Do You Respect Your Character's Decisions and Actions

Over the weekend, I ran into a ton of submissions where it was clear the authors were tying to do things to make their stories interesting and their plots unique. The problem, however, is that in each of the cases, the authors sacrificed their characters' reputations.

I have always said, regardless of the character being the hero or the villain, there has to be something that draws us into who they are. This is certainly more true for the hero and the heroine of the story. We have to like these people. Remember, as readers, we are cheering them on. We want to see them win. We want to side with them. 

But when you have them doing things that are questionable, you immediately turn the readers off.

I am going to tap into something I say during workshops on the submission process and even on my workshops with UCLA and resume writing. I always ask them to read what they have written and ask, "Would I hire me?" In the case of the actions of your characters, would you actually WANT to hang out with them and be seen in public together. I don't care how "hot" they look, would you be embarrassed to say you know this person?

Would you respect your best friend who just cheated on their spouse and then justified it by saying "Well they did it first?"

Would you really tell your best friend, "Hey, you got this. Give up on that great career because you had a single bad day and go to some small no-named town to open up a bakery (which BTW, you don't know how to cook a microwave meal)?

Would you honestly still date the hot CEO after you watched him tell his dying grandmother, he didn't care about her and would rather fly to Vegas with his secretary who he just hired for a sexy fling in his penthouse?

I get it. You are using these techniques to "spice up your story" or "to make your characters interesting" or to "create a plot device to get them to a new setting." But, when you do this, you are also hurting the connection you could have had between the readers and the your characters (and more importantly, your writing).