What I mean by weak characters is somebody with a large flaw or a series of flaws that still make them human, but it doesn't exactly scream 'hero' material.
This may be confusing to some of you. But not every story needs a character who can kick the ass of everybody in a three foot radius single handedly. You don't need a character who can grit their teeth, bare through the pain and carry on to save a friend. You don't need a character who can pick up a gun for the first time and shoot to kill with the first shot. Neither does you character need to know how to unload, disassemble and reassemble a gun.
If you take a character who's never held a gun before, who doesn't intend to, cannot fight to save their life, becomes a damsel/don in distress on a number of occasions, faints at the sight of blood, vomits when they see a dead body, shakes uncontrollably in a violent and possible life threatening situation... they are still a character.
It is how you write them that will set them apart.
Some of you may be reading this and thinking that I'm talking about romance, historical or children's stories. I'm not. You could create a crime novel around a scared late twenty woman who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In fact I may do that as a challenge.
As readers and writers we perceive our protagonists of science fiction, fantasy, crime and thriller stories to be strong willed, brave, have a fighting spirit. We perceive these genres to have characters who can shoot guns, fight for their life and have the ability to see through the pain.
This is not always the case and I plan to have a story written where the protagonist is that late twenty year old woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She has a weak stomach, gets panicked easily, faints at the sight of blood.
These characters, who we may automatically lump in the category of 'weak' can be the funnest to write and may even sometimes have fun or emotional stories.
Don't be afraid to try something a little different. Go wild with your characters.
Happy Writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment