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Hmm... my second fanfic story is portraying another friend. She wants a character death , for her to die protecting the male lead the character is in love with. She's not one for tears but wants me to try getting her to grow attached to this character and cry. Now it's a one-sided love, it's going to be manipulative, and he will use her for his own gain. They share similar goals but she will have no idea how extreme he's going with his own agenda. I'm not going to expose that this character has been strung along by someone she loves until the climax of the story when she dies (gonna twist this cuz i don't really want to kill off the character). This is challenging for me and actually haunts me because i feel that angle is too much of a blueprint and typical. But another part of me feels if it's written decent enough, that can be overlooked.

Well, there are plenty of abandoned fanfic from that era in Harry Potter. Especially for those that were “finish the series my way” type of thing, more often than not got dropped not too long after another book got released. However, I really, really, enjoyed my plot, feels more grimy and dirty and scary than canon in some respects, certainly a more ever-present danger – canon Harry had it easy compared to mine

Sometimes, like when it comes to linking to writing and art, I regret filling my facebook friends list with uber russian orthodox catholic family and childhood friends, lol. I can think of a couple who would absolutely 100% read a story if I put it up there, and every one of them would be horrified and try to save my soul. Another reason my twitter isn’t under my real name. They can’t find me there!!!! Woooooh!

Stupidest reason I have ever had for killing off a character, was because my beta at the time thought the character was irritating. It was the main character… And I killed him like chapter 2. lol, story took a maaaaajor shift in another direction right there, and not for the better. I don’t recommend it.

I’ve killed off characters often, despite how attached I get to them. It’s often literally painful for me, but if it’s necessary for the story, I’m ruthless about it. I take Stephen King’s advice: “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” (Which is, of course, Mr. King quoting William Faulkner: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings” who was in turn quoting Arthur Quiller-Couch: “If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.” Sort of a stretch to interpret that as killing off one’s characters, but there we are. )

I'm going to add a link to a post from our own Melrick on World Building only because a great many of the questions it asks about the people of a world are very much applicable to the sort of character development being discussed here. Even when writing within the confines of a fandom, where the world has been created for you, being able to answer some of these questions can help you create an OC that makes sense within the setting.

I think all authors are afraid of that in some way or another, no matter what they write. Are my characters solid, are they three-dimensional? Did I take my time and flesh them out enough? Some scenes I've written make me cringe and I've been known to ask my editors over and over, "do they read okay?" lol I cringed with each and every chapter of the fic I posted here, even though I had been pretty proud of myself previously. Shadowknight (edit: ack, sorry not used to this forum setup!) basically has the best advice, IMHO. Detach yourself from your work and you'll be better for it. Even negative reviews and flames can help you if you keep an open mind and your emotions in check.

This is a very common doubt that plagues writers, particularly if they're new at the art. The only way to really know whether the characters you're writing are Mary Sues or not is to develop a strong sense of objectivity. You need to learn to pretend you have other opinions, other viewpoints, that you don't know what you, as a writer, know. Place yourself in the eyes of the audience, that's the only way you're going to find out. Like, for example, pretend you despise "cuteness" or clinginess. Does your character still have redeeming factors? Does she have flaws the audience can identify with? (remember: a flaw is only a flaw if it actually hampers the character; arachnophobia is not a flaw if the character never encounters spiders or never actually gets hindered in any way when she encounters one). Being detached and unemotional about your own writing is one of the hardest skills to acquire, but it's arguably the best when it comes to ensuring the quality of your work. And if you ever become a respected author someday, do try to keep this sort of thing in mind. I can't tell you how many authors I've seen who become so full of themselves in their maturity that they don't even consider the possibility that they too can make mistakes and write painful Mary Sues.