human, person and I write about other average, normal, real, human, persons
As a Eldridge abomination masquerading as a Hugh Mann, I agree
“Layers are for onions not people.”
....and ogres
People have layers too.
I don't get it, try using cake next time.
@@RakastanPorkkanakakkua They are talking about the movie Shrek.
@@jiffycook Did you watched the movie? Donkey says to Shrek to use cake instead of onions in his metaphor...
My my... How tables turned
Stuff
1. Don't wing it
2. Don't copy other characters
3. Don't self insert
4. Diversity
5. Add layers
6. Don't only write from your experience; do research
7. Don't have too many flaws
8. Don't treat all characters like main characters
9. Multiple people can be funny
10. Make the villain more complex
I'm going too try making a successful character checking all of these boxes wish me luck
Uh- what if you like-… are making a creative story.. about an oc
How am I not supposed to not self insert-
@@Dragonfruitinspace i see we have the same goals
@@Dragonfruitinspace i think you just need to make it less obvious thats its a self insert, like make it a psychological manifestation of what you aimed to be or smth
"he used to be the Witcher; now he's the Witcher AND an incel!" when i tell you i SCREAMED-
Same, my wig FLEW
I had to get up from my comfy spot with my Christmas Tree Cake to go tell my husband this exact line because I could NOT wait to tell him this masterpiece of a quote.
@@baileymclemore6065 It truly is BUT HOW DARE SHE DO MY BOY GERALT LIKE THAT
Same I jumped off my bed.
I HAD TO PUT MY PHONE DOWN FOR A SECOND LOL
"But Jenna, people write about werewolves and wizards!"
"That's because those authors _are_ werewolves and wizards. Duh."
Fan fiction writers: *nervous sweating*
Wait, random real people aren't secretly pansexual magical wolves from outer space?!? How are the fanfic-writers gonna cope??
🤣🤣🤣
@@Alias_Anybody all pansexuals are from outer space. We are a unique and powerful species plotting world domination one day at a time
Hey, umm, Pansexual? A romantic attraction toward, uhh, Pan?
@@ambaraputra1603 if you’re asking a serious question, pan means all in Greek. Pansexuals are equally attracted to all genders.
Getting some Terrible Writing Advice vibes here and I like it.
We need that crossover sometime. Jenna vs. JP
Yes! I want a Terrible Writing Advice, Jenna, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Hello Future Me, and Shadiversity collab
My books about werewolves.
Yes. The sarcastic tone is perfect. Also, how can a character be Geralt an an incel? That seems impossible.
YES
While having a diverse cast can certainly help with making your story more globally relatable, it is also important to know that a writer's job is to tell a story. It is not a writer's job to represent as many different groups as possible. In my eyes, you can even have a cast consisting to 90% of middle-aged Indian Hindu women and it would be ok as long as the characters are well-written and unique from one another.
I agree, that's where she lost me.
If one has to diversify ones cast, they should know first and foremost know what their culture is and what makes them unique... or else they would sound and act like white in a different coat of paint....
@@2006HondaCivicD That's right. A Jamaican might have a different mindset than a Russian. It's an important thing to keep in mind when writing. Even in a made-up world, people from different places of it should probably have their own unique cultures. Furthermore, adding cultural details to your story can make your story world all the more rich and compelling.
Is this some story about king or emperor who has harem of middle-aged Indian Hindu women?
@@realdragon Not my type, but you can write whatever you want.
“Don’t copy existing characters”
Fan fiction writers: 👁👄👁
Here’s something I _actually_ witnessed...
Author: *Creates a best friend character who is rude, toxic and emotionally abusive towards everyone including the MC for absolutely no goddamn reason and is overall just really dislikable *
Readers: *Dislikes the character *
Author: *Surprised Pikachu Face*
Katsuki Bakugo and Minoru Mineta in a nutshell.
Are you talking about Chloe from Life is Strange? I heard she’s a lot like that
Read this and thought it was Onision
Yo why does this remind me so much of Howard Weinerman from RC9GN? I hated that guy. I could never figure out why Randy didn’t just leave him and find a better best friend.
@Verserer Gred Yeah, sucks that people don't know what a character arc is nowadays and expect everyone to be virtuous like Midoriya from the get-go.
Like damn Vegeta killed trillions of innocent aliens and people accept him and Bakugo comparatively does jackshit to anyone and people go at him.
So, when are we getting a Terrible Writing Advice and Jenna Moreci crossover?
J.P. Beaubien should know this
hopefully soon
Please!!!
Its should be about giving advice for only the self-published
Yeah, those two have the same sarcastic energy.
okay off topic but her dog is the chaotic kind of adorable that makes my heart go 😭😭😭
What's chaotic about it?
Kinda like Jenna❤
@@kimifw58 If we have to explain you wouldn't get it 🤣😁
@@charity6372 If you don't know what it means, just say so.
I suscribed before to watch the video just for the dog.
"That's because those writers are werewolves, wizards, and serial killers."
I am a werewolf. I have written werewolf fiction. Twilight appropriated my culture.
*sees Furries*
"My CuLtUrE iS nOt YoUr FuCkInG pRoM dReSs!!!"
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I disagree with the villain one. I don’t want to understand villains sometimes, they don’t always need a reason to be evil. Some people are just terrible and for no reason but to watch the world burn. A good “why not?” goes a long way.
I mostly agree with you. You can have villains who are just evil and still create tension. FE: Mulan vs Shun Yu. He didn’t have a story behind his character and yet there was that tension as he grew closer and closer to the main character. I think it all depends on the story you are trying to tell.
I agree that in story people can be evil just to be evil however in real life it's not that easy. People are complex and to say some people are evil just to be evil is oversimlpification
I LOVE a good pure evil villain. Give them a simple motivation like money or power (not just for evil’s sake) and let them have fun with it. Its fun to see a pure villain succeed and it’s even better to watch them fall.
There is no human is history that just woke up one day to be evil. They all have a past, they all have motives. Even if it’s simple as he has never worked for his own money a day in his life, or she plans to murder all men because they pay her no mind. Don’t make shallow villains unless you want to write a Disney story.
I don't think she meant "villains can just be terrible for no good reason" is a bad tip, but rather "you don't need to put any thought into creating villains" is a bad tip. Like I also disagree that it's unrealistic to have characters who just want power, but it's *because* they exist as real people that there are actual psychological mechanisms behind their evilness; it's not "instant magical evil, just add water".
They're conscious people; if you could see inside their head, they do have actual coherent thoughts that follow some sort of logic :P Even "why not" is part of some internal narrative!
You forgot the most important character creation and development tool...THE LOVE TRIANGLE!
What is this, TWA?
While they can happen in real life. It's played to death in media. Well, I feel that way.
Nah, the love dodecahedron’s much better. (As long as it doesn’t involve the comic relief character who we TOTALLY dont want to shove into a pit of spikes, whatsoever)
Terrible Writing Advice?
I see you are an individual of culture as well!
Jenna’s Sponsor: **Not SkillShare**
Me: NOT SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!
I knew something was wrong
Every single video I watch: *This video is sponsored by skillshare!*
Me: Ok. Fine. I get it. I know very single thing about skillshare.
invader zim reference much?
Coulda been worse. Coulda been R:SL
😂
Jenna just turned into Terrible Writing Advice. Jenna, I hope you know who he is. Brilliant and very funny guy.
I didn't even notice that! Lol. I agree though. He's great.
I want a crossover episode.
I was thinking the same thing.
@@brockkelly4841 Me too! Terrible Jenna Advice FTW!
