Boring Main Characters: A Few Examples of Cool Characters

ng Over the past two weeks we’ve considered the problem of boring MCs, and what won’t fix the problem. This week we’ll take a look at a couple books that have really interesting MCs and start to figure out what makes them so fascinating.

  

Since I started out this series by bad-mouthing Twilight, it’s only fair to use another Paranormal book as a good example. In this case, let’s take a look at Evie, the MC in Kirsten White’s debut novel Paranormalcy. Evie has an unique job at the International Paranormal Containment Agency, she’s got a funny ‘voice’, and she’s got a well-developed character. She has a favourite TV show. A favourite colour (pink). A best friend. She likes to paint her walls. She has a certain taste in clothes. All these little things come together to make her a really realistic character. (annoying, perhaps, but what real person isn't annoying sometime?)

 Now let’s consider Katniss, heroine in Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, which is perhaps my favourite YA book. Katniss has an interesting role in the story and a recognizable voice, she has a real personality even before she gets thrown into the Games. She likes hunting. Her father is dead. She and Gale have an interesting relationship. She wants to protect her little sister. She resents her mother. She hisses at her sister’s cat. Relationships play a dominant role in the story and from the very start of the book we already know what Katniss thinks about those close to her.

One of my favourite examples is a Fantasy published in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Despite the older style of writing and the fact that this book is written in third person (rather than first like my other two examples) Bilbo’s character comes out clearly from the beginning. He completely forgets about Gandal’s promised visit, he hospitably lets the Dwarves come in to tea, he likes fireworks, and when he gets sent off on an adventure his biggest worry is that he forgot a pocket handkerchief. At Bilbo resembles a stuffy English gentleman but as the story progresses he becomes more of an adventurer; this change is part of what makes the story so interesting.

All of these stories have strong MCs and what makes them so good is that they’re not ‘flat’. They have numerous aspects to their personalities and their relationships to other characters are well defined. Next week we’ll look at how you can use small details to build up your characters.

Homeschooling Q&A

Throughout the years of I’ve had so many people ask me questions about homeschooling. It’s about time I answered these questions in public form. Please note that these are just my answers; other people may do things completely differently. Here’re a couple of the most common:

Do you do your school in your pyjamas? Believe it or not, this is the number one question from other kids. My answer is No. I don’t see what’s so appealing about the idea of doing school in my PJs. PJs are great but I find that I do my best work whenever I’m all dressed, hair done and completely awake. For some reason it’s easier to slack off when you’re wearing pyjamas.

One of my best friends (left)  and me (right)

Do you have friends? Right now, yes. I have so many amazing friends both here on PEI and in Ontario. The thing is, it hasn’t always been this way. Up to my teen years I didn’t have many friends and I was always trying to find a real ‘kindred spirit’ (to quote Anne of Green Gables). This is the problem of having a small homeschool group; there simply aren’t as many people to be friends with. That being said, our homeschool group is fairly small as homeschool groups go, and it's rapidly growing. My younger sisters and my friends in Ontario have no trouble finding friends in their homeschool groups.

My Mom (and teacher!) and me

Does it feel weird to have your parents teaching you? Well, no. That’s the way it’s always been.  My mom has been teaching me for as long as I can remember. By the time I hit junior high I was doing most of my schoolwork from textbooks, so I was actually teaching myself. It was a bit different to learn from professors in University but I didn’t find it hard to adjust (probably because all my professors are amazing.)

Do you think homeschooling prepared you for University? Definitely! Even though I’m just 17 I’m taking three second year courses and one third year and keeping up fairly well with all the work. I’m not saying this because I want you to think I’m some sort of super genius or something, because I’m certainly not. This is just proof that homeschoolers do well in University. All the work I did by myself in my highschool years prepared me for hours of study in Uni. Most of all, homeschooling taught me to love learning. I can honestly say I look forward to going to class every day.


Hopefully I'll be posting more of these Q&A sessions on future Saturdays. If you have questions of your own, please to post them in the comments. As for any fellow homeschoolers, feel free to elaborate on anything I've said. I'm interested to hear what you do differently. 

Boring Main Characters: What NOT to do

Last week I touched on the problem of Boring Main Characters in YA literature. This week I’m going to give some advice about what not to do.

You might have looked over your manuscript and decided that your MC isn’t as interesting as you want them to be. They’re flat, and, (you have to admit) just a bit boring. What’s the first thing you do?

For a lot of authors, their first response is to make their character do a lot of interesting stuff. Has anyone else noticed the rise of stories written from the perspective of murderers, vampires, assassins or some strange creature? By making their character do something interesting, perhaps someone scary or even a villain, the author hopes that that will make the character be an interesting person.

