Flat or Round Characters in Teen Books

I don't think that most people in real life are flat. For that simple reason, I don't think they should be in fiction either, no matter what's being written.

 

Is it really hard to make characters act like real people? We live with real people.

 

And yet fiction writers have been doing that for thousands of years. And you can learn to do it too: and you start by doing what a number of more experienced people have been telling you to do over the last few weeks. Or don't...and take-up journalism, or corporate writing.

 

Thank you. No one starts off writing amazing material. I think Miles is on the right track by asking these questions. Asking questions is the basis to gaining knowledge and it shouldn't be discouraged or belittled.

I used to be snob about tv and movies and think that books were the best of the best and everything else was garbage. I was so wrong. Writing is at the heart of all of these things. There are plenty of tv shows, movies, and comics, with compelling characters and plots. Web comics are becoming more and more popular as well. Since they can be produced independently it's becoming a new medium for story telling.

I think Miles was pointing out if you can learn from real people why is it so difficult?

There are a lot of authors who have written characters that could put a reader to sleep faster than tranquilizer dart.

If you are so bent on others giving up on fiction writing before they've even had a chance to learn then why are you on this forum? I'm not trying to be rude or confrontational. I really want to know. If someone is willing to learn why put them down for it?

 

This is the third thread Miles has posted on the same subject:

Read this one, see all the good advice he twisted then twisted again.
For what reason...? Why don't you tell me.

https://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=60759&highlight=

 

My guess is that Miles is not looking for any kind of advice. He was just hoping he would post his idea and everyone would go "hurrayyy, give him a Nobel prize" or something.
I understand Nee's frustration, because in any of the two other threads Miles started on this topic he has changed his opinion more times than anyone can count. If i didn't think he is seriously that confused himself, i would believe he was simply trolling.

On the matter of comic books and tv shows. They are good reference points IF you are learning from them in addition to reading. As Miles said in another thread, he ONLY reads comic books and graphic novels, which is probably the main reason he has no clue about what a good book is.

 

These are insulting. On the first one, you could have instead said, "If I didn't think he was genuinely interested in the question..." The second one has no polite rephrasing, it is simply judgmental and insulting.

I don't care what MilesTro says or thinks, he deserves respect. Please be more careful in the future.

 

People, if you think he's trolling, stop replying. Simple as that. If you have something to add that's constructive, add it. Don't sit here and debate over the OP's intentions, t accomplishes nothing.

No one is obligating you to reply to any thread on here.

 

Okay Nee and Xatron, you are ignoring me now. You already given me answers and I listen. I did read a lot of novels, but I mostly read graphic novels and comic books. Usually I read one fiction novel at a time. If you think I am repeating my thread here, you are wrong. This thread is about should it matter if the characters in bestselling YA fiction shouldn't be complex in order for the book to be bestselling?

I posted this thread because I heard a lot of people complaining about the Twilight series although it is a bestselling series. And nobody seems to care about my favorite author, James Patterson.

I want to write a bestselling novel and I want it to be logic with some complex characters who matter. Entertainment is important, but it doesn't matter whether the characters are logic or not?

 

He said he has only ever read two novels. Then he said three. Now he says more. Once he said he doesn't like novels at all, just graphic novels and manga/comic books. I do apologize for the phrasing of my complaints, but i still do believe they are valid.

As for James Patterson, in my opinion his work is overly derivative, completely devoid of any innovation or writing skill for that matter, lacking good characters or great plot twists as well as character development and with a lot of bad humor. Once in one of his YA novels i remember reading about him finding funny the fact that the word "debriefed" sounds like having your briefs taken away. In a YA novel. I read a Q&A with Patterson where he said that the process of him writing a book with a co-author consists of the co-author writing the first draft and Patterson writing everything else. The main problem is that his books read only slightly better than first drafts. His book "Zoo" could also be titled "What not to do to write a good book". It is so horrible i gave it away (i now understand what the friend who gave it to me originally was thinking). I will not say anything about his 99% cliche characters and situations, or how no character of his grows in any way throughout his stories. How if the character at the end of the story could take a time machine and travel back to the beginning of the story and meet his former self, they would complete each other's sentences. That is my opinion though and some may argue in his defense.

 

Perhaps there are too many lazt authors earning a lot of money, and James Patterson is one of them. I admit he isn't too good, but his writing style is easy to understand.