Just?? She's been making videos in this style for a long time
"Don't self insert"
*character over her left shoulder is literally her idealized self-insertion
The first half of this video got me, and then started feeling really preachy when she was like, "All of your characters are able bodied people?" like bruh.
@@OdelyxRangl, I may sound dumb and I’m not the best writer, but she seem kind of condescending. Also I’m making a universe with a self-insert of me as a hero (spider-sona) so yeah.
@robertpolito9209 I know right??? Like the beginning was SO disrespectful. Nowadays it's quite easy to get your own novel published, now matter how shitty it is, but she prides herself with it and looks down at writers that don't have a novel publsihed yet. Like yeah, it's your right to be proud about your accomplishments but please girl, show some basic respect.
These writers could be fabulous and just take their time, work at their own pace and be really careful and and meticulous about their work-- but she dismisses them as if they have no skill whatsoever. Really put me off, glad I'm not the only one
mfw im writing a drafting-war-like scenario where the requirements to be in it are very similar to the military ((they have to be able bodied)) within countries (america & ussr) that have a majority of white people ((the majority of characters are white and/or male)) and i get to #4:
@@OdelyxRaexactly. Cant believe there weren’t enough schizophrenic paraplegic people in a post apocalypse centered story like wtf
The bad "self insert" maybe ought to be called the "unselfaware self insert". It seems pretty common for authors/screenwriters to include characters who share traits or worldviews with themselves, and if done with thoughtful self-awareness can work just as well as modeling a character on another real person. The problem comes from sticking in a character that isn't you, but rather is the gorgeous flawlessly cool genius you imagine yourself to be. That is unrealistic and often dull, especially if you then have the character live out your own very specific fantasies that almost no one else relates to.
Yeah! I have seen a few self inserts that are genuinely well written.
One of my fave examples of this is Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows. Confused? Well the author Leigh Bardugo has osteoporosis and walks with a cane, so she made a character with the same struggle. A theme in the duology is embracing your ‘flaws’ and using them to empower you, ie. how Kaz fights with his cane and it becomes a symbol for him. When people hear that cane tapping against the ground they’re scared. I feel Leigh put her emotions into his character and it shows in his depth and realism. By using struggles you’ve faced in your writing you can really benefit from incorporating the deeper understanding and unique experiences you have.
Hooray? I'm trying to make a story and I never see sensitive main characters that act similar to me so I was basing her off of me even though we ended up totally different, only similarities are well, wanting to help people but also not confident? Lol!
I personally think that technically you can write anything, you just have to execute it well.
A character I self inserted a little I honestly just gave her a lot of my most complex/ worst traits bc I had more experience with those and it helped make her more interesting and 3 dimensional
My general advice for avoiding writing Mary Sues is to ask yourself: how do the people in your world react to your character, compared to how people in real life would react? If these don’t match up, then your character might be a Mary Sue.
For example, let’s say I have a character that’s nice, pretty, and delightfully insecure that’s HATED by all. The popular girls pick on her (because they’re secretly jealous) and because of that, everyone (except maybe the love interest) avoids her like the plague. Think about that. In real life, people actually like nice people, and not every popular person is a jealous twat.
And then, take the Anti-Sue. Mean, violent, and sassy, she can (and will) kill you if she wants to. Yet she’s surrounded by love interests (because a realistic story about an unstable character is too sad) and is respected by all. In real life, this character would probably be in prison.
So, yeah. If your universe treats your character like it should, then it probably isn’t a Sue.
As well as that, I would also recommend humanising them and adding some (but not a lot) of human flaws. Maybe the character IS really nice, but can be a bit of a doormat. So their development would involve them learning to say no and that what they want and feel matter too.
Oh. And that’s the biggest Anti-Mary Sue weapon: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Ideally we as the reader should see this character go from A to B and ultimately become a better person by the end of the story (or worse. Depends if it’s a progressive or recessive arc you’ve written). A tried and true development method is having the character acknowledge their own flaws and try to overcome them.
But that’s just my little tidbit of advice.
Another trait I've seen associated with Mary Sue: they're an attention magnet, i.e. the story is all about them.
Supporting characters? "I was able to become strong thanks to [protagonist name]" or maybe "Damn you villain, we are certain [protagonist name] will put you down."
And of course, villain's motivation is related to history with [protagonist name] in some way or another.
And it's like that for pretty much every major character.
Maybe not every Mary Sue acts as attention magnet and not every attention magnet qualifies as a Mary Sure, but it's still a phenomenon that should be avoided.
@@AlphishCreature this screams Elena from vampire diaries
@@AlphishCreature Frankly speaking, almost every shounen anime protagonist is an attention magnet. Maybe they rely on power fantasy?
@@CrazyGreenFluff I see your point. There definitely are exceptions to the rule. Saitama from One Punch Man, for example, is one of my favorite characters. Most of the OP characters that do avoid Mary Sue status tend to have really complicated personalities and flaws to make up for it. Though, I do think that Mary Sue is a valid critique. It truly can make or break a story for me, and many other people. At the end of the day, though, it’s still the writer’s choice whether they actually *care* about that advice.
good to know my writing isn’t a dumpster fire.
It’s still a dumpster, but no fire
Actually my characters are good according to this so yay
Dude hope ur dumpster turn into a mansion with your humblement
Even those pure evil villains who are just evil for evil's sake have personalities. There are some key personality differences that define the Joker from Skeletor or from comics Thanos or from Megatron. You don't always need an extremely complex villain, but they should still always have a personality beyond "is evil".
Reminds me of Handsome Jack, my favorite bad guy ever. Super villainous dickbag, but he's funny and quite possibly the pettiest human being in existence.
UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!
@@WhiteBloggerBlackSpecs WHEN I THINK OF "Evil for the sake of evil" I THINK OF HIM.
But honestly, I love him, and he's a great example of a great evil for the sake of evil. He's sarcastic, charismatic, I can see where he's coming from sometimes, but he's evil for the sake of evil.
Tell that to Astruc
Actually Thanos isn't evil just to be evil, he's an anti-villain who want to do good (save all species in Universe) but goes the genocide route to achieve this
#1.... "wing it" is decent advice for writers who hate plotting.
Some writers get to know their characters through writing. The character gains depth as their story is told. The main advice for that is to then go back and give the beginning of the book the same depth as the latter end of book.
You should realize that not everyone writes the same way.
I play DnD, my best characters I played were making shit up as I go, with very few characteristics. And I plan to run very open game where players can do whatever so I can't plan every character. What if they decide to become best friends with some rando from shop that I just materialized
8:56
“Treat every character, like the main character.”
Me actually having a decent backstory, character design, character personality, and human emotions for 50-/+ main characters in the same story: 👁️👄👁️💧
Edit: Well warning, two people started arguing in the replies-
Edit 2 (2023):
To the people who want to comment, please be respectful of each other and avoid starting another fight like the one a couple of years ago. Be respectful to/of each other's way of works, thank you.
I'm still working on this story, but is being left on the sidelines because I'm working on many other stories and school stuff, and yes all named characters are treated like main characters (think of it like RWBY for example), not even a single character has been removed from the roster and I think it's going splendid.
This is the comment I was looking for! I don't get why this is a bad advice... I like all my characters equally and love to know where they're coming from and what their motivations are.
@@Spidernana93
Finally someone who shares the same situation as someone like me-
But I completely understand what you mean, especially in loving all the characters equally. They're simultaneously your children *and* lover, sometimes relating to that character more than usual depending om your current mood.
