Monday, May 19, 2014

Heroes and Villains #4: Flaws Make the Hero! by Dianne K. Salerni

So far in the Project Mayhem series Heroes and Villains, there have been only posts about villains. Why is that? Are heroes B-O-R-I-N-G? They shouldn’t be. We’re rooting for them, aren’t we?

What makes an interesting MG hero?

Flaws

A good MG protagonist should have flaws. Kids find it hard to identify with a character who’s too goody-goody – unless the plot quickly throws enough curveballs at them to tarnish the shine. Harry Potter was an awfully good guy, but his schoolwork paled in comparison to Hermione’s, he had a short temper –and also a bad habit of sneaking off to forbidden places. Thank heavens, too, because Cedric Diggory was practically perfect, and look what happened to him! He didn’t have what it took to stand up to the bad guys.

Flaws offer room for growth and the establishment of a character arc. Plus, sometimes it takes the darker, tougher sides of a personality to stand up to the villains.

Excess Virtue

Don’t forget that virtues can also be faults when taken to an extreme. One of my favorite MG heroes, Wallace Wallace from Gordon Korman’s No More Dead Dogs, is 100% honest. Is that a virtue or a fault? Well, you decide. Here’s Wallace’s 8th grade book report (otherwise known as “the inciting incident”):

Old Shep, My Pal by Zack Paris is the most boring book I’ve ever read in my entire life. I did not have a favorite character. I hated everybody equally. The most interesting part came on the last page where it said “The End.” This book couldn’t be any lousier if it came with a letter bomb. I would not recommend it to my worst enemy.
~No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman

Mistakes

Middle grade kids make mistakes all the time. They do dumb stuff. Then they lie about it. And when you ask them why, they shrug and say, “I dunno.”

MG readers connect with heroes who make mistakes. Every writer knows to put obstacles in the path of the MG protagonists. But I think some of those obstacles should be the protag’s own doing, the result of his/her own mistakes. Whether it’s because of momentary selfishness, miscalculation, or miscommunication, MG heroes make errors that drive the story forward and propel them into self-discovery and ultimate success.

But, if our heroes are full of faults, virtues-on-steroids, and prone to mistakes, why DO we root for them?

Loyalty

I didn’t know I was going to end here when I started this post, but it kept coming to me as I worked on it. Every MG hero I can think of had a fierce loyalty to something. To friends. To family. To preserving good -- or to right over wrong. (Can you think of any MG hero who did NOT have a loyalty to something that overcame every one of his/her faults and vices – up to and including the classic MG heroes Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer?)

It seems that no matter their faults and mistakes, our heroes are kids we can count on till the end.

In loyalty lies their ultimate strength.


28 comments:

  1. This is such a great post! Flaws are so important when it comes to making characters feel authentic.

    And an interesting thing I think about a lot as a writer who writes both YA and MG is the differences in what you can get away with when it comes to creating flawed characters in both categories.

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    1. Very true. It's a completely different set of flaws, for two distinctly separate stages of maturity!

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  2. Great post. I made the mistake of making my main character too perfect and never one to make mistakes when I started writing. I learned quickly that was so wrong. Flaws and mistakes are so important to making your characters great.

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    1. I worry that the protag in my current WIP is a little too perfect. I hope that having the story events catapult her into some less than goody-goody action will serve to make her relatable. And she should mess up royally at some point in the story.

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  3. MG protags tend to be some of the most interesting characters. Their flaws are a must. After all, they're still in the learning stages of so many things in life. Mistakes are bound to happen and lessons can come from those.

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    1. Angela, I think MG protags are a little less self-absorbed and consumed by their social image. They are more likely to be openly quirky, screw up, and say, "Wow I really blew it." YA characters try to cover up and protect their image!

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  4. Such good stuff here, especially the portion on mistakes.

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    1. Thanks, Caroline! Some adult readers have told me they want to shake my MG protag Jax over one particular mistake he makes. But I've read the book to three classes of my students, and none of them batted an eye at it. Kids know all about doing something stupid and lying about it afterward. ;)

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  5. Now that I am in the thick of balking at a revision of my MG novel (the 5th revision, mind you), the universe keep throwing me delicious insights. LOYALTY. Yes! Thank you, Universe, via Dianne Salerni. The revision boulder just moved visibly up that Sisyphean hill!

