On characterization (note: this is what works for me, not holy writ):
Your characters are going to have bits of you in them. Most likely, you can't avoid that. But you might be able to make sure they all have different bits, surrounded by parts you make up, and then they won't seem like clones of each other. (Harriet has my old, old ambitions - I don't actually have them anymore - to get in on trad. pub., but meanwhile she's insecure about her earthfic in a way that I'm not about my fanfic, has chosen to study writing and literature in school where I never even sort of wanted to do that, and isn't good at or interested in worldbuilding.)
They have to talk like people. This doesn't mean they can never speak in paragraphs, but it does mean that they need voices, should make some forgivable lapses of grammar, deploy appropriate slang, and - except, sometimes, when you write in first person, but even then be careful - not talk like narrators.
Think about the markers by which you know real people. You might be able to sum up parts of it in adjectives, but these are hollow when you think about applying them to humans you care about: consider the funniest person you know, would you just say they're funny and stop there? That doesn't come close to capturing anyone's sense of humor. Your characters shouldn't just "be funny" (or be nice, or be smart, or be evil) any more than people are just those things without further differentiation. They need to have traits like that in characteristic ways - and these characteristic ways will have gaps. A well-rounded funny character will not make 100% of possible jokes, a well-rounded nice character will have blind spots or bad moods, a well-rounded smart character will have mastery of some mental gymnastics but not others, a well-rounded evil character needs reasons to do things besides just to be evil (although "to signal evil in a dramatic way" can work similarly in many contexts, this won't cause them to, say, torture kittens in complete privacy!) If you asked me to describe Harriet in adjectives I flat out couldn't do it, but I can tell you what behaviors and words would and would not be like her.
Characters should want things, need things, like things, dislike things, find things appealing or unappealing, and sometimes be completely neutral about things. These reactions should follow a consistent pattern, but there is room for some idiosyncrasy, especially when two patterns conflict (e.g. do they hate being poor guests more or less than they hate eating eggplant, when they're served it?) Harriet wrestles with competing desires to get earthfic recognized as a valid medium by the trad. pub. industry, and the desire to get a book between pieces of cardboard on shelves in stores, and she has to make a compromise.
Characters should interact with other characters, and I don't just mean put them in the same room and stick dialogue in their mouths. They should behave differently around people of different types (familiar or un-, liked or dis-, numerous or single) in different situations. Some people bring out the best in others, other people bring out the worst, and these can be different people in different combinations. By the end of Earthfic you know something about how Harriet relates to her sister and vice-versa, how she met her roommate and why they became friends and how they snark at each other, how Harriet acts in class with a teacher, and how she reacts to reviews of her story from strangers on the Internet. Harriet's one person, but all these contexts bring out different reactions - she feels (but restrains) the urge to yell at her teacher, yet doesn't dignify the flaming review with a reply. She's relentlessly sarcastic with Dawes in a way that she isn't with Lanie, who in turn gets more personal feelings and details from Harriet than Dawes does. Etc.
Give quirks and dispositions, but don't put neon signs on them and certainly don't make them all plot-important. Dawes goes by his last name, but I tuck that info into witty banter and there's no reason you need to know why he does. Harriet doesn't like people pestering her about her sister's stories. The two of them share food without any occurrent exchange of currency and Dawes feels comfortable borrowing Harriet's books without permission. Lanie's married, and doesn't like to go home to an empty house. Harriet attends extracurricular activities like Spanish club. None of this matters - well, Lanie not wanting to go home mattered, but I could have made up any excuse for that - but it helps them be people on the page.
(If you don't know what Gurren Lagann is, don't hesitate to google & watch it, unless you have an aversion to anime in general, in which case ignore this altogether.)
I feel that a fanfic like HPMOR but with Gurren Lagann's setting and characters could be 1) absolutely kickass (given EY-level writing) and 2) in fact better suited to treatises on rationalism, logic and science than Harry Potter. The premise I saw on /a/, an indeterminate time ago, without any connection to HPMOR (hell, it was probably before HPMOR), but it struck me then as surprisingly well-conceived. It went like: "The heroes relieve the entire history of science, first inventing the scientific method, then examining specific fields, one per arc, for useful and creative stuff to use against the powers-that-be keeping humanity down through their ancient, rigid knowledge." Now, this is easy enough to fit into the specific setting of TTGL, first using older tech and basic rationality against Lordgenome, then, after the timeskip, going for current and speculative science to bring down the vastly more powerful but anti-creative Anti-Spirals, ultimately aiming for FAI. The divergence point could be, like in HPMOR, Simon's upbringing, e.g. his parents surviving and teaching him the few remaining scraps of the Lost Arts... then Kamina convinces him to improve on it, think freely, try new methods instead of just new applications, etc.
I should also make it clear that I'm not writing that anytime that could be reasonably defined as "soon", and am in fact looking to force the idea onto someone of you fine folks.
Well, discuss!
Possible structure:
v001
- ep. 1: Divergence point, state of humanity. Fallacies & biases: "It can't be any other way", "Must be a good reason for us to be kept underground".
- Kamina makes his first breakout attempt. Village Elder makes a very early point about heedless risk, existential or otherwise. Contrarianism. Reversed stupidity is not intelligence.
- The Beastman-driven mech falls down, kills Simon's parents. World-shattering event from outside the box. Kamina drags Simon kicking and screaming into battle, makes a point: why no-one truly wants to just die on an unfair universe.
- They figure out how to start up and control Lagann. Black box. Basics of experimentation.
v002
- Simon's parents had an archeotech laptop, so, besides knowing a tiny bit of BASIC, he had played a couple of RPGs; when Yoko arrives on the Beastman's heels, he tries to tank while she snipes; extrapolation from fictional evidence nearly fails, as he screams that reality is unlike any kind of game, his spiral power starts failing as he circles back into despair and blacks out, but it has already (barely) worked - the Fallacy Fallacy.
Beastman pilot bails out; they haul his mech to Yoko's village; she shows them basic cryptography & related as they figure out Lagann's interface I'm not sure what Yoko's rationalist power set should be, suggest please. Simon wallows in despair, lampshades being an expy of Shinji. Strategies for dealing with nihilism.
The potentially universe-destroying Spiral Nemesis IS the Happy Death Spiral, of course!!! This only really comes up in the final arc, but what a glorious EY shoutout. [pause] No cult.
(to be continued)
Still on it, just really preoccupied atm.