To grow in our lives

Let's keep going on the topic of characters, because they are interesting. It's important to have good characters because, by and large, characters are the reason that readers read books. We feel we have a connection with these people, unreal as they might be. Like a friend, we seek to seek their companionship, hope for their welfare, agonize in their struggles, and watch their development.

Development is a very important part of good characters. If the main character has not changed, for better or for worse, by the end of the story, then essentially the reader has gained nothing. It's also unrealistic, because life is full of changes. So unless you are writing a story that's about the character's unwillingness to change while the world changes around them, then we'd like to see some progress.

Readers want to see change because it reflects the reality of our own lives. We change, the world changes around us. Most people have a natural, innate hope that they are growing and improving, that they are gaining things as they progress through their lives. We want to know that we aren't just “going through the motions” everyday, that there is something more to it. Consequently, we would like to see the same thing in our books. In fact, you might say that that's the greatest thing that a fiction book could offer: the chance for us to see in a snapshot the growth in a life, for our own edification.

Only poorly made characters will not have any flaws. (We don't like to see perfection; it doesn't reflect us or our reality either). The essential flaws of the characters should be worked on throughout the book, resulting in the character either overcoming, or failing to overcome them. In either case there is a conclusion: happy or sad.

The best antagonists will often deal with change too; they usually become better people or worse people by the end of the story. Their flaws may lead them to become “better” bad people. Again, the reader likes to see this because it indicates progress. We have gotten somewhere by reading.