Monday, November 7, 2011

Weak vs. Strong

I recently had an interesting twitter conversation about weak and strong characters. In my opinion, characters are the most realistic and work the best when they have a mixture of weak and strong. A character who is strong all the time is boring and one who is weak all the time is annoying. But, when you can combine the characteristics, make a weak character have moments of strength or have a strong character reveal his or her vulnerability, that's when magic happens.

Personally, I'm in love with tortured strong characters. Nothing brings me more delight than watching my favorite strong characters break down (I'm sadistic, I know).

What about you? Do you like the strong lead or a weak one who finds strength? Do you prefer the strong to stay strong and the weak to stay weak?

All this week I'll be exploring different characters and where they fall on the strong/weak scale. I will say that an entirely weak or entirely strong character isn't wrong, it's just not my favorite. Authors have a variety of reasons for the choices they make, regardless of whether or not I like them. I'm going to stick with lead heroines for this discussion and you can see how they compare.

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