*shrugs*

Well, we’ve reached the end of our week on clichéd male characters that you really ought to avoid, and I have one more guy I really want to talk to you about. And I’m going to be honest here. He’s in some of my favorite books. But that’s not enough for me to recommend writing him. In fact, that’s part of the reason why I recommend avoiding him entirely.

The Average Joe Who Does Amazing Things

Who is he, you ask?

Funny you should ask!

The Average Joe Who Does Amazing Things is… just that. He’s the most normal guy you’ve ever met, until he turns around and you realize that he’s really not normal at all. He’s awesome. And he can do anything and everything. How freaking cool is that?

How entirely overdone is that?

I’m going to use Neo from the Matrix as my primary example here. He’s the average joe, until he exits the matrix and finds out that he’s this super awesome guy who can and will do everything. That makes him really cool, except that he’s still really struggling to be normal, which makes his character fall apart by the end of the series. (I know, I know, that series fell apart for far too many reasons)

Okay, but like I said, one of my favorite series’ contains this character! So it has to be okay to write him sometimes, right? Let’s check:

Why should we read him?

What’s his purpose in life?

What is his draw, for the reader?

See, this is where the pros of the character really begin to fall apart. This character has been done, a lot, and done very well. So if you’re going to do him, like I’ve been saying all week, you need to find a new way to do it, a way that's not going to be the exact same character we've all read a million times.

Why? Because readers need a reason to read him, and we don’t always want to read the same character. In fact, most of us these days are looking for something new.

So maybe your version of this guy is different, maybe he is utterly unique, and in that case, I say go for it. But if he falls into the serious cliché category, it might be time to look for someone new, or to modify him to the point that he's no longer so overdone. 

Generally, I’d say find someone new. And for you, I have someone very special in mind. To be revealed, next Friday.

Woo!

[love]

{Rani Divine}

p.s. Don't forget to hop over to the RAD Blog today to check out a never-before-released excerpt from my next novel, Dwr: People in the Water! Preorders open April 1!

*pulls out credit card*

What did you guys think of the smart/sexy guy? Have you thought of some characters who fit the bill? I keep finding them, especially since I wrote the post about him. But I’ve found even more of this guy, who we’re about to talk about. Sheesh, seriously, I see him everywhere now.

You’ll know a few off the top of your heads, I’m sure.

The Guy Who has it All

Know who I’m talking about? The first ones that come to mind are comic book characters, if I’m being honest. And I think that might have been where the cliché really grew in popularity, but at this point, he’s just getting so overused and overdone.

Who is he, you ask?

Well, he’s just what it sounds like he is. He’s the man who literally has everything. He’s the rich guy who no one ever says no to, the guy no one can refuse because he literally has everything, and if he doesn’t have it, he’s going to get it. Oh, and most of the time he's also very attractive. Very.

Think of him like Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne. They have everything, to the point that you wouldn’t even know what to get them for Christmas, and they can’t possibly keep a girlfriend because they have such a dependency on their stuff that they don’t know what to do with anything else. (Yeah, I just said that about Bruce and Tony.)

He’s a problem character, if you ask me, and one that’s very overdone, these days.

So let’s look at how we can tell, if our characters are too much like the cliché:

Why should we read him?

What’s his purpose in life?

What is his draw, for the reader?

Again, as always, he really has to have a reason for being the way he is. There needs to be something that redeems him, something that makes him real. Because as he is, he’s not very realistic. He just isn’t.

I know, I know, there are rich people out there. But we can’t all be writing about them now, can we? And we really shouldn’t. Because there are so many of the Guy-Who-has-it-All out there, he’s getting a little old to most readers. We all know Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne. We know the type. We know what he's about. And that makes him a little boring.

So if you’re going to use him, you need to have something about him that makes him utterly unique, that makes him different from all the others of his type, and something that will make your readers actually want to read him.

And that’s really hard to do, which is why I don’t recommend writing him at all. 

Fortunately for you, next week I have someone else to tell you about, someone who'll be much better for you in the long run. 

