Epic Advice and Encouragement (EAE)

Advice 7 ☼ Personalities

As I'm sure all of you reading this are aware, the best way to get attached to a character, or to hate a character, is based on their personalities. The personalities are something that defines a character, it enchants the readers, and it helps define the story. With that said, personalities is one of the hardest things to do when writing. Why? Because of all the stereotypes. Whether it's a preppy, popular, blond white girl or a druggie, alcoholic, problematic black male or maybe it's a Muslim who's a terrorist and wants to kill you for not being one of them. The world is filled with stereotypes, it is a part of us, of all of us and it is our jobs, as writers, to not get wrapped up in them. We need to show that the race and religion of a person do not define anyone and the best way we can do that is by giving the personalities a different spin.

Right now, let us talk a little bit about some well-known characters and the feelings that are generally connected with them.

One of my favorite male characters is a man named Mr. Darcey from a wonderful book called Pride and Prejudice. Now some of you may not know who I am talking about (those of you who do, please bear with me), so let me explain. Mr. Darcey is the romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austin's novel. This man is one of the richest men that you will meet in the story and he has the worst ability with people. In other words, he comes off as a jerk. Now you might be asking, "How can you love a jerk? Does he change once he gets with the girl?" To answer the question, I can love him because he only appears as a jerk, he is not really one which means he does not change because he gets with Elizabeth.

So now let us study the personality of Mr. Darcey. A proud, rich man who has no idea how to confess his feelings. Seems rather simple and straightforward, yes? Wrong. Mr. Darcey is far from simple, in fact, he is rather complicated. Throughout the story, the readers slowly learn about this man from Elizabeth's point of view. Slight spoiler, he's actually a really amazing man. He goes out of his way to help Elizabeth's family when her idiotic sister runs off with a man, he attempts to protect her honor, and even goes so far as to attempt to explain his character to Elizabeth through a letter. Even though he comes off as cold and cruel, he has a warm aspect to him and you can tell when he has fallen madly in love with Elizabeth. He is, in simple wordings, the best kind of man in existence.

So we talked about a good character, why not talk about a horrible one? As in a pink garbed, dainty giggle, obsessed with cats, hating children, evil toad women. For those of you who do not know who I am talking about, I mean Dolores Jane Umbridge, the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts in Harry Potter in the Order of Pheonix. This character had gained the unified hatred of thousands of people for one simple fact. She is a horrible person. Her personality conflicts the bright pink and the cliche idea of a crazy cat lady. This woman has a thirst for power and control and that thirst led her to torture her students, manipulate her coworkers, push out the headmaster, and participated in Voldemort's control over the Ministry of Magic.

In other words, she is a very cold, heartless being even though she looks rather friendly—even if she looks like a toad. Her personality is one that all of us have come across at one point in time, the kind of person who would do anything to get further in their career. They are selfish, manipulative people who would rather watch you suffer than to loose their grip on control.

Now let us talk about personalities. One thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that a personality is dependent on the life that someone led. Their life, their environment, their experiences, their family helps define them. To create a personality, you also need the history of the character (see Characters). Whether you are writing about a LGBT or straight person, they are still original and different. You do not need a flamboyant gay dude in your story, even if it can be entertaining. Actually, most gay males that I know are really not that flamboyant. They are just people.

As a very famous female once stated when questioned as to why she claimed her one character was gay when he didn't come off that way, she responded with "Maybe because gay people just look like... people?" (Hi, J.K. Rowling!) This statement is completely true; the race, the religion, or the sexual identity does not define a single person. It is an attribute and nothing more.

Do not attempt to "live up to the real thing" because the 'real thing' is different to everyone. Write in honor of your character and their personality, their purpose, and you cannot go wrong. You cannot misrepresent them because you are showing them for who and what they are, as people.

So don't worry about portraying an ethnicity horribly or misrepresenting a homosexual person because they really are just people. They can be smart, popular, stupid, loners, violent, friendly, druggie, or scholar. All in all, they are people and they are all different.

To end with a cliche: never judge a book by its cover!

Star~