Now let us talk about those people who make up our stories... Your characters. More specifically, your main characters. 

The characters are what the entire thing is about. If you didn't have anyone for the readers to follow on a journey then they wouldn't read. Likewise, they need to be clear to your readers and they need to invoke emotion. 

This doesn't always have to be a good emotion, sometimes people are meant to dislike the main character. Though if your character is one of those, make sure you tread carefully. People won't read too long if a character really grates on their nerves. It's sometimes a risky move. 

Let's start with introducing your characters. Introducing your characters is probably the most important moment, it's when the readers get to "see" them for the first time. You want your descriptions to be good, but you don't just want to dump it on them. 

For instance, this is what NOT to do. Alyssa was 5'5 with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in dark blue wash skinny jeans and a black lacy camisole top. 

NEVER DO THAT!!! You don't want to tell your characters, you don't want to dump that information on them, especially not in that way. It's best to have someone observing the character (like your MC observing someone else) or if it's in third person you can do it that way. But it's better to show than tell (that is a common phrase that you've probably heard from English classes or throughout your writing career, and it's one to live by.) Be descriptive without dumping it onto the reader. 

Something more like this: Electra twirled her light brown hair around her finger as she absentmindedly stared off into a stormy, gray sky that matched her eyes. 

You get the more important details of what she looks like while also making it more descriptive and visual. 

A lesson that I learned with characters... you often hear of the "outcast" girl or boy, or that the character has no friends, or very few friends. THIS IS FOR A REASON and typically the best way to go in regards to writing. 

I found out this lesson myself. 

If your MC is popular and has a lot of friends, that means including more names. That means you have to think up more names, use those names, and remember who everyone is. 

If those characters are actually going to be used later on in the story and hold some sort of importance, then by all means, give your character a lot of friends. From a reading standpoint though, it's easier if there are fewer characters. Easier to remember names, easy to associate names with a character, easy to remember that personality. Especially if you're not going to be seeing those other characters very often... Just leave them out. 

That was probably my biggest lesson from writing The Huntress.

Now let us talk about some character sins. These are things you should never do with your character. 

You are the author of your story, you are the creator of these characters and you should know their personality. You should know what they like and what they dislike, you should know their favorite color and what they would like to do in their free time. I know these things about each of my characters. To me, they are like real people in my head that I know almost as well as I know myself. 

You should be able to hold conversations with them, and you should know what their voice is like. Their mannerisms, they way they speak, the little ticks they have. 

That being said. FOLLOW THESE THINGS!!!! Never NEVER have your character do something that they wouldn't normally do. If you've read the Divergent series, that ending worked because it stayed true to the character. There are not many stories that could pull off that ending without upsetting people (and I don't just mean because of what happened and the fangirls wanted to revolt. I mean it's because it followed the character perfectly) If your character isn't like Tris or like the other characters in the series, then don't have them do something like that. 

If your character is a conniving asshole, then make them a conniving asshole... Unless it's your main or "main" character and the point is for them to change... in that case then they should slowly change. If they're a character that would sacrifice their happiness for the happiness of someone else, then let them do that. If they're a selfish person though, don't have them do that! It just doesn't make sense. 

Basically, you can do whatever the heck you want with your characters, as long as they stay true to who they are. That's why some people are still annoyed with a few things that Electra says and does in the sequel to The Huntress... Because while she's changing slowly and making steps, there are still those ingrained things in her. There are those things that she just can't help because they are in her character, and I'm staying true to that. 

Don't have them do anything they wouldn't normally do, and you'll be golden. 

So the lessons of this section are show don't tell (that goes for all your writing... Not just for your characters) and stay true to who your characters are. 

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As always... If you have any other questions about writing or Wattpadding, go ahead and ask in the comments or send me a PM and I will write a section on here about it. 

Thank you all and happy Wattpadding

~Red