Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38725
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My view of flaws:

A character should not be perfect. They should not be so lovable, powerful, intelligent, etc., etc., that the reader rolls their eyes and hopes that they die a horrible death.

And a character should not go sailing through the story with perfect ease, overcoming every obstacle without really noticing it.

When you combine these two concepts--the character shouldn't be perfect, and character's progress through the story shouldn't be effortless--then you come to the idea that, OK, the character's imperfections may well have a role in the fact that the character doesn't have an easy time of it.

And that leads you to the idea of a "flaw".

But when you separate out that concept, it can lead to thumbtacking artbitrary negative things on the character, merely because you feel the character should have flaws. And that can feel artificial.

So I go back to the idea that the character should be imperfect. And, yes, they shouldn't have just one imperfection--they should have a whole box of them. Ideally, those imperfections should come into existence along with the character concept.

You generally shouldn't start with a character who is breathtakingly handsome/beautiful with genius intelligence, perfect pitch, and the ability to defeat sixty-seven armed men in a fight and then declare that, oh, but he also has debilitating migraines.

A character who's kind of good looking, who barely managed to finish high school because his parents didn't care to get help for his learning disabilities, who has nevertheless found a trade that lets him make a pretty solid living, who has conflicts with those same parents... is IMO infinitely more interesting. You can also give him both the perfect pitch and the migraines if you want to.

And then you may decide that the story is going to strain his areas of vulnerability--academics and his parents--because that looks interesting.

Original score: 2