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=== What makes a good character? ===

The best main characters are multi-dimensional who can hate and love at the
same time and are conflicted with these emotions. The best characters in a
story also have a conflict with every character in their objects of desire. And
the best characters in stories have a conscious and an unconscious desire that
is conflicting. For example, a general will want to vanquish and rule the lands
but unconsciously wants to retire and settle quietly with his wife on a farm.
The ending to his story might make him lose the war and everything and exiled
to a distant land. At this point, he does not obtain his conscious desire but
obtains his unconscious desire thereby providing a rich and ironic ending for
the readers.

The heart of the story is this conflict on all levels and when an author grasps
how to create conflict (consiously or unconsciously), then I think the stories
are well-told

----
=== My story is boring, how do I make it more exciting? ===

While there are many ways to entertain your reader, the most important method
is to keep them turning the pages. Suspense is why we turn the pages. The
author makes us curious to know more about what is happening.

Creating suspense doesn't mean you need to have a murder-mystery or a horror
story. Suspense is simply something that holds you, makes you curious, and
makes you want to know what happens next.

I recently wrote an article on suspense you might find informative about
suspense:
http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2542

----
=== I can't get past the second chapter of my book! ===

You're hitting the middle. Keep in mind that the world is full of two-chapter
unfinished books sitting in drawers and closets.

It isn't writer's block that you have a problem with, it's not knowing how to
write the middle of your story. The middle makes up the largest part of your
book so knowing how to write the middle will help you to get over the problem
because you can't have a story without it.

Basically, every story is a quest that takes a character in an ordinary world
(not to be confused with boring) and reverses it. This inciting incident forces
your character to correct the order, which becomes the object of desire. Once
your character begins the quest it enters into the middle of your story. To
obtain the object of desire, your character will take the least amount of
action to obtain it. At every turn, your character will fail to obtain the
object and it becomes increasingly
[http://www.huntingtexastrophies.com/texas-hunting-packages/texas-whitetail-deer-hunting/ whitetail deer hunting] difficult to do so. These are progressive complications, and this is what makes up the middle. Finally, the character reaches a point where he has summoned all his courage and strength to obtain the object and must risk the most he's ever risked. This is your story's climax. When he obtains (or does not obtain) the object, the story has reached the end and there is only the short conclusion (or an abrupt end). This is the quest.

**How to write the middle**

The middle can be broken into two parts: A and B. Each of these parts can be
written as the character seeking the goal but at the end of part A there is a
major [make-up artist http://www.amaliadraghici.ro/]
[http://www.amaliadraghici.ro/ make-up artist] reversal that throws your
character off (and your readers). Everything is not as it seems and the story
takes a new direction in part B.

All stories follow this form (not to be confused with formula).

See also StoryTemplate

----
=== OMG my novel idea's been stolen!!? ===
The movie "The Life In her eyes" starring Uma Thurman is almost
identical to the novel idea I've been working on. Is that bad? I really like my
novel idea and want to continue though.

: Finish it. [detectivi particulari http://www.detective.ro]
[http://www.detective.ro detectivi particulari] In the US, ideas can't be
copyrighted, which means you can use anyone's plot if you wish. But the reality
is most artists do not want to use someone else's plot. But, the plot thickens
when you get into international law where ideas can be copyrighted. The most
recent case was in Britain where Dan Brown was in court for "lifting the
architecture" from another book. He won. But the law wasn't settled whether
the architecture is the same as the plot.

: Also, while you could potentially use a plot, you can't steal characters,
incidents, or language.

----
=== What about Star Wars enables us to initially suspend our disbelief? ===
As a writer, I can't read a movie or read anything without intensely
[http://www.huntingtexastrophies.com/texas-hunting-packages/texas-whitetail-deer-hunting/ whitetail deer hunts] studying it. One thing I've noticed is that many of the things (for lack of a better word) that are in Star Wars that were great would have bombed and been dubbed "cheezeball" if they had been in another piece of work. (Although some still say that about Star Wars. It's a mystery...). How was it presented and written, what about the way it was written and presented, rather, that enabled us to accept it? Things like "The Force", for example. Why did it come off as meaningful and not lame? Thanks.

Even factoring in that it was done in the late 70's early 80's, I still think
that there was more to it.

: The instant you decide to enter fiction is when you suspend your disbelief
and a writer can usually hold you for at least one chapter in a book and maybe
30 minutes for a film. The real issue is whether the writer can keep you
suspending your disbelief.

: Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back both came out as meaningful stories
because they lacked melodrama. Melodramatic writing is weak because the
characters lack motivation. If the characters are motivated by their desires,
explosive and ridiculous scenes are taken seriously because it's the hero's
quest that is important. If you can take us on a journey, the audience will
accept anything.

: Compare the best Star Wars movies with Episode I. Why was that such a poor
movie? The problem was the protagonist, the kid, had absolutely nothing to
lose. He lived in a great home and suffered no risk. He therefore had no desire
to gain anything because he had everything and the writing became melodramatic
and unbelievable. It wasn't until Episode II where he lost his mother that it
started to get interesting.

: Avoid writing melodrama and the audience will believe you.

----
=== How to write a story? ===

A story, whether it's a novel, short story, or screenplay, is started with some
of the following:

1. Premise
This is when you ask, "What would happen if?" Anything can get you
started with it. The author of "Lord of the Rings" started his when
he wrote about a hole in the ground on a piece of paper. He had no clue what it
meant, he simply wrote it. Then he started asking "what would happen
if..." something lived in it? Then it grew into "The Hobbit" and
"Lord of the Rings". Brainstorm, read the news, and start asking what
if questions to develop the premise of your story.

2. Setting
You can set your story anywhere, on Mars, in the past on Earth, in the future
on a starship, anywhere. Even thinking about the setting can help you to
develop the premise.

3. Multiple Characters
Almost all stories contain multiple characters to play off of the values of the
others. Start thinking about characters and what they want and this will also
help you to develop your story. Ask lots of "what would happen if?"

4. Inciting Incident
This is where you story begins that turns your story's world upside-down and
forces your character to set it straight. Then your character will begin a
quest to reach an object of desire. Thinking about an inciting incident can
also be your premise: "What would happen if a shark ate someone and the
partially-eaten body ends up on the beach?" Jaws.

These points should help you to get started

If you're going to write a story like
[http://www.mightystudents.com/catalog/history history essays], try to do some
research like reading materials like books and some
[http://www.mightystudents.com/ sample essays] online. Get some tips and learn
from their style on how their write their story creatively.

----
=== What are the steps to write a book? ===

To get a book published, requires a fantastic story. Even a manuscript with
grammar errors and bad formatting but have a perfect story will surpass any
manuscript that is perfectly formatted and has perfect grammar.

So, the first thing you need to do is to learn how to write a story. This is
extremely hard work that thinking about publishing is a distraction that you
need to put in the back of your mind until you complete a third or fourth draft
of your story.

To get started, there's one book I recommend for writers: "Story" by
Robert McKee. There's a reason why it's used as a textbook in colleges that
still have classes that teach how to write a story (creative writing classes
don't teach storytelling, unfortunately so don't let anyone get you in one of
these classes and expect to learn how to write a story). Learning what a quest
is, what characters do on a quest, and how authors send them on a quest is
revealed in this book.

Read a lot of your favorite genre. This is how many writers such as Stephen
King maximized his craft.

Of course write as well, but like a painter who can paint, he still goes to art
school to maximize his craft, so you too should take advantage of the book
above and visit websites with articles such as
http://www.storyentertainment.com and http://www.nanowrimo.org to maximize your
writing talent.

----
=== What should my story be about? ===

Being a good writer and being a good storyteller are not the same thing. This
is a problem with the way classes are taught today where creative writing
courses (and English courses) emphasize writing your feelings through poetry
and prose whereas storytelling is about characters and their multi-leveled
relationships who experience change and how they deal with it. This ultimately
reveals the author's interpretation of the meaning of life.

To accomplish this, you need to use your talent to learn about the craft of
storytelling.

To get started, there's one book I recommend for writers: "Story" by
Robert McKee. There's a reason why it's used as a textbook in colleges that
still have classes that teach how to write a story.

----
=== How do I go about writing a book? ===
First, to sit down and start writing without consciously or unconsciously
knowing how to craft a story will leave you where you are: nowhere. Those are
the symptoms of not knowing how to write a story. Imagine a painter sitting
down and painting a masterpiece or a musician creating a symphony. It doesn't
happen besides the rare prodigies but even prodigies learn to maximize their
talent in many ways. With the bit of talent that you have, like a painter, use
it to learn about the craft of storytelling. The most obviously way is to
unconsciously absorb it while reading mountains of books over the years. But
the other method is to consciously learn what makes a story.

