Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What are your favorite characters in teen literature?

The truth is, I don’t really have a favorite character in teen literature, but I have lots of characters I dislike.  Some I even hate.  Like Holden Caulfield, Alaska from Looking for Alaska, and Harry Potter (especially in book V but, pretty much throughout the latter half of the series).  These characters got me to thinking, what makes me like YA characters or hate them?  And if a character doesn’t work, what’s the reason behind it.

1) Pathologically Self-Centered.  OK, let me start by saying that everybody is at least a little bit egocentric; that’s normal.  What’s not normal is when a character is so pathologically self-centered that he or she doesn’t care about anyone else.  At all.  Not even a little bit.  Take Alaska from Looking for Alaska: she’s so wrapped up in this persona of “traumatized-and-depressed teen” that she couldn’t care less how her actions affect the people who care about her.  Of course, her quirkiness makes her endearing at times so that’s her saving grace.  But if you really want to make your character the worst YA character ever, you need to make sure he has no endearing qualities whatsoever.

2) Pathologically Quirky.  More than the egocentric protagonist, one type of character I detest is the I’m-so-unbelievably-quirky-even-I-can’t-stand-it character.  A mild form of this character is Stargirl, who is quirky in a charming, funny way.  But if you push this quirkiness too far, you end up having a character who’s annoying and just plain weird.  And seriously, if your character’s in high school–don’t you think she has enough problems already? 

3) Pathologically Stupid.  Some characters have plenty of good things going for them, but they are in the habit of making one bad decision after another.  Good ol’ Harry Potter falls into this category (though despite his lack of sense, he still seems to come out on top and that makes him all the more infuriating).  My favorite Harry Potter moment happens in the first book when Neville Longbottom earns the winning points for Gryffindor by standing up to Harry and his buddies for breaking the rules.  If you want your character to annoy the living daylights out of your reader have your protagonist always make bad decisions, then make everything turn out OK for him anyway.  It’ll drive your readers nuts.

4) Pathologically Whiny and Self-Righteous.  With this rule we return to my favorite least-favorite character: Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.  He whines from the moment the book starts to the very last scene.  He believes he’s entitled to whatever he wants.  He thinks he’s SO above everyone around him.  *rolls eyes*  As if.  Self-righteous characters who think they’re so much better than everyone else are easy to hate.  Add a dash of whiny entitlement and you’ll have a thoroughly despicable character in the making.

5) Not A Teen.  That’s right.  If you want your book to have the worst YA character of all time, you need to make the protagonist not be a teenager.  Try writing a YA novel about an eleven-year-old.  Or maybe a twenty-something frat boy.  Because teens just love to read about middle schoolers almost as much as they’re dying read about adults (if you could call a twenty-something frat boy an “adult” but that’s beside the point.)  While there are many crossover books that are originally marketed to adults but have teen protagonists, I am hard-pressed to think of one truly-YA (i.e. not crossover) book with a protagonist younger than thirteen or older than eighteen.

What do you think?  What other reasons are there for YA characters that just don’t work?  Tell me because I’m dying to know.  Especially since I want to make sure my main character doesn’t reek of awfulness.  (Yes, I know it’s an ulterior motive, but help a girl out, ‘k?)

Want to read a post that’s actually about favorite YA characters?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her favorites on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us who your favorite characters are!

Also, the winner of last week’s contest (for a signed copy of BITTEN by R.L. Stine) is K.V. Briar!  Congratulations!  *throws confetti*  Thank you to all who entered the contest.  K.V., please email me at iggiNgabi[at]gmail[dot]com with your address so I can mail you your prize.  

Dear Friends of iggi!

I have decided to start a tradition at our DIY MFA Facebook Page. It’s an iggilicious Caption Contest and I invite you all to join.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

1. I’ll post an iggi picture on the WALL on Thursday.
2. In the comments for that picture, you all can post captions of what you think iggi is saying.  You have until Sunday night.
3. Monday I’ll post a poll with my 3 favorite captions–the “finalists.” I may also include a caption of my own.
4. You guys vote for your favorite by Wednesday night.
5. Thursday, I post the finished iggi-comic with the winning caption.  I’ll also post a new iggi and the contest will start again.

