forum How to make this guy more of a character and less of a glorified plot device

Started December 21, 2019 by @NotSoBeautifulDiseaster group

tune

In my story the MC's dad died of disease 8 years prior to the story, and his death have something to do the Macguffin and how it cause his death, by that I mean he offered to die in the place of his son(MC's brother), but when of I write about him he comes off as "Too pure for the world, Manic Pixie Dream Boy" Marty Stu, I get that he is dead but is there any other way to flesh him out like giving him flaws or some other identity than MC-chan's dead dad, Like I'm not good with writing parents that much

What kind of meaning and involvement did the dad have in the MC's life? Perhaps, if the dad was absent a lot, the MC might look back on their dad's death as kind of meaningless, or maybe they were really close and the MC finds themself missing the dad a lot.

Well he was the more surporttive parent in the MC's life, and was drove to depression when he died

So you could probably add in what the dad liked to do/activities that he did with the MC?