----
=== What comes first, story or chapter? ===
Where to place chapters depends on each novel. In any story, a break changes at
a turning point that provides revelation into the story. For example, scenes
have a turning point, which creates sequences that have a turning point, and
these sequences create acts that have a turning point.

When writing a novel, marking the important turning points is important when
creating chapters, but the pacing is also very important and can also determine
when to make a minor turning point into a larger turning point.

You can always create the chapters as you go along, but it's in the revisions
where the story truly comes alive. As Hemingway said: "All first drafts
are crap", although he said it differently.

----
=== How do you write a novel? ===
After 18 months of not knowing where to go next, last night the rough content
of the entire next 10 or so chapters just came to me in a very short space of
time.

So how do you write? Do you develop a detailed plot structure, build on that
and determine who the characters will grow to be, or are you like me and just
let the story and characters grow as you write
[http://custom-paper-writing.com/ custom essays], ignoring all conventional
ways of producing a novel and relying almost purely on your own imagination?

: Eighteen months is a long time to figure out your plot, and that's usually
what happens when you don't outline. It also sets you up for very rough middles
and weak endings. With that being said, I realize that author's have their own
methods and whatever works best for them is fine.

: Stephen King, for example, doesn't plot, but that doesn't mean he doesn't
have an idea about the ending nor know about his character arcs (see "On
Writing" by Stephen King). He's also a mature writer and much of what he
writes is auto-plotted in his mind. But there's also a weakness to his writing
that is common with many other authors who don't plot: their stories fade
toward the last 2/3 and begin to ramble and they have weak endings.

: Consider other artists such as painters and musicians; with the talent that
they have, they still go to school to learn how to paint and write or play
music even with their own natural abilities. They study their craft and
maximize their talent. I think writers can benefit from doing this, as it was
done before the 1960s (which coincided with the end of the golden age of
American theater, cinema, and novels).

: The way I write is the same method that was used before the 1960s and still
used in Hollywood today. I brainstorm a story (because I studied the elements
of what makes a story, so I know where to fit everything) and develop a
step-outline. I outline the plot and then break it down into scenes, sequences,
and acts. I also research my subject all the while taking notes and writing
ideas about characters. I then establish the character arcs and determine what
they want and play the values off of the others. I then write. Once I discover
my story's controlling idea, I paste it on my monitor and filter everything I
write through it. I know where I'm going with my story but that doesn't mean it
never changes. Once finished I revise many times. Think about your favorite
movies and television shows: they churn out the stories at a fast pace because
they outline.

: I think an author who outlines and explicitly plots resembles a fine painter
who studied his craft and worked as an apprentice whereas authors who write
without knowing where they're going resemble folk painters: sometimes they're
great, but they usually aren't.

: You asked for an opinion about how I write so I don't mean to tell you to
start outlining. While I lean towards the idea that outlining helps as long as
you have taken the time to learn what a story is to maximize your craft, it's
no guarantee that you will be a better storyteller.

----
=== How do you write a story synopsis? ===
In a synopsis, you're essentially retelling the story by providing one or two
sentences about each scene or sequence. Go through the story and mark the
important turning points which are usually the end of a sequence or an end of
an act. Go through all of these and write down what happened and you have your
synopsis. It should be about 1,000 to 2,000 words for most novel-length
stories. When you read it, it should be just as exciting as when you read the
story because it will be a condensed version of the story.

About names, it's common for authors to try to avoid giving main characters
names that start with the same letter because of the way the eye reads and also
thinks. Screenwriters also try to avoid it. You don't have to, though.

----
=== Are the layouts and forming of plots in a book important? ===
I dont believe that there should be and established form to write a book. If
your able to use your mind creatively and geniously then keeping the reader
flip those pages will determine if the book is good or not. My dad will tell me
some storys that if he woud write them down, ill be the first customer, not
because he is my dad, but because they are good storys.

: There is a form to writing a book, but don't mistake this with formula. All
stories follow a quest. As a storyteller, you can't get around this no matter
how you try. Studying what the quest is and how it works, though, can help you
to maximize your craft and tell fantastic stories; that is take your idea from
a seed and grow it into a story with deep meaning. That is true literature.
Prose isn't storytelling, but it can provide a deeper texture to it.

: How you approach the quest, though, depends on what you prefer to focus
upon. There are certain methods that are recommended but like any art such as
painting, music, photography, some of the recommendations are better to be
mastered and then once you master them you can learn to break them. An analogy:
Picasso had a natural talent as a painter but he still studied painting to
learn how to paint realistic images before he painted abstractly.

