User blog comment:Psychomantis108/Story: Myths of Mundus: Dark Pilgrimage - Chapter 1: Orsimer Charge/@comment-5543592-20150412104209/@comment-29458028-20150412112247

Oh wow ... that is atrocious advice indeed. It makes almost no sense to a writer XD

Maybe, though, in the same vein as that guy who gave the atrociously bad advice, I'd just say something. It might come out unintentionally atrocious, but ah well, it's ok, since I am no professional, only a picker of shells alongside the ocean of writing.

1. Make all characters act in the most logical way possible - yes, this is very true, in fact, humans try to be logical as much as they can, given the situation. Still, make sure they are only as logical as their emotional constraints and perhaps sometimes make their emotion fight their logic. In another vein, never, never, ever make a character solely driven by emotions, that is plain bad and silly (and makes for a perfect Mary Sue), unless they are the comic relief. People all have emotional moments, and they all have logical moments.

2. The antagonist should never be more powerful than the protagonist, or less powerful, in fact. It makes it all the more cooler if they are evenly matched and have an equal chance of killing each other, since this makes it all the more real. I'm sure nobody is stupid enough to make the antagonist weaker than the protagonist, since that's game over for the story, ''but David killing Goliath once again? Young boy killing the evil Sorcerer? Weak girl stabbing a badass to death?'' That's boring and cliched! It's even better if there is no true antagonist - who's the good guy? Who's the bad guy? That's real writing. Nobody is good or bad, everybody is both good and bad (or plain emotionless). When I mean power here, I don't mean the cosmic lasers from the palms, but overall position in the struggle for dominance.

3. I would say yes, a protagonist would have to be good at many things. But they have to be bad at some things too. I mean, nobody's perfect, but having a crippled, drunk idiot as a protagonist? No way, that's not going to work except in a story about drunken idiocy. What's most important, though, isn't what the protagonist can or cannot do, but rather how their skills and weaknesses fit into the story. Just an example: You can have an Omnipotent protagonist, but still, perhaps, their emotional state, maybe through a form of autism, or emotionlessness weakens them so much, their power is pointless. Too often, people want their protagonist as "balanced". but that's so common that people no longer want to try any other way.

4. This is the most important thing: Ignore everything I said earlier ... and just make a story and protagonist you like and really want to write. Too many writers try to please as many people as they can, but they end up shortchanging themselves. To write something that does not flow from your mind, now that is the key way to writer's block which will kill creativity. You can always pen down the whole story first, then edit later.

Anyway, I don't even know if this is good advice, since I'm no professional writer, but still, when you write, follow where your heart takes you, and always let your head roam free, as your eyes stare into the great beyond.