The Jack Torrance(Editing under way, please send input/suggestions.)

Ever writer and roleplayer inevitably comes to a 'crossroads' at some point, where author/puppetmaster is presented with a choice:Do what you have done before, or reach a little higher. For me, the 'crossroad' came when I read Stephen King's The Shining. It was when Jack Torrance, the highly flawed protagonist, is remembering his father a drunken brute who abused his son mentally, physically, and emotionally...all the ways it can be done, really.

As King said himself, 'Part of me wanted to describe the father's brutality, and leave it at that. Surely, I thought, the readers would make the connection between Jack's relationship with his father and Jack's relationship with his own son, Danny, who is the psychic focal point of The Shining.'

He didn't, though. He went deeper--to admit Jack's love of his father in spite of his father's unpredictable and often brutal nature. That was the part that stuck out to me, what has always made me revere him and his works after that grand book. Instead of changing from a relatively nice guy into a two-dimensional villain driven by supernatural forces to kill his wife and son, Jack Torrance became a more realisted (and therefore more frightening) figure. A killer motivated to his crimes by supernatural forces was...like, almost comforting. Once you got past the surface thrills provided by any half-competent ghost story, that is. A killer that might be doing it because oc childhood abuse as well as the ghosts...ah, that is truly disturbing.

A scary concept, right? The point of the book references Jack's father who beat, stabbed, and mocked him opently when drunk. Yet, this same father threw him into the air and caught him in that loving, parental-play manner, tucked him into bed, read him stories, and would give his life for his son. Now, Jack Torrance: He himself developed these tendencies from his father, yes. But he wasn't a bad person either. Actually, he wanted to do good. He tried. It is just a sad fact of life that sometimes, our personal demons win out on us. It is a comfort, though, to know that we can rise--as shown in The Shining back to glory, and take down those demons once again.

The point of this is a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu block. Much like Dalvar's -incredibly- amazing guide (Way to go, Dal!), I have a few things to say on getting a little dirt on those clean, clean Sue faces.

Backstory-personality conflict
This is a common occurrence, people give a horrendus past, and the character comes out just fine and dandy. Really, now. If you were abused as a child, you would -not- be perfectly fine as an adult. You'd have problems to work through! No matter how good the healer, how good the treatment, scars will always remain. I refuse to use examples within RPS, so let's make an arbitrary person, now. For the sake of being blunt and terribly obvious, we'll call this man Gary. Gary-Stu.

Gary grew up in a home where the only calm words ever spoken to him were, 'Hey, kid. Bring me the remote.' The rest of the things spoken were vile, bitter insults (too vile to be put in here, it would be offensive). His parents abused him in every way imaginable, he was picked on all his life, then he was murdered by his brother. He arrives in Erinn and greets the world with a bright, cheery smile on his face! Everywhere Gary went, he tried to help those around him, and his happy nature never did fade. He put his undying trust in his friends, and never did he doubt humanity.

Okay, WHAT?! This guy had it rough. There was nobody he could trust where he came from, so why is he so happy-go-lucky here, and how can he readily trust someone if he never has before, huh? There is nothing wrong with learning to trust, not -remotely-, but the character certainly wouldn't start off that way. A Backstory-personality conflict. A backstory is not designed to make someone feel sorry for your character. Nope, sorry, doesn't work that way. The purpose of the backstory, commonly in the form of a biography, is to understand the character. My character acts this way (personality), here is why (backstory). Why do you think the biography and personality almost -always- go right next to each-other?

Action and intent We all make mistakes, that's life. Characters are exactly the same. However, just because you do the -wrong- thing does not mean you were -trying- to be bad, at all. This is action and intent. Let's look at Edward and Alphonse, of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Ed and Al just wanted to bring their mother back. It was -wrong-, it -went- wrong, but their intent was -good-. This is a simple point, people do bad things for the right reasons, and people do good things for the wrong reasons.

Internal Conflict You love your kid, then you hit him. Jack Torrance and his father, Jack Torrance and Danny. Why do we do we do things we don't want to do? Because we are only human (or in this case, whatever race. None of them are perfect, they all suffer the curse that is 'humanity'). This is another one that is rather simple for me to explain. You want to do one thing, but circumstances or temptation leads you to do another. You want to protect someone, but you got drunk and wind up hitting them. Surely, you are going to regret it later. But does this make you a bad person? Certainly not.

That is really all of there is to it. I certainly hope this helps, if it doesn't, I apologize for the waste of space. ^_^

He'll be editting this. Don't worry.