On Characters, and poorly crafted ones.

Literary characters. Not character: the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

As a reader, one of the single most important skills a writer can possess, is the ability to craft a believable and sympathetic character. If the character does not appeal to me, I won’t continue to read. Even if the story is only marginally interesting, if the characters have appeal, I will continue to read; but no matter how great the story, if the characters are flat, the story will not interest me.

I haunt several writing blogs/forums, and read and comment on quite a bit of amateur fiction posted there, and the single biggest flaw I find with poor writing, aside from the poorly crafted prose, is unappealing characters.

Think about recent books you have read, or your favorite stories of all time. What sets them apart from the forgettable ones? Chances are, it’s the characters.

And to me, what sets a great character apart form a forgettable one, is flaws. Great characters have them, forgettable characters don’t. Great, memorable, believable characters are flawed. They are not perfect. They have doubts, the fail, they loose their car-keys.  They loose their temper and punch walls, they forget their mother’s birthday. The best ones have the biggest flaws, and those are usually related to the story somehow. Cowardice, self doubt, incompetence, bigotry, laziness. Real people have flaws, and if your characters do too, they will be that much more believable.

Nobody wants to read about a fantasy hero with no flaws. One who is perfect, who never looses a battle, who always gets the girl. Those heros hold no interest to us. It is difficult to resist writing such perfect characters. As a writer, if fall in love with my characters. It is fun to craft scenes in which they win the fight, get the girl, or find the ancient artifact. But if they are perfect, if there is nothing to overcome, there is no conflict, and therefore no interest.

Some of the  most memorable characters I have ever encountered were lazy, or cowardly, or misogynistic, or sometimes just plain bad people. But they were interesting.

As an avid Role Player, I cannot avoid mentioning Dungeons and Dragons characters. I have had many, and my favorite ones were not the 34th level Paladin, but the low level ones with flaws. The ones who could not succeed to save their lives. Literally. My favorite DnD moments were the ones where I lost a character to a poor dice roll or their sheer incompetence. We still tell stories of those ones.

Think about it. I am certain that most of you know that guy with the 34th level Paladin with the +7 magic-sword-of-ass-kicking. Hearing about how high his stats are or how cool he is does not interest us. It’s the same with poorly crafted characters. If your character has all the skills and powers necessary to complete the tasks you set for them, they will hold no interest to your readers.

Even Conan and James Bond, who are very powerful and skilled characters, often fail. Either because they lack the skills necessary to win easily, or they bad guy is simply much more powerful than they. And in the end, Conan and James Bond are not really that memorable. Oh, the twelve year old boy in me still loves them, but mostly because they always get the girl. They are not memorable characters beyond that. Bilbo and Frodo and Sam Gamgee, they are. Bilbo and Frodo were not warriors or wizards, they were common men. They were hungry, and tired and complained of sore feet. And we remember them.

So, I am interested in hearing what characters you remember most, and what their flaws were.