Long time no rant! I wrote this not long after the last chapter, but for some reason, my tangents about Lee Minho made me wary of posting. Also, I have a super great poster idea for this chapter, but it will take too much time for me to photoshop it right now and I think it came out well. I'm kind of only thinking about this because I have a bunch of homework and am suffering from a serious case of procrastination. I was doing so well the first month of college, but now...

I swear the next chapter is settings. I've done research, written things down, and even gone to sleep with thoughts of easy steps to making successful settings. Also, I've definitely noted everyone's suggestions and comments from before. 

I find that there are two different types of character glorification. The first type is the most annoying, the type when the characters are over emphasized to the extent that you hate the characters for being so superficial. These characters will have descriptions like “She’s so sweet, smart, y, shy, and sly.” They’ll have all these traits that make them either super perfect or super terrible. This type of glorification is terrible in that it is unrealistic, and I hate that. The second type is the subtle type that is hard to pick up on unless you really look for it. I approve of this type, mostly. There will be some nitpicking later on.

In previous chapters, I already talked about how there is no need to overly emphasize the idol character because they are already something that the reader has strong feelings for. In contrast, OCs and “you” characters require a bit more development. So, this chapter is balancing the traits in the characters, OC or idol.

Let’s start with the OCs/”you” characters. Like all characters, these need to be developed enough that you start to feel an emotional attachment to them. It should be to the level that if the idol was taken out the story, you would still like to read the fic. This isn’t to say that these characters need to have major roles if they are not needed, nor do they need to have small roles if they play a large part in the story.

I personally don’t like for the OCs to be the main character, but I’ve rethought my overall disdain for it. This is mostly because I have been reading more novels than fanfics lately. So I can see why having an OC narrate a story about an idol can be thrilling.

But it doesn’t change the fact that these OCs are not as easy to like. So let’s first make characters likeable, or at least tolerable. This is where it gets dangerous. Likeable does not mean super interesting. For some reason, writers seem to think that cliché traits make characters better, but small traits actually build characters more.

These OCs can have talents like being intelligent or being good singers, but they cannot be perfect. An overly perfect character is so boring and overdone! What are you expecting from a character like that? For instance, a girl that can sing and dance really well and joins a boy group as a cross dresser or a girl group and interacts with other guys in the company. What, is a natural reverse harem going to occur? Or in a school environment, a girl that is smart, athletic, and friendly/shy around guys.

I’ve always been annoyed by those glorified characters who could overcome any problem because of their own perfection. Their very existence allows them to be successful. Or their very existence invites tragedy. Don’t create these over the top OC/you characters. I don’t know how to make it any clearer other than these highly unrealistic characters are bad.

Now the idols. Sigh. These are the characters that you naturally want to exaggerate. Your inner fan girl or boy gleefully wants to make them the most popular student in school, or super messed up on drugs, or really dorky. You have these fantasies about them, I get it.

Although I am a bit more tolerant towards idol characters, I still can’t stand superficial characters. All the nonsense that comes with OC characters, you can’t do that with idol characters either. There is a certain level of “Lee Minho has a handsome face, is super tall, and super rich” that I can handle. Then there is a level of “Lee Minho is stuck up, treats girls like s, and spends money like he breathes” that I hate.

Here is the difference between this being a glorification and this being great characterization. My hypothetical Lee Minho is a rich, snobby, obnoxious guy, sure, those are things you’d find in a ty character profile. Those are things you know about him. It means absolutely nothing for the story. There are stories out there where how the character acts influences the plot none whatsoever. There will still be a girl, and this girl becomes a slave to Lee Minho because of her debts, and some mafia will try to kidnap this girl and demand money from Lee Minho once he finally falls in love with her determination and smarts. He doesn’t have to be a snob for that to happen, that’s just the story.

