You should make your main character LESS complex, actually

The subtle art of removing subtlety

To make your characters feel complex and real and to make their journeys something readers will root for……….flatten them.

Let me explain.

Something I always struggle with in my manuscripts, especially first drafts, is making the protagonist’s thinking and motivation crystal-clear. I think it’s because, in real life, we’re complex beings; we waffle and sigh and weigh myriad reasons or possibilities and hold multiple competing guiding lights all at the same time.

In other words, we contain multitudes, a whole constellation of raisons d'état. I, for one, can ponder my pursuit of climate justice and new subscribers and a fresh PR at the climbing gym and tacos (always tacos) all at the same time.

There is, and this may shock you, exactly one result for “paper doll” on Pexels and it is…this (Photo by Michael Burrows)

So in early drafts, my heroines do the same. Here’s why that’s a huge problem—and exactly how I’ve learned to fix the problem and make my characters feel fully flesh-and-blood.