Frankly folks, those of you who took this essay to heart, remember that
Mike did say that he reserves the right to be wrong.

He even quoted fics that work against his arguments.  

Not to toot my own horn here, but if half the C&C I get is right, there
is a LOT of room out there for fics where a new character takes over the
plot.

My own rules are as follows:

1) Try and make him distinct from me in some major way.  I can't do it in
speech, since even non-original characters tend to talk with my voice
(probably my greatest weakness) but I can with attitudes and actions.

2) Make sure he isn't perfect.  If it wasn't for the C&C I get here,
Crimson in Shieldsman would have been a LOT less likeable.  Andrew from
Siblings would have been truly annoying if he didn't have a few faults.

3) If he does have a major affect on the plot, make it reasonable, and
DON'T focus only on him, unless it's necessary.  Siblings was as much
about Ranma as Andrew.  Shieldsman focussed on events for which Crimson
was present, but the changes in the others was as important as the
actions he was involved in.

I have more, but these are my major ones.  But then, I break these too...

--
Christopher "God-boy" Angel
cja124@mail.usask.ca      http://www.engr.usask.ca/~cja124
"The Man.  The Myth.  The Legend.
The Action Figure from Bandai!"