Here is a list of basic storytelling advice that I’ve collected and shared with students over the past decade, and keep returning to myself as a writer as well…
You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. Perfect characters are usually uninteresting. Why root for someone who is always going to win the game? We admire characters for their messy humanness - even when that humanness is in the shape of a non-human object or being. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable/perfect might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
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