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Fiction Writing: Flaw Your Character
In all the years I’ve been writing, my stories very rarely – if ever – begin with a plot. The catalysts of my plots are solid character concepts.
The oddest events created some of my most memorable characters. One character, Diego Beauchamp, was born to mind after watching an episode of Trading Spouses. I liked the husband in a Cajun couple. He had an earthy, down-home attitude and a colorful vocabulary, and he was a little rough around the edges.
I researched a little of the Cajun culture, pulled some additional quirks from a friend of mine from New Orleans, et voila – a character breathed life.
Another time, I worked on the graphics for some billboards for jazz bands. The first one sported the name Cole and the second one, Morrison. One of my co-workers had a wonderfully cocky attitude and a look that suited this particular character coming to life.
Cole Morrison took shape, and he took off in ways I never expected.
Beginnings Begin with Background
With a character concept, the stories come easy. They begin with how a character came to be the person they are today. What shaped his life? Is he really that much of an obnoxious bastard? Is there a heart of gold underneath or just another layer of tarnish?
When you create a character, get personal. Don’t be afraid. Ask yourself what happened in this person’s childhood and teen-age years. Dig deep and constantly ask, “Why is this person like he is, and what motivates him?”
After doing an in-depth study of your character’s background, you’ll find plenty of material for the story that comes.
The Overdone Archetype
Archetypes form the basis of all characters. There are the loners, the leaders, and the troubled souls – but what sets your character apart? You certainly don’t want your character to be another cliché.
Enter flaws. Everyone has a special twist to their personality; flaws make people interesting.
How can you take that archetype of the Alpha male to make him more than just a braggart who always has to be in charge? How can you add a new spin to the Lone Wolf, when this archetype has been done to death?
More importantly, can you pull off a true loner or the bossy leader? Very few people can. No one is ever truly a loner, and no one is ever fully in charge. At some point, these characters, and others, need someone else. Think about how you can take the ordinary archetype and make it interesting with flaws.
Creating a Flawed Character
Cole Morrison is a character who believes he’s invincible. He’s not afraid to tell the world, either. Cole is abrasive and obnoxious, and always manages to come up smelling like a rose. Other characters see this and react to it.
But…and this is an important but…what the reader sees is very different than from what the characters see.
Behind the scenes, the readers see Cole manage to land himself in some very sticky situations. He has to scramble to get himself out of them.
His major flaw is that he takes on more than he can chew. He knows it, but he can’t help himself. He’s extremely impulsive. So, rather than look like a fool and failing, he does everything he can to turn the situation to his advantage.
To all the other characters, Cole’s manipulations make situations look easy to manage. For Cole and the readers, it’s quite another story.
The readers see Cole’s flaws and know he’s not perfect. Sure, he aggravates the hell out of other characters, but that only helps endear Cole to readers. They know he’s not really the tough guy other characters think he is.
Allow Room for Growth
Have you ever read a story where the character is so perfect you can’t stand it? On creative writing forums, this happens often. People create characters that can do anything. The character always gets the girl, he always has the right moves, and he never fails.
That character never grows or develops further. Where do you go from perfect?
Your character should develop as the story unfolds. Sometimes you have a clear destination in mind and you know your character’s outcome. You let him grow through your story. Or, you start with one idea in mind and find the character grows in ways you never expected.
Leaving room for growth goes hand in hand with flaws and the personality traits you give your characters. Every reaction to situations requires you to think on how this individual responds within the confines of personality.
Become Your Character
To keep your character as true to life as possible, stop resisting. Stop trying to determine the character’s actions. Put yourself aside. This state of mind is called “being in character”. It’s not about what you would do, but rather what your character would do.
Staying in character isn’t always easy to do. Many times, my own personal reactions and beliefs conflict with my character’s potential reactions and beliefs. I find myself resisting what my character wants to do.
The moment I let go and allow the character permission to do what he or she wants, the scene flows and often takes an unexpected, intriguing twist. It becomes more interesting for both me as the author and the readers.
The challenge of staying true to the character is what makes fiction writing fun. The opportunity to explore another personality in depth is refreshing. When you find yourself reading something you wrote and not recognizing it as your own work, then you know you’ve hit the Zone – and your character has a life of his own.
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The flaws make the characters more believable – more interesting – and we can identify with them on a personal level. I think my quirks make me who I am, rather than just another McManager (who doesn’t live in a McMansion, thankfully…)
Perhaps this extends to other forms of art as well. When an actor takes a role from paper to film, he or she puts additional life into it – being a flawed human, like all of us, the actor impresses this onto the role, subconsciously or otherwise.
And with music too – I appreciate live music (or studio music without post-production processing) because you can hear the little variations that let you know a real person made that happen.
