Episode 208 - Testing Your Writing

In this Quackcast Banes and I discuss some methods for testing your writing, well mainly your characters, to see how well you really know them. We use a comedic character creation template that we have found is perfect for testing and learning more about your established characters, no matter how serious they are. It consists of four interrelated elements: Point of view; Exaggeration of the point of view; Faults; Relatability / Humanity. We also talk a little about the dreaded dangers of the Mary Sue… you never want your writing to fall in that putrid, cancerous hole of smelly excrement where your main character is perfect and all the others worship them. And lastly the very useful Bechdel test for seeing how rounded your female characters are. There are 3 rules: You have to have at least two named women; They who talk to each other; It's about something besides a man.
We were both a bit sad about the death of Leonard Nimoy. R.I.P. Mister Spock.

Topics and Show Notes:

Featured comic:
Sweets and Giggles - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sweets_and_giggles/

Character template:
Point of view
Exaggeration of the point of view
Faults
Relatability / Humanity.

Mary Sue - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

Bechdel test:
It has to have at least two named women in it,
who talk to each other,
about something besides a man
More info - http://bechdeltest.com/
Wiki definition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace Costansa, musician - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes Newman, Co-host - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
DeadFingers - Music: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/DeadFingers/ by Peipei.