Simple Tricks to Improve Your Writing [With Cover Tips!]

Characters ✔

A story should have a few characters.

Protagonist- Usually the main character; wants to solve the problems/has the problems happen to them

Antagonist- Causes the problems, but not always the 'bad guy'.

Then there's the side characters.

All the characters cannot be perfect. They have to have interesting flaws and things they're not good at.

If your character is a Mary/Gary Sue (an absolute perfect character), nobody's gonna read the rest. They don't want a book about how perfect someone's life is.

Let me elaborate on the 'Antagonists aren't always the 'bad guys''.

An antagonist can accidentally cause problems, but turn out to be a nice person.

Or they could be the monster under the bed that seems scary, but isn't actually.

They don't always have to be the 'I'm so mad so I am going to cause all the problems and end up in jail!' Person, but they usually are. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, your character needs good flaws. Here are some links to lists of good character flaws to have:

https://writerswrite.co.za/123-ideas-for-character-flaws/

https://www.nownovel.com/blog/character-flaw-list-30-flaws/

https://www.solacesabah.com/blog/character-defects-or-flaws-a-list-of-major-defects

You can always just look at yourself, too. What do you not like about yourself? What are you bad or good at? Is it realistic enough to be in the book?

Fears are another story. There should always be a reason for a character to be afraid of something wether it be:

I don't like spiders because they're really creepy with all those legs

Or

I don't like spiders because one time, I was awake at night, and I saw something moving on the wall, and it was a spider!

Here are some fears of you need some:

http://characterchange.com/9-fundamental-fears-that-motivate-your-characters/

http://writerandproud.blogspot.com/2015/03/make-them-run-fears-and-phobias-for.html

I hope these help.

Now go and try making a character with at least 3 flaws, 1 fear, and some good traits.

~~~~~~~~~~

If you have no ideas for characters, I recommend character generators. They're really helpful, and you can change anything you want.

You may also PM me for help