Okay so, I totally went for the cliche of that mystery narrator for the prologue (to be fair the whole story is third person pov so not terribly out of context) but it sets a creepy mysterious vibe. However, I got halfway through this video and it occurred that I could do a short hand, couple sentence journal entry from the character that may accomplish the same thing without 2 whole pages of description and give a chance for the reader to make an emotional connection to the character! SO thanks for the advice! I feel like I'm already growing from it!

♥️🥀💋🔥

Oh my gosh that sounds like an email I would have wrote, glad this person sent this in and you posted it.

Hard work pays off, I’ll be the one to survive

This video was very informative and helpful! I been trying to create a dnd character and this video really helps me ask the important questions.

I know a way we can fix Captan Marvel give her an arc that she’s been hiding everything about herself for the enter series.

Are we talking about novels, or did Abbie become a marriage therapist? Art reflects life, amirite?

May I ask what do you writers study in universities? I wanna know what is ur field. Because I am confusing about my life

Boy... it is hard... trying it now.

Hi Abbie! Do you have any tips on naming the characters? The idea's almost *too* broad for me right now - I have 2 half-finished character profiles (they'll both be MCs/POV characters), but I... can't make up my mind on their names!

I'm getting started way before Preptober because I want plenty of time to fill out the story enough to almost have a complete idea of the story to get it this coming November! I already had most of the 2 MCs (they're both going to be POV characters) figured out! The main story is a hybrid story of 3 things, more or less: 1. Real life (set in my hometown; POV character 1 is mostly just me) 2. ByuTV show Ruby And the Well (one of my character's "distinctive traits/skills" is the MC's here) 3. Mystwick School of Musicraft (a favorite book series of mine) is where I get my other POV character (the MC of this, 15 years after books 1-2 of the series happen/7 years before writing, assuming this is a NaNoWriMo submission)

Suddenly PINEAPPLES

why have you copied off the critical drinker?

I'm not going to pinpoint one show or movie but rather a character. LOKI! (Even though he was the topic in this video, but NOT ENOUGH.) From the first moment we meet him in Thor to last moment we see him in season 2 of Loki, I absolutely adore his story. It also helps that Hiddleston is an absolutely brilliant actor. He is able to deliver Loki's inner turmoil in purely facial expressions and tone of voice. But that's beside the point. Loki struggles with belonging and feeling worthy. He feels second fiddle to Thor all through growing up and it's made even worse when he learns he is a Frostgiant. He spends movie after movie trying to find his "glorious purpose". The true Loki we follow ends tragically at the hands of Thanos, but his variant gets a second chance in 'Loki'. Suddenly Loki realizes his flaws. He realizes his father and brother and mother all truly loved him but he was too blinded by self loathing to see it. His character goes through a beautiful redemption as he learns to not be selfish. He CONSTANTLY talked about being "burdened with glorious purpose", but that was a lie he told himself and he didn't believe he had one and was trying to create one. At the end, he discovers he TRULY WILL be burdened with glorious purpose. He gets burdened with the glorious purpose of literally single handedly (well... two handedly) holding together the entire multiverse. Literally trillions upons trillions upon trillions of lives are indebted to him and rely on him. He cannot leave his position or else countless people die. He wanted glorious purpose, and he got it.

Thank you, Abbie!

Your videos are so informative and inspiring ☺️🤍

The sooner the better? Well, I just did it in the first sentence. Is that early enough? It's like Franz Kafka (Die Verwandlung) or Peter Handke did it (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter).

I’m attempting to write my own book for the first time and I had no idea so many of my tropes were so hated😂 I need to rethink my plot a bit!!!

Wow My debut novel is about aviation mystery 🤭

Lagos Egri refined his thoughts on writing dialog. A) Each character in a conversation must be fighting to be seen as the most important speaking. B) A character must have an overwhelming negative trait that dominates how they speak.

THIS! Booktok always recommends books that sound good...but they're always smut or hidden smut and it's uncomfortable! I want more clean romances!

Showing emotion isnt a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength through letting yourself be vulnerable

I appreciate this small dive into the low-key toxic feminity that is surrounding female main characters, and am glad neither of my story characters have these aspects. Maybe lil heavy handed on the "passive" side, I'll admitt, but I think I balance it out with their internal turmoils. Feel the need to give soft pushback on Rayne flying the ship like a pro on her first try, though. With Ani and his racer, it was the natural force within him that gave him the reflexes to drive in a dangerous race meant for professional adults. So Rayne being able to fly like a pro in her first try was meant as a foreshadowing sign to the audience that she's also a naturally born jedi.

