: Re: Building a character out of a political caricature? So, I wanted to spice up the MC in one of my stories by... making him into a stereotypical SJW. The catch is supposed to be why and when

@Gail2416123

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To Avoid Looking Like Clickbait, Don't Be Clickbait

Well. That advice in itself is not really helpful. So how do you avoid being clickbait? Well clickbait is fundamentally a label we put on something we consider offensively false advertising that exists purely to tempt us into wasting time reading something only tangentially related. So. To stop the political aspect being clickbaity you can either change your story, by making the politics the focus, exploring the ideas of this ideology, ideally with a level of respect; or...

Change Your Frame

This isn't a story about a character with an ideology, hell it sounds like your protagonist doesn't even agree with their stated ideology. So don't advertise your story as such. Maybe even disavow the idea that that is what the story is (side note: you can do this within the text by having a "True Believer" in or opponent of the ideology call them out on this). Tell people that this is a story about an awful person, using what goodwill a stated ideology brings, and their journey to being less awful, or more awful or figuring out why they are awful. Not a story about a leftist, SJW, liberal, NeoMarxist.

How to Change the Frame

Most of the way to do this are very specific to the medium and writing style. A good general piece of advice is to pick a title that leads people to the idea you want them to be lead to. "The Manipulative Sneak" instead of "The Rich SJW".

You refer to a "Saturday Morning Cartoon" feel, so it may not be all that weird to have people talk about him being misguided and not being a representative of the views , possibly with an honest member of the ideology.

Or just outright have him "privately" monologue to the audience about being disingenuous.

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