One attribute that writers often are associated with is anti-social. There has never been a bigger misunderstanding than calling writers anti-social. I, for one, have never been particularly shy. I met most of my friends by bouncing up to them and introducing myself. Don’t get me wrong though; I do love my alone time, but for the most part, my life is in a constant swirl of activity from all of my extra-curricular activities, sports, and the friends I spend time with.
It really is important for writers not to get caught up in their own little world. As one of my friends so kindly put, writers need to see the people around them to create believable stories. This statement could not be any truer. I have found that if I create characters that have the same characteristics as people I know that they are more believable and more relatable. You cannot give your character one flaw and then give that same person fifty other remarkable things that they can do perfectly.
Every reader wants to be able to relate in some way with the main character; thus, you must have a well-developed character. Take Harry Potter for instance, I have always related to him since he always wants to do the right thing. J.K. Rowling makes sure that Harry is a believable character by giving him flaws.
Ever character must have flaws.
If your protagonist in your story does not have any flaws, they will become boring and not relatable. Those who have read Harry Potter know that Harry is relatable in the sense that he has a strong moral compass and we respect that along with his desire to pick his friends based on what good people they are. It is shown in the first book that he rejects the hand of Draco Malfoy, even without knowing that he is rich and a dangerous enemy. Instead, he picks the unlikely ginger, freckled boy on the train who treats him just like any other boy would. They become fast friends and stay by each other’s side throughout the entire seven books. They have their fights but in the end, they know that they do in fact love each other as brothers and always want to be there for one another.
For example, one of my characters from my Demon Days novel from last year’s NaNoWriMo, Hero was a different character that I tried to work in something new with. He was immature, terrible at fighting, reckless in the battlefield and was only kept alive by his friends who kept saving him, and whiny. I generally hate characters like this because I find them useless, but I really wanted to try something new with him. I am terrible at drawing and writing boys. They always end up resembling girls more than guys. But I do hope that I made Hero as believable as possible because the majority of boys that age are immature, do whine, and generally are quite rude without realizing it. Not every main character of every story is going to be amazing with a sword, gun, mace, etc. and not every boy is going to have the smarts to win battles nor the charm to always get the girl. Hero even faints at the sight of blood in front of a girl at one point and peaks his embarrassment even further when he tries to beat her in a practice duel and fails. He is methodical in his learning, preferring to take his own time in learning something and taking pride in what he does know. He is rather arrogant in his only useful skills, which include knowing most of his home world and knowing all of the seemingly useless stories about all of the horrors of their world. While he seems to be useless in some ways, he does have his few good traits. He is genuinely good at heart and does know that he has to sacrifice some to save his people. I made Hero a believable protagonist because I believe that everyone can relate to a teenager thrust into the middle of a crisis and forced to grow from it. Hero’s name comes from the fact that he really doesn’t begin the story as a true hero. He grows into it and earns his title. As he gains maturity, Hero becomes what he is insecure about-that he will never become a true hero and that he will never fill the shoes of his predecessor.
There are also strange ways of getting different characteristics for OC’s. One of my writing friends, M.C. Loftis and I decided that we need to go to an airport one day and watch the kinds of people who stroll through the airport lobby. No two people are alike in their mannerisms and characteristics. Therefore, you must be able to fabricate your characters based on different attributes and flaws to make each one unique but still relatable to your reader.
What my point is that writers cannot afford to be anti-social. They must watch people and interact with them. People are an inspiration and they are what make up characters. You must know people and how they tick. You must be able to analyze someone and figure out their weaknesses and strong suits are in order to make different, believable.
That being said, do not be the person who only makes friends with certain people just to analyze them, and neither does that mean that you need to gossip about them and cut them down just to see how they would react. If you only watch someone long enough to see them frustrated, happy, sad, or stressed, that is all that you need to be able to determine what kind of person they are.
Xoxo, Ella Douglas
Nevermore 