As a younger sibling myself surrounded by other younger siblings (my Dad was the youngest by 12 years and my Mom is the youngest of 3), I know a little bit about it. I know that it’s possible to be raised a little differently than your older sibling(s) and these characters can be written in a specific way. Most of the time, the younger sibling is written as “annoying” in order to show how hard the protagonist has it at home.

The younger sibling is not always “spoiled” or “annoying”. It’s true that parents might be a little bit more relaxed with rules by the time they get to their second or third child because they’re been through it all before. They might not be as restrictive. First time parents might often be nervous and watch their babies closely at all times in fear of them getting hurt, but they seem to become more relaxed with children they have after that.

Authors sometimes write younger brothers and sisters as tagalong characters or ones that are constantly causing trouble for the protagonist. The dynamics between siblings are never that cut and dry and there are ways to make it all interesting.  Sure, older siblings might become jealous of the attention that their young siblings get, but that doesn’t ALWAYS happen and most of the time it goes away.

Be willing to experiment with relationships between characters and don’t always go for the clichés. If you have a younger sibling that was particularly annoying as a child, you can use those incidents to make your story more realistic. It’s perfectly fine for your siblings to get along fine and work together in your novel. Relationships become more interesting when you switch them up.

-Kris Noel

We all (most of us) want our heroes to succeed and reach their goals in the end, but an invincible hero can be boring. I’m not saying that your hero or protagonist shouldn’t win out in the end, I’m just saying that there needs to be doubt that they will make it through unscathed. SOMETHING should happen to them. There should be obstacles.

Heroes generally win, depending on the story, but they need to lose every once in a while. There needs to be ups and downs for your hero in order to create tension and establish conflict. There needs to be a moment (or moments) when your readers fear that your hero might fail. If they don’t, your story might not have any tension and it might come off boring. We do not want our heroes to be invincible.

I think we all want to see moments when our hero kicks ass, but that’s only satisfying if we’ve seen them fail every once in a while. BEING SUCCESSFUL ALL THE TIME IS BORING and it doesn’t help your characters grow!  You will create suspense and develop a better story if there are moments of failure before your hero comes out on top.

-Kris Noel

We all know the “nice guy” character and we’ve all probably rolled our eyes once or twice due to horribly written nice guy characters. These are the best friend characters who think they deserve more than they actually do because they’ve followed the rules and they’ve been kind to the protagonist. These nice guy characters can even be the protagonist, someone who never does anything wrong and never treats anyone with any disrespect. A nice guy character can be interesting and well written, but they can also be extremely problematic.

In terms of romantic relations, the nice guy character thinks that if he treats his love interest with respect and sticks by her side, then he DESERVES to “win” her in the end. If the love interest is not interested or doesn’t fall in love with said “nice guy” character, we tend to dislike her or think that she’s being unfair. Just like in real life, if you’re nice to someone and you help them out, that doesn’t mean you deserve to win their affection. Being a nice guy doesn’t mean that someone has to like you or want to date you in the end.

A real nice guy character should act out of respect for others, not because he’s trying to win over someone he likes. You can create a really compelling character if you switch it up a bit and reinvent the trope. You need to give them hopes and dreams OUTSIDE of being the nicest person imaginable. They need a personality. No one is THAT nice without wanting something for themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone wants something. You need to let us know what your character wants and how he or she plans on getting it.

All characters should grow in some way and your readers should understand where they’re coming from. If a character has no redeeming qualities besides being “nice”, you run the risk of creating a boring character. Take the time to figure out what your character is beyond a nice guy.

-Kris Noel

Anonymous asked: hey there kris! quick question (or maybe not so quick...). I have read and answered tons of those character development questionnaires that are floating around on tumblr and, to me, my characters are really well developed (like, to the point that I know EVERYTHING about them as if they're real). but how can I be sure that my readers also feel that my characters are well developed? are the questions in the questionnaires meant to be answered in my writing, or just in my head? thanks!

Thanks for your question!

Filling out character development questionnaires are great because they help you understand your character, but you need to put into your writing. Questionnaires are meant for you to get a feel for how your character will act in certain situations and what their motivations are. You need to know your character’s motivation and their goals. You need to know where they’re going.