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    1. Yay! Glad you got something you needed!
      I love it when a random blog post hands you exactly what you were looking for!

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  6. Oh my gosh...excellent post and my school is filled with these very kids. In other words you know the MGers and it is great to have it written out cause sometimes I am too close to the subjects of my writing! Thanks.

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    1. Deb, mine too! Aren't you especially fond of the ones that look you in the eye and deny something you SAW them do? :D

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  7. Great post, Diane! I love this: "They do dumb stuff. Then they lie about it." I've seen that play out many times in the classroom.

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    1. Oh, yeah. That's for sure.
      Not only do they lie, the sneakiest ones manipulate you into thinking YOU did something wrong.

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  8. I know that this was geared to the MG and YA audience, but some of these flaws apply to adults. When you do something SO INCREDIBLY STUPID that you can't believe you did it... It makes you horribly ashamed of yourself because you should have known better... Looking back at it, the result was INEVITABLE, but you couldn't see it all when you were in the thick of it... Well, I know plenty of adults who rewrite the history. And I have done some things that I really would prefer people not know about... would I lie if called directly on the carpet? It might depend on who was doing the asking. We do things, particularly in our 20s, that we smack our foreheads about in our 40s. Heck, we do things in our 30s that we smack our foreheads over in our 40s.

    This was a great post. I am going to mull some of this stuff over. I really need to find a way through the garbage that is keeping my characters from fully coming alive.

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    1. We all make mistakes, even after our 40s. Not so great in real life, but it makes for good reading!

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  9. *Really* interesting observation on loyalty. Flaws and mistakes are crucial, as they are for all characters really, but loyalty, while not necessary for all characters, really does fit in well with the middle grade aesthetic. Ultimately, it ties into wants and needs, and I think there are a lot of common middle grade themes--importance of friendship and such--for which loyalty makes a lot of sense.

    Harrison Demchick
    Developmental Editor, Ambitious Enterprises

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    1. Thank you, Harrison. As I mentioned in the post, this wasn't on the list of things I thought I was going to write about today -- but it came to mind and I realized how important it is.

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  10. Interesting insights about mistakes. I think kid readers are tolerant of mistakes in characters, but adults less so -- not just of kid characters who do what they shouldn't, but adult characters in grown-up books too.

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    1. Kell, I agree. Adult readers ARE less tolerant of characters making mistakes. Which brings to mind the whole "you shouldn't throw stones" thing. I wonder if adult readers never make mistakes -- or just don't admit to them? :D

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  11. Love that excerpt from No More Dead Dogs. Now I have to read the book. Yes, kids can be overly honest. My older son's always been that way. :)

    Inspiring and helpful post, as always, Dianne. I've only recently realized (I think in my fifth revision) that loyalty is my MC's motivating factor. Which is why I need so many drafts of a book...

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    1. I had a lot of trouble with one of my POV character's motivation in my last WIP. I knew what she had to do, but had a hard time figuring out why she did it. Turns out the motivation could be found in her faults -- jealousy, need for attention, pride -- and in her mistakes.

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  12. Great article. I was having a rough time getting a "good" mc to be as interesting as my "bad" mc and all these points are ones I mulled over. Loyalty is a big one for me too.

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    1. The mc in my current WIP starts out with more positive traits than my last mc -- she's an all around popular, good, smart, talented kid. I'm having a hard time zeroing in on her voice.

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  13. Great post. This reminds me of a character in a novel I'm reading right now - who is honest to a fault. And it makes him more of a villain than a hero because he ALWAYS does the right thing, no matter the cost.

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    1. Marissa, I love it when a character's virtue becomes his greatest fault!

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  14. This is a great post. I recently added a plot twist to my current project in which my hero is so loyal to one relationship that he hurts someone else he cares about. And for awhile he's not sorry. Exploring how the hero tries to repair the damaged relationship and how it evolves after that was really fulfilling. I think you're right that characters need this kind of stuff for plot arc or else they're too static.

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    1. Thanks, Joanna! A number of CPs and beta readers tried to talk me out of one particular mistake my main character makes in The Eighth Day. They wanted me to find a way to avoid his stupid behavior but still have the plot go the same way. But all the kid readers never muttered a single complaint. Adults want kids not to make mistakes. Kids know they make mistakes all the time.

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Thanks for adding to the mayhem!