Which character do you have the most difficulty writing?

Ok, well, I've been hearing a lot of talk around here about which character writers feel is their greatest challenge to accurately characterize, and I was curious to see which character was, on average, voted the most difficult.
Personally, I find Leia to be extremely challenging to characterize well. I don't know why. That's just my writer's aversion.
Which one's yours? Why? Have you tried working on it? How did you go about doing that? Do you try to avoid creating threads or even individual posts that deal with that character? Does reading RL SW works involving that character help? Any other random thoughts?

Ok, well, I'll leave it to ya'll now!


~*~ Austyn, one Daughter of Flame

 

Hum. For me I would probably have to say Qui-Gon. I liked his character for the most part in the movie but the JA books kinda made me develop an aversion to him. I sometimes have trouble keeping that from bleeding over when I write him. I have written about three or four fics where he is alive, but for the most part I center my fics after his death. I envy writers who seem able to portray him in a good light, LuvEwan comes to mind right away. I will have to work on this in the very near future since I will be co-writing a story in which Qui-Gon is alive and well. All of the OT characters are also a challenge since I'm mainly a PT Obi-Wan writer.

 

I'm trying to write Han right now and I'm finding it hard to get just the right amount of gruffness, sarcastic wit, and sensitivity. The guy is more complexe then some people make him out to be.

 

Padme or Luke. They seem simple, but they're really not.

 

Thrawn.

Very difficult character to write. He's smart, well-educated, cultured, ruthless, and the hardest part is making him appear intelligent when he speaks, moves, looks at you, etc.

 

The simple truth is, it's... Luke. When I write Luke I write him as a pilot, not as the serious Jedi Master, which I have to get over.

 

Luke is my bane. I'd love to write a fic with him but he's just too complex for me! Maybe later.

 

Hmmm....All OT characters.

I'm mainly an OC girl, and after being told that I'd stuffed an PT character up I just don't have the heart to do it to a OT character

Kithera

 

Anakin Skywalker, can't stand him! He's so hard to write! I mostly don't even ever bring him into a fic. He's either dead, a Sith, or doesn't exist. I think it's also just my hate for him that drives me to not be able to write. Jake Lloyd ruined his character for me, so did Hayden.

 

I'd have to say Obi-Wan. I just can't seem to get him right as a young man.

 

I come to mind, o_e? What about diane? [face_shocked] But thanks.

The characters I find most difficult to write are Obi-Wan and Padme. He's a very controlled person, but he also has a distinctive personality, part humor, part serious, that's very hard to describe for me. Padme is difficult simply because she's less fleshed out in the films. Most writers are pretty much on their own when writing her, I think.

 

Definitely Luke. I was terrified the first time I wrote him, because he has so many sides.

Jae Angel

 

Sadly, for me both Padmé and Leia are my troublesome characters.

I tried writing an OT meets PT story and I just fumbled with Padmé and Leia. Even though they were important to the story, they just never clicked. Han, Luke, even Artoo and Threepio (all of which I was really afraid of trying to write) I felt like I got.

 

My easiest is always Leia because I feel a lot like her, have the same grit. Padme and Vader both have been easy for me because I can see a bit of them both in Leia. I don't know if the way I write the three of them is good at all, but it's the best results I get.

 

When I've had time to work on my fanfic, which hasn't been much lately, I've avoided using any established characters. Well, I put in a cameo appearance by Yoda, but that's it. I'm afraid to mess up on established characters, so I don't even try to use them. All the characters in my fanfic is OC.

 

LE You are so sweet. Thanks.

I can write Yoda. I just don't want to.... LOL.

 

The thing with Obi-Wan is that sometimes I feel I overdo his humor or his seriousness too much. He's the character I write the most, but sometimes I feel like I don't have a great handle on him or anything. A lot of characters click naturally for me. Anakin, of course, I cannot write because I just can't grasp both sides of him in a way that seems natural.

But, definately, the most hard to character for me is Qui-Gon. He has so much to his character. With Obi-Wan I feel something click, but with Qui-Gon I always make him too rough around the edges or something. He's such an amazing complex person who I don't think the JA book did tribute to. IMO, I don't think the movies and the books connected at all. In the JA, there are aspects of Qui-Gon that contradict with the PT. I don't see a sense of humor in the guy at all, or the gentle understanding I've come to appreciate.

-Krystal

 

I am having such a hard time with Anakin. I've termed it "Anakinitis"

His character is so complex. He seems so innocent on one hand and yet he is gradually moving towards the darkness. Very hard to get down.

 

Kit - someone actually told you that you'd stuffed up a PT character?!?! (not asking for names btw, but good lord!!!)

Hardest? Jar Jar. Tried it once. Never again.

 

I for one would love to see Jemmy's attempt at Jarjar...it's hilarious enough with the characters we know and love.

 

I have a general 'group' of characters that are hardest for me.

First off, i'm going to say Wedge Antilles. I have already written a full-length fic with him in it, but I was not happy with his characterisation.

X-wing (or other) pilots are hard to balance. Yes, they've gotta be tough and professional, but they also have to be funny, easygoing, disciplined, arrogant, vulnerable...not to mention, they have to interact just right, otherwise they just dont gell.

Wedge is particularly difficult, because he's an average kind of guy with an extraordinary gift. He's modest but not backward in coming forward...so yeah. An ecclectic mix of contradictions and ambivalence.

Actually, i'm writing a second fic now with Wedge in a starring role, and i would really love any PM's from authors who know how to do pilot banter I could use some help!

 

I can't remember who it was (honestly), but the character they accused me of stuffing up was Obi-wan. Hence why I've never really written Obi-wan again. QUi-gon and Obi-wan used to be the easiest (and really only) Canon characters I'd write.

I think peoples interpretations of characters either mesh or don't. Often we can't grasp a character because there isn't enough of a character there or there isn't enough of ourselves in the character we need to write.

Kithera

 

Probably Anakin Skywalker because I don't write him a lot.

~aeryn

 

Although I do not write stories myself, I help Marna write her fanfics.

As for votes in this thread there are 3 that come out as being hard to write. They are Obe-wan, Padme, Luke and Anikin/Darth Vader. Each of these have 3 votes. Others mentioned are Qui-gon, Han, Lia, Wedge Antillies, and Jar-Jar.

My vote for the hardest one to write would be Thawn. He not only is a smart, well-educated, cultured, and ruthless admiral, but is is also a military genius.

 

I think the trick to writing Thrawn is to never, ever under any circumstances write from his Point of View, use his passive voice or even tell a story from his perspective.

Thats how Zahn managed to make him so mysterious. Not even the reader knew what Thrawn was thinking - there is not one sentence written from thrawn's perspective.

Always write him as others perceive him, and Thrawn becomes a much more effective and easy character to write