But better stories will take his riches and snobbery and throw in conflicts with his friends that love him for his money. Minho’s friends come to all the parties he throws, but behind his back they don’t care that he might be sent to America to work in his father’s company, they just want to be at his farewell party. Minho, aware of their shallowness, can only put on a fake smile and search for someone who will sincerely look out for him. Enter the slave debt girl Minho treats harshly because of his false friends urging to assert his dominance. All these conflicts revolve around Lee Minho’s initial characteristics.

None of that made sense. I don’t know. Forget it. Someone write that story anyway.

Basically, it comes down to: if you can describe your character like it’s a character profile, those traits are just a glorification of the character. If you are going to give a trait to a character, do something with it. Don’t add them on to make the character “better”.

The best way to make the characters different and better than others is to subtly glorify them. This requires that the characters have qualities to them that are explainable. Everything wrong above—this is how you fix it. Characterization should be able to drive the story forward but not dominate it. It should flow seamlessly along with the plot.

I’m really having a lot of trouble explaining this other than make better characterizations. Grow up. Mature your writing. Looking at some of these characters, it’s not bad to read, it simply embarrassing. It show immaturity in your writing and mental state to be so enticed by Kingkas and Queenkas and Nerds and s.

Real talk though, I like to read stories where some of these glorified characteristics come in. For instance, rich people. It’s not a crazy idea for fictional Lee Minho to be filthy rich. When I read that scenario, I hope the conflict is not that the girl does not like snobby and rich Lee Minho, but that his money causes him grief and other financial issues and the romance he has with this girl only adds onto his stress. Like, he has so much money that he really hates it. Glorify that money to the point that it’s not a nonsense trait but something important. I like fics like that.

BUT beware the fact that if you do it too many times it can become overused. This has become an issue that one of my favorite writers does. She writes really well, read any of her stories and you’ll never forget her name. Her characterization is a driving point in everything she writes. However, I’ve noticed that she sometimes emphasizes things like their looks and talents (like singing in band fics) to the extent of bragging. He sings so well that they are literally the most popular band of their time. He is so handsome that all their hoobae can only stare, and when they are caught, his fierce and enticing glare captivates them more and makes them ashamed.

At first these are nice and make you feel great as a fan, but then they come off as a little overly obsessive. Try not to sound obsessive. And it is also arrogant. This author was writing stories for my fandom (the only fandom I would ever consider myself part of because I hate SM) and my favorite fic OTP, yet I found the way she described the characters as excessively arrogant. If I wasn’t part of the fandom, I probably would have been super pissed off.

That is the second drawback to subtle idol glorification. Even if you make it natural that the idol is very accomplished, there will always be people who are casual fans that don’t like that general assumption about the idol.

[EDIT] I feel so dumb for just now reaching this conclusion, but to emphasize a character’s traits more without actually gushing about them, create a foil. If you don’t understand this terminology, a foil is basically the opposite of your character. Or not opposite, but someone whose traits are easily compared and contrasted with another. Google it. So if the protagonist is rich money hating Lee Minho who owns slave girl, his foil would be money loving poor Lee Wonbin who befriends the girl out of poverty.

In my hypothetical story drama, Minho and Wonbin are actually cousins, but Wonbin’s side of the family lost their money while Minho’s side basically ate all the money up. But his side did it to save the company overall, not for selfish reasons. Because of that, Wonbin’s side holds a grudge and is doing everything it can to get the money back, and then some. Throw the slave OC into the mix and we’ve got the next K-Drama hit.

You see, on the surface, Lee Minho is a jerk to the girl because he knows how corrupt money can be. Wonbin thinks he can use the girl to get at Minho and befriends her by pretending to hate money because of what it has done to his family. Their real values are highlighted by the other. In this case, Minho, as the male protagonist, is emphasized by Wonbin, the male antagonist. There is no need to go in depth about each, just using both already does the job.

This can be applied in real fics through friends, siblings, rivals, and lovers. Not just with obvious traits like personality, but height, relationships with others, livings spaces, grades, work ethic, etc.

What disappoints me most about just saying this now is that I learned this years ago. It only just clicked that “oh, everybody can and probably does do that in their writing.” I just wanted to say it myself. 

Also, jump on the hype train and vote this potato up.