Characters with issues

Think of the most interesting character you've read about or seen on the screen. Did he/she have issues? Now, I'm talking about everything that might be counted as an issue - problems in the family, being bullied, bad self-esteem, anxiety, mental disorders. Some kind of not nice backstory. All of that will be labelled as "issues" here.

Now, you might have noticed it, but usually, interesting characters have at least one of those listed issues or some other that I forgot to mention. Why is it that way? I don't think I can answer this question from a psychological point of view but I'll do my best to explain.

What is an interesting character?

An interesting character doesn't have to be the one we like the most. It's a character that will have us on the edge of our seats, or at least get us to think for a moment. They might be amazing as our main characters but they also find themselves in the role of a villain. They are interesting not only because they have an interesting backstory or an intriguing character, but they're also interesting because they seem real. They have flaws, demons in the past, they're not perfect in the slightest. They have a motive, maybe even more than just one, and we still can't be sure what they will do next. They're not cliché.

Now why issues make a character interesting?

Issues are usually what makes it easier to write the character. Even if it's simply the fact that the character is the black sheep of their family. Negative emotions affect a person very much, usually more than the positive ones.

Many years ago my father created this world. I’m an angel, but not a regular one. Even when I was a warrior, I never felt like my brothers and sisters. Humanity has always been interesting to me. Watching them through the millennia, how they tried to understand this world not even knowing the full truth, how they created beautiful masterpieces, colossal buildings. My family didn’t share my excitement with these astonishing creatures. They often called them ‘hairless apes’ which was, in my opinion, far from the truth.

~by Ida Zam

Let's take that text for example. It's a draft my friend sent me (yes, she gave me permission to use it) for me to check it. And, I'll be honest, I'm known from writing too much. So I wrote twice as long as the text was.

But now, let's focus on her main character. He's the black sheep of his family, not understood by anyone. He (the character) want's to be the same as his siblings but it just doesn't go his way. From the text, we can easily conclude that he's lonely.

What makes this a perfect material for simply any kind of story?

His issues.

Sure, you can say that there are people who have bigger issues than the character in Ida's text but even this works. Even though he's supposed to be an angel he's not perfect and it hurts him. He has a reason to leave his home, or, if we want to create a villain, throw a tantrum. You can simply do anything with him.

Now, can't a character have a motive which doesn't exactly have a root in his/her feelings and/or issues?

I mean, yes, sure, but this kind of motive is not as strong. Negative emotions can drive people to do many different things and people who are driven by them don't always doubt their actions, they don't think them through, at least not with a clear mind. They can be blinded.

Wait, I think I wrote that part a bit… wrong.

The character with issues might doubt her/himself constantly. That's fine. We've got a character in conflict, a person who is lost. Now that's appealing to readers. When there's conflict, when there's doubt, it's easier to write a story that's interesting. Not to mention that, no matter how bad it sounds, people like pain. They like to see that the characters aren't all-mighty and amazing but have their own problems and flaws.

Let's say that the character has bigger issues. Let's say, a mental disorder.

We can go with depression, might be a good material for our main character, but I don't think many people like to read about that and when you don't know how depression really looks like, it might not work out (I know I might sound a bit… harsh or something, I don't want to disrespect anybody with depression, I don't have any intentions like that. Simply writing about what I observe from reading and watching) Depression might be a way to give the character some struggles but not exactly the way to get the story going.

Now what I'm talking (writing) about is some more serious stuff.

I don't know if you've watched the movie "Joker" from 2019. It focuses on the character we all view as a villain. A man with mental disorders. I found this movie quite dark but it was still interesting. And the only thing that stopped me from finding anything else to watch (I usually prefer movies with a sense of humour… that's why I like MCU more) was the character of Joker.

Joker was unpredictable. You never knew what he would do. And while he was most certainly not the good guy, I still liked the way he functioned in the movie.

The whole story was based on the fact that he had issues. And even though the story was dark it was interesting. I was curious what would happen next so I watched it till the end. Joker's issues made him different, but most definitely not perfect. Made him interesting.

I'm not saying, write about lunatics and maniacs. That's not the point. But what I'm saying is: use all the issues the character has, no matter what they are, to make her/him more interesting.

An interesting example is in the story of my friend Ida. It's called "The book collector" and is posted on UcanWrite. It's short to read but shows perfectly how to use those issues. What you read about the character of that story might be interpreted differently. For example, it might be about a man struggling with a mental disorder, who lost his love because of his behaviour. But it can also be about a man who only accidentally committed the mentioned crime. It can be about a to-be villain. There are many outcomes.

And that's exactly what I'm trying to write. No matter what are the issues, as long as they give the character some sort of a struggle or a motivation (or both), they can help you out not only in writing an interesting character but simply an interesting story. It's good to remember about it because no matter who the character is, they usually do have an issue or two, and that's what pushes them forward.

Read “The book collector” on UcanWrite (there’s a comment about the whole “issues” stuff from me)

https://idazam7.wixsite.com/ucanwrite/post/the-book-collector-what-i-wrote-so-far

~Steph