Okay, for some reason, the site wouldn't let me edit my last post, so I'll just have to post again...
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How about a new question: how do you make your protagonist (hero) somebody your reader can relate to, or like, or at least sympathize with?
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Well, my three main protagonists are based off of people I know in real life, with similar strengths and faults. Ahh, faults - I think that giving your characters a decent amount of flaws really helps the reader identify with those characters. And that, my friends, is why Mary Sues are such a turn-off. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Now that's not to say that these people should be complete spazzes, unable to solve any problem and spending most of the story bouncing off of walls. Even if the character isn't human, I think it's good to give them the human quality of making a few mistakes while also having plenty strength of their own. I don't know if I'm making any sense, so I'd better stop now...
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My story first started out as a fan-fiction of LOTR. I made up my own characters, of course, but I put the settings in Mirkwood at a time after the 4th age. After a few months of writing, I started to talk to people about it. I even talked to a few on this site. They, unfortunately, convinced me to not write a fan-fic but a novel of my own creation.
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Aww, I think you should've continued with the fanfic! Fanfiction is a great way to pratice your writing. It helps you understand and respect proper characterization, character interactions, decent plot continuation, and things like that. Plus, it's really fun. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]