Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Realistic Hero

By Rei Lovik

Once I saw a hero cry. 

And laugh. And crack a joke.  

Once I heard them say they were scared. And heard them say they were wrong. 

Heroes aren't perfect.  

We all know that. We’ve seen our heroes in real life make mistakes and even fail. 

They are only human, in the end. 

And when writing heroes, we want to portray that. That human-ness. The mistake making and the falling short. We don’t want heroes who seem flat or too much superhero and not enough human. 

We want our readers to connect to them, and through them, the story. We want our readers to see a bit of themselves in the hero, to learn from them, cheer for them, maybe even cry for them. 

We can’t achieve that if our hero is a champion who never loses and is always right. 

But at the same time, this character is the hero. They are the good guy. So how can we portray them as that? As the wonderful, save the day characters we want them to be without making them far fetched and unrelatable?

Writing realistic characters is more than giving them mistakes to make. 

There are other very important aspects to let your hero have to make them realistic. 

Heroes can be heroic and realistic at the same time. 

Want to know how? Read on… 

Let them be Scared

Facing the dragon alone. Fighting a fire. Jumping out of a plane. 

True terror, slight nervousness, trival worry. Let’s face it, bravery won’t be the only expression on your hero’s face. It can’t be. 

Unless they never leave their bedroom, they are likely to face something dangerous on their adventure. 

And it would be an unrealistic portrayal of humanity if we made them float through scary situations with a smile and kept them from feeling some kind of fear at times. 

Sometimes their fear will only be mental or emotional. These fears can be gentle background thoughts of doubting callings and questioning trust, or they can be bigger, dramatic fears that challenge the hero in completing their quest.

 Either way, it is important when writing real, vivid heroes, that they have their share of physical and theoretical fears. 

No matter how big or small. 

Every single person in real life has a fear of some sort. Of something or someone. Maybe they admit it, maybe they don’t.

 Fearless is not an adjective to describe a real hero. We call true heroes courageous. And courage is to keep going, despite fear.

Take a look at Samwise from Lord of the Rings, the hobbit whom even Tolkien himself said was the true hero of the epic. 

“The 'Sam Gamgee' of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic.”

 - J. R.R. Tolkien

Sam knows and wants little beyond the Shire, but when his master and friend Frodo is burdened with a ring of power and a journey to destroy it, Sam takes his role of accompanying him very seriously. 

In one of the first few scenes, the hobbits are nearing the edge of the Shire, when Sam stops. 

He confesses to Frodo that if he takes one more step, it will be the furthest from home he has ever been.

In that one moment, something in us relates to him. We’ve all faced a first-time moment. We’ve all had times where we were scared to go on, even if we didn’t know why.

This one moment of hesitation in Sam’s character breathes life into him, crafting a real part of his character we would have missed if he had just walked out of the Shire. 

Your hero doesn't have to be super terrified of anything and everything. But they can’t face everything with a grin and never ever feel nervous either. That can come off as stony and  unlikable.

Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings, Janner from The Wingfeather Saga, Poe Dameron from Star Wars … From cages, to being known, to leading, to smaller things like leaving home, intangible fears and more classic ones… all of our favorite heroes face things that frighten them.

Your hero can be scared of dragons, or water, or music, or anything, and still be courageous. 

Courage is not not being afraid. 

Your hero can be the one who always closes his eyes on top of the mountain because of his fear of heights, but in the climax be the one to climb the cliff to rescue his king. Your hero doesn’t become a coward when you give him a fear.

His fear gives him something to conquer-- and when he does, that makes him heroic. 

Let them Love

Romance. Brotherly love. Sister devotion.

When it comes to heroes, romantic love is probably the most common. 

The superhero gets the girl, the knight fights for his lady, and in the end, the two confess their love for each other. 

There is nothing wrong with this.

If you are considering putting romance in your story, it is important to remember that true love is something that happens only once in a lifetime, and we can not throw it in without a thought. Romance stories take time and care to craft, but they can be well worth it.

But if romance doesn’t suit your story, it does not mean you don’t put love in it.

Love is what turns a valiant character into a hero who we can truly care about and relate to. 

Before we even know what romance is, we feel love for many things and people. 

Our crazy, wonderful families, the hills that would be ordinary if not for the memories of sledding with our cousins, the horses on our uncle’s farm. 

Loves like these are something we have all experienced. Something we can all relate to. 

When you don’t let your hero love, you miss wonderful opportunities for the reader to connect more with them, and with what they care about, be it the world, or the people.

When you love something, you fight for it. 

Heroes who aren't afraid to love, are the heroes I read about till past bedtime. The ones who sacrifice things for their little sisters, who keep fighting because there is someone out there who can’t, the ones who love justice and see it through.

Those are the heroes that come alive, and make me feel as if I am cheering on a real person. 

In the Lord of the Rings, the peaceful, idyllic Shire is all Frodo has ever known and he has no desire to leave. His love of his home is not the lone reason he sets off on the quest to destroy the ring, it is not the sole plot of the story. But it is one more detail that brings Frodo to life in a real and vivid way.

The Shire is his whole world. Whatever reasons the others have for being in the company, his main one is his home, the Shire is all he wants at the end of it all, beyond any golden reward.

Your hero can’t be loveless. Even if they are a pressed ganged sailor who disagrees strongly with his captain's morals, there will be something he loves. 

Be it the sea, reading, his left behind family- something that gets him out of bed and keeps him holding his head high, there will be something that makes him fight. Something that makes him worth fighting for. 