My plan is for this to be a weekly meme, with a new iggi every Thursday on the Facebook page.  Eventually, I also plan to use my favorites of the iggi+caption combos in designs for various iggilicious writerly products (journals, mousepads, stickers, mugs, etc.) There is no tangible prize for this contest.  Winner gets bragging rights, plus there’s a chance they’ll get to see their words on an iggilicious product!

AND it’ll be oodles of fun and a great way to get to know other DIY MFA people.  The contest is going on right now so come join the fun and if you haven’t already, come visit our Facebook community.

Now that you’ve gotten to know your characters a bit more, you’ll need an easy way to keep track of all this new information.  After all, if you’re writing on-the-go, you can’t exactly tote around stacks of pages with character dossiers.  This is where the Acrostic Bio-in-a-Nutshell comes in.  This technique forces you to choose the most important details of your character and organizes it in a compact way.

First a word on acrostics.  I got the idea for this exercise from acrostic poems written by Lewis Carroll, in which the first letter of each line spells the name of the person to whom the poem is dedicated.  It occurred to me that you could use the same technique to organize information in a character dossier, using the character’s name as the basic structure.  Here follows an example of a character bio for one of the character’s I’ve worked with for a story that is now in press.

Lucy Marie Watson

Loyal to her friends
Unaware her best friend (Jake) has a crush on her
Crush on Ralph (leader of her group of friends)
Young (age 11, 6th grade)


Moral compass of the group
Always wears hair in a pony tail
Reliable
Incredibly close to her dad
Efficient (plans ahead)


Willing to take risks and break rules if it’s for a good reason
Adventurous
Two sisters: Danielle (older) and Caroline (younger)
Smart (smartest kid in her group, though the boys would never admit it)
Obedient (usually) so when she breaks rules, she feels guilty
No idea she what to do about her crush (not even aware she has one)

Notice how most of the information is focused on the interpersonal relationships (not a lot of appearance or demographic detail).  For Lucy the relationships were the most important part of her character development so the acrostic bio reflects that.  If your character has a unique appearance or a job that is central to his/her character, then those things are likely to be the ones that pop up on the acrostic.

I like to write my acrostic bio-in-a-nutshell on an index card.  That way I can carry it with me in my notebook and have it right at my fingertips when I need it.

Homework: Choose one of your characters (preferably one you’ve worked with this week) and write an acrostic bio that reflects who that character is at their core.

Then tell me, how has your study of character gone this week?  Discover something new about a character or two?  Anything surprise you?

Another technique I use when I need to get to know my characters is the Character Interview.  In this case, I ask a character various questions and then answer them in the voice of the character.  I find this exercise useful even when my novel or short story is written from different point of view (i.e. not that character’s POV in first person).  Even if I only use the character’s voice in dialogue and not in narration, it’s helpful to hear these questions answered from the character’s own perspective.

Some questions I like to ask are:

• What was your scariest moment?
• What was your happiest moment?
• What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?
• What is your biggest regret?
• Who do you love most in the world?
• What is your most prized possession?
• Do you have a nemesis? Who?
• Who was your first love?
• Where is your favorite place?
• Who or what makes you feel safe?
• Who makes you jealous?
• Who or what makes you feel inadequate?
• What is your theme song?
• What is your signature color?
• What is your favorite season?
• What is your catch-phrase?
• What is your pet peeve?
• List your character’s ten favorite things (Example: raindrops on roses, etc.)

For more interview question ideas, check out these Character Questionnaires from Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

Homework: Answer all these questions quickly in your character’s voice and point of view.  Now go back and choose three answers, and follow-up like you would if you were a reporter doing an interview.  Don’t let your character get away with easy answers.  Dig deep.  Ask who, what, when, where, why and how.  Whenever your character starts to shy away from answering, press him or her further.  Keep asking: “tell me more about that” until you get to the juicy information.

Now I’d like to know: what’s the most surprising thing you learned about your character?  Feel free to dish in the comments.