It’s easy to want to create perfect main characters. The ‘Righteous Sufferer’ has a certain appeal to us. After all, if it was our story, we’d rather be a victim of circumstances than have to face the consequenses of our own actions.
However, the perfect character makes for a dull story for one simple reason: they do not change. (They’re already perfect, so they don’t need to change.) Side note: characters who do no change are called static characters. Characters who change are called dynamic characters.
All this begs the question: why is it so important for our main character to change? Why does an un-changing character make for a dull story?
You see, a story is about progression. It’s about how Daniel or Marcy or Zane or Alithia get from point A to point B. The road from A to B has to be challenging, or it bores us. Challenge brings growth, and growth equals change.
But if a character is already perfect, there is no room for growth.
It’s kind of like our own lives. We need to grow in character in order to become the best person we can be. We need to expand in order to better fulfil our potential. If we just stayed at one level our whole lives, we would have wasted the potential we were born with.
So, here’s to growth! Cheers, everyone.
Camille Esther 