Basically when you have multiple characters you put all your brain cells' efforts, you just can't stop thinking about them.
_I mean, seriously, you can't listen to one of your favourite songs for fun because of the song that describes your character, and hey maybe the whole cast in general_
@@Spidernana93 This is a bad advice because, like in Jenna's example, did the character that only say one sentence in the entire book NEEDS that much attention? Also, if you put too much effort in everyone, you start to lose focus in the story.
Also, mentioning OP, do you story really need 50 (FIFTY, OMG) main characters? Will you be able to give ALL THEM screen time? Will you have time to give ALL THEM development? How BIG will be that book?
If too much characters have too much attention, the book/story lose focus and is pretty likely your readers will, in fact, feel less compelled to read.
It's ok if you want to use all of them, but definitively NOT in the same book. Focusing in 2 or 3 at a time is the best option because you can work better with it.
@@MidoriKyun I get your meaning now as you explained. What Jenna says in the video though is: not to chart every character, not even the villain or the love interest. My point is: you can chart the characters and only actually write what is relevant to the story. I don't understand how you can have a villain in your story and NOT chart them? I think their character arc has to be touched upon somehow 🤷🏻♀️
Is not bad... But as someone who has a lot of characters and I pay too much attention to them. It IS a bad advice.
Focus on the main ones, don't waste energy and creativity on the characters that won't have much screen time or will appear one second.
Me who winged like 80% of the cast of my first novel: *nervous sweating*
My first novel which is a superhero story I'm somewhat doing that. But I do have the villains figured out a bit more.
Same. I had planned my main protagonist and my main antagonist, but everyone else I just made up as I went. Somehow I managed to keep them consistent overall, though I did have to smooth out some scenes.
@@narwhalwriter I have two villains (three technically but this third one is just muscle and toughness that my main protagonist can't easily take out), and they all work together. I plan on only having one villain for the sequel story though.
As for the type of superhero story, its dark and serious. Think Batman combined with Punisher and he's also a Catholic priest. I thought it was an awesome concept, a priest by day, vigilante by night. :)
Lmao same 😀👍🏻
Way I write is to come up with scenes I wanna do, then wing all the interconnecting BS.
A lot of the main characters in my short stories are not me, but they do have little pieces of me in them: hobbies, interests, family, etc.
Frankly, those are the characters that I enjoy reading the most; the ones that are human, because the author has written a bit of their soul into the character.
I would say that’s a good thing. Jenna said not to take “write what you know” to extremes, but you have to do it a bit to make the characters convincing.
Same, What I usually do is that I exaggerate those features or just make them less relevant depending what they are or if they are something that can define/ is important to shape my character and those around them, so to some extent, each one of my character is me just more traumatized or less.
Same,I do the same thing,I gave one of my MCs a similar family to mine
I write fanfiction a lot, and when I do I add in little pieces of me to the characters I write. It makes it easier for me to write them than writing the cannon parts only.
Self inserts have a place, and that place is wattpad.
CrazyGreenFluff do you know what a joke is or
precisely why i use ao3
My novel is on Wattpad, and I'd sooner die than consider ANY of these lazy concepts....
It is impossible to not self insert. EVERYONE does it, even if not intentional.
@@MrParkerman6 yea, Dipper from gravity fall's is a self-insert character and people like that character.
I think that it’s irrelevant if a character is gay, straight, white or black, because if you base the entire character around those things, they will end up being a very boring and uninteresting character
It might be relevant in story to be gay however I often hate it because writers don't give those character any other personality other than being gay
@@realdragonik, they just be like: look, I made a gay, are you satisfied now?!
It can factor in, if it’s a plotline in a particular time period or setting.
In modern day settings though, it’d just be a tertiary trait that probably isn’t commented on. And if you do comment on it, it’ll probably be tacky.
She's more likely refering to worldbuilding, but yeah
While I do believe in diversity, I can't say I fully agree with four, as it definitely depends on the narrative
Yes, inserting diversity in the story just for the sake of it is just as bad as all the other nine advices put together. While I get what’s she’s trying to say I would elaborate better because it sounds like it’s a mandatory step when actually it depends on a lot of factors.
What do you mean? Of course the story of a spy infiltrating the ranks of Nazi Germany has to have black people.
Yup. As a woman I love Whiplash, The Shawshank Redemption, Lord of The Flies, and Full Metal Jacket and they all have an almost entirely male cast.
@@crisptomato9495 And modern movies try to force strOnG fEmAlE ChaRaCteR with no flaws instead trying to make actually interesting character
Edgy 14 year olds: "Write that down WRITE THAT DOWN!!!!"
Ehhh. I'd rather make good content that Jenna would like than make absolute garbage.
14 year olds replying to this comment: _Hey_ I’m not like that, I’m different and mature!! Unlike _those_ guys, haha. Please accept me.
@@cr4ck3r58 jokes on you, I’m 13
😂👏🏻👏🏻
@Leah Burgundy Same! Nice to know I'm not alone.
A question: How to understand if the character is a self-insert? Because all my characters are better than me.
@@CrazyGreenFluff Yeah. I felt kinda attacked when Jenna talked about self insert characters like they're trash. My main character is a self insert. The story is going to be a what if scenario (what would my life be like if not only was I different in the sense that I'd be queer, neuro divergent and had magical abilities). How much more difficult and also easier would my life be, being born different in the middle of an abusive family system? That's the whole premise of the book series that I'm planning.
@@kevinbaltarejo1114 that sounds like a real rollercoaster! can you tell me more about the story idea?
@@kevinbaltarejo1114 The only problem I think about self inserts is that the writer would most likely be prone to making the character a little too special. To the point that the character gets what he/she wants with minimum effort.
It is much more fulfilling for a reader to watch a character get his/her goal if they got along through their struggles and hardships. A self insert is less likely to go through rough roads.
As long as you let your character develop naturally through believable problems, I think the story wouldn't be affected; even if the protagonist is a self insert.
@@obseed3041 I think this maybe what Jenna was talking about. Because most of the time, self inserts tend to become what you describe "too special".
Just look up videos of people reading onision's books. They're all perfect examples of self-inserts.
“But Jenna...” is one of the best sentence starters ever.
ok, but, if your villain is INTENTIONALLY just evil to be evil, it can DEFINETLEY work. I know this video is old but like, Jack Horner in the new puss in boots is a great example
The most important writing tip of all: Take all writing tips with a grain of salt. Its a suggestion, not a rule. Don't limit yourself or worry too much about all the "rules" and "tips"
The best comment ❤
Based
ADVICE!
1) Look, you’re ALLOWED to write assholes into your story. When done right, they can be engaging and layered. But remember this: to make a lovable jackass you NEED to give the audience reasons to care about them. A-holery can not- repeat can NOT- be their one personality trait. Believe you me, that gets real old real fast. Give them a few redeeming qualities: maybe they secretly really care about the other main characters but feels like expressing that adoration is a weakness. Maybe they love kittens and puppies and other fluffy baby animals. Maybe they’re insecure and act the smart Alec to protect themselves. I don’t care what traits you choose, just please add some so that we don’t get a one-note douche.
