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@sesi Hey!

Honestly, I’ve asked myself the same question about books I used to love. Some of the characters feel so flat, like cardboard cutouts. I don’t think you’re over-dissecting the story, you’re probably just suffering from the same thing as me, called “growing up.”😁

As for avoiding it in your writing…Abbie Emmons (she’s on YouTube) has really helpful advice on what makes a character believable. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend her for younger kids, she sometimes uses movies as examples that I wouldn’t watch, but she keeps it fairly appropriate.

On that note, Abbie always talks about something she calls “internal conflict.” It’s the feelings and struggles a character deals with on the inside, and she says that internal conflict is actually what makes a character relatable. For example, I don’t know if you’ve ever read Lord of the Rings or watched the movies, but Aragorn is this amazing character who is practically perfect in every way. He’s honest, a great leader, amazing at sword-fighting, and he’s the King. Without “internal conflict” he would be a stale character, but because he struggles inwardly (even if he looks and acts perfectly outside), he’s believable and relatable.

I think when authors struggle to come up with characters who aren’t stale, they just mainly fail to realize that having a problem doesn’t make a character lovable and believable, it’s why they have the problem, and how it affects their heart/mind/emotions.

Hope that made a bit of sense.😆