by Neal Wooten
Having been a publisher and editor for the last sixteen years, I’ve read a lot of manuscripts. There are many areas where aspiring authors make subtle writing faux paus, and one of those areas is in character development, especially when it comes to the protagonist. More often than not, the main character is the hero or “good guy” in our stories and we want them to be likeable. Hence, we tend to make them too likeable, flawless, and that will never ring true to readers, even if on a subconscious level.
The reason is obvious; there are no perfect humans. Like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and my Pulitzer, they don’t exist. Whether you’re writing sci-fi, romance, or even a memoir, the goal should be to have readers feel a connection to your characters, to relate to them in some way. In other words, make your characters real, not perfect, and readers will love them all the more.
When Stan Lee was hired by the comic book company, which would become Marvel Comics, he was given one seemingly impossible task. They hoped he could create superheroes and stories that could take just a sliver of the huge pie of profits away from DC Comics. At the time, DC had all the big guns and ruled the superhero galaxy. Of course, we now know that Stan Lee’s superheroes became even more popular and more profitable and definitely dominate at the box office.
Why is that? Let’s look at DC’s main attraction—Superman. Right off the bat, he’s an alien from another planet, and I don’t personally know anyone in real life who can make that claim. He has unlimited strength, unlimited speed, extremely high intelligence, is the ultimate Boy Scout, and is about 6’3” with that headful of dark hair with the cute little swirl down the forehead. It’s enough to make us short bald guys barf. Seriously, who can relate to that?
Then, in the Marvel Universe, along comes Spiderman. He’s always the underdog whose villains are stronger. Peter Parker is always struggling to pay rent, dealing with guilt over his uncle, having girl problems, and often feels so unappreciated that he just wants to give up and quit. And boy oh boy can we relate to that. We don’t love him because he’s stronger, faster, smarter, or doesn’t need styling gel; we love him because we feel his pain.
After I completed the manuscript for my first novel fourteen years ago, I was lucky enough to have an accomplished author offer to critique it well before it was published. Upon reading it, the author sent this email: “Let me get this straight. Max is eighteen years old and is the perfect son and has the perfect relationship with his parents? Let me ask you, Neal, did you get along perfectly with your parents at that age?”
Wow. That was an eye opener. I emailed back and wrote, “My dad kicked me out when I was sixteen. Point taken.” Then I set out on a lengthy set of rewrites. Since that book went on to win ten book awards and was named to Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011, I truly believe I was indeed fortunate to get that feedback when I did.
In real life, there’s no such thing as the ultimate villain or ultimate hero. Everyone has it in them to be either or to be both. The person who cuts you off in traffic today might be the person who rushes into a burning building and saves you tomorrow. Most people are struggling with some demon we don’t know about like a gambling, drinking, or drug addiction, an inferiority complex, doubts, fears, guilt, or a hundred other issues we mortals deal with on a daily basis.
We might never know what strangers, friends, or even family members are dealing with, but your readers should know exactly what’s going on with your protagonists. And all these flaws will endure your characters to your readers. That might make the difference in them finishing the book and being so moved they have to tell everyone they know about it.
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Neal Wooten is a contributor to the Huff Post, columnist for the Mountain Valley News, author, artist, and standup comic. His new true-crime memoir, With the Devil’s Help (Pegasus Crime/Simon and Schuster), is being made into a miniseries. He is also the creator of the cartoon, Pancho el Pit Bull, which is being made into an animated series in South America.