Your readers will feel for your characters if they know where they’re coming from and what they want. They need to feel like they understand what your character is going through. They don’t necessarily need to know your character’s favorite color in order to understand them.

I also use questionnaires in order to come up with ideas. If you’re stuck and you don’t know what to write, go through those character questionnaires and create a situation that would reveal information about your characters. Use them to HELP you structure your plot.

ryuyosei asked: Have you ever written a novel with someone over a long distance? If so what tools did you use to ease the issues of not being in the same place? Any other recommendations for a long distance writing relationship?

I have personally never written a novel (I’ve done screenplays, however) with someone else, but I think this post I did might help you:

http://krisnoel.com/post/38905479522/writing-with-others

I think the most important thing is to keep communication open. You can’t be afraid to share your ideas with your writing partner and you can’t be afraid to say no. Establish boundaries before you even begin, so you’re both on the same page. If you’re both honest with what you want, there shouldn’t be any problems.

I’m sorry if you’ve asked me something and I haven’t answered it. Submit any questions you have and I’ll answer them ALL on Friday. It’s too hard to answer them sporadically during the week when I’m writing posts, so I’ll do it on Fridays.

I appreciate questions because they help me come up with posts! Thanks :)

In A LOT of stories, there’s the standard “old” character who knows everything. He or she usually drives the plot forward by providing the necessary information that your characters need to reach their own goals or destroy the “baddies”. This character is sometimes a stock character called the sage or the wise old man and is used to pass on useful information to your characters and readers.

The reason old men and women are used for this purpose is because they might hold the knowledge of a place or situation that no one else was alive for. They have experience and they know what they’re talking about because they’ve seen it happen. Obi Wan is a great example of this because he not only provides Luke with the information he needs, but he trains him on how to accomplish what he wants. He holds the key to Luke’s success.

These elderly characters are most likely not strong enough to defeat the enemies themselves, which is why they are passing on the information to someone worthy. You need to be careful that you don’t simply introduce this character just to move your plot forward. There needs to be a reason and it can’t “just happen”. For example, your character shouldn’t just run into this person on the street by accident. Either your character is seeking this person or they have sought out your character. Make it believable.

Also, when writing these characters be careful of info dumping. Info dumbing is when you provide a lot of important information about the plot all at once. You need to pace out your story and when things will be revealed in order for it to be exciting for your readers. Your readers will know if you introduced a character just to TELL THEM EVERYTHING AT ONCE. This character should have a better reason for existing.

-Kris Noel

You have the right to remain silent.

I usually avoid writing cop or detective characters in my novels for a few reasons—

I don’t know anything about cops, I want to avoid clichés, and I usually write fantasy or sci-fi where the law enforcement might be different (or I make it work to my advantage).

Wanting to avoid clichés might not be the best reason to NOT write a character, but I guess I just never liked how cop characters are portrayed in most stories. They’re usually the “enemy” or someone that I want to see fail.  They sometimes dumb characters that you don’t believe for a second will actually figure things out. But they don’t have to be that way.

As I mentioned before, cop and detective characters are sometimes portrayed as villainous type characters, even if they’re only doing their job. They might hold back the main character from getting what they want OR they might be useless in helping the main character succeed. They sometimes have questionable morals and will do whatever it takes to put someone away.

Some top clichés include—

• The incompetent cop. The dumb cop who just can’t seem to do anything right. I like to think of Dewey from the Scream movies.  Despite all of his training, he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.
• The dirty cop. Usually known for blackmailing, stealing, or using the law to his or her advantage, the dirty cop does whatever it takes to improve their own situation. This is sometimes a cop who has “gone bad” and discovered the advantages of being a cop and used them for his or her own gain.
• The clueless detective.  He’s a detective, yet somehow he has no idea what he’s doing. By some luck, there’s always someone to help him (think Inspector Gadget).

Cop and detective characters are not just simple placeholders you can shove in to move your story forward. Think about them, develop who they are, and make them believable. Even if you don’t know much about cops or police work, you can do some research.  Create an interesting character that your readers will understand and respect!

-Kris Noel