Want readers to care? Give them characters who bleed.
Too many writers try to make characters likable by making them perfect. Don’t. Instead, make them flawed. Broken. Traumatized.
In other words… relatable.
Readers don’t fall in love with perfection. They fall in love with potential. The chance that a character might rise above their brokenness or tragically fall because of it.
Let’s contrast two types of characters to illustrate this point.
Imagine a protagonist who has it all together: successful career, loving partner, fit body, moral clarity. Sure, they might face obstacles, but they breeze through them with wit and charm.
Now, picture a character who’s barely hanging on. They drink too much, lash out at the people who love them, and carry shame over a secret mistake from their past. They desperately want to do better, but every step forward feels like a battle.
Which character are readers more likely to root for?
It’s not the “perfect” one.
It’s the one who reminds them of their own struggles. The one who, despite their flaws, dares to try. That’s the beating heart of emotional conflict.
Flawed heroes, morally ambiguous criminals, and emotionally scarred protagonists make the danger feel real. Their inner demons amplify the outer conflict. And that emotional depth makes every decision matter more.
As a writing coach, I love helping writers uncover their characters’ hidden wounds—and use those flaws to raise the emotional stakes of every scene.
That’s where emotional investment comes from. We don’t just want to see the conflict. We want to feel it. And to feel it, we need to see ourselves in the struggle of the characters in the story.
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Kevin T. Johns is a Canadian writing coach who works with fiction authors to craft emotionally rich characters readers remember long after the last page. Get his free scene checklist:
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