Characters Need to be “People”

“When you stop expecting your characters to be perfect (or flawless), your readers can like them for who they are.” Adapted from Donald Miller

The single more important thing I learned as a writer was to allow the characters to be people. They need to have a soul, one that exists within the context of the world they live in. Sure, the plot is important but not at the expense of presenting living characters. The plot is just what is happening to them at the moment. Characters are what the readers cling to through the thick and thin of the story.

Characters have longing, a need to be heard, a secret, and a reason they do things based on what happened in their formative years. How they connect to the current situation in the story and their reactions, all those things add up to how involved the reader will be to the entire story.

How’s your writing going?