2) Humanisation is important. Empathy and relatability are your BFFs when it comes to writing likeable and engaging characters. Try to implement these whenever you can. Granted, these should mainly be used for main and important secondary characters. The side characters and extras don’t need much fleshing out. Whenever you’re writing your protagonist(s), think to yourself. What flaws and/or traits can you give this fictional character so that they feel more like a person? This can be done either by making them relatable or making them sympathetic. Relatability is usually good for MCs, since they’ll be the set of characters we’ll be spending the most time with. Try to add some traits or flaws that are somewhat realistic and easy to relate to. Maybe they’re short tempered, or mumble to themselves, or get easily embarrassed. Sympathy is EXCELLENT for villains and antagonistic characters. It helps us feel for the character in question, and fleshes them out beyond a fictional character.
3) Tropes are your friend, not your enemy. While it is true that it usually isn’t the best idea to pump your story full of reused ideas and tropes, that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily BAD. When used correctly, tropes can help spice up a story. It’s cliches that you need to look out for. A good idea when using a trope for a character is to take the basic idea of the trope, and see how you can put your own spin on it. For instance, maybe for the Mean Bully and Airhead Follower trope you can have it that they’re really good friends but the bully is going through a lot of messed up stuff at home and is acting out of character and the follower is just being a good friend and staying by their side for support.
I did a weird thing to one of my main villains and I'm still not sure if I was initially trying to make it easier for ME to relate to him to make writing him easier, or if I just wanted to make him suffer because he's an awful human being, OR if I simply wound up projecting onto him because I was under a lot of stress when I added that in to his character. Specifically I gave him OCD, which is a condition I also have, and a lot of his mental struggles with it are based off my own dealings with it. So I CAN relate to him on that, but I also wind up mentally cackling: "SUFFER! FEEL MY PAIN! YOU'RE HORRIBLE SO YOUR PAIN PLEASES ME!" He's still a competent villain mind you, but it is something that slows him down a bit and really adds to his overall stress level. (And gets worse the more stressed you are because OCD's self-perpetuating like that)
Amy Oh no. That’s good. Like I said, adding human flaws to characters makes them more believable. And frankly I think a villain with OCD has awesome potential. I doubt you’ll fudge it like I’ve seen other authors do when writing mental disorders/conditions, since you’re speaking from experience and know the inner workings of the disorder. So I say go for it.
Thank you for this!
I needed this. I made a character and her personality is so complex and o had a hard time understanding how to make complex characters
Kayla Stylislon Np! Glad I could help!
“Because Disney said so”
That got Olaf out of me
Bad writing advice? Or....
Terrible writing advice.........
Hehe
Other people making self-inserts: It's like me, but better
Me, making self inserts: It's like me, but all my deepest insecurities have been amplified.
YEEES!
I made something like that but I put my weirdest trait
The one about a white cast really lost me. What if I have a cast of 4 characters and they’re all white? What? I have to make one of them black or gay? Well isn’t that just winging it and focusing more on diversity than the actual characters? Its not impossible to relate to a character of another race. Apparently I need to make a Hispanic character that only Hispanics can relate to. Stupidest shit ever.
Seriously. I couldn't help but feel there be a blurred line between what was writing advice and what was telling people what to do.
It's asinine.
@@Geminilion100 welcome to her channel lmao. she treats her words as gospel
@@Greggers1516 It's always the well-to-do suburbanites that constantly radiate I-know-whats-best energy.
Feeling like I had to force diversity onto all my characters is what killed my passion for writing. Could not agree more
"That's because those writers are werewolves, wizards, and serial killers"
As a carnivorous genetically modified alien, I can confirm.
Once you start watching the eyebrows, you can’t stop. See? You’re welcome.
Oh dang... You're right.
🤣🤣🤣 true!
Way ahead of you.
😭😭😭😭😭
They're gorgeous
I feel like she completely accidentally called out "Terrible writing advice" and "Mother's basement" in the intro, lol.
Edit: It was a joke guys, both are very good channels, Jesus.
I don't know Mother's Basement, but Terrible Writing Advice is supposed to be sarcastic, and good advice is written on screen at points.
How do you mean? I don't know the 2nd but TWA's channel is about sarcasm; he's making fun of bad writing while sneaking in good advice.
@@Ika0713
Guys, calm down, both are good channels, I just mentioned it because it's funny.
@@LU-qr3kh Do you watch anime?? Mother's Basement mostly critiques animations from Japan.
Do you not know what "call out" means? Or "basement-dweller"?
Terrible Writing Advice be proud
5:53 ...seriously? You think "white" people aren't diverse? That irish, scottish, french, german, spanish, slovak, russian, italian, swedish, finnish, dutch etc etc aren't diverse for you?
That's like saying 'wow the entire cast is asian/black/indigenous' as if they don't have racial subgroups? Smfh, seriously....
"do you know 20 cis white males without disability in one place", well, I can't speak on disabilities because we don't always see struggle, but yes, I've been to church before.
Yep there certainly shows something about churches
Like what church? That's a country club. I can't recall a single church I've been in that wasn't at least 60% female ruled by the cane and walker crew.
Pretty much...
ruclips.net/video/s8JArJzgN04/видео.html
Last days in Nagorno-Karabakh war (a few months ago).
In 24 minutes of videos, you can see tenths of people, how many non white, non cis male,or with disabilities can you spot?
Or the Military. Or Georgia (though I'm pretty sure being an inbred yokel is a disability...)
About the point of "self insert" I'd make some exceptions. Inserting yourself (or who you believe yourself to be or an idealized version of yourself) into a fictional setting can be a great way to explore your own desires, your wounds, your wishes, things you lived through... Self-Inserts can be eye-opening or at least alot of fun to write. Indulging in the fantasy of what you would do in a universe with your favourite characters or how it would be, if that one meeting with your crush would have been different, can be great for you. Imagining yourself in certain situations and writing about those feelings and impressions can lead to some pretty good scenes and stories. So yeah, if you want to write a book, basing every character off of yourself or your power fantasy will be pretty boring for your readers, but if you just want to write your daydream in a private word document, sure do so.
I'd go one step further and say there is nothing wrong about self inserts at all, as long as you DON'T write cheap wish fulfullment fantasies and as long as you fit into the story respectively make the necessary adjustments to your character (which is no problem if your character is an everyman character in a contemporary novel, but if your fictional self insert character grew up in a significantly different environment and/or has significantly different skills and tasks than real life you, you need to reflect how those differences might affect your personality)
@@chrisrudolf9839 Agree with both of you. My main character is a self-insert in that he has a pretty similar personality type to mine, but on the other hand, he's male whereas I'm female, less than half my age, and partially of a different racial background than I am. Some parts of his life are what I would have wished for for myself, but others are things that no one would have wished for themselves--as in, he was abused when he was younger. I gave him a good singing voice, which is something I would have liked to have had, but I didn't go the route of making him a Gary Stu who can't do anything wrong, which seems to be the aspect of a lot of self-inserts that people dislike in the first place. They want to read a story, not someone's private masturbatory fantasy of themselves as some kind of Demi-god. I suspect that Jenna would have no problem with this character.
Agreed. I'm currently writing my self-insert in the TfP verse (I blame my sister for its typed existence). My self-insert (named Addie) has flaws. She has problems that she has to deal with outside of the show's plot. And there are times when the good guys are so appalled at some of her actions, they refuse to talk to her for several weeks. The head honcho bad guy tells her to her face that she would be an excellent addition to his crew, and sometimes enjoys talking to her because of some of her views. (Lily-white, my character is not...) She has a few abilities that I do not possess, yes (and boy, what I wouldn't give to be able to learn a new skill in less than 5 seconds in an information download), but there are constraints on how they work, and there is an actual explanation for why she has them (and it's not just because I thought they were cool).
