On Writing Characters Well

There are two types of stories you can tell.

1: Stories with heavy plot and theme and symbolism

or

2: Stories that are heavily centered around characters. 

It's true, you can have a mix, but for the sake of simplicity, let's pretend there are only 2 types.

Personally, when I write, I like to make my stories Character based, instead of Plot based. Obviously it's important to have a compelling plot and a nice theme, and perhaps a little symbolism, but it's equally (if not more) important to write a good cast of characters. 

There are only so many themes in the world, but every character is unique. 

I have three main stories that I plan to eventually get posted here. 

One of them is about mythology. It has many long story arcs, and some short story arcs and the plots of the chapters within the arcs are similar yet different and brought together at the end of the arc. The main point of writing them, however, is to showcase the characters and watch them interact with the surroundings of the given scenarios. My second story, one about a group of scientists, works in a similar fashion. But the best example to get my point about characters across is the third story.

My third story is about super heroes. And the plots of each arc are extremely similar (for there is a limited pool of super hero plots) but I still insist I write each arc and each story because I fully believe that each story is unique. And this is because the characters are different. 

I will always be a fan of the super hero genre because, even though the plots tend to be the same, the characters (and the action) make up for it. 

But every good writer knows that they need compelling protagonists and some good writers know that the supporting cast needs to be good too. What many people don't know (and I've seen even the best of writers fall into this pit of despair) is that your villains and antagonists need to be written just as well.

To Be Continued