So for this revision round, I have sixteen scenes left — where everything starts to converge together and pushing toward the end — which in the draft form is still cloudy (but that’s for another post).
One thing I’ve been noticing with my characters — the antagonist Kendra is just really all shades of bad, which is boring and one-dimensional. I’ve made notes on the manuscript where I need to go back and fix that. All-bad villians are no fun. I need to find something to make her more human or at least give a reason why she’s such a witch.
Then there’s my main character, Grace, who right now is a little too goody-goody. I just finished some scenes where she isn’t so nice but even then I held back. I didn’t want her to be selfish and think only of herself — I didn’t want her to be flawed. Perfect is sort of boring as well.
That’s the thing with characters. Sometimes you can make them too flawed (all bad) or not flawed enough (too good). And sometimes to make your characters real means they must make mistakes, hold grudges, or do things with bad intentions.
The tricky part is figuring out the delicate mix. From being able to make a one-dimensional character into a rounded character with emotional dimensions. A character with flaws. A character who a reader will show empathy. A character who will jump off the page into the reader’s heart and become a real person.
I think finding that delicate balance is extremely and one of the big differences between published and unpublished. I’m still working on it! :)
Great post. I read too many stories with one demetional characters. It’s not that I want to be close, lets say, to the serial killers but I want, as a reader, to understand them.
ann
Laura: I think if you can get the character dimensions right, you are way ahead of making your story stand out in the crowd.
Ann: Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. This is so true — especially for villain characters. As a reader, you don’t have to like them but at least you should be able to understand how they got that way.
Finding that balance is so important. You’re so right – one dimensional characters are dull. Gotta make them real. :)