michael_wood32•27d agoProlific Poster

A beta reader told me my main guy was 'just a cardboard cutout with a gun'

I was sure my action story was solid, just needed more fights. Then a friend who read it said my hero had zero real wants besides revenge. She wrote, 'He's just a cardboard cutout with a gun. I don't know why he likes dogs or hates the rain.' That hit me hard. I spent the next week throwing out my old character sheet and writing a new one. Now he's scared of deep water from a bad thing that happened when he was a kid, and he collects weird mugs. The plot is mostly the same, but he makes different choices because of those small things. It's way better. Has anyone else had a simple note totally flip a character for them?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_hayes1827d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that 'cardboard cutout' line would have wrecked me for a week too. Good on you for taking it and doing the work. It's wild how the smallest details change everything. My guy in a thing I wrote was just angry all the time until I gave him a thing where he fixes old radios. Suddenly he had a quiet side, a place to think. It made the angry moments mean more. Those little habits are everything.

the_gray27d ago

Exactly! I see this all the time with people, not just characters. My neighbor is just "the grumpy guy" until you learn he walks his dog at the same time every morning and knows all the local squirrels by name. That one habit flips the whole script on who you think he is.