Corbin :: Defining a hero

One of the toughest things to do in this day and age must be creating a unique and interesting hero.

Just about everything has already been done. The literary archetypes have all been used over and over again. It is nearly impossible to be original.

One tendency that should probably be avoided is for the author to make his or her protagonist a mirror of themselves. The story becomes self-insertion fan-fiction. I hate that stuff, so I must try to avoid it at all costs.

Somethings that I'm sure I want from this protagonist:
He must have a major flaw that he will accept and/or overcome through his character arc.

Such a flaw is hard to choose, because I have such a critical view of myself and can only see flaws. Hence I'd rather avoid granting them to my hero.

Then again, this process may be therapeutic: I may come to accept these facets of myself as the hero does.

So what flaws to choose? I despise arrogance and self-righteousness in people, and I want to like my own character, so Corbin will not be a douche in that regard.

Perhaps cowardice? Naiveté? A mix of both, I think. He's had a rather sheltered life prior to being sent off to trenches in WWI. So he can't be too squeaky clean and prissy.

Definitely neurotic. That is something about which I can accurately write volumes. Paranoid in a social way: he reads people wrong or assumes far too much negativity.

Hmm... I must think about this further.