Kisame always appreciated that his appearance (namely, being a six foot tall, rather ominous blue shark man) could make an entire room fall silent. Such was the case with the girls in the room. They fell to stone-faced silence and kept their eyes riveted on him.
"I'll just get straight to the point, shall I?" He began. "Ninety percent of the fanfic you'll read will suck ass. Nine percent will be good. And then, about one percent of that's the good stuff. And I'm here to tell you the thing that can make or break a fanfic almost as much as the story itself- characterization."
Kisame grinned his smile full of teeth.
"Having a well rounded character is as important in fanfiction as in original writing. If you don't have good, three-dimensional characters, then your story will fall flat, regardless of how good the rest of the story is."
He took a seat in an empty chair in the front of the classroom.
"Good characters have weaknesses; however, they will also have strengths- something that they're good at, some noble trait or traits that make them likeable. For example, my partner, Itachi-san. He's kinda cold, a bit mean, and murdered his clan. He's kind of a pushover and emotionally constipated like you wouldn't believe. Those are his weaknesses. Now, you're all more than familiar with our show, so who can tell me what some of his strengths are? Besides being attractive, I mean."
Kisame blushed a bright purple.
Raised hands.
"Yeah, you in the pink."
"He loves his little brother?"
"Bingo! There's the big one! Any others?"
"He's loyal to stuff he cares about?"
"That too, but there's one in particular I'm looking for. One that might not be so obvious."
One girl in the back of the class spoke up.
"Um…determination? I mean, he was sick and all, and he could have died, but he kept on going anyway."
"We have a winner, ladies!"
Kisame grinned even wider.
"That's exactly it. Determination- a popular trait for both canon characters and OC's alike. Never giving up, no matter what. Lots of characters in Naruto have that trait, but that's beside the point."
"Excuse me, where are you going with all this?"
"I'm saying that it's not the aloofness or the loyalty or the determination on their own that make Itachi-san's character. It's when all those things come together that he becomes the guy we recognize on screen or on the page. It's the combination of strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, that make Uchiha Itachi or any other character for that matter."
"When a character has only strengths- or only weaknesses- they're fucking boring. No matter how good the rest of your writing is, if your characters are boring, so is your story."
Kisame stood up and began to pace the room, dragging Samehada behind him.
"In fanfiction, your job is a bit easier than in an original story, because the characters are already created and ready to go- the tricky part is keeping the characters…well, in character."
He turned and paced to the other side of the room.
"When a character is defined one way, for instance being cruel, is derailed into being a mushy pile of Bishounen love goo, you have a problem."
"Take Madara for instance. Too often, he has his character derailed into a cutesy little loverboy rather than the vicious son of a bitch that started a war. And Sasuke is turned into a bigger pussy than he already is. And I'm sick of it."
"So, what can we do to make sure the characters are in character? It's really hard."
"That's easy."
Kisame finally stood up and began to write on the whiteboard.
Keeping Characters in Character- Three Simple Steps.
1) Watch the freaking show.
2) When writing your fanfiction. Ask yourself- "would the character in question act the way I am about to make them act?"
3) If your character must act out of character, have a good reason for them acting the way they do.
"If you consistently follow these three steps, you are nearly guaranteed to get the characters right. Unless of course, you're not paying attention to the character. There is also something called Alternate Character Interpretation, where a viewer may see a character in a different light than someone else. This is only a bad thing when it's used as an excuse to derail a character."
The class was actually paying attention. That was good- progress.
"And like I said, Out of Character can be done well, but it has to be handled carefully. For instance, a normally stoic character has a breakdown, or a good character does something less than good. With a good explanation, it can make for some interesting plotlines.
Ah, but no time for that- you're on your lunch break now. Be back for the next lesson."
Girls talked behind his back as they filtered out.
"He's just not cute at all."
"He's gross!"
About ten minutes later, Itachi entered the room.
"Kisame, how did it-"
Kisame was huddled in a bundle of misery in the corner.
"So I'm ugly, huh?"
Itachi slapped his forehead. That was all that he could do.