[love]

{Rani Divine}

*puts on glasses*

Once again this week, we’re back to the clichéd characters that I think it’s time to stop using. Well, okay, you can use them, but you should really make minor characters of them, or work it out that they're not as clichéd. If you’re using these guys as primary characters, in the way most everyone uses them… you may wish to reconsider.

Today, our first male character!

The Smart and Sexy Guy

I see this guy all the time, in more movies and novels than I really care to think about. Seriously. If ever there’s a scientist man, he’s nearly always attractive. Even Leonard from Big Bang Theory, once you get him to stop acting awkward, yeah, that guy’s nice looking.

First off, as always, who is he?

Well, he’s just what you think he is. He’s the guy who’s incredibly smart, and yet somehow unbelievably attractive as well. He’s the character that every woman is going to fall for, once they get to know him, because he's both beautiful and smart, which is what most female characters are looking for. He’s also the one that a lot of female readers honestly really like, because these days we really want our men to be smart—but we also want them to be sexy.

The trouble is, because he’s both smart and sexy, he tends to lose something in the realm of realism. He’s too much of too many good things, if you know what I mean. He has everything. Beauty and brains, and usually brawn. So his flaws tend to be contrived and boring, when it comes right down to it. 

I can nearly guarantee by now that you know at least a few characters who fit this bill.

But there’s still some more questions we should ask ourselves, to find out whether or not our character is actually okay, or cliché:

Why should we read him?

What’s his purpose in life?

What is his draw, for the reader?

If your character has a real purpose, if he has a draw to him, then you might be okay. Indiana Jones, for instance, is the traditional smart and sexy character, but he’s also really funny and semi-aloof, which makes it almost work. But he’s still a cliché. Yes, I just said that.

Your character has to have something that makes him real, like Indiana’s humor. He needs to be someone who’s smart in perhaps one or two topics, but not in everything. Because, remember, he’s a real person—and most real people do not know everything about everything.

So, yeah, sometimes he’s usable. But I think he’s overdone, and I think there’s somebody better, who you can put to better use. I’ll tell you about him next Monday.

[love]

{Rani D.}

*glances in mirror*

This week has been fun, hasn’t it? I’ve really been enjoying this series, as I’m sure you all can tell. It’s really a joy to talk about characters, especially while I’m playing around with some new novel ideas.

So.

This week we’ve talked about the Dainty Girl and the Balanced Woman, two characters who define realism in writing, but today we’re going to talk about a character who I’ve really only ever seen in a few stories, and one who I wish would pop up more often, cause she’s a lot of fun to write.

The Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want)

Remember last week, I talked about the Vanilla Girl (who everyone still seems to want)? Well, this is her opposite, or perhaps, who she should really be.

And who is she, you ask?

Well, the Real Woman (who everyone still seems to want) is just that. See, the vanilla girl is plain. She’s the plainest of them all, to the point that she doesn’t even make sense because even she can’t see anything remarkable in herself. Boring. The real woman isn’t like that. Sure, she might be a little plain, but she has some redeeming quality.

Take Eliza, from Pride and Prejudice. She’s described I don’t know how many times as being plain, but she has a few things going for her (like her fine eyes, and wit), and she knows it. 

That, my friends, is how a lot of women are.

I don’t know why, but a good portion of us consider ourselves plain, even though we aren’t, but we do consider one or two of our features as being remarkable. Me, when I was younger, I always thought I was the plainest girl of them all, but that my eyes were stunning. I had a friend who thought she couldn’t get any plainer, but that her bum was quite lovely. Another said she had nice legs, but that was it. We just do that, for some reason, and that’s what the Real Woman is.

At that point…

Why should we read her?

What’s her main purpose in life?

What is her draw, for the reader?

Personally, I believe that we should read her, and that we should write her, so women understand that they’re not the only ones who do this. I believe readers enjoy her because they relate to her, because we’ve all been there, where someone has called us boring to look at, but we remind ourselves of the thing we have going for us.

Her purpose is to shed light on that, on the reality of things around her, on the reality of her self-image. And that, I think, is her draw. That’s what the world has been talking about lately, when it comes to women and their image of themselves.

So why not write her, why not read her, and remind ourselves that we might not be as plain as we think?

Next week, my friends, we discuss some male characters. I’m looking forward to it!

[love]

{Rani Divine}