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raesoflightOne of the traps that's easy to fall into as a writer is making your main characters always in the right. It can be a difficult thing not to do, because any time the main character looks bad, the reader's faith in them is shaken, just like our faith in ourselves can be shaken when we find that we were completely in the wrong about something.
But as long as your main character isn't some totally omniscient being (and what fun would that be?) they are going to be wrong about something, and it's going to bite them in the ass.
This can be an especially precarious path tread, especially the way Fandom as whole is now, with the prevailing insistence that good characters should never make any mistakes or be biased in any way or they become "problematic"-- but it's your job as a writer to be true to the human condition, not some screwy moral high-ground put in place by people with poor to non-existent critical thinking skills. I say that because if you find your story gaining a lot of traction in it's fandom, by making your protagonists mortal and flawed you will lose readers, and it might hurt, especially if you're the type to go back through and read old reviews (as most of us are) and see those same people that loved your story a few chapters ago bashing it, and you, for exercising your discretion as an author to make your characters flawed.
The exercise for the follow week will be to create a situation where your protagonist's personal biases put them squarely on the wrong side of an issue, and resolve it. How readily do they realize they are wrong/ how do they accept it? Do they accept it? How do the characters on the right side of the situation react to it? Are they surprised the protagonist would have such a bias? These are all questions that need to be considered when you're dealing with a limited perspective.
But as long as your main character isn't some totally omniscient being (and what fun would that be?) they are going to be wrong about something, and it's going to bite them in the ass.
This can be an especially precarious path tread, especially the way Fandom as whole is now, with the prevailing insistence that good characters should never make any mistakes or be biased in any way or they become "problematic"-- but it's your job as a writer to be true to the human condition, not some screwy moral high-ground put in place by people with poor to non-existent critical thinking skills. I say that because if you find your story gaining a lot of traction in it's fandom, by making your protagonists mortal and flawed you will lose readers, and it might hurt, especially if you're the type to go back through and read old reviews (as most of us are) and see those same people that loved your story a few chapters ago bashing it, and you, for exercising your discretion as an author to make your characters flawed.
The exercise for the follow week will be to create a situation where your protagonist's personal biases put them squarely on the wrong side of an issue, and resolve it. How readily do they realize they are wrong/ how do they accept it? Do they accept it? How do the characters on the right side of the situation react to it? Are they surprised the protagonist would have such a bias? These are all questions that need to be considered when you're dealing with a limited perspective.
