I’d like to pose a question to the general writing community regarding character development. When I create my characters, I often find myself fleshing out my side-protagonists and secondary characters much faster and more thoroughly than I do my main heroes. I get so frustrated because I’ve got the whole ensemble in place and fully fleshed out… except for the main character. I don’t know if I just can’t make up my mind or what it is, but I have so much trouble getting to know him. It’s almost like the sidekicks are more fun to discover and figure out.

Does anyone else have this problem? I’m worried that I’m fighting with some sort of perfectionist mindset and can’t just let him grow into someone interesting. Like, he has to appeal to everybody, and in trying to do so, I can’t get him to appeal to anybody. Especially me.