I’m an avid reader, and I’ve written some things. I’m by no means an expert, but through-out the years, I’ve noticed some mistakes authors make that can completely ruin a character for the reader. If you’re just starting out, it would be a good idea to check your character against this list. One thing I do want to say before we start however is that in the end, you should write what you want. I’ve seen some of these “mistakes” play out perfectly fine before.

Writing a character who is perfectly beautiful/handsome without a single flaw. Even if they’re supposed to be the most popular girl in school, everyone has a physical flaw. Any book that describes a character as being “long, leggy, blonde and petite, with the ability to seduce all men” really draws the reader out of the book. Don’t go overboard to the point we think this is an angel from heaven descended into High School.Characters are either good or evil, and are incapable of doing anything else. Okay, so in my horror novel A Soul Made of Cinders, I kind of contradict this. But in general, it’s not a good idea to write a person out to either be perfect or terrible, good people do bad things and vice versa. It will make the characters seem very 2d.Overpowered characters. They always dodge those twenty bullets in a row, run through a crowd of bad guys with their car without a scratch, and they’re still an average joe who goes home to eat dinner with his kids? You can get away with maybe one scene like this, but if you overdue it, the book either takes a seriously supernatural turn, or you can seem like a bad writer.Background characters with no character development. This one is a major pet peeve of mine. Let’s say you have the main character and his two best friends. One only cracks jokes all the time, and the other constantly hits on women, and that’s it! Almost nobody likes characters like that, and if somebody is being written only for filler, you may want to consider scrapping that character entirely.

Again, I would like to mention this is all opinion, and there may be people who disagree, which is fine! Still, this list may be helpful for those who are just starting out in fiction writing. Let me know in the comments below if you have any other suggestions for improving character development.