Addie lives, she laughs, she struggles. Aside from her abilities (some of which are aimply exaggerations of my own traits), she IS me, flaws and all. And those are the characters that I enjoy reading the most; the ones that are human, because the author has written a bit of their soul into the character.
"getting girls, at least in fiction."
That hit me personally
"character charts for every single character"
me: kicks my multitude of notes under the couch nervously
Yes... there are definitely no settings in which people of the same racial and societal background are grouped together... gotta have those token black, Arab, and Hispanic people in my story set in medieval Russia.
As a neuro**A**typical person I can confirm you must include them in your protagonist gang, how else are we supposed to feel included in the story? Not like its still humans beings and we still are human beings and can relate in other ways!
I am one as well. It always is a turn off for me when there is a character who is supposed to be neurodivergent. Such a vague term, characters could be just “eccentric” without putting on a label and dealing with all the problems that occurs. Easy to make the characters mental aspect overshadow the character themselves
Mimic human lmao
While you can relate, of you're different you can feel the difference being left aside if people never try to address it.
"Love Triangle" moment over here. All according to plan.
Thus begins Jenna’s transformation into Terrible Writing Advice
Tbh I like a villain that is just evil. This can be successfully done and has been many times but they have to have a personality that makes the readers enjoy having them in the story instead of a villain with motives and a rich backstory.
You gotta be careful with those characters since your in a small part of the population and people hate those kinds of videos
I’m not saying your opinion is wrong or bad just be careful with it
Great in a cartoonishly unrealistic story. Otherwise... No
5:46 Diversity quotas.
Don't forget to add your token black guy. Every book needs a token black guy.
And because it's the current year, I strongly suggest you also add a token gay person, a token disabled person, and a token woman in a high position of power.
Once you aquire enough tokens you get to go to the diverse utopia.
the latter is how you actually diversify a cast though...
@@KiKekkosa
Why so shallow?
Why aim for diversity of body type instead of diversity of opinions, personalities, world views, or mannerisms?
Case in point: *F.R.I.E.N.D.S*
6 able bodied people of the same race, age group, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation.
6 _distinct characters._
Unwanted opinion on LGBT+ diversity:
LGBT+ friend groups are common and normal. They happen in real life all the time. Most of the time, it’s not at _all_ on purpose, and just happens because people with similar interests attract each other.
By similar interests, I am referring to alt culture and subcultures + fandoms that LGBT+ people commonly partake in.
The same thing can also be applicable to POC (although not so much with subcultures I think). Although completely unintentional, I as an asian (ironic considering my name and pfp), have a lot of Asian friends and acquaintances.
With cishet white people, the same thing can also be said, however if a story has mainly cishet white characters, you can still diversify their appearances. You can still include LGBT+, POC characters in your story that are outside of your cishet white friend group.
I’m tired of people calling any and all diversity “forced” or “pandering” or “too political.” Sometimes it can be forced, but it’s very clear when diversity is forced, and most of the time when diversity is accused of being forced, it’s simply not true. Just let people and characters be, our existences are not inherently political, and you shouldn’t have to have a reason (to a degree, if you have a POC person in a secluded area with mostly white folks, there could be some reason) to include us. White, non-LGBT+ is *not* the default.
I actually don’t have a lot of Asian friends even though I am Asian American, however this probably has to do with growing up in a very white area.
At my first week of college I saw droves of (mostly East) Asians hanging out together, getting boba, etc. I really wanted to join but wasn’t sure how to approach (also I’m veeeerrrry white washed which makes me a little self conscious when approaching Asians and I have no idea why)
It is forced and pandering when it is literally done for no real reason than to have tokens among the cast. People advocating that are forgetting that most of the world is not, in fact, USA, and you'd be had pressed to find any PoC in, say, Poland, just as it would be hard to find an asian in Uganda. And, well, that SHOULD extend to fantasy imagined up worlds either. Because, guess what, they're imaginary.
It's pandering when you have every single sexuality, race, etc. in your story just to say you're inclusive without showing any of their personalities on the page. It's more than just about labeling someone as their race or sexuality. These things need to be shown.
Exactly, there isn’t an excuse to not include an lgbt character because lgbt people live all over the world, just because your novel is set in the 1400’s doesn’t mean everyone is white and straight, I’m tired of people making excuses
@@damijinadu4184 "just because your novel is set in the 1400’s doesn’t mean everyone is white and straight"
But if your character is homosexual then you're better to provide some serious justification to why they weren't persecuted or murdered yet (Or if you are writing fantasy, then do worldbuilding that explains why nontraditional sexuality is tolerated in your society, and they you will need to think about all of the implications of your justifications). You can have them just _casually_ be gay with no consequences. If you don't like that, then well better to not write story set in the damn dark ages where they could burn people for simply having red hair?
Character's absolutely must have flaws, literally no one is perfect and I mean NO ONE. Take my character Calvin as an example, he's a good person at heart but he's done some shitty things along the way, he tries to make up for his mistakes but doesn't always go about things in the right way. Flaws are a very nessicary part of empathizing with characters, because it makes them seem like real people.
This entire video is sarcastic ❤️
Yup
Not only that, characters refusing to let their flaws control them.
yeah...I've seen the CA discussion brought to the extreme conclusion: "only write what you know"... like... if you ASK someone from a minority and they tell you "Yes, write about me, I want you to, talk to me and listen and write that." and STILL some "helpful" people giving author advise say: "no, you do not have the experience to write that person that you are talking to, even if you do research, even if they tell you to, even if you listen. you do not have the right!" and then they shit on other people that do the research, that listen to a multitude of different minorities and try to get it right, because they " inherently do not have the right to write that" because they are straight or cis or white or rich or whatever.... I wish this phase in important questions like equality in the writing community... would move on into something more... good and... something that is actually being asked for.
Like for real. I'm so scared to wrote anything cus I don't want to offend anyone.
What matters is context.
Where is the setting.
Africa? Asia? South America? If so, I'm going to be *pretty* suspicious if your cast is almost all white.
When is your setting.
Are you in the early-1400s? The late-1800$? 3091?
During the past, immigration was scarcely a thing; in the future (I hope) skin tone wouldn't matter that much.
The when also matters for sexual and gender minorities.
It's identical to the previous.
How is your setting?
Is supernatural? Is just mundane reality?
If so, then gender/race/sexuality wouldn't be such a topic because there are literal vampires and werewolves running about. Especially if the paranormal is publicly known.
Context is paramount.
@@colt9836 Immigration was a massive thing in the past, that's how countries were made basically. My country has had constant immigration since before it was even a nation. 13000 years ago, then about 7-8000 years ago again, and then in bursts during the viking-era where a lot of people traveled with vikings back to Scandinavia as slaves or just willingly travelling.. a lot of business was made with the Islamic world even if that wasn't even a thing yet... then in the 11-13th century there was just a mishmash of different native Scandinavian and European people on the land people just kept on moving.And the very IDEA of a nation as something so important isn't even old at all, not in my country, that was not a thing until about 1900 ish.. This idea that immigration is modern, that colonialism is new, it feels very... american, and it feels very... lacking in history. And It doesn't really do anyone any favors. So yet again, I must say, the discourse on the subject is lacking. Still though, this is not really what my point was about. Research is always important. But people WILL tell you that you are writing stuff wrong, even if they are actually right, if it doesn't match their idea of what should be true. Because some people don't care if its true... they care about who the author is not about the truth of the story.
