A hero is no hero at all unless there is something to stand against. That’s where villains come in.
villains
We love to hate them, but they serve a critical function within the anatomy of a story, the yin to your protagonist’s yang.
Characters are one of the most important elements of any story. And character development can be challenging to get right.
Characters are critical for drawing readers into a story. They should also be the force that pushes your plot forward. A strong character can bring the story’s entire world to life. They can make your readers cry and even feel like a real friend. A weak one can deflate an entire book like a leaky air mattress.
If you’re like many talented writers, your story might not be very interesting. In fact, it might be pretty boring. Too often, writers get caught up trying to express themselves and forget their audience. The best stories aren’t about how the author feels. The best stories are about how the reader feels
Here’s the deal: if you don’t like your character, your reader won’t, either. Fortunately, I have three quick tips to help you fix that unlikable character.
If your readers don’t like your character at least a little, then they won’t care what happens to that character in the story. If your readers don’t care about the character, you’ve already lost them.
Fortunately, there’s a way out. Three ways out, in fact.
If you write fiction, you need world building. It’s the skeleton of your story: though unseen, those bones determine the shape of the beast.
They say there’s two types of novel writers: pansters and plotters.
Pansters catch the spark of an idea and just get down to the writing. Plotters, on the other hand, create an outline of the novel before stringing sentences together.
