The post that started this whole thing 

Part I 

Part II

Part III

Heyhey, children! Y'all know what's coming, don't y'all?

What the is AFF doin' is gaining some traction, and Imma let y'all know why. It's because y'all, just like me, are hella in tired of reading absolute horse . Now, I hope you're pretty strapped down to your seats, everybody, because we're taking a bit of a ride this week into some of the more troubling areas of what it means to construct your own character.

LET'S GO, KIDS.

Title: Cliché of clichés - now in title format!

Genres: ANGSTY AS

Synopsis:

The original character whose name I will not mention but instead exchange for Bianca is a teenager in high school. Bianca is the picture perfect girl; she has amazing grades, she’s kind to everyone and she is intensely beautiful. However, there’s something wrong with this picture perfect girl – she is called a and a by everyone at school and she thinks of herself as nothing but a lowly . As it were, Bianca’s father left the family before she was born, her mother is an alcoholic and her stepbrother her whenever he feels like it. She is physically and mentally abused and has been since mere age five. She finds solace in studying and does it “in order to escape the cruel world she was brought into”. Yeah.

Anyway, Jimin is a dude at Bianca’s school who is oddly nice to her, while everyone else just totally hates her. She somehow begins to get her hopes up with Jimin because of the fact that he doesn’t call her a (at least not to her face), and she begins to have romantic thoughts about him. It just means so much to her that at least one person treats her like a human being.

So, on the story goes, until Bianca is gang- (I think? This part was pretty fuzzy) by like five dudes who threaten her with baseball bats. This, for the record, happens when she’s sitting alone in a wintery, quiet landscape, has taken her cardigan off (showing her bruises everywhere) and then these dudes show up outta nowhere. No more updates after this.

My thoughts on the matter:

So. I see we’re dealing with another OC that suffers from some deeper issues. What can we do to rid ourselves of this old and very, very tired trope? 
Lemme tell you. 

STOP WRITING THIS BULL ALL TOGETHER

PLEASE

RIGHT NOW, I BEG OF YOU

Okay, sorry. I shouldn’t yell first thing. Let me go into detail, just to lay it down as clearly and constructively as I possibly can. 

I don’t want to read about your sad character because she’s unrealistic. In fact, she’s unrealistic on so many levels that it actually becomes tragically evident that you either haven’t met people or you simply don’t know what a person is like. You might be an alien. Though I don’t know, I thought aliens would, like, study the human race before they started writing fanfiction about them. WHAT DO I KNOW RIGHT 

So, I mentioned this before, in that you need to base your original character on a real person in order to make them as realistic as possible. I mean, aside from the fact that you’re writing about someone who doesn’t have any signifying character traits other than that she’s very sad on the inside, you’re facing a really big problem because you have a story that is unbearably cliché. 

We’ve got a girl who looks good, has good grades, but goes to school and struggles with fitting in. There’s a boy who treats her kindly, and she develops feelings for him. Add varying factors such as social background, monetary status, looks and age. 

Doesn’t this sound like every story you’ve ever read on here???? Here’s a fun fact! I changed the OC’s name to Bianca because it literally means “white” or mothering BLANK in a bunch of Romance languages.

Now, don’t you go thinking that I’m preventing you from writing cliché stories. Actually, I halfway encourage it. However, the one precondition that needs to be filled before you do it is that you do it amazingly. Ask yourself this – why do you think Twilight became a story read and loved by so many? How about Titanic, Avatar and Elizabethtown? Forrest Gump? It’s because these stories have clichés in them that are ing awesomely made.

Twilight has a love triangle which is ridiculous at best, but because of its execution is becomes an incredible story to many. Titanic and Avatar both have the star-crossed lovers, meant to be in a world that opposes them being together. Elizabethtown utilizes the pixie-girl, a woman whose main point is to cheer up a dude who is down and get him to see the beauty in life. Yes-Man also does this, where Jim Carrey learns to embrace life because of a happy-go-lucky girl that he just met. Forrest Gump is the wise fool, someone who acts dumb but apparently harbors wisdom far more advanced than any of his intelligent peers. 

See my point? I really dig these stories (well… some exceptions apply), and the reason for that is that they are very well executed. Let’s not pretend that they aren’t. Something a little more on a personal note is that I think it’s ed by AFF to place the tag “school life” as one of the mains, because it encourages people to write as much of that bull as they can. 

Listen, I get it, most young people go between their house and school and their social lives are normally limited to whoever is in their class. However, with that being said, we all know that there are exceptions to this rule. Why don’t we aim for that then? Here’s why: because we want things that are relatable. 
This is where Bianca comes back into play; she’s the epitome of pointless in this regard. I can’t relate to her because she’s inherently un-relatable. I don’t have anything in common with someone who has been physically, mentally and ually abused since pre-school, who just so happens to run into Jimin in her school. 

Like… I mean? None of that makes any sense? What the ? 