Sorry folks. It doesn’t work that way. Character is much more than just a person’s actions. Consider this quote from the movie Get Smart. “They may be bad guys, but that is what they do, not who they are. Until we view them as real people, with real likes and dislikes, we’ll never be able to defeat them.” I’m pretty sure those aren’t the exact words, but you get the gist. A person’s job is not what makes them a real character. You need a lot more. You need a ‘voice’.

When people realize that they need a voice, that they can’t just tell their story from some flat, literary perspective, a lot of them tend to go overboard. The voice completely overwhelms the story. This voice is often one sided, most often snarky and rude. While this may work in some stories, the narrator is still ‘flat’.

I’m not trying to say that you can’t make your MC an assassin with a snarky ‘voice’. That’s perfectly alright in some instances. However, you can’t just do that and sit back and expect a perfectly interesting well-rounded character to come cartwheeling out onto the page. There’s more to characters than giving them an interesting vocation and a kick-ass attitude.

What more? Next week I’ll talk about some MCs that are anything but boring, and we’ll see what makes them that way.

Book Review: The Scorch Trials

By James Dashner


Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Why I read it: I had read the prequel, The Maze Runner, (I will review The Maze Runner eventually, but I just want to re-read it first) and LOVED it, so I just had to read this. I was a little worried that this would fall prey to ‘sequel sickness’, but if anything it improved upon the first book.

What I liked: Just like the first book, the plot was fast paced. It was hard to find a slowish place where I could take a break! The basic plot idea was fairly simple, but there were so many twists and turns that it was completely impossible to guess what was going to happen next. Secrets are revealed little by little, and the mystery only deepened.

The characters were all developed further, especially Thomas (I love how the story is written in third person, but Thomas is still such a fleshed-out character) and the new characters were equally fascinating. The relationships between characters also deepened, and a bit of a love triangle developed. I like how Dashner introduces a bit of romance to further the plot, but it doesn’t come close to taking over.

Dashner’s writing is also very good. His descriptions are spot-on. Never does he give us a huge chunk of description or backstory, but always just enough so that we can really see what’s going on.

What I disliked: This story is one that lends itself to being extremely violent. Thirty dead people hanging in a room, insane ‘cranks’ with no noses, molten metal that severs heads, creatures covered in bulbous growths and razor-sharp blades… Everything bad that could happen to the Gladers does happen, and Dashner describes everything. For this reason, I wouldn’t give the book to anyone under 14.

A warning to all  my writer friends, a lot of the sentences do tend to start with ‘and’ or ‘but’. I do this myself sometimes, but it started to annoy me in this book.

From a Christian Perspective: During my first reading I didn’t notice any religious themes in this story at all. It’s certainly not a Christian book, but it doesn’t seem to be anti-Christian either. What I liked was that it was quite clean, with no sexual content (the farthest they go is brief kisses) and no normal swearing. The Gladers do have their own slang, which includes swears (one of which gets dangerously close to the F-word) but there is no religious profanity.

To Buy or Not to Buy: I plan to buy this book. The violence was a bit of an issue, but I find that it’s so hard to find clean action/adventure books with riveting plots that I’d get it anyways. If you’re the kind of person that likes distopia/futuristic stories, then you will enjoy The Scorch Trials.

Where to buy: I got this book from the library. Since it’s new and fairly popular, most libraries will have it.
Your local bookstore:  $17.99 (US) or $20.99 (CAN)
Amazon.com: $12.08 or Amazon.ca: $15.15

How I got into University

The new student center

For most people getting into University is pretty straightforward. Homeschoolers, however, find it a little bit more difficult since most of us don’t have marks and we might not have worked through specific courses. Throughout my highschool years I had a specific Science (Apologia) and Math (Singapore) curriculum but everything else was pieced together from various sources. This makes it difficult to convince a University that I had completed highschool.

This is how I ended up in University half a year early. It’s not the traditional way of doing things, but I know more and more homeschoolers who are trying this method and it certainly worked well for me.

UPEI has one of the only vet colleges in Canada

Last fall (September-November 2010) I took one course from UPEI. Getting into one course is relatively easy. I simply met with the Dean of Arts, bringing along a couple samples of my writing. He was a very agreeable man and let me into UPEI as a part time student without even looking at my writing samples! The course I decided to take was a simple Introduction to Literature course taught by a wonderful professor.

During this course I read two books of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. My professor was teaching a third year course on Milton the next semester, and she kindly allowed me to take it despite my age. Since I had been admitted into one course and I had no real plans for homeschooling in the next term, I decided that I might as well try to go to UPEI full time. I don’t actually want to go to UPEI for my full University career, but being a full time student will make it much easier to transfer somewhere else.

Cass Building, where my Dad works

My dad (who is a math professor at UPEI) talked to the registrar several times. I made up a small (four page) portfolio showing the courses I had done in highschool, as well as all the extracurricular activities I am involved in (drama, writing, dance, volunteer work…etc…). The registrar took their time reading this, so when courses started I wasn’t actually enrolled as a student yet. I went to class anyways, just hoping that they’d let me in. Two weeks into the term, on the deadline for registration, the registrar finally got back to me. I was in!

