“Why Can’t You Be Perfect?” — The Dilemma of Making Your Main Character Memorable

The main purpose of most novels is to entertain the audience. They take their readers or viewers out of their day-to-day life and throw them into a new and more exotic or uncertain environment.

Whether it is science fiction plunging the reader into a distant future world, a boy who discovers that he is a wizard, or the adventures of a police detective solving a gruesome murder, the main focal point of the novel is your main character. They are the foundation of any successful novel. Indeed, if it’s a series, the readers purchase the books to follow the main character’s development and any secondary characters that are mainstays in the books. For example, C.J. Box is the author of numerous novels built around Wildlife Warden Joe Pickett and his wife and daughters.

The best novels and movies need deeply flawed characters because the reader wants to get caught up in their world. They become page-turners if the reader wants to find out how the main character copes with their current dilemma. They want to discover how the main character triumphs at the end of the book.