And here’s the issue with a whole bunch of other “original” characters. They’re all the ing same! ALL OF THEM. 

I suspect that a part of this trend came from the most popular story on this website, The Dull One, which embodies everything I hate with stories which aren’t really there for me to enjoy them as stories, they’re there for me to enjoy envisioning myself as the main character of this crazy- drama unfolding. Well, it’s Twilight’s other stereotype reimagined to fit a Korean school setting. She’s the embodiment of a feeling that is prevalent among girls: she isn’t as shiny as all the other girls, but somehow she wants to get noticed on account of how special she is. 

Hmmmmmmm

Where

Where have I heard this before

Oh

Right

EVERYWHERE

Y’all force me to sigh so in deeply sometimes. And for the record, I’m not innocent of this either. In my story The Curious Case of the Sasaeng Fan, the main character Su-jin is an anxious, depressive, paranoid and recovering psychopath. However, this isn’t developed that deeply, like, at all, because she’s busy trying to learn how to feel feelings because “ermaigerd Chen is pretty”. She doesn’t get any background description, because I committed a sin. 

Ugh. Lemme just explain. 

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

TCCOTSF was originally written from a second-person perspective. It was supposed to be the plot twist of the century with the reader being revealed to be the murderer in the end, and then we’d find out her backstory. I originally wrote her as born to a teenager from a wealthy family, which didn’t want the teen mom or the child. So, in order to conceal the identity of their teenager as well as her daughter, the teen took a job at an orphanage and passed the kid off as being an orphan like all the others. This led to a weird relationship between mom and daughter OC, because she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about her mom. Her mom later died, because it became problematic to have family relations for an OC who doesn’t know what feelings are. Around halfway, I realized that this was a ty story when told from second person perspective, so I altered it to third person and NOW YOU KNOW WHY I ED UP MY STORY. 

[SPOILERS OVER]

So. Back to the thing. I said something about being constructive, yes? Great! Let’s begin with asking ourselves if our character is realistic. 
Some really, really, basic steps we can take is checking if the reaction that the OC has is something that we would do ourselves. Naturally, this depends on the circumstances of your story, but essentially this is what I mean:
 

She saw Jin pass her in the hallway, as he did every day. He mindlessly slid his fingers through his hair and his thick lips as he strode closer. He normally didn’t notice her shy attempts at waving as she pressed her back into her locker. Today, deflated, she decided against her standard routine of trying to elicit a “hello” from him, and hung her head low in defeat. In a quick and unsuspecting moment, her new glasses fell off from her small nose and tumbled to the floor in front of her. Embarrassed, she fumbled with her hands and went down on her knees to collect them. As her hand reached for the glasses, another hand grasped them before hers. She stopped herself and looked up, only to be met with the deepest of brown eyes she had ever seen. 

Jin smiled slightly. “I guess you dropped these… here.” He said, handing them to her as they both rose to their feet. 

Her trembling hand accepted them, feeling the heat from his skin on her fingertips. The heat in her cheeks was unmistakable, and she found herself speechless at such beauty. 

“They didn’t break, right?” Jin asked with a concerned look. 

She opened , but not a syllable escaped her lips. She was too encased in the intensity that was Jin. 

“Are you okay?” He asked as she hadn’t replied. “Did I say something?” he said, and smiled nervously.

In her panic-stricken mind, her brain reverted back to the monkey stage; fight or flee. She subconsciously chose the latter option, and ran in the opposite direction with her books and glasses until she was far away from Jin and the most embarrassing moment of her entire life. 

Mkay so now that we’re over writing that cringe worthy POOP, let’s take a second and analyze what just happened in our little school life fic. So, Jin is a walking stereotype, our OC is a walking stereotype, the scene is a stereotypical setting, and let’s face it – I could become a screenplay for Korean romcom dramas. 

NOBODY WOULD REACT THIS WAY. NOBODY. Even if you suffer from inherent social anxiety, you don’t really react this way. Most people with severe social anxiety can react strangely, but they’re not really so infatuated and clumsy that they can’t even say thanks. Now, even if your character in fact were to suffer from a disorder, we should probably confess that we don’t usually write our OCs with the intention of them being socially anxious. We write them as reflections of ourselves or others, and I don’t know a single ing person who wouldn’t even be able to stutter out a meek “thanks”. 

Soooo0o0o00o0o0oo what can we do to alleviate the pressure of creating an OC who doesn’t act like a half (or all) the time? 

Next step in order to assure realism: base them on someone who exists! It’s not that ing hard! Do you know anyone like the character you’re writing? I do! It’s your deepest, darkest inner self with erted wishes of ing y boys. you. 

Let’s talk about how people are different from each other on really fundamental levels. Why don’t I like any of the characters (mains or sides) in your story? It’s because you’ve written them with a very inward perspective, causing them to be a little too agreeable. 

