: Re: What are the signs of accidental self insertion? I am currently writing a novel where the main character will be far more powerful than most of the people in the world and I am worried that

@Kaufman555

Vote Up Vote Down

In this case consider the three (or four) character sliders: Proactivity, Likability, and Competence (and mission.) The podcast at the link describes this.

You are worried your character will be a ten out of ten in all three areas - Highly proactive, highly likable, and highly competent. (and on a good mission.) (incidentally, my female character suffers from extremely low proactivity, and it's a different problem ... that I'm working to overcome.)

You are right, a character high in all three areas risks being a flat character, a Superman character.

Your solution is simple: Draw down one of the sliders. (Or two.) You get to choose - but if you want a deeper character, that's the solution. Make the character less proactive, less likable, or less competent. This makes the character more relatable to us mere mortals and also gives the character more room to grow.

You can play out how drawing down a slider in any of those areas affects the story - An unlikable character will have certain interpersonal challenges. An incompetent character will fail in the action sequences. And so on.

Answer: Break it down into those three (or four, if you include mission) areas, and decide what to reduce and then just do it.

(0)

Login to post a comment!