creating realistic characters

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I’m constantly amazed by kids. They trust and forgive so easily. And if you think about it, as adults, we don’t. As a matter of fact, it’s very hard for adults to make friends at all. And once we do, if we are let down or betrayed, that friendship never recovers.

I wonder at what point in our lives do we lose that ability to forgive and forget? High school? College? After marriage? Is it an age thing? Once we can vote we can no longer trust? (Heh. There’s probably a lot of truth in that question.)

But, isn’t it a shame that we can’t let go like we used to?

I dunno. The reality is, if we did readily forgive and forget nowadays, we’d all be doormats.

As a writer, my goal is to create realistic characters. The problem is, how realistic does the reader really want? If I write a Happily Ever After story, then the characters have to show growth and overcome their conflicts. So, if a character is betrayed by a friend or a lover in a story and that betrayal is eating the Main Character up inside, technically the story can’t end until that character confronts the issue and everyone kisses and makes up.

But is that really realistic?

How do you balance the real world with the fiction world but still create 3D/believable characters?

3 thoughts on “creating realistic characters”

  1. Yes, I think it is completely realistic, Mel, to show character growth through resolvement of trust issues.

    I think the trust issue is different for different people. As I become older, I’ve become much more tolerant than when I was younger. People make mistakes. People aren’t perfect. When I was younger, I had more trouble forgiving. But now that I’ve made plenty of my own mistakes in life, I’ve come to realize that things aren’t black and white. How can I expect people to forgive me, if I can’t forgive others?

    I think it depends on what the trust issue is about, though. Another thing I’ve learned is that basically, people don’t change. At least, not about most things. But there’s always that hope that you can be wrong, so I do believe in 2nd chances.

    I guess it just depends on the issue. In writing romance, most trust issues deal with prior hurts. And while those can be hard to deal with, we always have to be open to love.

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  3. That’s one of the occupational hazards of writing romance, IMO. You can write the HEA, but it always has to be a little sweeter than real life can ever be. The reader wants it that way precisely because so much in life it painful.

    For those who want to roll around in the pain of mistrust and broken relationships, there’s always literary fiction. 😦

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