I think the write what you know thing is often misused. Even wizards and werewolves have to make sense in the context of your story world. Or if you are writing contemporary fiction and your character is working minimum wage but owns a penthouse in Manhattan you can't just handwave it away and think nobody will notice. This is going to look absurd and amateur hour and not a great idea unless you specifically want your reader to wonder where all their money comes from for a reason.
the "only white characters in a book" thing doesn't even really hit me bc I just think the other decided not to describe people's looks all that much. it really hits you when there's exactly 1 non-white character, bc they will hit you with those "skin the color of nutella" or "she could see as much as me, even though her eyes were slanted" or whatever
I think it's okay to have only white people (or only people of any other race) if it fits time and location, and especially when long distance travel is much more limited than in modern time. Traditionally countries had mostly the people of their ethic group. How common do you think a black, Mexican or Asian person would be in Russia (okay, maybe Asians) or inner (not by coastline, but even then) Norway or Sweden during medieval or earlier? I dont really agree you need to have diversity for diversities sake. Besides you may not make it obvious what their race is as you said. And for things like sexuality, you dont need to highlight everyone's sexuality either, sometimes none at all.
@@zakosist I thought Jenna's comment of 'I don't believe there can be 20 cis white males without disabilities in one place' was really bizarre. I live in England, which is supposed to be a multicultural globalised nation, and my school is 98% white, all my friends are male, and I don't know a single disabled person. So, it's pretty believable to me.
@@Nicator_ What she said was that she doesn't even know ONE, which is definitely a headscratcher.
Regional norms ARE a thing, especially in non-Western countries. If your story is set in China, for example, probably close to 95% of the cast would Chinese, even in the modern age.
Or, if you're in Canada, for example, about 99% of the characters will have heads that swivel up and down at the corners when they talk, rather than a normal head. It's just common sense. (Okay, the last sentence is obviously ridiculous, but I'm hoping somebody will get a laugh at/understand the reference.)
@Swiftbow true but I think she meant if the story takes place in some fantasy world or the west it wouldn't make since if everyone was one color and one sexuality
Not gonna lie, I'm a bit guilty of number 8. It's just fun to develop that one random guy who sits two seats to the right of the MC, even if he only has five lines
I do that too, and then I feel bad that they don't get more page time... ^_^'
Me too. It can be bad because you have too many characters and not enough, or characters end up doing stuff that seems totally because I didn’t have time to explain their character growth
man, the sass and sarcasm here makes me wanna see jenna collab with JP from terrible writing advice
But Jenna, my book takes place in an area that is 94% white! Seriously, not a joke. Skin color of characters should not even be an issue. Also if you were in the military you meet a ton of able bodied strait men, it is kind of the norm. I love your videos and I think #4 is the worst of the bad writing advice. It is basically saying "You can wright what every you want, but it must conform to our standards for diversity."
It's not the worst, it literally has nothing to do with good\bad character and how to write them.
It is one of the very few points Jenna repeatedly made that I disagree with. The reason is probably that she is a narrowminded US citizen who is only vaguely aware that countries outside the US which are largely different than the US even exist. There are many parts of the world that are NOT a melting pot of all different races. Depending on where your novel is set, including Asian or Black people can feel awfully forced and unrealistic. Likewise, if your novel is set in a rural part of China, including ANY non Asian character would be very odd without a good explanation what that exotic white or black stranger is doing there.
As for LGBT+ people, they make up about 10% of the population and not everyone of them is open about it. Again, there are countries where it is still considered indecent to reveal a "deviant" sexual orientation openly or where queer people are even prosecuted by law. If your novel is set in any Arabian country for instance, chances are that a character or two of your cast might be lgbt+, but the main character and consequently the reader will never know, because they don't show it and don't talk about it to just anyone.
Include "minorities" in your story when it is realistic and when it fits your story. Actually, give it a good thought whether such characters could make your story more interesting, more realistic or more layered, because quite often including such characters in a realistic way so that they organically fit into your story can actually make your story better than sticking to an all white all straight cast. But never include them just because you think you must check some boxes for proper representation. You can't pacify the SJWs anyway. If you don't include diverse races and lgbt+ people, they'll rage at you for no representation, if you do and don't make a big issue out of it, they'll accuse you to write token characters, if you do make an issue about it and dive into the conflicts that are created by those traits, they'll claim that you are not allowed to write about it because as a straight white person you can't possibly understand what it's like. Not always the same SJWs, of course, but there will always be a significant amount of them who will hate you no matter what you do.
@@chrisrudolf9839 So we’re using science to describe how fictional characters should look in a fantasy world.
@@SarifaXionic Even in a fantasy world must be some logic :)
@@chrisrudolf9839 Actually, Jenna is making that point about fictional worlds that you create, not a fantasy/sci-fi story that's set in the real world, and I know where that's coming from. If the story is set on the real version of Earth, then naturally you'd follow the ethnic and sexual demographics of the region. She's talking about worlds like Narnia and Wonderland, where despite the story being set in a different world or an enhanced world, 99.9% of the characters will be white and light-skinned.
It has become a hard and fast rule that Elves are always white and caucasian in appearance and features, for example, or otherwise an unnatural colour like blue or green but never brown, black or have Asian features (which only hit me when I watched the Witcher adaptation on Netflix)
But when you have a book, where even a single, background character with one line isn't a POC, you clearly have a problem.
A Song of Ice and Fire is a good example; while most of the Main characters are caucasian and similar to English and the Vikings from actual history, you have Kingdoms like Dorne where Hispanic people live, a whole continent called Essos that has Dothraki, Braavosi, and Asshaians, etc. which are tanned, brown and varyingly featured, some reflecting cultural practices that aren't "white". It's also frequently mentioned and discussed by the characters, even from the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, because in a real world, people exchange stories and tales, even about countries that aren't allied with them and there are characters in Westeros that are originally from Essos and vice-versa.
If your whole world is only white characters talking only about your own kingdom, its not realistic and can put a lot of people off. At least that's what I got from Jenna's point. Even from a business perspective, you have a better chance of widespread consumption if your content includes people that actual people from different parts of the world can relate to.
The *only* project I have that is technically a self-insert is inspired by different parts of my life...by no means am I fulfilling fantasies, however it has proved to be good with coping with losing people close to me
I’m just here mentally crying because I inserted an irl loss of someone I was close to in my OC. Seeing your comment, I hope it helps me too someday
6:06
Are we seriously going to believe that she doesn’t know a single “cis, white, neurotypical, able-bodied human being”?
Yes, because almost no one by that description exists, most people are neurodivergent, we just have people who are undiagnosed or who know how to hide it.
@@spencergeorge4077
If they’re undiagnosed how are you diagnosing the majority of people right now?
For more terrible writing advice... Watch "Terrible Writing Advice"!
It covers a lot of what Jenna mentioned and more.
Yeah subbed to them a while ago, good stuff👍🏻
💙🔺
Me: *creates a story arc with side characters inspired by a novel I read *
Also me after this video: *sweats intensely *
I can't wait for my story based on Welsh and Norse folk lore that has a predominantly white cast be labelled as racist, because everyone knows how much diversity was in medieval Britain and Scandinavia. Tons, definitely. Honestly the mental gymnastics of getting Arabic-inspired horse archers to the scene of the plot felt like tokenism already, but alas, Arabic horse archers are too neat not to rip off and put in not-Wales.
Actually medieval Britain had diversity since ancient Rome sent all kinds of fighting men there.
