Of Beasts and Broken Heroes

It's a running joke, among my friends and critique partners, that I like broken* heroes. They're the characters I write, they're the characters I prefer to read. I have a nasty habit of all but hobbling the heroes in my stories. We're not talking just emotional issues (although I dole those out with shocking alacrity), I often given my heroes some physical impairment, disability, and/or disease they have to overcome as well as a traumatic backstory. Looking back over my last 4 manuscripts, ea...