24 Personality Flaws to Give Depth to Your Characters
There's not much worse than a boring character. A boring plot? A boring world? A boring writing style? These can all be made up for (more or less) by fascinating characters.
But if your characters are uninteresting? Your story is doomed.
A lot goes into making a well-rounded character, but an important part of character creation is flaws. Nobody's perfect and characters without flaws are characters that cannot grow. They have no arc, no relatability, and don't give your readers anything to cheer for.
Fortunately for us writers (and sadly for us humans), there are a LOT of different types of flaws, which means that its pretty easy to make your characters interesting. Let's dive into some main ones:
1. Arrogance. A flaw that is made even more interesting if the character actually has a legitimate reason for being arrogant. Arrogance can show itself in sheer pride, snobbery, isolation, over-burdening him/herself, and more.
2. Immaturity. A trait that can be found in people of all ages.
3. Anxiety. Keep in mind that even the "strongest" characters can suffer from anxiety. And anxiety shows itself in many ways.
4. Fickle. Which can be a defense mechanism or just part of their nature.
5. Judgemental. They are quick to judge others, form their opinions too fast, and make poor decisions because of it. They can also be overly judgmental of themselves, or completely oblivious of their own shortcomings.
6. Selflish. Like fickleness, this can be part of their personality or a way of protecting themselves. Keep in mind that a character doesn't have to be selfish for just themselves...They can have such a strong desire to shield family, friends, or subjects from harm that it ends up being selfish.
7. Obsessive. They get so focused on one thing that they can't step back and look at the big picture, leading to harming themselves and those around them.
8. Anger. This can come in the form of a bad-temper, poor communication, narrow-mindedness, and more. And, as we all know:
9. Narrow-minded. They can't bring themselves to see things from a new point of view, leading to arrogance, obsessiveness, and selfishness. Funnily enough, a character may think they are open-minded, but are in fact narrow-minded when it comes to specific topics.
10. Laziness. Something that can often stem from fear.
11. Cowardice. Remember that this can come in the form of being overly courageous in some areas, enabling the character to hide or run from their fears in others.
12. Weak-willed. They can't make their own decisions, freeze up in difficult situation, and burden those around them.
13. Hypocrisy. Most people don't mean to be a hypocrite, but it's very common. In fact, basically all of your characters should be hypocritical in a least one instance.
14. Strong-willed. Yeah, this can be a flaw. Being overly strong-willed is a form of stubbornness that carries all sorts of other fun flaws like narrow-mindedness, selfishness, cowardice, arrogance, and more.
15. Show-off. Fun (?) fact: This is often a result of low self-esteem.
16. Distant. They are incapable (or afraid of) connecting with others...or even themselves.
17. Two-faced.
This one is especially interesting if the character doesn't mean to be this way. It is often paired with cowardice or untrustworthiness.
18. Low self-esteem. This can lead to lashing out, withdrawing, the inability to make decisions (or making very poor ones), and a dislike for themselves and others (especially others that do have self-esteem).
19. Skepticism. Can lead to damaged relationships and a general soullessness/adrift-ness (apparently that isn't a word, but it should be) due to not being able to have faith in anything.
20. Greed. It comes in a lot of different forms: selfishness, lust, cowardice, fear.
21. Overly-trusting. Which is exactly what it sounds like. It leads to poor decisions and bad relationships.
22. Thoughtless. This can be as shallow as acting flippantly and as complex as living an unexamined life out of callousness, fear, or sloth.
23. Manipulation. Which can stem from a fear of rejection, or can just be a calculated type of (very slimy) cunning.
24. Idealistic. To the point of being selfish, hypocritical, or blinded by reality.
You'll notice that most of these have upsides to them, or are just quirks if they aren't particularly severe. That's because people are very complex. Flaws can be turned into strengths and strengths can become flaws. Because of this, your character's flaws should shift and change as their arc continues.
And remember: Many authors are tempted to give their characters low-key flaws. Ones that aren't particularly unlikeable or serious. Think twice before doing this. By watching characters fight and overcome their flaws, readers are given strength to do the same. By seeing the good sides of very flawed characters, readers learn to love the difficult people in their lives.
It's not the perfect characters that readers cheer for. It's the imperfect ones trying to do right. It's not the unflawed that readers learn from. It's the messed up and suffering. The characters with no room to grow aren't the ones that drive a plot. It's the ones that have a million battles still left to fight.
So please think carefully about the flaws that you give your characters. They're more important than you may think.
Have any other flaws you'd like to discuss? Let's hear them in the comments below! And tell me all about your favorite flawed characters while you're at it!
Have writing, reading, or writer's life questions? Use the hashtag #ChatWithHannah below or on social media to have them answered on my Youtube channel!
Related articles:
8 Different Kinds of Strength to Give Your Characters
Writing Characters with Depression: What You're Doing Wrong8 Tips for Developing a Strong Theme for Your Novel
Enjoy this post? Take a look around. If you like what you see, don't forget to subscribe by email for a new post every Friday!
