forum Things You Want MORE Of In Books

Started January 21, 2019 by @HighPockets group

tune

Dude my immoral characters are Chaotic Neutral Dumbasses most of the time

Did you mean: Ryo Álvarez, the Disaster Wizard
Yep, Nich is incredible. Based on what I know, he's my favorite out of your characters, Jyn.

^^^

Dude my immoral characters are Chaotic Neutral Dumbasses most of the time
This is specifically calling out Nich

Crispin as well

Mine's more of a Neutral Dumbass.

Ahhh thank you all! He's one of my favorites too!!
Also he's just a chaotic mess so like big mood.

Also characters who are skilled in different areas.
Victor might be book smart and know languages, but he cannot deal with his own emotions and is pretty much useless in a physical fight.
Henry's physically strong and is good at helping people aka Victor when they're not doing well, but isn't the best at school subjects.
Geneva is good in a straight fight and has some mental strength, but emotionally she's a mess and isn't good with people in general.
Jackson is physically strong and good at dealing with other people's emotions, but pretty much has no brain-to-mouth or brain-to-action filter and doesn't have the best sense of logic.
Martha is smart and emotionally stable, but is awkward around people, especially people she doesn't know.

Most of my characters are Apathetic Neutral SassMasters because at the end of the day they don't really care.

Characters with strong familial relationships, especially with their extended family! My aunt is just as important to me as my parents are, same with my other aunt and my grandparents. I feel like if we see family at all, it's always just siblings, cousins, and occasionally parents.

Families that aren't conventional. Not your average atomic family.

Yeah!

More stepkids/parents with good relationships!

YES!

I wouldn’t mind more big families.

AND MIXED RACE/CULTURE FAMILIES! Tbh Spiderverse was great with that.

YES!

Also I need more super close but strictly platonic friendships, especially between guys and girls.
Like, Victor absolutely loves Alice, but in a strictly platonic sense (although his dad would really like him to marry her because her family's rich and well-known). When he's having issues, he goes to Alice, when he and Claire need to go somewhere because their parents are fighting, they go to Alice.

And speaking of Alice, I want more unconventional families. Alice's parents are more distant, so she is stuck more or less raising Timothy (and to a lesser extent Theo and Erica, who are in their teens and can more or less fend for themselves), and Max tries his best to help, even if he's an awkward mess.
Henry's the youngest by a lot in his family, so he decided to move in with his grandparents at the start of high school so his parents, who were getting older, could travel the world like they wanted. His grandparents, specifically his grandma, are the most important relatives in his life.

I just want more families, found or biological, okay?

AND MIXED RACE/CULTURE FAMILIES! Tbh Spiderverse was great with that.

Blended by Sharon M. Draper is also really good with this aspect!

What’s it about?

A mixed race girl (black and white) whose parents divorce and there's some racism happening at her school. It also deals with racial profiling (she and her stepbrother get stopped by a cop getting ice cream, she and a friend get harassed by the owner of a fancy store about being in there and 'not looking like you can afford anything', etc.) It was hard to read at times because the MC is a middle school girl but it was really good!
Bonus points for a super sweet sibling relationship!

On the one hand that’s great, but on the other I want more casual stuff if you get what I mean. So rarely touch on the race thing but have it casually existing. Like like the MCs best friend is a girl who is a Italian Indian splice.

Also handled pretty well by Spiderverse. It was obvious that Miles was Black/Mexican but it was never used for plot. It was just there. That’s what I want more of.

Yeah I agree, I definitely want to see more casual diversity in books. One of my MCs is a black girl with 2 moms (one black and one white) and it's just casual. Yeah, amy (the most wonderful woman in the world) has 2 moms. They're kinda strict. They're a CEO and a librarian. They both like books and are really good at math.

My girl Daniella is probably half Arab. But it might be Persian.

For my stories anyways, character's ethnicities are there but not central, mainly because I don't feel qualified to write a story about what it's like to be X in modern times because I'm white.
Their sexualities and mental illnesses/lack of them are what takes the forefront more because that's what I'm more qualified to write about.

I guess that makes sense.