The Load

'Can't somebody else do it?'--Homer Simpson
If you've ever worked on a group project, you've had an intimate encounter with that one person who contributes precisely nothing, and actually drains everyone else's time and resources by creating trouble and otherwise needing to be babysat. Unfortunately, this person's fictional counterpart has the potential to be just as annoying unless their character development is handled with finesse.

The most prevalent mistake is to have this character show up unintentionally as a lead or main love interest. This is the lead character who perpetually has to be rescued by everyone else, who for some (usually inadequately explained) reason keeps doing it. Ditto the love interest who continually has to be rescued (bonus points if it's from the same villain!), like a cat who persists in getting stuck repeatedly up the same tree. If you see this happening to your lead character, give them more control over their fate, and perhaps dump some of their babysitters absurdly patient companions (I really, really want to see a sidekick to a passive character who gets sick of rescuing their ungrateful butt and wanders off to do something else). 
The other problem is that this character exists solely to cause drama due to their uselessness, but has no adequately explained reason for the other characters putting up with them. Having an inoffensive and vaguely likeable personality isn't enough reason for the other characters to continually risk their lives and/or their mission to save this obvious plot device person. Credible reasons to not dump this person overboard or feed them to the zombies or just send them home include family ties (no one's going to let the were-iguanas eat their baby sister!), a critical skill set (maybe this person has zero common sense, but is the only one who can work the submarine's toilet or the only one with medical training), or some outside obligation (the Load has powerful relatives, and the main characters are going to catch hell if anything bad happens to them). 
Finally, the consequences of this person's uselessness should be explored. They are drinking valuable water, eating valuable food, causing time and resources to be wasted on rescue missions... the other characters should at the very least be deeply annoyed instead of blandly tolerant, and at most, consider ways of getting rid of this person (see above). 
If you really want to write a Load into your plotline, make sure they aren't just an obvious plot device, but have a strong, conflict-inducing, plot-relevant reason for being there. And please, please, please don't make them the main character. 
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Published on April 12, 2013 02:11
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