: Every writer, like a painter and a musician, should take the time to learn
the craft of storytelling.

----
=== Why does an author not tell you everything? ===
A book that never asked you to figure out the subtext would be a story that
tells and doesn't show, which completely destroys the golden rule of writing:
show, don't tell. Books that tell instead of show are horrible to read.

To find the subtext is human and a fine author sculpts the subtext to provide a
form that the reader discovers on his own, with the author's guidance.

----
=== How many characters should be in a fantasy novel? ===
It's important that you also make a distinction between a character and a main
character. You can have as many supporting characters as you please.

But for a regular-sized fantasy novel, the ideal number of main characters are
4-8; this goes for any genre, in fact.

If you make it bigger (like Lord of the Rings), you can sufficiently include
more main characters because you have more time to develop them.

The worst answer to this question would be "as many as you want"
because you must develop the main characters through the book. If you have 20
main characters in a 400-page novel, you don't have enough space to develop
them all fully.

If you write a series of books, you can increase this number because you will
have thousands of pages to tell the story of each character. Otherwise, a
single, deep story only has 4-8 main characters. Look at any movie, television
show, or non-series novel and count the characters.

----
=== When I find a great idea for a story, I end up hating it. Why? ===
Every writer doubts their ideas at some point. But you have to meet your goal
of completing the story so that you can revise it, which is where it becomes
refined. Be confident and remember even Hemingway said "all first drafts
are crap" although he said it a bit differently.

----
=== What's wrong with flashbacks? ===
All the writing books do say they're usually bad, but they also add that
there's sometimes a place for them.

The problem with flashbacks is that they often bog down the story when they're
used as exposition. Exposition should be layered within your story and when a
writer resorts to a flashback, it's almost always full of exposition and bores
the reader. But if a flashback is filled with drama, they work, especially when
they have their own storyline.

The same thing goes for dream sequences.

----
=== How can I show and not tell? ===
"Show don't tell" doesn't mean you can't tell as one of the previous
answers suggested it means. Instead, it means that you need to create a subtext
for your readers through the actions of your characters.

Here's a fast method to learn how to show and don't tell:
http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2520

For example, I can say "Mary was sad". That would be telling you Mary
was sad. Or I could say, "Mary was crying" which suggests that Mary
is sad and is more powerful. In both examples I'm telling, but in the latter
example I'm showing more than telling.

----
=== How do I bring more life to a fight/ action scene in my book? ===
Action scenes are about decisions your characters make and put into action.
Focus on why someone is hitting someone and the emotions behind it. Put
yourself in his or her shoes and ask why he is fighting this other person and
what he would do to hurt the other person.

----
=== Does anybody have a good plot outline sheet for a novel because I need one!
===
There isn't a single outline for a novel. Stories are made up of elements and
learning what these elements are can help you to develop your story.

Basically, you have a beginning, middle, and end.

Stories are made up of scenes that end on a minor turning point. Scenes make up
sequences that end on a medium turning point. Sequences make up acts that end
on major turning points.

All stories are a quest told in acts. The beginning contains the inciting
incident that starts your character on a quest to achieve an object of desire.
The middle contains obstacles to obtain this object. The end contains the last
act's final climax where the character does or does not obtain the object of
desire.

There are some tutorials where you can look at how this is created.

I recommend:

-- How to watch movies to learn how to tell a story
This tutorial will illustrate how to find the scenes, identify the quest and
write your own story.
http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2527

On that site, you can also see scene breakdowns from a couple of books to see
how other authors did it.

Also look at the StoryTemplate.

----
=== How do you create the subtext? ===
How do you create a strong connection between two characters, that the reader
notices, but its not actually in the text?

: It's called subtext and it's found in between the lines that you write.

: While it can be found in narrative, most definitely, it's more obvious in
dialogue. The reason is we never say what we really mean.

: We all know that what people say is not what people mean. We tell ourselves
that we know what the person really means when they say something, perhaps we
often believe that we know it better than the person himself. This is subtext.
The unspoken thoughts and emotions is the power of your story.

: When you write a scene, the scene is not what it seems about. It's truly
about something else. When two lovers fight over a place to eat, we all know
it's really something else. When a couple fights over directions, we think that
it's really about power and pride. Readers love it when you let them figure out
the subtext on their own.

