Dresden Codak

Dresden Codak used to be a comic that I had a perma-link to. The comic then went in a direction that was a bit... "meh" to me. I didn't have the motivation to fully articulate why I became disinclined to that comic.

But fortunately, John Solomon and his cohorts at "Your webcomic is bad and you should feel bad" did a review of it. The first part was pretty good. It explained some of the degeneration and the boneheaded business decisions that the cartoonist was making. Infrequent updates are not a good idea if the comic becomes your sole means of support.

Then John came out with another update. This one delved more into the failings of the comic, especially when it went from nerd-gags and into a storyline. Here John properly reams a nitwit of a cartoonist that doesn't know how to handle characters, plot a story, or deal with the prose limitations of his medium.

In the process of his critique John writes something about characters that I whole-heartedly agree with.

Here's the thing about characters in a work of fiction: they're people. They might be people people, robot people or even... occasionally... anthropomorphic animal people. The point is, they're well-rounded individuals with depth. Why do writers (well, good writers) make their characters this way? Because firstly, it's easier to write them.

"Woah there!" I hear a vast section of the Internet cry out, looking up from their Zutara fanfics. "You're wrong! Writing well-rounded characters with depth is hard!"

Oh, but of course it is for you, because you're lazy and you don't know a fucking thing. If you're competent, then you don't have to sit and think "What will my stupid character do next?" What they'll do next is obvious, because you know their personality like it's your own, or at least a close sibling whose mind you can read. So rather than sweat out the decisions, the prose flows from your fingertips like it has a life of its own. Every quirk and mannerism becomes second nature - they might click their fingers while thinking, or play with their hair when flirting. Whatever. You, as an author, know this person.

That's the truth right there. I'm not in any means a professional writer, and ever since I've been doing full-time work I haven't had the time for my hobby, but I still read a fair bit (and yes I'll start doing book reviews sometimes).

So that's what struck me. Not only did someone articulate how a comic I had enjoyed had gone downhill, but had also succinctly and amusingly defined a core idea to writing.