Your post reminds me a lot of some of my favourite characters I played when I was heavily into D&D. The best ones were certainly not straight-18’s… (and not Lawful Good either)
PS – I got your email (thanks beyond words), the firewall where I work is spotty sometimes so I can’t reply until it lets me through…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..butterfly effect.
That’s great advice, Harry. Something else to keep in mind is that the flaw doesn’t have to be something normally recognized as such. Take humility for example. Usually it’s regarded as a virtue, but when overdone it can become a vice.
Just imagine the possibilities inherent in a character who is a world-famous assassin, but is morbidly humble. The plight of those poor evil masterminds who hire the assassin only to realize that they have to be self-esteem coaches if they want their job accomplished!
Joshua Clanton – Design for the WEB’s last blog post..A Novel Approach to Web Design
@Brett: again with the D&D reference
@Harry: great analysis. That’s exactly why Data was the most popular character in Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG), literally a Pinocchio. And just think of Shakespeare and his flawed characters (not that I’m a huge aficionado or anything) — but everything knows Romeo and Juliet. Me? Call me a hopeless romantic, but I do like happy endings.
Recently, I reread Ender’s Game, and now I’m reading the companion (not sequel) novel, Ender’s Shadow, which is about Ender’s most trusted friend and right-hand “man”, Bean. Actually quite an interesting way to develop the Ender universe. It’s as if George Lucas was to do another trilogy on the life of Han Solo.
Anyway, it’s very timely to be reading that and then seeing your posts on characters.
Nez’s last blog post..The Wonders of Bread
@Brett: I can relate to the D&D chars, all of my characters started out as either werewolves or vampires, but even with the supernatural aspect removed, they’re still strong enough to stand alone.
(I can’t wait to see it go live!)
@Joshua: It’s the subtle flaws that work best. Most of the time I’ll start with one obvious flaw, but the more I write a character, the more I find the underlying flaws that come from other aspects of the personality.
@Nez: I’ve never read any of the Enders, maybe I will have to now. And that’s something I’d like to see, a series of Solo’s life. I’m always interested in character backgrounds, that might make good reading.
*shakes head sadly*
Harry, if you’ve never read the Ender series, you must go read Ender’s Game right now. Or else I’ll have to go give my assassin some more self-esteem talks.
Joshua Clanton – Design for the WEB’s last blog post..A Novel Approach to Web Design
Great post, Harry!
I’d also like to point out a little character problem I often come across – a writer needs to stay somewhat independent from the characters. I see a lot of writers writing a form of themselves as the lead character, who then get ticked when their character isn’t lovable. Usually, a person can’t see one’s own faults clearly and even so, writers tend to want to correct themselves within a character – For example, I’ll see gorgeous female characters who can play virtuosic flute, are world champion chess players, and every single man wants them. While that would be really cool, that character isn’t interesting. I would be more interested in a virtuosic flute player with a horrible memory and a tendency to be self-deprecating (even if her performance was perfect).
I know that writing can be great therapy, but we shouldn’t try to fix ourselves on the page. I’m sure that not many people here have that problem (you all seem very experienced
), but I thought I’d share my personal experience.
@Nez – Great call – I love Data (heh, the character, not raw numbers)! I was always left wondering if there was more to him.
@Brett – I totally agree on the live performances thing. Unfortunately, live performances can be a chance to see a musician’s raw talent and sometimes….that’s not good for the musician (bad tuning bugs me)! Then again, I’ve heard some Dream Theater live and while their singer always blows, the band was spot on
RLD: Taekwondo Happiness’s last blog post..Invincibility
@RLD: I have to admit, I get very close to my characters. Each one is some aspect of myself (hey, I already know I’m likable, so if someone doesn’t like one of my characters, that’s not my problem!
).
I think it all boils down to observation. I can portray the kind hearted hero and make the reader bond with him as well as making them hate the bastard antagonist – and yes, running a nasty character is as much fun as running the good ones.
I don’t like perfect characters at all and I’m always looking for ways to mess them up physically, mentally, or emotionally.
@Harry – I’ll have to say that one of my favorite messed-up protagonists has to be Sherlock Holmes, because he’s ridiculously brilliant, but mentally ill and has a drug problem.
RLD: Taekwondo Happiness’s last blog post..Invincibility
Look at how flawed all the Simpsons characters are, and how that worked out!
I hate it when commenters tell me to make changes to my blog (or at least I will when it actually happens), so forgive me for doing it here. But you might want to consider moving “Written by X” up to the top. It’s important for me to know who the author is, especially when they’re saying things like “my stories” and “my characters.” With your posts I always first scroll to the bottom to find out the author, then go back to the top to read the post.
Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..What Color Is Your Focusing Crystal?