: Here's a good article about subtext with an example to analyze:
http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2394

----
=== Problems creating characters ===
I have a problem creating characters. I always thought that when you try and
create one, you`d make a profile and generally find out all there is to know
about your character (fav color, food, movie,etc) But after I write out all
these profiles, I start to feel that I know my characters TOO well and they`ve
become boring because nothing that I make them do in the story will surprise
me. And if I try and write about them without making a profile, I make mistakes
(like changing their eye color every five pages or forgetting their past)
Anyone have helpful advice for a beginner writer?

: Your characters are revealed to your readers by the decisions that they
make. Instead of focusing on their eye color, hair color, size, etc... focus on
what they want. Then get inside their head to find out what they would do to
get what they want.

: Here is a tutorial on designing characters to move the story forward:
: http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2400

: Other good tutorials:
: How to interview your characters:
: http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2515

: How to create multi-dimensional characters:
: http://www.storyentertainment.com/article.asp?id=2402

----
=== Getting started with length ===
Getting started with length

If I understand the question correctly, break your story down into beats,
scenes, sequences, and acts.

When you write out a single scene, know where it is in the scheme of your
sequence and know where that is in the scheme of the story. This will help you
to focus on moving your story forward.

I recently wrote a tutorial on writing from an outline which shows how an
author wrote a scene based on the following points:

Evelyn hears footsteps.
She wants to know where the noise is coming from.
She finds a mummy and it lurches towards her only to discover that it's
Jonathan, her brother, who moved the mummy to try to scare her for fun.

That means that you might have to plan out a scene or two to do this and maybe
even plot out a story with acts. If you are totally against plotting a story,
try it just for a couple of scenes when you're stuck or just as an exercise so
that when you do write your next scenes you will understand the form more
clearly.

----
=== How much planning do you do? ===
While a writer is always planning by observing, taking notes, and thinking of
ideas and scenes, actually sitting down and working on a story is a different
idea.

I think once a writer sits down and decides to plot and write the story, it can
take a while to write it; maybe about a year.

The planning is very important to me in terms of establishing the plot points,
characters, backstory, etc...

I think if you're getting bored planning, then maybe you might want to think
about how everything ties into your main plot. This brings you back to base so
you don't go down a rabbit trail on a character sketch. It also keeps it
exciting because you know you're keeping your eye on the main story.

Some methods that might help you:

1) Establish your world and how it functions from the beginning.
2) List all your main characters and all the tragedy that they're bringing into
their story, as well as their relationships with each other.
3) Think about the main plot of the story; what is its controlling idea, where
are its turning points, etc...
4) What revelations will your story provide?
5) What changes will your characters go through?
6) Plot out the:
- inciting incident
- first act turning point
- second act turning point (the mid-act climax)
- third act turning point --
- crisis decision
- final act's climax

While your story might have a lot more acts than this, the basic structure will
be identical (you can't avoid the quest no matter how you might try). Remember
all your subplots also follow the same form so writing those out and how it
ties to the main plot is important.

I like to make it as detailed as possible as I build my step-outline. I almost
always know where I'm going but nothing is every set in stone. All of this
keeps me very busy. And when you do it on a deadline, you know you'll get it
finished.

----
=== I don't know how to create characters! ===
Help! I don't know what I'm doing. I mainly do fanfiction and always work with
characters that already exist. When I work on my own, I don't know what to put
in my characters' mouths. What I do make them say sounds false and corny and
one-dimensional.

Learn about what the subtext is and how we never really say what we mean. This
allows the reader to "read between the lines" and discover the true
meaning. When you place yourself in your characters' shoes, you have to know
what each character wants at the moment, what the obstacle is, how they're
planning to get it, and reveal that in the dialogue. This type of dialogue is
convincing.

Here is a tutorial I wrote with some examples that might be helpful to you and
will illustrate how the subtext works. I think this will help your writing to
soar.

Do you know the plot in advance? It seems like your characters don't have
anything to do because they have nothing to do. Each scene must have a goal
that they achieve or not that sets them onto the next scene. And you need
conflict and obstacles. While internal thoughts are fine for some
[http://essaywritingservices.org/index.php essay service] authors, most people
don't care to read so much internal thought if the plot isn't racing by. You
need to know your plot and continue to advance it, even while writing internal
thoughts.

One of the themes that I see you're lacking is letting the reader figure it out
on his own. When your reader figures it out, it's far more enriching and
enjoyable.

If you build the subtext correctly, your reader will know what's happening and
be able to deduce the reasonings. You don't have to explain anything. Let the
subtext do it.

