This top post of 2016 was first published on June 2nd. Your characters should be multi-faceted. They should have strengths and weaknesses. Wounds from life that haven't healed can supply internal conflict or motivate them to take on the overall story problem. However, if your character is so lacking in self-esteem that he is not equal to tackling the overall story problem or so sniveling or pathetic the reader can’t get behind him, it is a serious plot fail. If you decide to burden your characters with low self-esteem at least understand the why and how. Use the problem judiciously to motivate them, not from a standpoint of ignorance. Choose the degree of affliction carefully. As children grow up, there are several ways in which their self-esteem is damaged. 1. Healthy self-esteem requires competence. A child needs to feel self-confident and independent. If Dick, as a child, is not allowed to master things, to build self-confidence and independence, he becomes weak ...

A few reviewers of my books have asked, rhetorically, how I come up with such original characters. We, as writers and readers, know there is no such thing as an original character. My protagonists have all been written before in one book or another, going back hundreds of years. My only recipe for creating characters is to make them human, with all the flaws of real people, because, you know, no one is perfect. It’s challenging to write a character who might not be likable—an unrepentant, high-priced call girl ( Hooked ), a brooding, bordering-on-surly man who spent fifteen years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit ( Murder Déjà Vu ), a cheating wife ( Indiscretion ), or a con artist psychic ( Mind Games )—and make the reader like and even root for them. There are even times when my villain elicits pity, but not for long. Villains are people too, remember, and should be more well-rounded than just evil, though I have a couple of those too. Where do these people come from?...

It's been a while since Slim Randles has been here with an update on how Dud is progressing with his book. He's been writing his for more years than most of us put into a single book, and he shared some of his thoughts on the writing process in a post here on October 2013 . He still isn't finished with his book, but, then, he seems to be having trouble with his characters. This is probably a good illustration of the importance of putting believable protagonists together. (See how I slipped the June theme in here.) Dud was down at The Lunker Hole on Lewis Creek before it even turned yellow in the east. He had some thinking to do, and, as everyone knows, there’s no better way to think than fly fishing. And The Lunker (and it’s capitalized on purpose) is a good trout to think by. Why? Because everyone also knows you’re not going to catch him, so it gives you thinking time. Just about the time Dud could make out The Lunker’s rock at the head of the hole, he had gotte...