If Sly 2 Ever Got Remade, I Would Love To See Bentley Get A Bowling Attack.

my babies

Writing Notes: Types of Characters

You may recall from your literature classes that characters can be “flat” or “round,” and likewise, “minor” or “major.”

A character also may be a protagonist or antagonist.

Look at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby for examples of character types.

Note that the characters in the novel are more complex than what is stated here, and that Gatsby faces other antagonists—such as class, bourgeois snobbery, and the progression of time itself.

Protagonist: the main or central character, the hero (Gatsby)

Antagonist: opponent or enemy of the protagonist (Tom Buchanan)

Flat/Minor: a character(s) who helps readers better understand another character, usually the protagonist. Also, “a static and undeveloped character of two dimensions” (Knorr and Schell 165). (Nick Carraway)

While Gatsby is our protagonist, the one who we want to succeed, his success would mean ousting his beloved Daisy’s husband, Tom Buchanan.

An idea can also function as an antagonist: Gatsby is also fighting against the bourgeois prejudice of elite 1920s New York City, where “old money”—such as the Buchanans—is worth more than new money, as exemplified by the divide between East Egg and West Egg.

Usually, the protagonist is also a Round character, “a developing three-dimensional character” (Knorr and Schell 165).

In other words, the protagonist must be a character that grows and changes during the story; it is the progress of this change that keeps the reader interested and cheering for the character.

Archetypes

Part of why The Great Gatsby has endured in American literature is because the characters are complex, rather than being simple archetypes.

You are already aware of many archetypes; you can recognize them in the movies you watch, such as the Reluctant Hero (Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series).

Using an archetype is a kind of shorthand; if you put in a character like The Lonely Old Lady With A Dog, the reader recognizes the character and knows what to expect from them.

This may be helpful when populating your world with minor/flat characters, because it is reassuring and comforting to your reader; your reader knows these archetypal characters already.

Unfortunately, that also means that archetypal characters may be clichéd. Once you put your character down into their world, they can react in various ways to the setting and reality of their lives.

In Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry, Knorr and Schell write:

…your characters may react to the world in one of four ways. They may see this society and its values and assimilate by adopting those values as their own; they may accommodate in that they do not like those values but will adopt them anyway if only to get along; they may rebel against those values in any number of ways; or, they may take flight from that society and, as did Huck Finn, head out to the new territories.

In other words, just as our choices in life determine where we go, the plot of your story is determined by the nature of your characters.

These four choices might not seem to offer many different plot options, but in reality, they can play out in an infinite number of ways. Think about your favorite novel or short story—it’s likely that the main character is faced with a choice and has to pick one of the four routes described above.

Otherwise, there may not be much conflict in your story.

Source Writing References: Worldbuilding ⚜ Plot ⚜ Character

I find it a bit hard to believe that after 11 years of Thieves In Time, and combing through several rewrites...

My rewrite is somehow the only one that has Penelope fighting Le Paradox at the very end.

Why does she end up fighting him? Simple. She feels it's something she has to do as part of her redemption quest. If she can't do it all by herself, her attempt to atone won't count.

After all, this is her mess. She needs to be the one who finishes cleaning it up. What better way is there than taking Le Paradox down?

This, of course, leads to the final lesson she needs to learn: Atoning for her crimes doesn't mean she has to try to fix everything all by herself. She is allowed to ask for help.

a gift for murray!

replayed the sly cooper series recently and I missed these two so badly

Showing 'Determination' in Writing

Jaw set firmly, lips pressed into a thin line.

Eyes focused intensely, not wavering.

Shoulders squared, standing tall and firm.

Fists clenched tightly.

Taking deep, steady breaths to maintain calm.

Saying, “I will do this” with conviction.

Pushing back sleeves as if preparing for action.

Marching forward with purposeful steps.

Ignoring distractions or interruptions.

Voice steady and unwavering.

Nodding to oneself as if reaffirming resolve.

Gritting teeth in concentration.

Placing hands on hips confidently.

Writing or speaking with clarity and precision.

Pounding a fist into an open palm.

Looking straight ahead, not letting gaze drift.

Tightening grip on tools or objects they’re working with.

Breaking tasks into manageable steps and tackling them one by one.

Keeping eyes on the goal, not looking back.

Saying, “Nothing will stop me” with steely determination.

Sly Cooper Characters as Firefly Quotes

Sly: “I aim to misbehave.”

Bentley: “It’s a real burn, being right all the time.”

Murray: “Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious.”

Carmelita: “Sir? I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”

Neyla: “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

Penelope: “I can kill you with my brain.”

Dimitri: “Your mouth is talking. You might wanna look to that.”

Riochi: “I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.”

Tennessee: “If anyone gets nosy just...y’know, shoot em.” “Shoot em?” “Politely.”

Bob: “Shiny.”

Galleth: “Time for some thrilling heroics.”

Salim: “Is that him?” “That’s the buffet table.” “...Well how can we be sure, unless we question it?”

Feel free to add more characters/alternative quotes.

"I know the bar is in hell (especially back in the early 2000's) but I'll always appreciate that Penelope was just allowed to be…a character. Sure she absolutely had some conventional love interest trappings but she was unambiguously brilliant to the point that she could outpace Bentley in some fields and was designed to be cute but not super sexualized. She's actually kinda scruffy (affectionate) in a way you don't see much with fictional women, she's got the battered overalls and messy hair and big clunky welder gloves and actually looks like she gets her hands dirty on the regular."

Confessed by: Anonymous

I'm aware my WIP fanfiction shares a name with a WIP comic series. I wish us both luck in our writing.

“You’re a heck of a woman!”

“I know. That’s what it says on my homepage.”

Thinking about Penelope