Oh, the Art of Weakness

Ok, so I haven't ranted in a while. Well, on the blog, anyway. So, what's my fantastic topic of discussion, you ask? Here it is: Infallible, invulnerable, perfect characters. Now, I'm not saying, I don't have the same urge to make my characters totally awesome, no embarrassing moments, no screw ups, not a single thing wrong with them. Unfortunately, who the hell can relate to that? There has to be something. They have to have flaws. They can't be perfect. I know, sad, but true. Don't write a perfect character. Throw in some semblance of humanity. Yes, even if your character is a green, eight-eyed monster with purple hair. There has to be some little something. It can be subtle. By all means, go for subtle if the character isn't our main one. But, yes there's a but, our main character has to have layers. And by layers, I mean, the human-mind kind not the parade float flower kind of layers. Humanity is necessary for a character's survival. Even the big baddies get it. Look at Darth Vader. Big, bad, and you guessed it, semblance of humanity.