How Stories Lie Their Way to the Truth

What Makes a Character Unforgettable?

The most unforgettable characters don’t make sense. They contradict themselves and dare you to love them for it. That’s what makes them real. The edges of their core truths stretch far apart. Between those edges lies a trench of emotional depth, and I am changed each time I swim through it. I still hear Addie Larue’s voice—the seeker who learned the true price of freedom and belonging, unable to shake the invisible grip of those opposing desires.

When a character’s truths clash, a collision happens. A collision of humanity.

They become more than just description and dialogue. They pierce our psyche, our way of perceiving the world. It changes us. Quietly, at first. Then one day, you close a book and resume your life…but their story ripples into your choices.

The people I have loved most in my own life—the ones who left fingerprints on my heart in permanent ink, they are dynamic and alive through their contradictions. The most loving thing I can do, is swim in that trench between their truths to better understand their world.

The more I write fantasy, the more I know stories are not just escapism. It’s a pressure valve that lets us burn off psychic steam. When we stop shoving down the darkness, our fragments begin to integrate because they have been given a home. A seat at the table.

The desire to be a good person can stop us from integrating into a whole one.

And I’ve learned the most about love through loving imperfect people.

In my own life, I’ve struggled to express rage. Will I burn from within, or accidentally scorch someone I love? But suppressed rage gave me paper thin boundaries. It’s no wonder that I loved Aelin Galathynius so fiercely. I’ve borrowed her backbone more than once— and learned to integrate my own fiery spirit by embracing hers.

I’m not saying let your inner Shadow Ruler run amuck and tyrannically trample everything in sight. That’s fictions greatest lie: it calls itself make-believe, but often is the only place we feel safe to tell the truth, and find pages wide enough to carry the story of our own collisions.

Xx,

Your Friendly Neighborhood Scribe