N = Nice
Are your characters too nice? Too agreeable?
Readers don’t want perfection, they prefer reality.
Readers can relate to reality.
Too much niceness can seem artificial as Sweet-n-Low and turn off your readers.
I bet your favorite and most memorable characters were flawed and sometimes down right disagreeable.
Write characters who are engaging, interesting and filled with conflict. People who are most often warring with their own nature, or good and evil.
She typed the coordinates Mac had emailed into her smart phone. As luck would have it, the perp was an eight-hour drive from San Antonio. At least he was still in Texas, that would make things easier for her but harder for the hacker. Rachel smiled as she reached into her desk drawer and retrieved her sidearm. Kindness never killed anyone but she knew what did. She didn’t get her reputation by being nice. However, she always got her man.
Jean's Writing 
Great post! Too much sweetness and perfection is annoying. I like my characters to be multifaceted and real, this makes them so much more relatable (and interesting). Good luck with the rest of the A to Z!
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Thanks for taking the time to leave me your input. I couldn’t agree more, but multifaceted characters are not easy to write. But worth the effort.
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I’m tired of perfection in stories. Glamour, riches, fantastic holidays don’t entertain anymore, but give these people rages and secrets and bad habits and maybe I’ll stay interested. 😀
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Yeah, me too. The majority of us do not live the glamorous life of the rich and famous.
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The story get’s old, doesn’t it. I’m too much of a realist. ❤
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Reblogged this on LMC and commented:
Yes, beware the Mary-Sue!
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Thank you so much for the re-blog. I’m glad you liked it.
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I prefer flawed characters, that dash of reality, it brings tension to the story and issues to be resolved.
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Yep, my point exactly. Without flaws, tension and conflict is hard to envision.
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I have to say… romance novels are big sellers and they are about as far from reality as they can be. A well meaning friend was in love with Danielle Steele novels and she turned me on to most of her collection. Her tragic ladies got hooked up with good looking, wealthy men who all fell in love with her autistic children and couldn’t shower them with riches enough as each met his untimely death, but they’d turn a corner and there was the finale happily ever after. Having read real Russian novels what inspired me to throw in the towel on Danielle Steele altogether was her attempt at a Russian novel. There are some things you should have respect for.
Anyway, reality varies.
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True, but there is a dash of reality, that enabled her readers to connect on some level with the charactersin wish or truth or dreams, thanks so much for you comment.
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