Flaws and All: Writing Complete Characters

[image error]Gone are the days of the mustache-twirling bad guys, the pious knights in shining armor, helpless damsels in distress, and evil witches. These stock characters are fun when we’re developing our sense of story, but they should soon serve one purpose: modelling what a flat, undeveloped character looks like.

We should have villains rife with emotional turmoil and torn between pain and power, heroes haunted by their pasts, damsels who want to stake their own claim but who are afraid it will make...