Finding Balance

Today is my post for The Great Blogging Experiment. As usual I'm a little late, but I had a guest on Friday, so I have an excuse (sort of). The topic for the experiment is how to write compelling characters.

For me it's all about balance. Think of Yin and Yang. Characters are people, they just happen to be people in a story. Sometimes they are sparkly vampires, fallen dark angels, impetuous little girls, or even dirt eating dwarves, but they are always people underneath it all. People are flawed.

Characters, or at least protagonists, must also almost always overcome some kind of conflict. Whether they use cunning, strength, dexterity or good old dumb luck the character must have some kind of skill or talent with which to overcome the conflict and make the choice that allows them to do so. These abilities are like the Yang side of a character or person. People in real life do have talents. It's what makes them an asset at their workplace, the best hitter on their softball team, or the better parent in their family at diffusing toddler meltdowns. Characters in books or film can have their talents magnified or blurred, depending on where in the spectrum between superhero action story and depressing melodrama the story in which they exist lies.

Characters must also be flawed. Flawed and sometimes vulnerable. They must grow jealous of others who have more than them. They must covet things that they want but cannot have. They must be selfish when it comes to resources that allow for survival. These weaknesses are like the Yin side of a character or person. There are many more examples but the point is that for characters to be believable, even lovable, they must be human. Vulnerability is the other side of the coin. Whether emotionally vulnerable or in actual physical danger vulnerability is a sense of weakness that is not the character's fault. Flaws are a part of who they are; vulnerability is a part of a situation they are in. Picture Harry, Ron and Hermione in that tent in the woods in The Deathly Hallows. Can you imagine a position of greater vulnerability?

Keep in mind that in Taoist philosophy (which the concept of Yin and Yang comes from), there is no good and evil, only balance.

I could go on about all of this but I won't. For it simply all comes down to balance. Characters must have talents, to get them through obstacles, but they must also be flawed and occasionally vulnerable in order to make them believable.

I can't add the linky list below because it is closed, but please visit Elana's post, here, to see the original list of entries for this awesome blogfest!