WHAT’S YOUR SECRET?
By Natalie Bright
Everybody has secrets. Things deep, down they never tell about their childhood, fears, likes, dislikes, first loves…you know some.
Characters have secrets too. Those buried, dark secrets of your fictional characters, that only you as the creator can know, might lend itself to creating some interesting scenarios for your plot.
Maybe the character knows the secret, or maybe he doesn’t (Luke Skywalker’s father, for example.). Maybe the secret leads him to make wrong decisions. Perhaps the secret is so debilitating it affects everyone your character encounters (a serial killer, for example.).
Here’s a quick guide for creating complex characters:
What’s at stake?
Reason
Real reason
Secret
Greatest fears
Quirks
Dig deep, and don’t be afraid of what you might find.
Wordsmith Six 
Natalie, I think the #1 mistake writers make in creating characters is that they don’t give them a secret. I see this all the time and I think how much better a story would be if the writer had only given them a secret. You’re right. We all have them. I’m carrying around one from my teen years that I pray never comes out but it colors each day of my life. Always in the back of my mind. Always threatening.