Exactly that's my opinion on the female doctor the actress is amazing and other things ballerina was just god damn awful

It’s interesting to me how the Mary Sue character started in a Star Trek fanfiction and has somehow made its way into Star Trek itself with Michael Burnham.

Great advice - thank you 🌺 I do however not agree with the last point. Some of the best books I have read (award winning books among them) one or several of the characters remain unaware of their misbeliefs throughout the book. They remain unchanged and un-reflective. Definitely depends on the genre and plots.

How can you make sure that she won’t get caught in the research rabbit hole, if you think you need to learn everything about a subject which is impossible, and you’re more focused on how you do the research then what research you need to be done? How can you get the answers you need if you don’t even know what questions you want answered? How can you do anything except get caught up in being a researcher if you think that you need to learn everything about the subjects and you’re more focused on the how did the what’s your research it? How can you talk about being specific after talking about learning everything or needing to learn everything without discrediting the idea of needles learn everything? How can you talk about be specific without specifically mentioning that the best way to get your questions answered when doing research not get caught up in all the other information it’s a writes on the questions that you have? How could you talk about research without talking about prioritizing the information you need and extracting that information and keeping the other research that could be very interesting to the side? How could you make the process of writing easier by making it seem like you need to do research answer know everything about topic, before you can get sounds of rain in route drive and see where all those things you do know about the story fits in before you get in extra information to add to that story? How can this information of trying to learn everything and being vague about being specific, and hearing about overwhelm it without being taught how to deal with it and being told to do things that are going to lead to it? Abby Evans usually gives good advice is somebody who is telling you about things from first-hand experience and makes sense because of that. This however going from having questions that you need to get answered in order to do research to trying to research everything and focusing more on how you do the research and lesson prioritizing what you need researched even though you’re told to be specific and not be overwhelmed, is guaranteed to lead people to becoming full-time researchers who aspire to be writers. After they’ve learned everything about the subjects. That’s unrealistic. Even if you try to get a job in the industry I’d say that learning everything about the restaurant industry as somebody who wants to become a waitress for a high-end dining experience is a waste of time. Focusing on the things that she want to learn like more about wines and AAA and things like that with accent and focusing on learning the ones that they have there and taking a targeted approach would be the best way to get the information that you need. And I would suggest to anybody who tells you need to be an expert on everything in order to get the little bit of information that you need, is saying things that don’t make any sense and that’s guaranteed to screw you over. It’s the same advice that haters give, and people who are miserable and bitter give. I mean as far as being you by telling you that they gonna give you advice to make things easier but then their advice includes doing everything except the thing that they talked about doing in that video. Or even worse we are the very same thing that they’re trying to help you with is the very same thing that they are causing with their illogical advice. There’s a Bob Ross people who enjoy what they do and help teach people how to do basic stuff so that way they could have the freedom of using those tools express themselves. And then there’s a People who bitch you with the idea of teaching you something, who then tell you to go about things in a way that’s guaranteed to cause problems that they supposed be helping you with and they don’t make sense. Like not getting caught up in research for a book by focusing on everything except the questions you need to get answered for the book. Then this was peoples in between usually give a good advice but then they give advice is the exact opposite of what you know them for it since we are at sets of unrealistic expectations and focuses on everything except the thing that you’re getting done even though the whole point is to focus on getting that specific thing done and I get caught up. Good thing about it though is it says it’s tedious and reminds me that even though somebody says a lot of smart things that I find helpful than that everything that they gonna say is going to be helpful to me personally. And then they’ll be those things that just aren’t helpful. Because in order to help you be more focused the more specific they need you to be baking a box of everything except the reason why you’re doing that thing that you’re looking to them for help for. And it makes sense that when it comes to expressing myself creatively that nobody’s going to have the rules for it. And that even the most smartest people aren’t gonna have a monopoly in the truth and I’m gonna say stupid things every now and then that completely contradicts everything else they say and do.

I'm sorry I know this is going to sound stupid, but does braying your Love interest count as falling out of love with them?

Luke and loralai from Gilmore girls

Someone said every character thinks they’re the main character. Such an insightful idea when you write side characters.

Got a question somewhat irrelevant. How'd you know about that hell week and the navy seal question? Is that actually common knowledge?

