What makes readers fall in love with your characters? Basically, it is the same thing that makes you care about and love real people. A character has to be sympathetic and worthy of your reader's emotional commitment. Story people have to hold universal traits that draw you to them. Below are some common traits and situations that are considered hero/heroine worthy.

• A character who is an underdog, who has a handicap but refuses to give up

• A character who is willing to admit he made a mistake and sets out to make amends

• A character who is hurting, but remains strong for others

• A character who is kind to the underdog, small children, elderly people, or animals

• A character who is self-sacrificing

• A character who is able to laugh at her own mistakes

• A character who is levelheaded

• A character who is making a mistake, but for all the right reasons

• A strong, silent type who means well but is unable to express it

• A character who takes risks but is willing to pay the price

• A character who has depth, layers, and secrets

• A character who is able to forgive

When reading your favorite romance authors, notice how the writers make you love their characters. What is it that makes you care if these characters attain their goals? Why do you keep reading to find out if they are rewarded with finding love?

Even villains have sympathetic traits. Consider all the news segments where a neighbor or work associate of a well-known criminal was inter-viewed. Doesn't someone always say, “He was always so quiet, never caused any trouble”? No one is 100 percent evil. By showing a villain's good side, you will make him real and even more interesting to the reader.

Perfect people rarely exist in the real world, and they shouldn't exist in your books. Stop and think about your own flaws. What are they? Where did you pick up these personality defects? What are the flaws of the people closest to you — people you love in spite of their imperfections? Now, which of these flaws can you borrow for your own characters?

When brainstorming characters' flaws, consider this: A lot of people, real or imagined, attain their imperfections in one of two ways:

1. By making the same mistakes as their parents. For example, the father had a temper; therefore, the son has a temper. The mother smoked; therefore, the daughter smokes. The mother used food to feed her stress; therefore, her children overeat when things are going bad. A parent is a hypochondriac; children grow up to become regulars at their doctors' offices.

2. By going to the extreme to not be like their parents. A girl refuses to eat at all when upset because she saw her mother abuse food. A father never disciplines his own children because he's afraid of being abusive like his father. A character refuses to go to the doctor because he sees that as a weakness.

Once you understand the root cause of a character's personality weakness, you can create a flawed character that romance readers will love.