Think about it. Throughout the years, there’s been characters that you have adored, whether you’ve identified with them or just thought they were wonderfully bizarre.
I can name a handful off the top of my head.
As a writer, it’s easy to slip into the trap of trying to create beloved characters of your own. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do so, but it’s unfortunately rather simple to attempt to do so in the absolute worse way possible.
It’s one of the ways Mary Sues are created. Surely by making your character the most special flower in the field, people will love them, right?
We all know the answer to that.
The characters we identify with are human. They have hopes and dreams and flaws and hates, and some things they are good at, and some things they are actually rotten at, and that’s okay, because that’s how people work. The more depth you give a character, the more readers will see them as real.
There’s no guarantee that doing so will make your character “beloved,” certainly. The same things don’t appeal to everybody. Sometimes you don’t want a character to be adored, but you do, above all else, want to keep the readers’ attention and keep them engaged. You want them to care about your character, even if they’re just along for the ride in the hopes that your character may one day get a well-deserved fist to the face.
Which characters have caught your fancy over the years, Squiders? Why do you think they appeal to you?
