Writing Tip #9: Don't Get Too Hung-Up on Your Heroes Being Hero-y

There's something I've started to notice in a lot of newer books I've read in the past several years (both professionally published, and not): a lot of people have a really hard time knocking their heroes off their pedestals. 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What do I mean? I mean the heroes are too darn hero-y... too darn perfect. All the time. And it's terrible.

It's not to say that the authors don't give them flaws... but... even they're perfect; by and large, they're not so much flaws as quirks, things (like being antisocial, or awkward, or excessively and damagingly snarky, or nosy and invasive, etc.) that end up being endearing and/or earn the respect of others in whatever way, and are not treated as flaws at all but as acceptable elements that move them along through the plot in a way that distinguishes them somehow from their co-characters. The heroes and their flaws/quirks go through some sort of emotional character arc, granted, but their flaws/quirks never factor in enough in as pivotal way as to be recognized as problems.

And this is what irks me: real people, with real flaws, are affected by them; their lives and actions are affected by them; they draw real setbacks and real struggles and real consequences that they are forced to deal with. With real people, their flaws are not synonymous with their strengths, as much as they may play parts with each other sometimes.

So what irks me is authors taking heroes that they've clearly fallen in love with and regard in a certain way, and not trying to make them into people with genuine flaws that hurt and genuine strengths (whether inherent and/or earned/learned) that redeem. They love them too much to want to make readers think less of them in any significant way, for any significant amount of time. So instead, they give them a few quirky drawbacks (to varying degrees of severity) that ultimately don't even significantly change by the end of the story. But "all's well that ends well", and we have our climax, and "The End".

This takes away any real element of humanity. They're not a hero any more - they're a caricature of a hero. And that makes them forgettable. A dime-a-dozen.

The most memorable and wonderful characters I've ever read and absolutely gotten attached to (and hurt/healed by) don't work like that. They work more like real people do, and so it makes us value them like we would real people: when they do good, we're happy; when they do wrong, we cringe; when they hurt, we hurt; when they screw up and hurt others, we're angry that they've let us and themselves and those others down; when they redeem themselves (if they can) we are wrapped up in their struggle to do so, and any success or failure feels like our own, and it damn well sticks with us.

Granted, not all stories have room for characters like this, and may actually be a better product without them; you have to know your audience, know your story's tone and intent, write with that in mind, and adjust the depth of your character accordingly (e.g: books like the Goosebumps series, or Agatha Christie novels, or any standard feel-good kids' book). But when the room is there and the story is built on the backs of the flaws and strengths of its characters (e.g: Game of Thrones), you write the shit out of those characters. You make them real people.

So today's tip in a nutshell: lose the pedestal. Bring your heroes into the real world; you and your readers will be grateful you did.

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