Example 1: Girl has fight with boy over petty stuff. Girl’s best friend tells her that she’s done nothing wrong, boy’s best friend tells him that he was wrong and should apologize. Boy ends up apologizing because ist stereotypes, and you write them to not have any real friction pretty much. 

Example 2: Boy is in a relationship with guy. Guy is meant to be antagonistic, and tells protagnoistic boy that he isn’t allowed to go outside. Boy is upset and has an inner monologue which the reader can and does agree with. 

Like, I get it, bad opinions are bad. Good opinions are good. Where is the debate though? Why don’t I ever catch any of your OCs thinking about things other than the main reason for something being either bad or good? THE WORLD IS NOT BLACK AND WHITE. 

WHAT IS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

My god. I’m sorry. It’s in’ late around here and I don’t have the energy to keep writing. 

Actually, that’s not true. 

I will end my anger with some seriousness that is long overdue. There is an issue I’ve taken with AFF and other authors who perceive their angsty, sorrowful writing to be very, very good due to a variety of reasons. Other than this blog series being one made to tackle this specific problem, I want you to know that what you’re doing is so far from rooted in any reality when you have a fic like the one we started out with. 

Let’s get this straight, shall we? 

You don’t know what any type of abuse looks like if this is what you write it as. 

You don’t know what it feels like to be hit in the face, on your arms, on your legs, in the stomach, by someone that you love and would do anything for. Every day. Every week. Every year. 

You don’t know what it feels like to be tormented endlessly over tiny, insignificant things that bear no actual meaning. Every day. Every week. Every year.

You don’t know what it feels like to be gaslighted. It is a very common issue in narcissistic households. They convince you that whatever you felt or experienced was just an over-exaggeration or a lie or it never happened. 

You don’t know what it’s like to have absolutely no one believe you when you’re telling the truth about a situation that caused you pain, anger and sadness. Even worse, some may even laugh. 

You don’t know what it’s like to have to cater to everyone without a single sound of discomfort because your loved ones make that the norm, and if you don’t follow suit then you will suffer. Every day. Every week. Every year. 

You don’t know what true self-sacrifice looks like. 

You don’t know what it feels like when you flinch each time your abuser moves towards you, and then mocks you for it and calling you a , laughing in your face. 

You don’t know what it’s like to not do anything wrong and still be violently punished for it because your abuser just ing feels like it and needs an outlet. 
Every day. Every week. Every year.  

You don’t know what it’s like to be . As a woman or man, you may have gone through ual harassment or similar problematic situations, but if you think that writing about a character who got molested and ually abused from age five is going to bring credibility to your character, you are sorely mistaken. doesn’t look like what most people think it does. uous doesn’t look like what most people think it does. 

is something that is unholy. It strips you bare to the bone from your dignity, your pride, your courage and your security. These are all exchanged for shame, guilt, anger and fear. Hopelessness and then numbness are almost welcome stages after the flood of feelings that you have no control over. 
You are paralyzed and in a situation where you end up wishing yourself out of existence because it’s just so ing hard. 

You’re stuck having to deal with the memories of a man or woman pressing their body into yours, the scent from their perfume lingering on your skin, the saliva that came from their lips, the taste of their teeth. Memories of the color of the floor, the lonesome dot on the wallpaper, the coarse sheets against your back. Their fingers pressing hard into your skin, the invasiveness of their very presence in your most vulnerable moment.

More memories come back, and this time it’s about how it feels like you’re just so wrong in all of this. If you didn’t want it, shouldn’t you have said something? Why did you wear those clothes? Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you fight harder? Why didn’t you leave sooner? Why didn’t you run away? Why did you trust them? Why did you think it was going to be okay? What did you expect?

… What did you expect? 

follows you and haunts you for a long time. It becomes a part of your identity, a permanent stain on your otherwise crispy white canvas that cannot be undone. It will be there forever, and even though you do your best in painting it over with strong colors that cover it entirely, you will know, you will always know, that the stain is still there, no matter how much bull you try to hide it with. 

So what are we left with?

A victim, and a survivor, both inside one person. A struggle. An identity crisis. A lifelong emotion from a memory that makes your entire body ache just by thinking of it. 

We are left with pity, anger and devastation on account of thousands, millions of others who go through the same thing. 

There’s a book I want you to read, and at the very least a movie I want you to see. The book is called Push and the movie is called Precious. 

Precious is the name of a girl who is 16 years old. She lives in Harlem with her abusive mother and her father who her. She has given birth to a child because of her father her and now has her second one on the way. She is obese and illiterate and cannot complete school because of this. She goes to another school with a teacher who focuses on at-risk youth from troubled backgrounds, where Precious meets girls who have come from similar homes as hers. 

I will leave you there. 

Push (Precious) tells you how it is. You should know that this… this is one of the many reasons I aim a white hot rage toward those who use as a literary sign of character growth. 

No. 

You don’t know what it’s like. 

You don’t know a ing thing. 

Word count: 3,1k+