A guide about Special Snowflakes

#1
A guide about Special Snowflakes
or “Re:Snowflake Online”
A lot of authors struggle with making their characters believable and giving them depth, often making it harder than it needs to be.
As a direct result of that, this guide is very detailed and complex and you should reserve some time to get through it.
(I recommend taking notes for yourself but that is your choice)

Part 1: The start of your journey
1.1 The role of your character
1.2 The tools your character needs
1.3 Matching traits
1.4 Explaining the snowflake

Part 2: Character Depth
2.1 Quirks, archetypes and “real” characters
2.2 How to create believable dialogues
2.3 Relations with others
2.4 How deep does it need to go?

Part 3: Reincarnations and other mishaps
3.1 It is NEVER the lack of details
3.2 The problem with Reincarnations
3.3 Why most VRMMO novels are squandering their potential


Part 1: The start of your journey
1.1 The role of your character
There comes a point at which you need to think about the defining traits of your characters. You already should have a rough idea what the story is about, beginning, ending and the role your character plays in it. This should not only apply to the main character, or the characters that you follow in 1st/3rd person but all characters that play a big role in the story.

To make sure you are prepared for the rest of the guide you should be extremely clear how much the following questions apply to each character:

  • Who is your character:


  1. Part of a group.

  2. A single person


  • What is their moral orientation:


  1. Rational

  2. Irrational/Mixed

  3. Moral

  4. Immoral


  • Which method do they primarily use to solve their problems:


  1. Communication

  2. Deception/Tricks

  3. Violence


  • On which scale do their actions influence the world :


  1. Not at all

  2. Local

  3. Regional

  4. Global


  • Why are they involved in the central plot:


  1. Affiliation (interests of a group they belong to / area they live in)

  2. Personal Interests

  3. Point of conflict (i.e. the plot is centered on them)

1.2 The tools your character needs
Before we start polishing the character or going into detail about his personality we must ask ourselves how much, or how little, power and special traits the character needs to believably achieve the intended effect he has on the plot. When they acquire these tools is up to you.

The general rule of thumb is, the less power a character has, the less explanations are necessary for his power. More power means that your characters have less personal agency which may or may not be a good thing.

Now there are a couple of ways we can provide the main character with power:

  • Personal power

That is, either skills, talents, knowledge or objects that give them an advantage.

  • Environmental advantage

This includes objects/traps, familiarity with an area, contacts in that area or even more creative solutions (such as the character having survived a plague and being immune to it because of that so that he can visit the contaminated without risk).

  • Authority

Power the character has because of his position in society or special traits/looks.
Important about this is that small traits can result in a lot of influence.
For example Harry Potter is the central point of interest of the plot by having a scar which makes him look dumb (at least in the first books).

1.3 Matching traits
Since you have figured out the level of power your character needs (maybe you also have some specific ideas) you now need to reconsider them.
To posses power certain traits are necessary, dependant on the world and type of acquisition more or less.
Moreover it may conflict with the kind of solution to conflicts your MC ideally uses.
I will list a couple of examples. Repeat until you are certain that the tools of your Character and the acquisition of them fit his personality. Characters with special psychology need special consideration.

  • Personal Power - Uses Violence as Solution (exception, Knowledge)

Training fighting skills requires the character to be calm and collected. They should also acknowledge Authority and/or Seniority (negative example: Every xianxia antagonist screaming bloody murder because of the slightest reason)
If your character is not calm he should at least be intelligent enough to suppress his rage.

Getting a weapon might also involve social standing (swords in medieval times) or responsibility (guns).
Acquiring knowledge into a subject requires some passion for it, or general curiosity. Please note that curiosity is tied to social awareness (not necessarily correctness of conclusions).

  • Environmental Advantage - Uses Deception as Solution

Traps or elaborate plans require the character to be attentive and intelligent. Increases with complexity.
Social contacts require the Main Character to be sociable.

  • Authority - Uses Communication as Solution (exception coercion)

Acquiring social standing is directly tied to responsibility or the ability to appear responsible
(negative example: Smug “I really don’t want to be here but I am simply the best for the job” guy)
Trust, is similarly derived out of social skills or the lack of thereof.

