Flawed Characters in Your Story--What's Their Backstory? By Connie Vines #RR#93, #BWLAuthor, #WesternHero, #CowboyRomance, #HappilyEverAFter

This month's Round Robin Topic: Describe a flawed  character you might use in a story. What part will they play in the story, and what will happen to them? How did they become so flawed?

Thank you, Rhobin, for this month's topic.

I'd like to begin my post by stating that everyone is flawed--including an author's story characters.  

The flaw may be physical, or a character may have a 'fatal flaw': a temper, stubbornness, act-with-out-thinking, or lack of self-esteem-all of which can lead to your story character's doom.

The flaw is part of the character arc, the path to self-growth. And, in a romantic novel, the way the main characters, and often the secondary characters, close the story with a HEA (happily ever after).

Yet the path is always bumpy and uncertain for the Hero and Heroine. It is often a secondary character or a 'villain' who usually has the most interesting/unexpected backstory. 

I take full advantage of secondary characters and villains who reveal, little by little, unexpected details of their past. 

This is especially so in my YA novel, Tanayia--Whisper Upon the Water.

Of course, that is all I can say because I never print 'spoilers' for my novels; or any books I review.

What Is an Example of a Character Flaw?

This is an extreme character flaw but also an excellent example.

Though you may have not read the novel, most are familiar with the movie or the storyline of the Thomas Harris novel The Silence of the Lambs (and its subsequent film adaptation by director Jonathan Demme). Hannibal Lecter has a personality disorder: A cannibal and a sadomasochist. Lecter's character flaws, however, are somewhat offset by his brilliant mind, which he uses to help the main character, Clarice Starling, apprehend a serial killer tormenting Appalachia. 

Lecter is an example of how in fiction, even characters with the most severe personality flaws can embody a degree of three-dimensionality.

The opening to my novel, Brede, Rodeo Romance, Book 2:

Thunder rumbled across the remote New Mexico sky as unforgiving wind shoved low gray clouds against a craggy mountaintop. Brede Kristensen tugged the brim of his Stetson lower on his forehead. The threat of a storm didn't faze him;  nothing fazed him anymore. The worst had already happened.

(the elements can also take on a life of their own--evolving and changing, influencing and affecting the characters in your story).

Thank you for stopping by,

Visit the talented authors participating in this month's Round Robin Blog Hop.

Connie 

XOXO

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2yB

Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/