@@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps Perhaps to some extent, but it's not like Roman Britannia was one of the more important provinces, it was still very much on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, most government officials or soldiers would be recruited from the local population after the province had been adequately conquered. It would be very unlikely for, say, a north African legion to make it's way to Britain, as they would be dealing with their own issues in their own provinces. Not saying that it isn't possible, but definitely not common. Also I found some vague in-universe ways to justify more diverse people showing up, it's a contrivance I don't personally think enriches the story all that much, but it's not really up to me.
@@Catullus_J_5 It wouldn't be a north African legion but it wouldn't be an Italian one either and yes, Brittania was "the edge of the world" to the Romans.
Writing tip: while giving flaws make sure they make sense with already existing character traits. Like maybe you have a showmen character maybe they could be self absorbed or over confident
Overall this is funny, but the skin tone thing is really based on the place it takes place and the world the person makes. Our skin tone is based on our ancestors homes based on how close the sun is.
So overall it’s understandable if there’s a whole cast of whites, blacks or whatever. And it doesn’t really matter.
No one:
Not a single soul:
Not even the mary sue of some 'great' story:
Jannas eye brows just sometimes: ~ ~
They're so expressive.
It's called the DOUBLE WAVE
Yet Jenna's literally written Mary Sues herself.
@@SuperRussianGoddess those that preach tend to be hypocrites, yeah.
@@SuperRussianGoddess Wait, which story?
I mean...if the character is well written, why should their gender, race or sexuality matter that much?
Not to mention that some IRL places are...you know...not really that diverse?
Also, why is an all straight, cis, white male cast mentioned _specifically?_
Wouldn't the story have the same --non-- issue if all of the characters were gay, trans, black women?
I'm not saying that having minority characters is a bad thing, I'm simply questioning why _not_ having them is automatically a bad thing?
Don't people relate to the struggles more then the superficial appearances?
Like, I'm white, and most of my favorite characters are Asian.
Hell, one of my top 3 favorite characters of all time is a black guy.
Again, I'm _not_ saying that minority characters shouldn't be included in more stories.
In fact, I whole heartedly welcome the prospect.
I just feel like it should be up to the writer.
If they want an all white cast, fine.
If they want an all black cast, fine.
If they want an all gay cast, fine.
If they want an all non-binary cast, fine.
They shouldn't be forced to add any type of person to their narrative because... _because._
Because white people are unwanted, apparently? I dunno, this tip has so nothing to do with the good\bad character design it really stands out in a bad way.
Because that is the world we live in. Most of the world isn’t all white. And yet you have hordes of low key racists complaining that tv shows like the Witcher have any minorities in them all. The poor Witcher author had to step in and remind people that his book was a fantasy and not a medieval Polish documentary. That is why you need to mention that your characters shouldn’t be all white.
@@free22 Weird argument. Most of the world isn't all asian either. Shouldn't works of fiction that have all-asian cast be panned as well, then?
@@DarthBiomech That depends. Are those works going to be sold exclusively in Thailand or Pakistan? Are they in those countries’ native languages? Or, are you trying to sell something like that in Canada or the US?
@@DarthBiomech You don’t find it weird that people complain when minorities are included in fantasy tv shows?
"It's The Witcher, but incel" it's both hilarious and terrifying, thanks for making my day.
only on the 10th tip I realised this is a *worst* tips. The whole video I was like "damn, is it just me or this video is kinda weird?" lol
i love the fact that 8 and 10 directly contradict each other, just like other tumblr art advice
"character charts... for every. single. character. or I'm calling the police. Me: sitting here waiting to see your character chart for the jester or I'm calling the police.
What I think I'm writing: Percy Jackson
What I'm actually writing: Peter Johnson
I'm trying to create an awful chatacter if you have tips tell meee
Personally, if I see a hypocritical character, like a character who judges people for something while also doing that thing, I will absolutely loath them. Many people also hate character who can like turn people against your protagonist by manipulating the crowd and playing the victim
Characters who hurt the people who are loyal to them are often the most disliked.
@@morriganstride8405 Oooo...that reminds me of a book I'm working on, but the person doesn't play the victim though.
@@justarandomfurbywithakitch903 nice! Best of luck!
Read "Fifty Shades of Grey", take any character, change the name.
Number one best tip for writing characters:
Don't listen to writing advice. Write your own characters. Make them heroic, make them fat, short, thin, tall, hirsute (never did Chewie any harm), make them old, make them young, make them disabled, make them pregnant, make them without child.
Do what you want, it's your story or novel. I can't reiterate this enough.
About the all white cast... I am writting a Japanese fantasy story, it's hard to see an Africanamerican in it, unless I refer to Yasuke, the African samurai (real story)
I agree, she was not very inclusive of different circumstances in this advice. Different countries have different kinds of people sure, but say your book is set in Africa, it would not be out of place to have the whole cast be black, otherwise if the book was set in say America, there would probably be a few different races included
Japan isn't the peach pale ethnostate you think it is. There are loads of black Japanese people if you bother to look for them.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I didn't know that
@@ScarBrosBlackSmokeScarBrosBlac A lot of people don’t, because it doesn’t suit the racist’s narrative about Japan being homogenous
@@ravenfrancis1476 I'm not a racist, if that's where you're going, I just happen to lack that information. I never believed all Japanese people are necessarily white/pale, I always thought that there are people who are not pale, for example I know a guy from Greece (born and lived there) and he was not white or pale, he was Africanamerican (I don't to use any other word to identify his skin color that might make me look like I'm a racist)
So I bought your books: Savior's Champion and Savior's Sister. The parcel arrived today, after two weeks journey from USA to Poland during pandemic. And I'm not allowed to read them, cause it is my Christmas gift and I will unpack them on 24 Dec. Waiting is a TORTURE! Also I hope you will become so popular, that your books got translation in all languages. :) I believe that book is the best in its original language, but here in Poland we have some pretty awesome translators. Polish versions of Terry Pratchett's books are iconic. Don't you worry, if you decide to hit Polish book market your precious babies won't be butchered. :)
So you're saying that all white communities never existed? What if I tell you that my brown culture has always been brown till white people came along? Of course it would be a blend eventually but it is a fact that all brown and all white communities existed in history. Don't be daft.
It’s said by the people who don’t understand isolation and it’s effects on genetics. What a fool
@@notyetdeleted6319 its effects on genetics? You realize we still have basically homogeneous societies today. Take the two Koreas, for instance.
You don't have white or black koreans. Just Koreans. And its homogeneous enough for most people to be able tell the difference in Koreans, Japanese, Chinese etc.
The notification brought me here. Time to be educated by jenna.
But Jenna!
i feel called out as someone who procrastinates actual writing by developing minor characters
"layers are for onions, not people"
---Jenna Moreci
I think self-inserts within your definition are bad, but Luke Skywalker is a self-insert and several people loved his character. I think it's ok to base a character off of your inner monologue or a part of yourself, but yes within the definition of just perfect wish fulfillment it is a badly written character.
“He used to be The Witcher, but now he’s an incel!”
If I had a penny for every book I’ve proofread that is just Witcher: Attack of the Feminists, I’d have three pennies. Which isn’t a lot but wild that it’s happened three times. Anyway I hate it here.
Except self inserts aren't always terrible, that description more fits Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu. I've read books with self inserts that were excellent. It's the Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus that are not good characters.
On another note, I absolutely went to a school of 100% white people, like to the point that when we had a black transfer student, they lost their minds. So actually yes I can believe a full white cast. Sad, but true, and it was in Idaho. Granted, they weren't all male nor were they all hetero or cis, but they were all white. Growing up in Germany, however, there was a lot more diversity for sure.
