Just as all good stories contain aspects of redemption, and death, so too transformation forms the engine propelling the narrative.
A major character or protagonist is like the Prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. God used Ezekiel to teach the Children of Israel how to suffer. Protagonists of our stories show readers, in much the same way, how to grow, and change as the challenges of life demand.
Ideally characters wrestling at the center of a story’s dilemma depict through thoughts, words, and deed how to become better, and stronger individuals, and to do that while loving the more deeply and passionately while undergoing their change.
This transformation that characters go through symbolizes the ultimate transition all of us will make, that of Death.
To enact transformation upon our protagonists we must endow them with flaws and failures through which readers might identify with them. These flaws and prior failures also serve as guide points and pole stars directing the way for an evolution in character and personality as manifested in the events of the story.
Flaws signify where life has wounded a character. Past failures indicate the starting point from which the protagonist must grow. Both humanize a character. They render her or him accessible for readers to relate to.
These personality flaws and failures also hold the key(s) to what the protagonist will have to do in the course of facing her or his obstacles, and antagonists to achieve healing.
In this way stories are about coming into psychological and spiritual wholeness in an effort to attain a goal. It is most helpful when the desired goal is a physical, tangible object to which readers can easily and readily relate.
Actions made in the effort of achieving her or his goal then become behavioral mantras of healing that transform flaws into strengths and ordinary people into extraordinary individuals–heroines and heroes.
List some of the personality flaws of the characters in the most enjoyable books you have read?
How do you humanize the characters of your stories and novels?