Stereotypes: An Author’s Enemy

1. Stereotypes: An Author’s Enemy They’ll get you someday!

2. Stereotypes: How to Avoid • Good stories, the ones that we instantly like, normally avoid stereotyping. • Most authors know to avoid it, due to its Mary-Sue-inducing nature.

3. What is a Mary Sue? • A Mary Sue is a character who is too powerful, or too perfect—the very epitome of virtue, or of “awesomeness”. No one likes a Mary Sue—they just don’t read as human. They don’t have room for character development through a story arc, they tend to have the perfect solution for every problem, they defuse situations before they begin, they completely eliminate conflict. • Conflict is your story. • Even Mr. Spock is not perfect!

4. How to Avoid Stereotypes How to Make Characters Have Faults How to Recognize Stereotypes Troubleshooting

5. Recognizing Stereotypes • Often, the first warning signal of a stereotype is that other people, when reading your novel, mention that a certain character just doesn’t “feel right.” • Some stereotypes are too sugary. Even a whole story may be stereotyped this way. • Some stereotypes are instantly recognizable: e.g., the dishonest politician, the debauched rake, etc. Some are, unfortunately, racial. These, however, are more likely to be jumped on than others by liberal vigilantes. In my opinion, these racial stereotypes can be justified, but the characters may need more fleshing-out.

6. Fixing Stereotypes • Any story can be revised to eliminate stereotypes. • One method to eliminate stereotypes is by fleshing out the characters and adding imperfections, thereby making every character unique. However, the faults and imperfections must be believable. • The other method is by using all characters who are stereotyped, and then taking the story in an unprecedented direction. This method is mainly used by authors who write satire, humor, or other related genres. • Charles Dickens is perhaps the most famous user of this method. • Jane Austen is another famous social satirist who used this second method.

7. Contrast: Dickens Vs. Austen Austen Dickens Characters often were pure stereotypes, as in the good woman or the repentant thief. Dickens did not so much oppose social expectation as class distinction and social injustice. • Characters were often stereotyped according to genre, as in Northanger Abbey. • Austen was not afraid to lampoon the social expectations of her day.

8. Contrast Without Stereotype:Alcott and Lewis Louisa May Alcott C. S. Lewis Lewis wrote mainly fantasy and autobiographical fiction, with a smattering of science fiction. Lewis’ fiction was mainly written with characters who he imagined himself, not knew from real life, though it is known that one of his characters was based off of his fellow author and friend J.R.R. Tolkien. • Alcott wrote about family and also historical fiction. • Based as they were from real life, her characters are very deep and believable.

9. How to Instill Imperfections • You must think about the character’s essence and then decide what faults they should have from that. For example, a character who is hot-headed may isolate people due to his or her quick temper, and insult people without thinking. • Occasionally, you may need to take “drastic measures.” Some characters are, per neccessitas, paragons. In that case, a physical disability may be called for. These can make people short-tempered, even to the point of ignoring their—very real—limits.

10. Troubleshooting • If you suspect that you may be the victim of a stereotype attack in your novel, look deeper for the source of the awkwardness and look for ways to correct it. Some stereotypes (aka the dishonest politician above) are necessary to a story and easy to correct, simply by adding more detail. • If a character (or conversely, the whole story) is too sugary, make them more easy to nettle, or add some other imperfection. Make them crotchety. Add chaos and/or conflict. Stir and serve. • Some characters who are supposed to be “good guys” are unbelievably bad. They are supposed to be protagonists, but readers hate them. These characters can be turned into neutrals or used to the author’s advantage (as in, using a disliked “good guy” to hide the charming but traitorous real villain.) • Sometimes, a charming thief is fun.

11. With practice, any stereotype can be either avoided or turned around. Happy Writing!