Wimps are lethal to fiction:
Heroes cannot be wimps or else...
Characters that sound dumb, even for a brief time, or uncertain, or weak are usually anti-heroes.
Characters can be wimps at the condition they are so weak or cowardly that it becomes funny and they become heroes of a satire.
Heroes in fiction are active. They face danger, fight with their nails, take decisions, confront. They are often athletic and physically skilled. They go forward without stopping to look back. They are initiative takers, innovators, gifted in one area, originals, courageous and highly motivated toward a goal with an incredible gift of perseverance.
Heroes save the day. They are the strong link that holds the story. They cannot break.
Wimps are no heroes.
Nobody wants to read about a lazy hero who never gets into a fight, is cowardly, doesn’t know what he wants and is indecisive about his goals or even abandons his goal to pursue another one. Nobody wants to read about a heroine who moves only when urged to or who hides every time danger is upon her. On the contrary, readers have a thing for strong and bad ass heroines.
The kind of hero who does not amaze us and who we do not admire are not worth the reader’s time.
The reader does not wish to be this hero who is a wimp and does not even want to know what he will do. The reader cannot identify with a wimp and imagine doing the things he does in the novel. Why?
Because wimps look more like real people and real people are boring.
Real people procrastinate, let others fight for them or wait until the fighting stops. Real people call the police to fix their problems for them.
Real people fuss over little things without really changing anything or criticize without getting involved. On the contrary, fictional characters are doers and change the lives of people around them; they insult their employers and send their letter of resignation instead of keeping it low; they save the poor orphans or build wells in the desert or even get involved in any fight they see and in brief get in more troubles than your whole neighborhood in a lifetime.
The purpose of the fiction character is to help the reader imagine what they would do in an extreme situation and how their lives could change if they were more daring.
The hero in novels does the things you dream of doing.
Fiction is a way to release the daily anguish or frustrations through an extraordinary character. Readers want a hero to tell them or prove them life is not random and real and true feelings like honesty or loyalty are real. The heroes of fiction make us believe in a bigger reality, in a world where things can become what we want. Yes, we can replace the tyrant or reverse time or become popular in just a few weeks. Fiction is a way of day dreaming, that’s why our heroes have to be dreamy.
Heroes cannot be wimps or else...
Characters that sound dumb, even for a brief time, or uncertain, or weak are usually anti-heroes.
Characters can be wimps at the condition they are so weak or cowardly that it becomes funny and they become heroes of a satire.
Heroes in fiction are active. They face danger, fight with their nails, take decisions, confront. They are often athletic and physically skilled. They go forward without stopping to look back. They are initiative takers, innovators, gifted in one area, originals, courageous and highly motivated toward a goal with an incredible gift of perseverance.
Heroes save the day. They are the strong link that holds the story. They cannot break.
Wimps are no heroes.
Nobody wants to read about a lazy hero who never gets into a fight, is cowardly, doesn’t know what he wants and is indecisive about his goals or even abandons his goal to pursue another one. Nobody wants to read about a heroine who moves only when urged to or who hides every time danger is upon her. On the contrary, readers have a thing for strong and bad ass heroines.
The kind of hero who does not amaze us and who we do not admire are not worth the reader’s time.
The reader does not wish to be this hero who is a wimp and does not even want to know what he will do. The reader cannot identify with a wimp and imagine doing the things he does in the novel. Why?
Because wimps look more like real people and real people are boring.
Real people procrastinate, let others fight for them or wait until the fighting stops. Real people call the police to fix their problems for them.
Real people fuss over little things without really changing anything or criticize without getting involved. On the contrary, fictional characters are doers and change the lives of people around them; they insult their employers and send their letter of resignation instead of keeping it low; they save the poor orphans or build wells in the desert or even get involved in any fight they see and in brief get in more troubles than your whole neighborhood in a lifetime.
The purpose of the fiction character is to help the reader imagine what they would do in an extreme situation and how their lives could change if they were more daring.
The hero in novels does the things you dream of doing.
Fiction is a way to release the daily anguish or frustrations through an extraordinary character. Readers want a hero to tell them or prove them life is not random and real and true feelings like honesty or loyalty are real. The heroes of fiction make us believe in a bigger reality, in a world where things can become what we want. Yes, we can replace the tyrant or reverse time or become popular in just a few weeks. Fiction is a way of day dreaming, that’s why our heroes have to be dreamy.