Everybody’s got issues. That means your characters have to as well. You can’t have someone who’s got it all, obviously, and you can’t have someone who’s perfectly smart, nice, attractive, ect… Those are called Mary Sues and we HATE them.
But what about deeper than that. Okay, your person can be cute but stupid, and so on and so forth, but they need more than that. They need some damage. We’ve all got it. Tell me one person you know of who made it to adulthood without damage. If you can think of anyone, then I can guarantee you just don’t know them well enough.
And I don’t mean everyone has something big and traumatic like an assault in their past, obviously not. But they had bullies, broken hearts, lost opportunities, or lost people.
Your assignment is, if you choose to accept it, take your main character(s) and say what their damage is. It can be big, small, one or a dozen.
Here’s mine:
Laws of Magic Series:
Cassandra – All American good girl, who cares about truth and justice, annnnnnd has a bad habit of shoving what she considers truth and justice down people’s throats. Stems from her mom being put into a coma seven years ago after being hit by a drunk driver.
Millie – Boarder-line Asbergers (sp?) who’s brilliant but does not understand people, their emotions, and especially doesn’t understand her own. So when she’s faced with deep emotions, she doesn’t have the tools to deal with them. She fell hard for a guy 5 years ago and never got over him because once she feels something, it’s in there for good.
Tyler – Bit of a sociopath. She was born that way, but it was exasperated after she got her powers. She’s territorial and protective. What I call a tribal sociopath. She has her friends and family (tribe) whom she loves and will do anything for. Everyone else is fodder and she really couldn’t care less.
Evie Jones Shorts:
Evie’s terrified of anyone having power over her, especially men and her government. Comes from growing up under a totalitarian witch government who says one thing, does another, and is overbearing and corrupt. She’d love nothing more than to blow them all up and start fresh, but they’d disappear her first and she knows it.
Order of the Sphinx:
Sandry grew up working class poor. She hates people who had stuff handed to them, either rich kids who got stuff from rich parents or the poor who live off the government, so much that she’s bigoted towards them. Her family lost their home when she was a kid and she’s been trying desperately to get that feeling of security back her whole life. All she wants is a home, but she doesn’t trust it when it’s given to her. Because if something’s given, it can be taken away.
SDF:
Ariana’s a psychic put in a division of the FBI when she’s too young and too inexperienced. She’s the youngest of 5 children and acts like it. She wants to be one of the team but she’s immature for her age, and younger than all of them. She’s perky and hyper but falls into deep pits of depression which make her wonder if she’s bipolar.
Alright, there’s mine. Your turn. Happy Writing 🙂
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