Realism In Characters Is Essential

Wolfgang Iser, in his article, "Interaction Between Text and Reader" makes several important points. He states "Central to the reading of every literary work is the interaction between its structure and its recipient." He goes on to say "the work is between text and reader" and is "an interaction between the two."

I wanted to start with this theoretical approach to writing to discuss an issue I often see in submissions. In simple terms, authors are not making characters realistic. The end result is that the reader is not able to fully be immersed in the story or the lives of the characters. This element is crucial in all forms of literature, but I truthfully believe it is even more important in the genres of romance and women's fiction.

When we read a novel, we want to experience that roller coaster ride of emotions of the characters we are reading about. If you think of great "tear jerker" stories or movies, your reaction to those emotional scenes is a result of your "connecting" with the characters. Let me explain it this way. If you have ever seen the musical Miss Saigon, when Kim sings in the second half of the musical of how she would give her life for her son, most parents really struggle with this simply because they too would likely give up their life for their own children. We can connect with Kim because the writers created a character who is 100% believable.

For many authors, they focus so much on the plot of the story and completely miss out on making those characters believable. These characters have become nothing more than a plot device to get the readers from one scene to the next. They are also only there to "give the reader additional plot information." You can really see this with the stereotypical "best friend" character in many Rom Cons. Those characters are often funny and provide light moments in the movie or novel, but are far from being truly three dimensional.

I have also talked about this in the past when I have written about adding excessive "baggage" to stories to justify the behavior of a character. Consider this character:

• Mother in mid-life crisis
• Struggling financially
• Husband cheating on her
• Son who is "coming out"
• Daughter who is a drug addict
• Getting romantic feelings for her college friend that is border-line adultery

This character has too much going on. While we might be able to relate to one or two of these points, a reader is simply not going to be able to relate to all of these points. I would also add as a side-note, that frankly, someone going through all of these things probably would never be able to function at all.

I always like to remind authors to think of these characters as people we would likely live next door to. These are people we would likely see in our every day lives.

For those of you writing women's fiction, THIS is what I am looking for in a character!