It's easy to fall prey to creating good characters that are too good or bad characters that are too evil. In fact, to create interesting characters they must be flawed. It keeps them unpredictable. A hero who experiences fear and self doubt makes a reluctant but interesting character and one that readers can relate to. Flaws can be physical or psychological, but they must play into the plot. To give you character a flaw just to make them imperfect is superfluous.
Prompt:
Create a character with one of the following flaws and write them into a short scene highlighting their imperfection.
- Arrogant, Argumentative
- Dishonest
- Short tempered
- Need to be right all the time
- Perfectionist
- Plays the victim
- Selfish
- Stubborn and rigid
- No sense of humor
3 comments:
This is just what I was looking for as I have 'writing practice' night tomorrow. Good prompts, I'm sure I'll be back to fetch some more. Thank you.
And, thank you for visiting my blog. It gets lonely over there sometimes.
Hi kaslkaos,
Thanks for dropping and by. You'll have to let me know how the prompt works out!
Donna
Hello Donna,
I recently had a book published and a lot of the reviews say my characters aren't flawed enough. Can you direct me to more information on flawed characters?
I thought I "flawed" my main characters with emotional flaws and flaws in trying to trust again. Is there such a thing called emotional flaws? I'm a bit confused. I really want to get this right since it's a big thing to readers.
Thanks, Debbie
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