That1Cellist

Would any of you be interested if I put together a list of my favorite fictional characters? I've been considering doing that for a little while, and I'm curious to see if anyone has interest in seeing that.

Okay, I know we have pfp shenanigans going on right now... but I couldn't resist the urge to change mine. Sorry if there is any confusion.

Music Recommendation: Tennessee Ernie Ford, "Sixteen Tons". An older song that I quite like.

I've noticed a trend with the writers I hang around on The Shard. We like creating and caring about the characters we write, but for some reason, I notice a theme that seems to connect these different people and the worlds they create. The writers of The 17th Shard love to give their characters trauma. It's actually quite peculiar how many posts and SUs I see that essentially boil down to, "hehe my character is in pain.". This is fine, but sometimes I think we conflate trauma with good writing. Just because a character's family died in a house fire and then their love interest got tortured or turned out to be evil does not mean that they are a well written character. Obviously, there are plenty of well-written characters with very sad backstories (Paul Atreides, "Maniac" Magee, Kaladin, and others that I can't think of right now, although some are better than others) But, some of my favorite characters are those who don't have tragic backstories and have no moral grayness to them. It's not the lack of tragedy that endears me to them, it's the characters themselves. The characters who do the right things, and feel emotions deeply. These characters have great empathy, and can be so wonderful in a time where it feels as though most media needs everything moral to be ambiguous. Some fantastic characters like this are Edward Tulane, Kenzo Tenma, and, of course, Samwise Gamgee. (Again, there are many more, they just happen to be slipping my mind right now)

So, when you're writing something, you don't have to make it too complicated. Your characters' lives don't have to be filled with tragedy and sadness. They don't have to be morally gray or have deep trauma. 
More tragedy ≠ better writing.

Thanks for reading! What do you think?