Writing Mistakes You're Making

Character: Being a Well-Rounded Individual

Everyone is afraid that his or her characters are flat...uninteresting...boring, but how to go about rectifying this? Good characters are rounded individuals (we're talking bouncy ball round). They’ve got good qualities and bad. Make a list of all the good and bad things about your character. If your character is essentially good or evil, of course one side will outweigh the other –– but if the only good quality you can find for your “evil villain” is that they wash their hair on a regular basis, perhaps it’s time to do some revisions and throw in a memory of them losing their favorite cat as a child to show they can feel pain. 

Or if you’re going to go the devoid-of-anything-good route, give your character background and complexity (Voldemort hadn’t a decent bone in his body –– that doesn’t mean he’s boring). In fact, all of your characters should have background and complexity.

I’m sure you’ve heard of a Mary Sue –– a character so flawlessly perfect that every man in the room is in love with her (and who's surprised? After all, she's gorgeous but thinks of herself as plain or is really plain but has the hottest man in the world in love with her for no apparent reason, not to mention this gal is trained in kung fu, speaks six languages, and always knows what to say in any given situation). This is not the goal. Odds are your main character is the good guy, but give them an issue or two. And no, you’re not allowed to go about this the same way you do on your college applications and say that the character’s biggest flaw is “they try too hard” or “they spend too much time revising their homework.” Everyone has bad things about them. 

Example: I, for one, spend a large portion of my childhood verbally attacking my younger sister (everything from telling her that her nose was made of cheese to saying she was a dodo bird so ugly that when she was born all the other dodo birds took one look at her and died –– simultaneously explaining the extinction of the dodo bird and making my sister cry). But I grew out of that, and she grew out of her scratching-and-biting-me-so-hard-that-she-drew-blood phase (although it did take quite a few years), and now we’re extremely close. 

Your character can also mature and develop into a better or worse person throughout the story –– watching the growth can be very interesting as long as it’s organic. They can’t wake up one day and suddenly decide to be a better person; events need to bring this about.