characters are, by far, the most important part of a story. you can have a pretty crap story but you can save it with rocking characters.
your main characters can be pretty much anything. heck, they can even be a villain!
but they MUST be likeable
by likeable, i mean the audience must have some sympathy for them. your readers must CARE about your characters and want to know what happens to them next. if you fail that, you have a crap book, simple as that.
flaws make characters interesting. flaws make your characters struggle, and struggling characters causes conflict, and conflict is the basis of all plot.
and dont use crap flaws either. clumsiness that's only there to be cute and let your heroine fall into the arms of her lover and depression that exists as a plot device so Ebony Darkness Raven's boyfriend can kiss her scars does not count. flaws cause problems, so dont skimp on that.
