#253. 5 Common Mistakes That Make Your Character Feel Flat

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Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice 25 min 1 speaker 2 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Why does a protagonist feel flat even when you know them inside and out?

Savannah Gilbo 0:00

Writing a novel can feel frustrating when you keep getting stuck in the same patterns, whether that's struggling to find time, rewriting the same chapters, or getting overwhelmed by too much advice. To help you out, I created a free guide called Five Writing Roadblocks Keeping You Stuck and How to Break Through. This guide will help you identify what's really slowing you down and find a clearer path forward. You can grab that for free at savannagilbo.com forward. slash roadblocks. One more time that's savanna gilbo.com forward slash roadblocks. We will also put that link for you in the show notes. Now let's get into the episode. You know your main character inside and out, you know their backstory, their childhood, their fears, their quirks, and maybe even how they take their coffee.

Savannah Gilbo 0:42

And yet somehow when they hit the page, whether that's in your outline or your first draft, they still feel kind of flat. So maybe you do what most writers do and you add more. More backstory, more personality, and more detail. Or maybe you just focus on making them more likable. But either way, none of it really. solves the problem. Well in this episode I'm going to show you why that happens and I'm going to help you figure out which specific piece of character development is actually missing. Also that you can strengthen the character you already have instead of piling on more details or scrapping your draft. Welcome to the fiction writing made easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works.

Savannah Gilbo 1:25

I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. So, today we're talking about what to do when your protagonist feels flat on the page, even if you feel like you know them really well. And this is such a common problem because most writers assume that flatness means they need more character information, more backstory, more quirks, more personality, or even more likability.

Savannah Gilbo 2:06

But in my experience, that's usually not the real issue. The problem is usually that One of the key pieces that helps the character function inside your story is either missing, vague, or underdeveloped. So, in this episode, I'm going to walk you through five common mistakes that make a character feel flat, and for each one, I'm going to show you what to look for and what to strengthen. So let's dive right in, starting with mistake number one. Mistake number one is that the protagonist's goal is too vague to write from. Now, most writers know their protagonist needs a goal, and they've usually already given them one. The problem happens when that goal Goal stays abstract. So maybe your protagonist wants to be happy or wants to be loved or wants to find themselves.

Savannah Gilbo 2:52

All of those can feel like goals, right? Because technically they are things that a person might want. But again, the problem is they're too general to generate a story from. Because if you think about it, any one of those goals could belong to almost any character in almost any book, right? So So let's take the first one as an example. She wants to be happy. Now that might capture the feeling that your protagonist is chasing, but it can't tell you what she would actually do next in order to be happy. And that's where the writing starts to get tricky. Because if you don't know what being happy looks like for this specific character, then you can't know what steps they would take to get there. Which means that every scene you outline or write essentially

Savannah Gilbo 3:34

eventually becomes a guessing game. Your outline's gonna start to feel fuzzy, your first draft will start to wander, and when you sit down to outline or write the next scene, you're not sure what's supposed to happen. If you can relate to that, I just want you to know it's super normal.

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Chapters

2 chapters

1 Why does a protagonist feel flat even when you know them inside and out? 0:00–13:04 2 How can a vague story goal make your draft stall and what specific shift fixes it? 13:04–25:21

Speakers

1 identified

Savannah Gilbo 24 min

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Sally 5 Savannah Gilbo 1 Notes to Novel 2 savannagilbo.com 1 quiz 3

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Recorded23 Jun 2026

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Show notes

If your protagonist feels vivid in your head but flat on the page, this episode will help you diagnose what’s missing—and fix the specific piece of character development that will make readers care.You know your main character. Their backstory, their childhood, the exact way they take their coffee. You could talk about them for an hour. So why do they still feel flat on the page?When this happens, most writers assume they need to know more—a deeper backstory, more personality details, another character questionnaire. So they add more. Or they go the other way and try to make the character more likeable.But here's the thing: knowing a lot about your character isn't the same as developing the specific pieces that make them work in a story. And making a character likeable isn't the same as making them compelling. When a protagonist feels flat, the fix usually is more character development—just not the kind most writers reach for.And that's what I'm talking about in this episode. The five most common mistakes that make characters feel flat, and the specific pieces to strengthen so your protagonist feels compelling, active, and worth following.You'll hear me talk about things like:[01:55] Why a vague story goal is the reason your draft stalls out, and the small shift that makes your protagonist's goal specific enough to write forward with ease.[05:25] Why your story may have huge, world-ending stakes but still feel like nothing is actually threatening what your protagonist stands to lose.[09:30] The reason a frictionless protagonist feels thin on the page even when the goal is clear, the plot is moving, and the stakes are personal.[13:40] Why a protagonist the plot keeps happening to—instead of one whose choices drive what happens next—keeps readers at a distance, and how to put them back in the driver's seat.[17:05] The simple scene-level test that shows whether your protagonist is filtering the story through a distinct worldview, or just reporting what happened.If you've got a folder full of drafts that stalled because your characters kept reading thin on the page, this episode will help you see the pattern differently. Once you know which of these five pieces is missing, you can fix it, build a character strong enough to carry the whole story, and finally understand how to make readers care about your characters.🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:Get on The Notes to Novel WaitlistTake Author Success Quiz (FREE)Ep. 244 - How to Create Characters Readers Will Love (5 Essential Elements)Ep. 240 - 10 Writing Mistakes That Make Readers Put Down Your NovelEp. How to Reveal Your Character’s Inner Life on the Page⭐ Follow & ReviewIf you loved this episode, please take a moment to follow the show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your review will help other writers find this podcast and get the insights they need to finish their books. Thanks for tuning in to The Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast! See you next week!Support the show

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