Character balance

I think one of the hardest things in writing, and especially in fantasy writing, is balancing your characters. Obviously you want your main character to be interesting, so you give them an assortment of abilities and hobbies that are relevant and applicable to their story. But it's pretty easy to lose track. New things come up in the story, and you want your character to be able to cope with it, so maybe something in their past gives them that ability, or maybe they are able to quickly learn it so that they can move forward.

But eventually a person has to reach their limit, and they simply can't do any more. Or, at least, that's how they would be in the real world. But in a story, they're not held back by the same limitations we are. They can go far and above. Why would someone who can cast magic be incapable of... anything?

And that's how we end up making Mary and Gary Sue characters. Characters that are just so perfect that they simply aren't enjoyable to read. We see them in stories all the time, and we dislike them, and we actively move against them. But when we are writing our own stories, it becomes difficult to see that we're just going too far. I know that I am far more than guilty of writing over powered characters. I do it consistently.

But I can't help it. I don't want my characters too lose their fights, so I give them the strength they need to win. I want my character to get the girl, so I give him a background that might help them do that. And I want them to be appealing to the audience, so I give them a number of hobbies and interests that fleshes them out more. But by the time you've pushed all of that together, the character is more than any person could possibly be.

It's really hard to stop while you're ahead. Even when you give them weaknesses and drawbacks, those are easily exploited by the author to become strengths in times of trouble. Or they are something that can be overcome, rather than worked around. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when that weakness is there to balance out your character, it really shouldn't be something that can be overcome, because then you end up with a character that's even more unbalanced than they were to begin with.

I suppose that's one of the things editors are for. To look at your work and say "This is unnecessary and just pushes the character over the top. Take it out." Even after you're finished writing, you're so attached to the work because it's your own that it's almost impossible to see the flaws with it. You can later, of course, though that later is hard to define. Could be a matter of days. Could be a matter of years. Could be anywhere in between. You just won't know until it happens, and unfortunately, it varies with every single piece that you write. And you have to do it a dozen times before it even gets close to being publishable.

And there's no guidelines you can really follow for it, either. It's very much a feel kind of thing. And that feel is something you have to develop over years upon years of practice, and it's not even something that is consistent from person to person. So you just gotta keep working at it until you figure out what works.

I guess that applies to a lot of things.