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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24581
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24581
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think you may be making too much of the idea of a flaw. To have an Achilles heel, you must first be Achilles, and who among us is? Most stories are not driven by a single flaw (which would imply an otherwise perfect hero -- an Achilles, a Superman) but by the ordinary circumstance of human life. Human being are limited in so many ways, and those limits stand in the way of our achieving our desires. Mere humanity, the reach that exceeds our grasp, is enough to fuel a million stories.

Nor is the overcoming of a flaw central to the emotional or moral climax of a story. It is usually a choice, and a choice not driven by a particular flaw, but by the very nature of human existence. We all must make hard choices in life, and those choices are the stuff of stories. All that is won comes at a cost, and the hero must be willing to pay that cost, flaw or no flaw. Different character's strengths and weaknesses may bring them by different routes to the moment when that price must be paid, but it is the paying of the price that is the climax.

The question I think you should be asking is, does the plot I have sketched out bring the character I have invented by a plausible series of incidents to the moment where the price must be paid?

Original score: 2