Me, A Naive Fan Fic Author:Okay, So Theres Six Of Them. I Can Give Each Character Some Individual Focus

Me, a naive fan fic author: “Okay, so there’s six of them. I can give each character some individual focus and character development.”

Me, actually writing the fic: “OH GAWD! THERE’S SIX OF THEM! This! THIS IS WHY CANON NEVER DEVELOPED ANYONE VERY WELL!”

Me:*sees complete fanfic by a writer I already know at 10 pm knowing full well I won’t sleep if I read it*….

Me:

Sir that’s my emotional support unrealistic romantic daydream

imo the best way to interpret those “real people don’t do x” writing advice posts is “most people don’t do x, so if a character does x, it should be a distinguishing trait.” human behavior is infinitely varied; for any x, there are real people who do x. we can’t make absolute statements. we can, however, make probabilistic ones.

for example, most people don’t address each other by name in the middle of a casual conversation. if all your characters do that, your dialogue will sound stilted and unnatural. but if just one character does that, then it tells us something about that character.

writing tip #2509:

if your toes start hurting, you may be typing wrong

me: i'm writing this for me

my brain: ok here's the movie poster for the film adaptation of your novel twenty years from now and here's a group of fans stopping you on the street to tell you how much they adore your work and here's what you're wearing to your first book reading to celebrate its release--

me, shaking: i'm writing this for me