Critique forum

This is the first time I've ever submitted any of my work to a forum. I guess I was always scared that people would hate my book, but whatever. A writer has gotta have thick-skin, right? Like a snake. Snakes have thick skin, don't they? I know they have cold blood, like vampires. Wait - I don't even know if vampires have blood.

Damon's like, "pffft, you should know that we OBVIOUSLY have blood". I love Vampire Diaries. I can't wait for the next season.

Characters

Since it's school holidays, I've been spending quite a bit of time thinking about my novel manuscript, which I am in the process of rewriting for about the fifth time. I'm focussing on making three dimensional characters, because one of the most important things in a novel is characterisation. I've been thinking about flaws of each of my characters, because we all hate a Mary Sue (which I found out the hard way after my main character - Ashley Slater - turned out to be one in my first draft; even I didn't like her much).

If any of you readers out there are writing your own novel, then I strongly recommend you take this quiz:

http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm

(I know the picture is totally random, but it was too cute to not share!)