Let them have quirks

People in real life aren’t without quirks. 

We quote things, we sing in the shower, we memorize whole book chapters and always forget to wear an apron when we bake.

(Or maybe that is just me) 

Just little things, right?

 Little until they are all added together to your character, and trust me, then you notice the difference. 

Have you ever heard the saying ‘little things pile up’? Actually I have no idea if that is a saying, but if not, it should be, because it is true. Little things do pile up. Little details that seem unimportant by themselves will pile up to the personality of your hero, turning them into realistic characters. 

A hero who won't stop off at an inn unless it sells coffee and needs to sleep on the floor out of habit is more interesting than one who is indifferent. 

Quirks are question raisers! 

Why do they need music in the car? Why do they always sign their name as their father’s? Why do they crack jokes whenever they are uncomfortable?

Maybe just because it’s in their personality, and it just so suits them. 

But maybe it’s because their best friend when they were eight  always did it. Or maybe it’s for a reason they don’t even find out until they meet the villain. 

Whatever the reason, you can’t have a hero without some quirks. 

Take the Florid Sword from the Wingfeather saga. He flaunts around as a hero in a mask, but what everyone remembers most about him is that he is, well, florid! Aha! His habit of speaking in archaic "thees" and "thous" is definitely a defining trait. 

Or there is Danielle from the movie, “Ever After: A Cinderella Story” She is a heroine who is passionate and compassionate. One of the only things she doesn’t do is fly. 

But one small quirk of hers is what brings her to life in a relatable, memorable and touching way even beyond her other traits, is her habit of quoting. Especially the book Utopia. 

When you find out this is the last book her father gave her before he died, this one quirk that never really defined her, suddenly adds way more than just entertaining dialogue to the story. 

Giving your hero an old fashioned dialect or a habit of quoting fictional characters, or just random things they do that are out of the ordinary, makes them more than realistic. 

It makes them memorable.

Let them grow

The most heroic people I know--or know of-- are heroic because they are willing to admit when they are wrong. Willing to learn, to grow.  

People never stop growing. And therefore neither should characters. There will never be a moment of  “Tada, this is it, me at the best I’m ever going to be!” 

Maybe you have a book series, and your character arc spreads over that, or maybe your hero only has one book to grow. Either way, it is important to remember all the little changes amidst your hero’s arc.

Growth doesn't have to be drastic and all in one go. 

In the book series The Green Ember there are two main characters.

Picket was a whining, slightly lost, and hurting rabbit looking for a way to fight. 

Heather was a big sister, looking to keep protecting, slightly shy, a budding heroine. 

Facing loss, separation, battles, oppression...they don’t stay the same. It wouldn’t be natural if they did. 

Maybe Picket’s change is more recognizable, going through more of a positive arc, while Heather’s one is more of what they call a ‘flat arc’. 

But by the end, both are different, not completely new, but changed. 

They could not have met the people -er , rabbits- they did and not learn from them. Face what they did and not get braver. Make their mistakes and not gain experience. Their growth is real in the way that in our world, people are changed by things and events around them. 

And then we have Hiccup from How to Train your Dragon. His arc is big, from an underestimated apprentice in the movie one, to a great leader by the third, he doesn't stay the same. 

Each time he learns from a mistake, from an adversary, learns what is most important and what he is fighting for, it makes us love and admire him more. 

Still, he does not go from Hiccup to Aragorn. In the end, he is still Hiccup, the character we started watching the movies for.  His changes didn’t make us like him less, they did not change who he was at the core. His essence was and always is there, we just had the privilege of watching his character grow. 

Character arcs and growth creates a journey amidst the story– and it will be a journey taken by real, vivid, heroes if you add subtle changes in choices, speech, and actions to your character, like portrayed in Hiccup, Heather and Picket.

In real life, heroes grow.

 Have you ever read about George Washington? He most certainly made mistakes. 

His first mission as a 21 year old lieutenant-colonel was a major defeat. He led men to death and had to surrender and return to his officer in Virginia, a failure.

 He did things he regretted. 

But there is a reason he is known as “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

He never let himself make a mistake he didn’t learn from, and the disgraced colonel turned into the general who led America to freedom.

 His soldiers cried when he left. 

That is a beloved hero. 

Don’t be afraid to have your hero say “I was wrong”,  don't be afraid to let them learn from their mistakes. You’ll miss great opportunities to have your character grow into something you could never have foreseen, go on adventures and make sacrifices you never thought they could back in chapter one. 

They can make a bunch of mistakes, and sure, that might add to their humanity, but it won't add to their heroism if they just leave the mistakes. 

Making mistakes is human. Learning from them is heroic. 

Conclusion:

Everyone will have a different definition of hero. There will be the high flying superheroes and the Lucy Pevansies. 

But one of the things we all want our heroes to be, is real. Real enough to connect with the reader. To be remembered by the reader. 

This is your hero. This is your chance to step away from the never-fail never-fear cardboard cut outs and craft a hero that stands out as alive. 

So go on:

Maybe you will craft the next high flying vigilante, or the sword wielding defender of the forest. Maybe your hero doesn’t even know they are one.

Whichever it is, you have the chance to bring a character to life. That is always amazing. 

Creating a hero is no less awesome. It might have its hard parts, frustrating times… but just like anything in writing, in the end, it is so worth it. 

Who has stood out to you as a vivid hero? What do you think made them realistic? 

   Let’s discuss in the comments below!