Photo by Dan Winters
Character Equation
(Credible + conflicted) = complex - cliche = Compelling Character
Credible plus conflicted equals complex minus cliched for a grand total of Compelling Character
From my craft class handout:
Credible characters – main characters, especially—need to be complex. They need to have conflicting desires, both good and bad qualities. These contradictory traits (also know as human traits!)— these conflicts within character-- are what Aristotle referred to as “consistent inconsistencies.”
To paraphrase Janet Burroway in Writing Fiction: “Whether [characters] are drawn from life or are pure fantasy…we must find them interesting, me must find them believable, and we must care about what happens to them.”
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