Perfection! *Chef Kiss*

I don’t know who needs to hear this but please stop with the perfect characters.

Perfect characters are not fun in fact for a majority of readers they bore us. A perfect character is one that faces no real threat in a story, never loses, and succeeds at every turn. In short they no not struggle.

Do not hide behind false threats either. If the reader never feels like the character is in any danger than it is not a real threat. A false threat is a threat that appears dangerous on the surface, but the Main Character (MC) over comes it by doing nothing different and never really had a chance of losing. If characters do not struggle at all in a book than there is no conflict and no story. I know I say that a lot between blog posts and my YouTube channel so let me try to clarify what I mean. What a story is, has a lot to do with struggle and conflict, this is why an anecdotal tale from a friend arriving late to a party can be a story because they were stuck in traffic and could not do anything about it. Sorry side note, but a useful example to explain what I mean. A story hinges on the MC overcoming problems and the reader believing the problems were actually difficult.

Something as simple as a friendly quarrel with the MC’s best friend may seem mundane which we all can relate to, but pair it with having just been beat up and tossed about by a more powerful villain, now we sympathize with the MC a little more. For example. A MC who is beat up and suffering the effects of a loss, confronted with the mortality of themselves lying in bed beaten and bruised is more sympathetic when the best friend comes in angry that they didn’t do their laundry. Now looking at the MC who is just tired after handing out butt whooping’s all night and the best friend comes in wondering why they didn’t do their share of the chores seems pretty selfish.

Struggles force a reader to keep reading, drawing them along the story so that they can see the climax where the average character becomes the superhero, or greatest assassin, or king of the realm. I already know what’s going to happen in a story where the MC wins all the time. I call this the underdog mindset. Readers like an underdog. We want to see the downtrodden win. By seeing the villains lose all the time, I start to pull for them to kick the perfection out of the MC.

Also, don’t pretend that personal issues are the main set back for the MC because that is a cop out. By making mundane issues the main problem characters face in a story, the reader feels less invested with the character. I often find myself wondering why I should care. I’ve had fights with my friends and it blew over and I didn’t have superpowers to distract me, or a super cool sword, or awesome assassin capabilities. The personal issues are often thin facades in order to give the illusion of conflict when in reality the threat of losing that friend too is nonexistent.

Villains are not straw men/women who’s purpose is to be smacked around by your MC. They are there to force your MC into situations that are uncomfortable and painful for them. They cannot be one dimensional. A superpowered MC can take on one to ten baddies at once, unless all combatants are super powered. Eventually numbers win out. Villains, bad guys, Antagonists all want to win just as bad if not more so than the MC and odds are they would. Most MCs have attributes like unwilling to kill or wanting justice to win out. Villains normally have no qualms with killing, maiming, or using loved ones against their adversary, so often a good villain can exploit those elements and win, or at least make victory feel like a loss. Those are the scenes as readers that hurt, but feel so emotional that they get talked about on the internet for years.

I don’t want this to become a page where I rant about my issues in writing, so here are some constructive tips to help avoid this.

It is okay to let your character fail. Your character does not have to win every fight they are in and it helps if they don’t. Let them lose. Don’t make them a savant or prodigy. Those are unique individuals who have their own struggles and must be written by someone who knows that lifestyle or has more skill because it can go off the rails quick. Use multiple flaws so that if one doesn’t fit your story as well it can still add an element to your character while still having backups to show your character isn’t perfect. Write your villains as if they have an end goal and would like to accomplish that. Write your Villain or antagonist as if they were a better version of your MC. Why? Because then it makes it harder for you as the writer to beat that villain as easily. If your MC is strong, make them stronger (i.e Incredible Hulk, Abomination). If they are smart, your villain is smarter and so on. Creating powerful villains is a good way to limit your MC’s success.

Use these tips to make compelling, believable, relatable, and tortured characters we can grow and love