on Fiction University:

A flat character can kill an otherwise good story.

I was chatting with an editor of a publishing house who mentioned a problem he sees in a lot of the submissions that cross his desk.

Poor characterization.

Cardboard characters. No sense of depth. Names, but not people. Without that characterization, it’s impossible to connect with the characters or the story.

Compelling characters are vital to a novel, so if you want readers to love and connect with your characters, they need to feel like real people. So remember:

Characters aren’t just “people with names who do things.”

Characters drive the plot, not the other way around. It’s their choices and needs that cause them to act and make the plot happen. Show who they are by how they act, and how they try to get what they want.