Charecters

They yell, they scream, they have temper tantrums that rival two year olds, they are loud, noisy, obnoxious, and extremely arrogant -- and that is on a good day.

The toughest part of writing, and one of the most important is your characters. The best plot (story) in the world isn't going to go anywhere if the characters are flat. 3-dimensional characters are hard to master. You have to be willing to not only put your characters through hell in the story, but they have to been through hell before the story even starts.

Say your character is Leonardo DiCaprio, if his childhood is a protective bubble of joy in an upper middle class home, he is less impressive as a character and hero than see he rose from absolute poverty, dealt with the death of a loved one, and was the one person every bully in school picked on -- teasing him mercilessly. (I don't know what his life was like, I'm pulling this out of thin air. :) I'm a writer, it's my job. :) )

Or look at Harry Potter. Harry Potter would be far less interesting, would have less growth, and might be unable to do some of the things he does if his past resembled Ron's -- average wizard family and loved by his family, his own parents. Even if the Dursely's had loved him, his outlook on life would be very different. If they had fretted and fawned over him instead of turning him into a boy version of Cinderella, he might have declined Haggred's invitation to go to Hogwarts. He certainly wouldn't have battled Voldemort.

What makes characters endearing to us as readers, is not just their growth and heroism, but their flaws and the similarities that they bare to us.