Some links are Amazon Affiliate. Thank you for your support!
But if your characters are uninteresting? Your story is doomed.
A lot goes into making a well-rounded character, but an important part of character creation is flaws. Nobody's perfect and characters without flaws are characters that cannot grow. They have no arc, no relatability, and don't give your readers anything to cheer for.
Fortunately for us writers (and sadly for us humans), there are a LOT of different types of flaws, which means that its pretty easy to make your characters interesting. Let's dive into some main ones:
1. Arrogance. A flaw that is made even more interesting if the character actually has a legitimate reason for being arrogant. Arrogance can show itself in sheer pride, snobbery, isolation, over-burdening him/herself, and more.2. Immaturity. A trait that can be found in people of all ages.
3. Anxiety. Keep in mind that even the "strongest" characters can suffer from anxiety. And anxiety shows itself in many ways.
4. Fickle. Which can be a defense mechanism or just part of their nature.
5. Judgemental. They are quick to judge others, form their opinions too fast, and make poor decisions because of it. They can also be overly judgmental of themselves, or completely oblivious of their own shortcomings.
6. Selflish. Like fickleness, this can be part of their personality or a way of protecting themselves. Keep in mind that a character doesn't have to be selfish for just themselves...They can have such a strong desire to shield family, friends, or subjects from harm that it ends up being selfish.
7. Obsessive. They get so focused on one thing that they can't step back and look at the big picture, leading to harming themselves and those around them.
8. Anger. This can come in the form of a bad-temper, poor communication, narrow-mindedness, and more. And, as we all know:
9. Narrow-minded. They can't bring themselves to see things from a new point of view, leading to arrogance, obsessiveness, and selfishness. Funnily enough, a character may think they are open-minded, but are in fact narrow-minded when it comes to specific topics.10. Laziness. Something that can often stem from fear.
11. Cowardice. Remember that this can come in the form of being overly courageous in some areas, enabling the character to hide or run from their fears in others.
12. Weak-willed. They can't make their own decisions, freeze up in difficult situation, and burden those around them.
13. Hypocrisy. Most people don't mean to be a hypocrite, but it's very common. In fact, basically all of your characters should be hypocritical in a least one instance.
14. Strong-willed. Yeah, this can be a flaw. Being overly strong-willed is a form of stubbornness that carries all sorts of other fun flaws like narrow-mindedness, selfishness, cowardice, arrogance, and more.
15. Show-off. Fun (?) fact: This is often a result of low self-esteem.
16. Distant. They are incapable (or afraid of) connecting with others...or even themselves.
17. Two-faced.
This one is especially interesting if the character doesn't mean to be this way. It is often paired with cowardice or untrustworthiness.18. Low self-esteem. This can lead to lashing out, withdrawing, the inability to make decisions (or making very poor ones), and a dislike for themselves and others (especially others that do have self-esteem).
19. Skepticism. Can lead to damaged relationships and a general soullessness/adrift-ness (apparently that isn't a word, but it should be) due to not being able to have faith in anything.
20. Greed. It comes in a lot of different forms: selfishness, lust, cowardice, fear.
21. Overly-trusting. Which is exactly what it sounds like. It leads to poor decisions and bad relationships.
22. Thoughtless. This can be as shallow as acting flippantly and as complex as living an unexamined life out of callousness, fear, or sloth.
23. Manipulation. Which can stem from a fear of rejection, or can just be a calculated type of (very slimy) cunning.
24. Idealistic. To the point of being selfish, hypocritical, or blinded by reality.
You'll notice that most of these have upsides to them, or are just quirks if they aren't particularly severe. That's because people are very complex. Flaws can be turned into strengths and strengths can become flaws. Because of this, your character's flaws should shift and change as their arc continues.
And remember: Many authors are tempted to give their characters low-key flaws. Ones that aren't particularly unlikeable or serious. Think twice before doing this. By watching characters fight and overcome their flaws, readers are given strength to do the same. By seeing the good sides of very flawed characters, readers learn to love the difficult people in their lives.
It's not the perfect characters that readers cheer for. It's the imperfect ones trying to do right. It's not the unflawed that readers learn from. It's the messed up and suffering. The characters with no room to grow aren't the ones that drive a plot. It's the ones that have a million battles still left to fight.
So please think carefully about the flaws that you give your characters. They're more important than you may think.
Have any other flaws you'd like to discuss? Let's hear them in the comments below! And tell me all about your favorite flawed characters while you're at it!
Have writing, reading, or writer's life questions? Use the hashtag #ChatWithHannah below or on social media to have them answered on my Youtube channel!
Related articles:
8 Different Kinds of Strength to Give Your Characters
Writing Characters with Depression: What You're Doing Wrong8 Tips for Developing a Strong Theme for Your Novel
Enjoy this post? Take a look around. If you like what you see, don't forget to subscribe by email for a new post every Friday!
Some links are Amazon Affiliate. Thank you for your support!
No comments have been added yet.
