Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part viii: Unnecessary Characters & Characterization Pitfalls

Cutting Out Unnecessary Characters

Creative writing instructors always say that all "unnecessary characters" should be eliminated from your story. But that, of course, begs the question: How do you know which characters are unnecessary?

Although keeping character archetypes and roles in mind will definitely help guide you, this question will eventually come down to the author making an executive decision, based on his story's needs. Some stories are going to need three characters, some stories are going to need twenty, some are going to need ninety-seven. So how do you know when you've added an unnecessary character?

The moment you've added a character who doesn't advance the plot is that moment.

First, let's briefly look at a few things that might make a character unnecessary:

• They don't help the main character on his or her journey.
• Their life seemingly revolves around the main character (they have no problems of their own).
• They are never in conflict with the main character.

If a character isn't doing any of these things, you have three choices:

1. Leave them written the way they are and frustrate your readers.
2. Flesh them out more and make them matter.
3. Cut them.

Obviously, don't ever choose option number one. Numbers two and three are your really only options for a successful novel.

Let's talk about fleshing them out. If you're going that route, here are some questions you can ask:

• Can I give this character a storyline of his/her own?
• If I can, how can their story impact my main character's story?
• Can this character help my main character somehow? (Provide them with something they need for their journey, either a piece of truth or wisdom or something tangible?)
• How could this character be more in conflict with my main character?
• Could they do something that challenges my main character to think about the world differently?

If you're committed to keeping this character around, you might try doing a character journal for them and seeing if you can get them to "speak" to you about what their story is and why they matter.

Or if you decide they don't matter or that your story is already feeling too cluttered, you can cut them. There's no shame in that.

I suppose there's also a fourth option, which is to merge characters.

The Characterization Pitfalls to Avoid

The biggest pitfall to avoid is character clichés. A clichéd character is one your readers have seen before. You've seen it before, too. Many times.

Literature is full of character clichés—in fact, that's where they come from. Way back when, someone wrote a great character like that, and then other people copied it until it became a cliché. Clichés are particularly lethal in your protagonist.

Some of literature's character clichés include:

• The sleazy attorney.
• The psychiatrist who's sleeping with his patients.
• The prostitute with a heart of gold.
• The alcoholic cop.
• The handsome but corrupt politician.
• The absent-minded professor.
• The clueless blonde.
• And what seems to be a Wattpad favorite—a cocky bad boy who's borderline abusive, but secretly has a heart of mush, but only when he wants to show it.

Clichés are a problem because they're predictable. No reader enjoys a novel that's full of characters who do exactly what is expected of them.

Smart writers twist familiar clichés into something fresh and different that the reader isn't expecting.

If your eyes have been opened, please remember to vote!