The 3S method

[resonant]

I'm so fannishly disengaged right now that I want to start this post with an example of a character and I'm literally sitting here thinking, "OK, who do I care about that other people also care about?" So I'm going to skip the example and just tell y'all the thing that just came into my head, which is:

- every fanfic story can present a slightly different version of a character
- these versions can be plotted on three S scales, thusly:

How straight? (In the character's own mind, anyway)
How smitten?
How stupid?

and that if a character is boring me, the answer is probably to move him a little further out to the extreme of one or more S scales.

Comments

[writedragon]

I love this. It is also giving me permission to go slightly ooc; sometimes I work so hard on getting my characters "right" and maybe I need to hold on a little more loosely. Especially on the 'how stupid are they' end of things, ha.

[resonant]

I think canon creators can stretch characterization a bit in order to achieve their goals, and we can do the same in order to achieve ours!

[bonibaru]

This is amazing. Amazing.

[resonant]

It's a bit silly but it works.

[out_there]

Hee! I love that. Because what I usually want is very smitten and very stupid, and barely straight, if at all.

[resonant]

I like very smitten and very stupid, and straight enough to care a lot about hiding, sometimes even from themselves.

[out_there]

I used to like that, but these days I can't be bothered with the coming out/coming to terms with your own sexuality thing. I'd rather have genuinely oblivious (didn't realise this want part of normal friendship) or issues of self worth (just because I have a crush doesn't mean they'd be interested in me) or plain old misunderstanding (how was I supposed to recognise that as flirting?).

[resonant]

So we can sometimes drop straight and replace it with socially inept. That's progress.

[out_there]

Hee! I guess it is, in a weird way.

[ride_4ever]

This 3S Method of yours is made of win!

[resonant]

If I've contributed at all to getting stupider characters, I've done my duty.

[panisdead]

"Make characters dumber," ma'am, yes ma'am.

[clevermanka]

Adding this to my writing resources along with How to Write a Sex Scene, thank you.

[resonant]

<3

[celli]

this is GREAT.

[resonant]

Profic often needs its characters to be a little smarter, but fanfic usually can expand to contain an almost infinite amount of stupid.

[china_shop]

Hee!

and I'm literally sitting here thinking, "OK, who do I care about that other people also care about?"

Aww!

[resonant]

Kidlet is doing their very best to get me hooked on Supernatural, but so far I'm bravely resisting.

[china_shop]

Ha, stay strong! (If you want to!) (Whereas I'm half-wondering if it's time for a mini Due South revival, having recently written my first F/K in 10 years for fandomtrees. :-)

[jesse_the_k]

It's always time for a Due South revival!

[luthien]

Love the S scales!

[resonant]

Hypothetically you could write a simple plot with character A at 5,4,5 and character B at 1,3,3, and then turn around and write exactly the same plot with the characters at a different place in the scale, and you'd get a different story.

[green]

Haha this is great, thank you for sharing.

[resonant]

:D

I mean insights about writing are what I get when I don't actually write.

[jesse_the_k]

Writing advice is also writing.

[mific]

It fits pretty well with the idiots to lovers trope. The gayness is, of course, a given. :)

[resonant]

I love idiots to lovers. They have one brain cell and neither of them can remember where they left it.

[destina]

This post took me back to the days when delicious morsels like this would be read, reacted to, cleverly parried, and discussed. Those were good times. Thanks for the v. interesting thought, too. *g*

[resonant]

And we're still doing that - just not at the rate of a hundred comments and responses and two months later all the stories they inspired.

[who_la_hoop]

This is beautiful. Sometimes I see people COMPLAINING about chracters being stupid when it comes to love, and I wonder why these people have such wrong and terrible opinions.