Lacking Character

'There, amongst the ashes of his enemies, the mighty warrior rises from the embers unscathed. His puritan standards have been upheld and all evil has been vanquished while everything good in the world now bows before his might!'

Ugh. So much ugh.

I received some feedback over the weekend that I may have taken in a weird way.

First of all, I am completely open to feedback on my stories. It helps me become a better writer but the feedback I got just kind of hit me in just the right way that it made the hamster inside my skull fall completely off his wheel for a moment.

The comment was that my main character should have been pure good to be a good role model to the readers and that, because he was conflicted, he was totally unrelatable.

Huh. I actually spent way longer thinking about this than I should have.

Here's the thing. ANYONE can write the stories that they want and this is in no way a criticism of how someone chooses to write characters or present a story...but...

Isn't that just tired and played out? I'm not writing a superhero movie (and often superheroes are full of their own conflict.)

I'm writing fiction about characters that people can relate to. Let's be honest. If such a thing as pure good exists it is exceedingly rare in the universe. Most people are fundamentally flawed and have their own inner demons dragging at them. These are the people I create. I like characters that are off-balance and tend to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Part of horror, to me, is showing how utterly broken people can become in certain situations and how absolutely irrational their thinking can become.

I don't blame this person for wanting to read about upstanding people with the purest of intentions but...

...why would you read a horror novel and expect to encounter that?

So, now my mind has kind of fixated on that. Are my characters unrelatable to normal people because they aren't black or white? My antagonists often have very good reasons for being the way that they are, as do the protagonists -- which are anything but heroes.

I was just caught off guard by this. I had no response other than to just nod and say "huh, interesting." It is an interesting observation and I guess I should have expected it, but I just never realized that anyone reads horror novels seeking moral guidance from characters.

I am trying to heed the advice that I have given to so many, though. You can't make everyone happy. It's only natural that when you receive feedback your brain will ignore the 99% positive and fixate on the 1% negative. Why do I react like this? It's because I am just an average human who exists somewhere in the grey. I'm not perfect...just like my characters.

So, if you like broken characters that make poor decisions under duress, please check out FREE on Kindle Unlimited or $2.99 on eBook. The Morbid Fascinations of David Bennett. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1701845431

and coming this summer, the follow-up: Maestra