One of my favorite actually strong female characters in the original sense, not the new hollywood interpretation is Yuna from Final Fantasy X. At first glance she looks like the stereotypical "princess that needs to be saved" but imo you can only come to that conclusion if you look at her at the most basic surface level. Yunas parents died. Her father became a legend in her world, which makes her proud but also sad because he died by doing so. She lives in a world of constant fear and death. The world itsself is beautiful and full of life and yet this materialized death is roaming and killing whenever people get to comfortable. She is deeply devoted to her church and the people around her and that is why at a young age she decides to follow in her fathers footsteps which effectivly means knowing that if she fails, she dies and if she succeeds she also dies. It's a burden no one forces her to take on but she does it non the less and with pride and thats what makes people look up to her and what makes her friends follow her, even though they know that they'll effectivly carying a lamb to the slaughter. (And will probably die too). And even when she finds out that her church, the pillar of her society, has lied to her her whole life and that she is shunned from society. And even when she falls in love and is tempted to leave the path. She still decides to push forward. Because even with the church lying, the monster she is trying to defeat is still out there killing people. And THAT is one strong character, female or male doesn't matter at this point, she is just great. And that is why, when I see masculine, buff "strong female characters" that can do everything, know everything, I can only laugh because they will never even come close to the strength this 17 year old girl mustered to go through with her journey.

Awesome vid, but WHY IS NO ONE NOTICING THAT ABBIE HAS LIKE 100 COPIES OF 100 DAYS OF SUNSHINE IN HER SHELF, ITS FREE ADVERTISING.

Unsuccessful writer has opinions. Presents opinions as facts. Attempts to profit. Question: if the unsuccessful writer new how to write a good book… wouldn’t she have done so????

Sasuke is a gary sue 😭

Don't forget to get up and stretch during your breaks!!

Dear Abbie, I have got a lot of inspiration from you, to write and self publish my own books. Since I started writing stories, I have always thought about the best places online to self publish books. There are many options, and I don’t know which one to choose. Could you please tell me, which is the best self publishing website present online for me, to publish my books? Also can you please tell me, the website that you use to publish your books. And do you self publish or traditional publish? also, thankyou very much!! 😊!!

Nothing like contradictory advice

You can thank feminism for this bs character.

So basically you point at Megan Markel as a Mary Sue... 🤣🤣🤣

I’m still very proud of myself for writing the moment where my MMC vocalizes that he has deeper feelings for the FMC and he learns that she doesn’t think she’s worthy of him. “To Hell with who you think I deserve, Carrie. I still can’t believe you think so little of yourself.”

Black Widow is an incredible character because she overcame incredible odds. She's witnessed and survived the worst of exploitation and being subjected to a brutal government program that killed alot of her peers. She engendered herself to audiences with her fighting prowess and ability to connect with the viewer. She actually had heart and sensitivity and I enjoyed her solo film. She was a great balance in the Avngers.

Harry and Ginny (from the movies) watching this video.. :p

Thanks. It's needed❤

When it comes to writing, you write it over until you get it right. That's why it's called righting.

So, fun fact: The name "Mary Sue" originates from the 1974 Star Trek fanfic "A Trekie's Tale", a parody self-insert story written to poke fun at ridiculous, overpowered, "flawless" power fantasy characters that are generally described as Mary Sues.

I outlined my first draft and followed that while writing it. I did some tweaking along the way ( replacing basic words with more colorful ones, fixing grammatical issues, chopping unnecessary sentences) and then set it aside 3 months. I’m just now coming back to it and really all that needs to be changed are just a few inconsistencies in the plot and the over-usage of words.

Thank you so much! This just gave me some really fresh story ideas that I'm excited to explore!

I agree with these points, but I also think that it's okay to make a pure evil character with no sympathetic emotions as long as we enjoy seeing-reading about them. I really like all your videos and find them super helpful, keep doing what you do!

I have a character that I purposely wrote to have some Mary Sue traits, but objectively fails at being a true Mary Sue because she has Faults/weaknesses, makes active decisions, knows how attractive they are, and while they don't like to, they can admit defeat. I have a few other characters who also fit this bill, and it's a balancing act to figure out what to do and what not to do. I've gotten a fair few people to enjoy these characters, and I'll admit, they're far from my ideal representation of them. I've actually completely overhauled my fictional universe due to some of my characters needing reworks, and the fact I didn't want to focus on the specific genre I was focused on.