----
=== Will taking a creative writing class in university help me? ===

I believe storytelling can be learned as an art for those who have a bit of
talent. Those who have a talent for painting or music still take classes and
learn to maximize their craft and this is the way storytelling was done before
the 1960s before creative writing took the place of it. Instead of learning
about the quest and explicit storytelling, academia switched to teaching the
intrinsics of writing such as author intent and other obscurities such as
gender identity which don't inform you how to write a story. I don't find it
any coincidence that the end of the golden age of American cinema, stage, and
novels ended in the 1960s.

Writers such as Clancy, King, and Koontz all had the talent and they maximized
their craft of storytelling by reading and unconsciously learning how to tell a
story. Imagine what these writers could have done if they grew up taking
courses in storytelling?

I think it's important that all writers treat writing as an art and maximize
their talent by learning the craft of storytelling by reading, studying
stories, and discovering explicitly how to write a story. Creative writing
classes won't do that for you, though.

----
=== How to convey scale? ===
How to describe large-scale events such as an ancient battle?

The reader will be able to supply most of the details if you let him.

Some ways to convey scale:

Try to subtly mention background details such as a boom of an explosion or
destruction of some sort way off in the distance, for example.

Tighten the pace during the battle and move around locations of the battlefield.

Bring a few of the subplots together during the battle where each are in
different locations of the battlefield accomplish different goals (e.g., one is
trying to escape from the dungeon while another is trying to knock down the
walls of the castle).

Mention the scale:

: "Do you smell it?" he cried, pointing off toward the field, where
Arnaut's troops continued to mass.

: It was now early evening; the sun was down, and Marek guessed it must be
about six o'clock. But in the fading light, they saw that Arnaut's forces now
had a full dozen trebuchets assembled and set out in staggered rows on the
field below. After the example of the first incendiary arrow, they had moved
their engines farther apart, so that any fire would not spread beyond one
engine.

: Beyond the trebuchets, there was a staging area, with troops huddled around
smoking fires. And at the very rear, the hundreds of tents of soldiers nestled
back against the dark line of the forest.

: -- "Timeline" by Michael Crichton

Also, study some battle scenes from some of your favorite stories and
consciously mark the sections that make the battle seem real to you. Write down
what happened to make the battle seem so large and real to you. If you do this
for a couple of stories you can see that it's very similar for many other
stories. You don't need to focus on just medieval stories either. Every
large-scale event behaves similarly.

----
=== Should a character have quirks? ===
Why do you feel you need character quirks? Look at the action of your
characters. Are they making decisions that the quirks are supposed to convey?
If so, then the quirks might be redundant. Consider abandoning the quirks and
instead focus on the dimension of your characters. What are their
contradictions? Your users will be drawn to these contradictions much more than
a rhyming antagonist or a ticking protagonist.

Ask yourself why you're trying to provide certain traits and then recreate them
in the drama of the character instead. Keep only the traits that are truly
necessary to your character's development, such as handicaps. The reason is
that your characters can only truly reveal themselves when they're faced with
making a choice through dilemma. The handicap is rarely important unless it
plays a major part in the archplot: for example, a runner who is going to try
to win a marathon but actually has no legs. Or someone who is going to try to
win a speech debate but stutters. Or, like in Beautiful Mind, he talks to
invisible people although he's a genius.

Some authors use character traits to heighten the style of the characters.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it's contrived. But I would focus on creating a
story well-told first and then when it works alone, go back through the story
and maybe add a small character trait to your characters. This way you'll be
safe. Once you do this a few times, then you can discover your own style and
will know how far you can take the character traits to create additional
texture.

----
=== How do bad books get published? ===
Not everything that gets published is great. There's a lot of difference
between telling a story and telling a story well-told.

It's rare that I read a book that is completely horrendous. I can count two
books that I thought weren't worth the time to read the title. I gave one of
these books to my girlfriend at the time, remarking how horrible it was, and
she freaking loved it! I still have that book on my shelf after all these years
and I'm going to give it another try. The fact that I somehow got it back and
carried it around the world (literally) with me for over a decade is still a
mystery.

Storytelling is very subjective and I think most readers don't require stories
to knock them off their feet while having an epiphany about life all the time.
So, at what point can the storytelling be so horrible where it cannot pass even
the lightest critiques of genre fiction? The answer is simply up to the
agent/editor/publisher. Some of the critique requests on this board contain
writing I think is atrocious but when I come back later I find several critiques
praising it for how great it is. It's all subjective, but that doesn't mean
everyone's correct.

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