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I was fortunate to spend a week at the beach in July with my family enjoying the sand, sun, and surf. Before we left on vacation, however, I faced a tough decision: keep the initial release date for Camp Castlewood or delay the release by a month? After mentally beating myself up for not being perfect cafeful deliberation, I opted to delay the release until September 7, 2021 and I'm glad I did since it gave me the mental space to simply enjoy downtime with my favorite people at one of my favorite places.
I love taking long, long walks on the beach (maybe you do, too?), listening to the ocean and spying for seashell treasures. But I also listened to a few good podcasts by other writers while I was barefooting across the sand and one discussion struck home with me - the importance of a flawed main character.
It's hard to root for a perfect hero or heroine, one without flaws or imperfections, which makes complete sense when you think about it. I'm sure we can all think of someone we know - either in real life or via social media - that seems to always have everything perfectly in order, from their home to their appearance to their relationships, even their career and eleven hobbies. Ok, so maybe eleven is a bit much, but they always seem to have three or more hobbies, with one being utterly eclectic (spinning hand-dyed alpaca yarn or brewing dandelion wine come to mind).
Of course, in life as in fiction, all is never what it seems at first glance. The appearance of perfection is often just that - an outward projection that creates a transient illusion that eventually gives way to reality. That's what makes the pefectly imperfect and flawed hero or heroine of a story so utterly believable and likable - as the story unfolds, we learn more about them and see just how human, how like ourselves, they really are.
I'd love to know who some of your favorite flawed main characters are. Drop me an email and share - I'd love to hear from you. And if you have an utterly eclectic hobby, feel free to send that along, too. I'd love to hear about it!
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