How many goodies and baddies does your story have? You need some great baddies so you have a story! You also need your protagonist to be essentially inspiring, so your readers will root for them. (More on creating engaging protagonists here, in a previous post, in case you missed it: We all need a hero!.)
But what about all your other characters? Have you got the balance right?
Christian novels can err on the side of too many ‘nice’ people. However, I read a detective novel on holiday last week where almost all the characters were obnoxious. There were the ‘rich bitches’, the out-for-all-she-could-get homeless girl, the hateful mother, greedy lawyer, spoilt designer, nasty policeman . . . and so it went on. By the end of the book I was really hoping for someone good to believe in!
So here’s a quick tip: make sure you don’t have too many baddies that have nothing to commend them, or too many goodies, either!
The balance between goodies and baddies will be different for every story – have you got the balance right in yours?
Janet
Have you read a book recently with too many good or bad characters you couldn’t quite believe in? Let us know – it’s good to learn from each other!
The Write for a Reason writing course starts on 4th July. More info here.