Pointing out another thing she mentions, not all your characters in your book need to be fleshed out. This is subjective. If you're making a series like Harry Potter, where you do have a set number of characters that push the story, but not all of them, the filler characters do not need their own depth. But if you're like J. R. Ward or Sherilyn Kenyon, fleshing out side characters or background characters of one book usually means you're gonna see them in another later book as a protagonist, because they create book series that are part of a whole universe but each book is a different character.
This I agree.
Honestly, the only type of self-insert that may be enjoyable to read is what I call "the anti-self-insert"
Basically, take all your worst traits, shove them into the character, upgrade them a bit, and let them deal with it. No one expects the a-hole to be actually inspired by the creator, so no one usually recognizes it (especially considering those are the traits you usually hide from people), and because it is, on the core, a projection of yourself, it kinda avoids the pitfall of not giving the character any nuance. Pick your implicit bias to pity yourself and use them to something good.
I did something like that lol
Me who flesh out like every single side characters in my stories: *intense sweating
Aw man. I spent multiple weeks planning out my character arcs and backstorys, along with giving them all unique personalities, but most of them are wight. Guess I'm an uncreative hack because I think about actually developing my cast and actual good writing instead of forcing diversity, so I pretend to be woke.
I have a reason, my characters are from a alternate Russia, where most people are white. This girl doesn't really think of how the setting can effect the ethnicity of a character.
"That's because those writers are werewolves, wizards and serial killers."
Serial Killers? xD I was laughing so bad
He used to go to Hogwarts now he goes to Pigfarts:)
And you can't forget Rumbleroar
@@maddie8780 and Boldembored
--"all of your characters are cis hetero able-bodied people..." yes...because not all stories need to have a fucking freak show of modern American diversity in them.
Ah, yes, being disabled makes you such a freak show when literally every human being becomes disabled provided they live long enough. Cry harder that people are different from you, babe.
One of my best tips for writing characters, one that I sometimes don’t focus enough on myself, is GIVE THEM HOBBIES. Not just one, multiple. Give them things their good at. Decide which one’s their favorite. Maybe they love doing something that they’re totally shit at. Decide what their bad at. Giving characters these things make them seem more human because every human gets bored and therefore will have picked up a hobby or two. Give them INTERESTS. You don’t have to paste them all over your book but make sure they’re there.
in regards to the "cast so white" thing...there are lots of reasons why the cast could be entirely white, even today.
Maine (I think, i know it's one or two of the north eastern states) has a population that is 94% white, for example. If your novel is set in most parts of europe during most time periods, it was 100% white. If your novel is focusing on certain religious groups past or present, their populations are nominally 100% white depending on location and branch of that religion.
As for the example of "twenty characters, two of which are women, all of which are cis-het neur-typical" that is entirely possible. For example, one could be writing a sci-fi novel focusing on a military unit of a colony created by whites, where medical technology has successfully reached the point of curing mental conditions.
I hate to be _that_ person, but what's up with the #4 one? I get what you mean, but it seems so oversimplified that it wraps around itself and becomes a piece of bad advice behind the comedic veneer. Like, if the story happens in the Americas or modern Europe (Western Europe's big cities mostly), then yeah, you can't really go with an all-white cast, but what if you're writing about Vikings in their era? What about Medieval Europe? It has to be a pretty specific plot to bring a black person up there. It _could_ be a very interesting story, but what if it's not the story you want to write? Just have one non-white for the sake of it? Sounds like tokenism. And what about male-female quota?? What if someone wants to write an all-guys group going on an adventure? What's the problem? The way some people talk about it, it almost sounds like it's just not allowed under _any_ circumstances. I really don't get this.
History's a lot more diverse than the bigots would make you kind of believe. And if you want to write an all-male cast, you should probably examine *why it is* you want that so badly that you get upset when you're criticized for it?
@@ravenfrancis1476 My question is _why_ is it so wrong? Why would anyone _get_ criticized for it? What's the difference if it were an all-girl cast instead? If one is wrong, the other is also wrong, no? But what's the problem? Seems more bigoted to say that there _is_ a problem with it.
Also, what do you mean with diverse history and bigots saying whatever? I always have to ask, because I genuinely don't know what this mean _exactly._ Some elaboration would be appreciated.
@@MayannHanna It’s different in that women are largely underrepresented in most non-romance genres. If a man wants to find a book where the main protagonist is a man he doesn’t have to look very far, but women have to actively look for representation.
I mean that bigots tend to think that a lot of places were xenophobic ethnostates but in reality if you actually bothered to do even bare minimum of research nonwhite people are basically everywhere at every point in history.
@@ravenfrancis1476 I don't care about moral relativity. Both are the same to me. Women aren't 'underrepresented', people write what they know and what they like. I don't see a problem.
Most romances are written by women.
I don't have to look far at all, a lot of YA books have a female protagonist, there's a torrent of them, and most women aren't so shallow that they need a _merely_ female protag to identify with, as if 'female' was all that defines them. Seems like a silly, shallow concern.
And oh man, here we go... (there's a TL;DR at the end)
Of course 'nonwhites' were in most of the world, they're the majority, silly. But please don't ignore ethnic lines and pre extensive access to travel through the most difficult area which is the middle east and the sea. Non-Europeans in Europe were a rarity, exceptions, just like Europeans in Africa in pre-colonial times were _also_ a rarity. This happened all over the world. An example would be the black samurai in Japan (interesting stuff, look it up). But in that one case, would one say blacks are part of Japanese history? Or that one black can _be_ Japanese? Or that they were seen often enough that an _Edo era_ story would have one without the _specific_ exception being the main focus? Of course not.
An exception doesn't make the rule.
Most of history was very ethnically divided, and it's had some relatively clear lines. Irish and English have mixed up here and there, but both recognize each other as _different,_ so much so that Irish-English history is what it is. Mixing up mostly with similar-looking neighbors and travelers (who could only travel so far, btw), with exceptions sprinkled in. There are specific exceptions, but let's not pretend it's what you meant. Moors in Iberia for example. They actually interacted because they're so close, but that's not the same for the rest of Africa, let's say. The thing with Arabia and the Ottomans is another interesting one, so here, don't forget that religious wars were a thing, and drawing visible ethnic lines was an immediate subset of that.
'Nonwhites', the many African tribes, Arabia, Anatolia, they all have so much history, so many groups and tribes with their own distinctive histories, I really don't see why racists _insist_ on ignoring it all in favor of _shoving_ them in histories they clearly weren't really part of... Inclusion through _lies_ is not a good thing.
But, it's not like I'm going to convince you of absolutely anything because people just do that irrelevant of the veracity of their argument. I know that. You'll just rationalize away. So let's just leave it at that.
*TL;DR* You're wrong but I can't convince you of that so whatever. 90% sure you didn't read this whole thing anyway. This is a waste of both our times.
@@MayannHanna All I See is a bunch of bullshit propaganda made up to justify pretending your racism has basis in history.
And yes they are underrepresented. Representation is important.
6:00 what if my story task place in medieval Europe during a time when immigration wasn't common.
Littering your stories with diversity is political advice for be a responsible creator. NOT writing advice. Kingdom come deliverance isn't a worse story for being mostly white. And black panther isn't a better story for being mostly black.
People without limbs existed
But your not wrong
Right? Thank you dude. Like there are definitely places or times where most if not all characters are similar culturally
I saw this video, and clicked it while saying “crush me! crush my dreams!”
"The comic relief is usually the most annoying, hated character in the book..."
Leo Valdez: *sweats nervously*
lmaoooo