User blog comment:Memai/Writing Foreign Characters/@comment-2109247-20120414175512

Here's are good examples of how Stereotypical my character (mind you that it's not nearly a stereotype as it once was. Sort of, but not as bad.) :

-Mikhaila wears Russian clothes. ALL OF THEM ARE RUSSIAN!!! Russian shirt, Russian pants, Russian shoes, Russian etc. Point: Too much RUSSIA...

-Every thing she does is Russian!

-She likes Juri Karamazov (but I do have to admit, if you were a lone foreign kid, you'd want to find someone at school who is LIKE YOU)

-She can't let go of Juri!!! Point: Too mushy and clingy, and again too RUSSIAN.

-She eats Pelnemi and Borscht and drinks Vodka. (I didn't really put these down, so what I did to make it to where it wasn't a stereotype was...) Propper way of doing it: Mikhaila enjoys eating burgers and frenchfries. She drinks alcoholic beverages some times, but she wouldn't really touch Vodka because it could make her drunk quicker. Mikhaila does not make herself drunk. She drinks to make herself feel better and too enjoy herself, not because she's Russian

-She does Russian Folk dancing, plays in the snow, does everything what all the Russian kids do. (I kept it low on those sort of things, she likes the snow, ice skates, and folk dancing. Only 3 things.) However, I did add things that would break the ice: She loves climbing trees, skinny dipping, exploring cities and towns, spying, and playing with anything you can light fire to (firecrackers) and playing with chemicals (stupid enough to play with dangerous ones).