On Writing: Giving Characters Flaws
Giving your characters flaws can be difficult. It’s surprisingly easy to make a character with no flaws (or poor flaws) merely by accident, and it’s equally as easy to go overboard in the other direction. Oftentimes, the problem isn’t the character themselves, but the way they are portrayed. A character that looks well-balanced and human on paper can mess it up once they’re on…well, slightly more paper.
Don’t divide traits into good or bad. Few personality traits are ever exclusively good or bad. A lot of what makes something a flaw or a boon depends on context. Pick a few of your character’s defining traits and think of how it would play out in different situations. Someone with boisterous charm might be beloved at the local bar and hated at the boardroom. A generous figure could be the saving grace of a charity fundraiser, but an utter disaster if they’re ever made treasurer. A proud character could simultaneously slay his professional competition with winning confidence and be distressingly estranged from their family because of an old hurt. A large part of making a flaw believable is showing every side of it, even the sides that aren’t flaws at all.
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