Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Perfect?

So lately, I've been struggling with a perfect character. The thing is, I don't want him to be perfect.

But what can I do to change him?

Basically, he is the older brother of my MC, and his main goal is to protect her, keep her safe, and give her the life he could never have--that and, of course, search to the corners of the earth when she runs away. I almost feel like he cares about her too much. So, I have made a personal list of bad character traits I am going to apply to him.

I think it's important to keep our characters real and give them flaws--because we want them to be relatable, and people are not perfect.

So, that's my goal for the next week. Have you this issue? Was there anything that helped you with it?

~Elizabeth

1 comment:

  1. Ooh, ooh, I can comment on this one!

    I wrote a NaNovel very similar to your story, in that my MC had a younger sister and his purpose in life is to protect and bless his sister. Like you, I wondered if he was too perfect.

    But then I discovered that that very trait of his was a fault. He wanted to protect his sister, ect. The story ended up revolving around his learning to give her into God's hands, to realize that he cannot and should not be all-in-all for her or anyone else.

    So, yeah, maybe your MC does care about her too much, go with it! Just make sure to differentiate between good love and bad love, good care and bad care. (You can't love anyone too much if your love is from your love for God, after all.)

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