1.4  Explaining the snowflake
Now that you have your own special snowflake all loaded up with powers of plot destruction you need to worry about how to explain the thing.

I now want you to do a simple exercise:
Take your hands off the keyboard
Repeat 10 times “I won’t explain it.”
If you are not certain if you were speaking the I big enough, repeat it another 10 times just to be sure, because I don’t trust you to understand it yet.

But I don’t understand senpai =(
If your Characters don’t explain themself you are doing something wrong.

If you did anything in the previous section you should now know about how the skills and experiences fit into the personality of your character and how he got/gets them. You only need to let him explain or talk about it. Most of the time describing the way they do something or letting them talk about it is more than enough.

A mistake that is often made and gives me stage 3 cancer is letting the narrator explain the skills or knowledge the character has.
The absolute worst: “It was just like in the Novels he/she/I read”
Now there are several things wrong with that particular example:

  1. It makes me want to read better novels that don’t need to use that phrase

  2. It is vague

  3. It explains something obvious (that I need to read another novel and 0.5 star)

  4. The sentence is devoid of any personality

  5. The narrator (both third and first person) should not care about it enough to mention it

  6. Only an absolute Book fanatic would think of this, at all in the situations that sentence is used (meeting god).

TLDR: It sounds like an excuse to avoid some real thoughts. (AKA Lazy writing)

How can one not make excuses?

Simple:
Context - Personality - Relevance

Context:It is best when you explain something with the action itself. Your character gets into a fighting stance and now we know he knows his stuff. If he can’t fight he puts his fist up in front of him or “tries” to do something.
If you throw your characters in an unexpected situation they should of course try to get a grasp on their options, but only as short as possible -listing all their skills is not short-

Personality:Adjectives are your friends when describing actions. Just make sure to use the right ones. An emotional character is "calm" while doing someting.
Someone that is less emotional is "meticulous" or does it as part of a "routine".

Also, let’s say your character was a total brat till he got into the military. He will happily recall that and explain it to someone. The narrator won’t.

Relevance:Can the situation include a dialogue or actions that convey values, skills or emotions of your character?
Does the reader need to know that your character has a certain skillset, job or values?
If yes, think about if it is relevant now or in the next chap. Readers will forget names and special terms in less than 10 minutes. Make sure they are relevant in that time or just leave them out.

Always perform CPR on your stories
And most importantly do NOT excessively include sources of knowledge. You are writing a story, not a dissertation. Your characters should only care about those if they are unsure or trying to explain their sources to others.

Part 2: Character Depth
2.1 Quirks, Archetypes and “real” characters

After section 1 you should already have a good character.
After all you (should) know his personality, the methods at his disposal and how and why the character does what he does.
But, I can understand that you still might be insecure.
Maybe you want advice for minor characters.

That being said you should not worry about it too much and I will keep this short:

Quirks are specific actions or habits a character has. Readers may be upset because a character can be reduced to his quirks.
The reader perceives this, not because of the actual lack of personality but, because it takes a significant part of the time the character is interacted with. If you remind the reader every single paragraph that character X is doing X it will get annoying. You should at least let the quirky person do something normal.

However, quirks can also be good way to convey a feeling of reliability and safety/routine.
Inversely a character that does not follow his quirk alarms the readers. Utilizing this to explain a character's backstory is often great.
A quirky character just might be something your MC and readers need to calm down.

Archetypes are relatively vague categories a character falls into.
The problem here is the same. You don’t need a different personality but you need to diversify. If you suspect your main character to heavily fall into an archetype try to do the following.
Use gestures and facial expressions to make him seem more unique.
Consider adding points that contradict his archetype.
For an “edgy” character that uses force to solve his problems adding a reluctant need for conversation (aside from bantering) is already enough to break the archetype.

2.2 How to create believable dialogue

Even with a well thought out character dialogue can go wrong.
Overall dialogue is, or should be very different from normal text.

That is, because you have more options in dialogue.
You can use incorrect grammar, inaccurate terms and vague words.
Generally everything frowned upon in narration.

Of course, in measure. Just keep in mind that you actually have the option to let a character speak sloppy, in rhymes, beautiful (with a lot of adjectives and euphemism) etc
.
An intelligent character, for example, should also speak like one, using long and complex sentences. Of course, there is the danger of having endless sentences that run on, which is unpleasant for the reader. That is why intelligent characters are hard to write.