@Hunter: The Simpsons, the Bundys, even the Adams Family are all good examples of flawed characters. I love the Adams Family (series and movies) because to the outside world, they’re a bunch of nutters, but in their own personal world, within the confines of their home, they’re a very loving family.
And I’ll see what I can do about that by-line
@ Nez & Harry – I couldn’t resist. Much of what I learned about life, I learned from D&D…
For one multi-day course here at work, we were told there would be “role-playing” exercises. Now, I knew what they meant, but just for kicks I brought in my dice, and put them on the middle of the table. The instructor smiled a knowing smile…
@ RLD – I’ve not seen Dream Theater live (although I’m sure I could check out YouTube), but I can see the music being spot-on. They are very, very talented musicians.
Brett Legree’s last blog post..butterfly effect.
For some reason, I knew this post was Harry’s — oh, wait, because of the Cole character he’d used in another post.
Oh, and it’s been a while:
Men with Pens
Deflawing your content, one word at a time
Nez’s last blog post..The Wonders of Bread
Whoa! Much to say — YES YES YES.
Characters are definitely a driving force. A good screenwriter adds flaws and ticks to make the character believable. I love lots of the old James Bond movies because he was always tripping and having embarrassing accidents, especially in front of sexy women, that made him believable as a person. For me, movies, actors, directors, and screenwriters fail when characters don’t have flaws, when lines are delivered flatly and nothing makes the dialog real.
It is easier to watch a plotless movie with great characters, than to watch a great plot with boring unbelievable characters.
“the character is so perfect you can’t stand it?”
Yes. I love the movie Motorcycle Diaries, but the written character of Che didn’t have any of the anger and fire that the real Che would have had in the real life situations. It was my only reproach to the movie.
Story arch and character growth are ESSENTIAL to a successful screenplay. It is noted in every screenwriting book.
Research your characters. Nothing is worse than unbelievable characters.
Your characters come to life when you fill them up with the tiny details of their life.
“become the character”
To me, this is the difference between professional creative writers and the masses. Only in the last few years after some personal traumatic experiences was I able to make the leap out of my own skin and into fully fictional characters. Before this, it was all me, me, me, which was boring. Now, it is really exciting as a writer to be able to fully separate myself from a character. It’s really fun and gets a little creepy sometimes. My co-writer and I find ourselves doing bad (fun) things we created for a characters. Eek. Now, my characters inspire me!
–RLD: Excellent points. Thanks for saying.
–Hunter: I agree re BY
–The SIMPSONS is the best fiction scripted show ever, in my book. I will do a feature post on that based on a panel discussion with the writers that I had the honor of attending.
So much to say! Aaaaah.
Inspirational post. I will be elaborating on such things back at my site (or here?!) soon.
Thanks!
Jaden @ Screenwriting for Hollywood’s last blog post..Interview with Student Actor Kari Lane
@Jaden: It’s so true, I’ve seen some movies that were real dogs, but I still watch them because I love the characters. I’ve never seen the Motorcycle Diaries, maybe I’ll have to check that out.
Research is essential. I guess I’m lucky in that respect. I’ve done a lot of different things and have always had this thirst for knowledge that helps. Unless I’ve experienced it or researched it to death, I’m not going to use it.
Becoming your character is an interesting feeling. Although many of my characters are based on aspects of myself, I know they’ve gone beyond that when I write a reaction that seems to have come from nowhere. It is creepy – and exciting at the same time. I agree, the “bad” things are often the most fun.
Well, for the writer anyway. I’d hate to think of what my characters would write for me should the tables be turned. Hmmm…there’s a premise in that…
Go ahead and elaborate wherever you like, just point me in the right direction when you do and I’ll be sure to go read it!
“I’d hate to think of what my characters would write for me should the tables be turned. Hmmm…there’s a premise in that…” — Harry
That’s a really funny thought. Gets a bit psychedelic. Not sure my brain can handle it right now after all the ice cream and carmel corn I just ate. Gosh, now my brain is running wild with ideas. Good one.
@Jaden: Very Twilight Zone. If you write a screenplay about it, give me a place in the credits somewhere – unless I beat you to it and write a novel about it first
Harry, My story would kick your story’s buttocks. –Just pulling your chain with my competitive spirit!– I’m an honest gal; I announce before grabbing cookies out of the jar. “Mommy, I’m taking a cookie.” “Ok, honey.”
Twilight Zone is a childhood favorite of mine. I used to watch that, Amazing Stories, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Those were the days of good TV!!! That and Three’s Company and Looney Tunes. Latchkey kid here. Don’t go crying for me LV.
@Jaden: Oh, I won’t cry, I’d rather join you in watching some of those shows.
Harry did a nice job on this piece. He has led me in the direction I was already moving in but with greater conviction and bravado. Thank you, Harry.
@Jay: Now that’s what I like to hear! Thanks.