Now I’m in my seventh week (the home stretch!) of full time University, and I love it. I’m taking two English courses and two History. English is my favourite, but I’m thinking of doing a History minor. My midterms are done, which is great, and I didn't do too badly.

The Main Building at UPEI

For all homeschoolers who want to get into University and don’t want to spend forever compiling a transcript and doing SATs, I’d suggest taking a course as a part time student and then getting your status switched to full time. Doing a course is a great way to prove that you’re capable, and you earn a credit at the same time. I admit that I had an easier time getting in since my dad teaches at UPEI, but I believe anyone can do it. I know of at least three other homeschoolers who’ve done the same thing at UPEI in recent years. A University’s registration rules may seem strict but what they really want are students who are capable and willing to work. Any homeschooler who is coming up to graduation and wants to get into University should consider taking a course part time in their grade 12 year.

Boring Main Characters: The Problem

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fairly active member of the site inkpop.com, a writing website for teens run by HarperCollins. The site has around 40,000 projects and hundreds more added every week. I have two stories up, one of which has reached top five and been reviewed by a HarperCollins editor, the other is around rank 100 right now.

One thing that I’ve done a lot of on inkpop is critique other people’s stories. I’ve read and commented on at least 400 projects in my inkpop career, so I have a fairly good grasp of the problems that plague teen’s writing. On the blog I will address these problems in mini-series coming each Thursday. Something I’ve noticed that is a major problem on inkpop is that Main Characters (MC) tend to be boring, all the same. For this reason, I’m writing a six part series on what to do to make your MC unique.

The Problem

The vast majority of you have heard of Twilight. A lot of you have probably read it. I’m personally not a fan, but I read the first two and a half books simply to see what all the fuss was about. Half way through the third book I got too bored, so I stopped.

Whether you hate the books or if you’re one that really enjoys them, you have to admit that Bella is a pretty ordinary person. She, by her own admission, is boring. We’re told that she has hobbies, but we never see her doing anything interesting. She’s not particularly good, or bad, at anything in school. Her emotions are all pretty basic, and her responses are quite predictable.

You might say that Bella is an ordinary teenager. I’d say that she’s not. What’s my reason for saying this? There is no such thing as an ordinary teenager.

Think about yourself. Think about anyone you know. Everyone is unique. Everyone is interesting in some way. Everyone has a favourite book, a specific personality, a different way of viewing the world.

Bella doesn’t. And, unfortunately, many of the MCs I’ve read about on inkpop don’t either. I once read ten stories in a row that all had a MC who could be exactly the same person. These are the characters who walk to school, snooze in the back row, and go back home. They wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. Maybe they’re a bit snarky or they’re shy, they could be popular or not, but somehow the writer has only told us that they’re different, they never actually showed us what makes the MC interesting.

Good stories aren’t written about boring people. Editors right now are desperate for new novels with ‘fresh’ voices. They want unique MCs, perhaps more than anything else. A ‘Mary Sue’ won’t get you anywhere.

So, what are you going to do? Next Thursday I’ll have another post on what not to do.

Book Review: I Am Number Four

 By Pittacus Lore


Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books-- but we are real.


Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.


But they know.


They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next. 

 Why I read it: I won this book from HarperCollins through inkpop.com. I had seen tons of advertisements out for it and the movie and I love sci-fi action stories, so this seemed perfect.

What I liked: The premise of the story is really intriguing. Nine aliens have come down to earth with a protective charm saying they can only be killed in order. The tagline, “Three are dead. I am number four,” is just so cool, and the plot really follows up.

The writing isn’t bad, and the plot is kept moving fairly quickly. Since the main character is a superhero it could easy have turned into a whole battle of magical ‘legacies’ but luckily these ‘legacies’ don’t develop until half way through the book so it never feels like the author is just using the magic to get his characters out of trouble when he’s too lazy to do it properly.

What I disliked: If you read any review on Amazon they’ll say exactly what I’m saying now: no character development. It’s true. I was expecting Number Four to be a really cool character (he is an alien from Lorien, after all) but he just feels like a plain ordinary boy. His girlfriend is a fairly flat semi-popular girl, and his best friend is a stereotypical nerd. Altogether, there were no original characters in here, and very little in the way of character development.

From a Christian Perspective: There was a fair bit of swearing in this book. It felt like the author was trying to fill the pages with certain swear words just to make it feel like he was a real teenager. There was no sexual content, though, besides for a couple kisses.

This book does contain a number of fight sequences, but nothing too graphic. I wouldn’t give this to little kids, but any teenager can handle it.

To buy or not to buy: This is a classic example of a book with incredible promise which fails… as a book. The lack of character development ruined it for me. However, there’s a movie out which I plan to go see. This is probably the only time I’ll ever say this, but, don’t read the book! Go see the movie!