An arrogant character would use short sentences, with a more simplistic structure. A simple vocabulary, especially in regards to adjectives may also be associated with them.
Which is why amateurs tend to let their supposedly intelligent characters sound like jerks. -don’t do it if you can’t back it up-

Beyond that, Dialogues also simplify using stylistic devices. After all, a classical auctorial narrator should not use rhetoric questions or too many metaphors. Something which you can freely do in dialogue.

This is important because stylistic devices change, not only how we view a character, but also the feeling of the story.
If you are not sure look it up. I will only say that integrating rhetoric questions, metaphors and/or similes comparisons is fairly easy and your characters will still sound like normal humans while your novel may feel completely different.

2.3 Relations with others

Another issue that is very important is how the characters interact with their surroundings.
This ordinarily would not be an issue. I mean one character has one opinion, the other has a different one, they disagree which leads to conflict or weakens their friendship/relation and it’s all fine and dandy.
But, because of all the writers that want their snowflakes to be special in the head it becomes a problem.

Maybe it is an occupational disease… I should do something different before I become insane too. Screw all you stupid writers.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

*Ahem* Alice in Wonderland strikes out as a novel where everyone and everything is a bit insane. Yet it makes sense because it is still logic, just twisted logic.
That is also the key on how to make your characters interact with their surroundings.

You either provide them with a surrounding that caters to them and where everyone is as insane as they are, or you make sure that they only associate themselves with such people.
The exception would be psychopaths (not the serial killer ones) which would make sure that everyone around themselves is emotionally dependant on them.

Having normal characters and insane ones in a normal relationship simply does not work. They have nothing to gain from conversing with another if one group can’t fill the social needs of the other.
If they need to stay together out of ulterior motives the same applies. Since they would find little or no common things to talk about their relationship would stay shallow.
If you ignore that pesky problem and add a couple of insane ppl your novel will get much merrier, without much effort.
Your depressed loner MC could find some depressed loner friends. They could collectively be silent while sitting around a campfire. Would that not be lovely?

2.4 How deep does it need to go?
We now arrived at the bottom of the rabbit hole.
I hope I managed to explain everything important for the first chapters.
You now might be asking yourself.
How does one achieve more depth, or even character growth?

If you are clever you might have already thought of this in chap 1.2 while thinking about the tools your character needs.
The potential growth is dependant on the amount of tools your character will acquire, while the potential depth is the amount of tools he started with, or had at one point.

Both are things that make your character more complex.
Both do not necessarily require the character to change himself.
What is most important about these events is the people the character met, the connections he made and the conclusions he drew or how he interpreted the event.

Some people have the opinion that growth and depth require an actual change in personality and I would once again disagree.

If your character went to a thousand concerts he does not need to stop liking music.
But having visited so many still makes him more unique. He still has more depth because of it. Or at least he has, if you can apply it.
Obviously “he likes music” can describe a million different things. Your job is to subtly describe that one thing.

You still might want some real changes in personality though.
The most important thing about those is that sudden events do not change people. They traumatize them.
The change is what happens after they process that.
Change takes time. And change is mostly not interesting unless you are really good at describing emotions and processing feelings. Which your novel is probably not about.

Part 3: Reincarnations and other mishaps
This part consists of strong personal opinions and is more of me ranting about genres that are often done wrong.

3.1 It is NEVER the lack of details
There are people that think the lack of details is always the problem.
There are people that deserve to be punched in the face.
I obviously don’t need to add details to allow you to draw the obvious conclusion. Which would be that violence is never the answer. And you should never do drugs.

The lack of details is not magically making your character less of an character. The reader does not want your details.
The thing is, if your character is passionate about something, the details are important to him, not to the reader, not to the narrator.
So stop using the narrator to TELL me about it.

And stop telling me from which source someone knows stuff.
God should neither read Novels nor play MMOs goddamnit.

3.2 The problem with Reincarnations
Most Reincarnation novels suck.
Not only do they waste wayyy too much time on a childhood arc, which is often not even done well, they also completely ignore the properties of their genre.
The only acceptable reasons to use reincarnation are to:

  1. set up a greater plot involving both present and past

  2. Inserting a person with an unique personality or viewpoint into a new setting

Now, A is pretty obvious but I feel I need to explain B more:
It is not to send Jim “I had a bad day and am thus the most hateful person EVAH” into another world.
It is not to send Carl “I have a black belt in KiBoTu and am secretly a psychopath” into another world.
It  is not to send Bob “I won a Nobel Prize” into another world.
It is, if I am generous to send “I am a conceited modern person that complains about first world problems and thus has to adapt to wiping my ass with leaves” into the other world.

Maybe you can tell which of the 4 can not just as well be born into the other world.
And if you just want to give someone a cool unique power let him receive a blessing from a goddess, find an artifact/wishing lamp, or anything IN your fantasy world

3.3 Why most VRMMO novels are squandering their potential

VRMMO novels are not as bad as Reincarnation novels. At least it makes sense that a fantasy world could not sustain itself if it was filled with a legion of murderhobos.
That being said I hate the lack of potential they utilize.
VRMMOs are practically made to write about topics like loss of reality, data security, thought control, anonymous relationships etc.
Yet, the very best the genre has to offer can mostly be summed up with “MC is broke and must earn money!”

It is awful to see the potential of novels squandered that halfway catch on but continue with their generic leveling up plot.

And for god’s sake stop with the “Oh it was the most amazing VRMMO ever with an amazing launch gimmick” Intro.

If you want to help to improve this guide edit out misstakes or comment on sections in the googledocs. I will of course also read criticism on RRL
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gc2JHpINzP0sW-Q8DgOIm5iRIlw9NgEy-AJe-IHDOn4/edit?usp=sharing
Wild Lurker that has infiltrated joined the penguin overlords.
+Rep me so I can afford opposable thumbs.

RE: A guide about Special Snowflakes

#2
Your tone was condescending as fuck, but the guide was pretty good. I only had one major problem with it.

"Personality: Adjectives are your friends when describing actions. Just make sure to use the right ones. An emotional character does something he/she is good at “calmly”. Someone that is less emotional does it “routinely”"

'Calmly' and 'routinely' aren't adjectives, they're adverbs. They're awful. Any 'ly' word tends to be an adverb, and it contributes to passive voice in storytelling.

If your character is very particular, someone who does things with a careful hand, then you don't say, "He did X carefully" because that's a cop out. Instead you describe the action in horrific detail.


Instead of saying, "He rolled a cigarette meticulously"

You should do something like: "He took out a small rolling paper from his pocket. With a steady hand he crumbled pieces of tobacco and scattered them across the paper's surface, letting them bunch up in a line. Calloused, hard fingers gripped the edges and rolled the paper, stopping every few rotations to scrape and reposition the hash."

Don't advocate for adverb abuse. A lot of your advice is solid, though.

RE: A guide about Special Snowflakes

#4
*Stealthily edits Adverbs out*
@Fairplay: Thanks for the criticism. Just goes to show that I am not really qualified to give advice about grammar.

Though I would particularly advocate against telling new writers to work without adverbs.
They may be a crutch but they are also solid. So solid in fact that I didn't even realize I used them ;^)

Another good case to make for them is that they allow you to lay the focus in a scene on something else when multiple actions are happening. Yes, he may roll his cigarette but if someone comes up and talks to him you may want to lay the focus on that instead of wasting a paragraph about cigarette rolling.


I guess it is always a balancing act.
Wild Lurker that has infiltrated joined the penguin overlords.
+Rep me so I can afford opposable thumbs.

RE: A guide about Special Snowflakes

#5
The problem with passive voice and adverbs is that they are easy. So easy that people (myself included) use them without realizing it. It's good to develop the habit of searching out and destroying adverbs as early as possible in your writing career. Habits are hard to break.

I can't tell you how hard I cringe when I reread something I've written and find it riddled with passive voice, adverb abuse, and grammar mistakes.

Don't let new writers fall into those habits early and you'll save them so much headache later.

That said, there are times when adverbs and passive voice can be effective. In storytelling you won't come across those times often, but they do exist.

One English Professor of mine said it best, "90% of passive voice in stories can be removed and replaced with active components."

That said, I did enjoy your guide. I'm just nitpicking.