Do characters ever overcome their flaws during the course of the story or do they still retain some of them at the end?
Overcoming Flaws
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Hopefully the characters overcome at least some of their adversity, otherwise what's the point of the story? There should be growth. You can't really expect characters to overcome all of their flaws, but perhaps the major flaws that are holding them back would be a good start.
No one's perfect, Dwayne - at least not in real life. If you want your characters to seem real, then they need to improve on their flaws, but they can still have some.
Sometimes the realisation of a flaw and fight with it is a main part of the story. Otherwise it can be a great way to show the character's development in the story.
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Exactly. It may be that just admitting a flaw is the difficult part. Changing it would be easy. Conversely, the opposite can be true. Heck, they can have a hard time knowing about their flaws and correcting them.
My characters never get over all of their flaws, as I don't feel that to be what happens in real life. Sometimes, they don't even get over one or two of their flaws. When speaking of flaws in character creations; ones that make them believable, I think that sometimes, the point may not even be getting over their flaws, but succeeding despite them.
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Sometimes a really fun thing to do, actually, is to take a relatively perfect character and start giving him flaws so that by the end of the story he has more flaws than what he started with.
EVERYBODY IS FLAWED. Reminds me of something I heard recently. EVERYBODY POOPS. You can have them overcome a flaw or two...but nobody is flawless.
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Overcoming flaws is a mix. The point of some stories is to help the characters overcome certain flaws, but if a character overcomes EVERY flaw, they turn into a caricature...something not real. Everybody is flawed, no matter how many flaws we overcome--there are always others to take their place--so to overcome all of them would be very false and unbelievable.
And even the flaws that we do overcome can return to us, in time. My characters often deal with the same flaws throughout various stories.
And even the flaws that we do overcome can return to us, in time. My characters often deal with the same flaws throughout various stories.
That would be pretty unrealistic for them to overcome their flaws by the end of the story. Then we the readers would be left to assume that after the story, the character went on to live the rest of his/her life free of flaws???? No thank you. Who the heck likes a flawless person? I'd want their conflicts to be resolved, but that doesn't always mean a happy ending.
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Flaws don't have to go away for them to have been overcome.
Someone quiet and shy may find a role as a good listener.
Someone angry and passionate may find a cause and direct their energy into something that doesn't get them into trouble.
A flaw doesn't always need to go away, it might be possible for a character to find a way to make their peace with it, even if it still resurfaces at times.
Craig
Someone quiet and shy may find a role as a good listener.
Someone angry and passionate may find a cause and direct their energy into something that doesn't get them into trouble.
A flaw doesn't always need to go away, it might be possible for a character to find a way to make their peace with it, even if it still resurfaces at times.
Craig
...my own characters really don't have "flaws." They're far from perfect, but their depravities don't make them act as they do or inhibit them. What drives the stories forward is rather the reality they dwell in. It's this, reality, that is flawed and is something that can not be overcome, no more than gravity can be defied.
Flaws don't have to be faults. They're merely imperfections in many cases. So everyone has them. No-one's perfect. The trick is making them interesting. Or writining about the mundane in an interesting way.
"Flaws" "Attributes" "traits" whatever. They are what make your characters interesting and human. They can set you apart from or make you a part of the crowd.
For me, the weirder they are the more alive they are.
As soon as you paint someone up as different then you have to try them on like a suit and find out what makes them different.
For me, the weirder they are the more alive they are.
As soon as you paint someone up as different then you have to try them on like a suit and find out what makes them different.
People are not like exam scores or diamonds, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' human. For that matter, since flaws are only meaningful in contrast to perfection and 'human perfection' is meaningless, there is also no such thing as a 'flawed' human. Which is to say, even thinking about people in terms of 'perfect versus flawed' is kind of silly.
I prefer to think in terms of vices and virtues: habits of mind and personality traits that tend to promote moral or immoral action. Overcoming (a) vice is thus confronting and changing a part of yourself that makes you do bad things (or fail to do good things). Overcoming (a) vice does not make you a 'perfect' human being, just one that will probably behave more morally.
I should also differentiate vices and virtues from 'quirks' -- vices and virtues are part of what makes a character unique and interesting to read, but they aren't the whole picture. For example, Monk (from the TV show) has quirks that make him amusing to watch, but which are not either virtues or vices. We would not want him to 'overcome' his quirks* -- they make him fun to watch, and give color to his personality.
* Except when his quirks become vice-like, such as when his fear of dirt prevents him from chasing a suspect down into a sewer. And even then we don't really want him to permanently overcome his phobias -- just, with much agonizing, do what is necessary despite them.
I prefer to think in terms of vices and virtues: habits of mind and personality traits that tend to promote moral or immoral action. Overcoming (a) vice is thus confronting and changing a part of yourself that makes you do bad things (or fail to do good things). Overcoming (a) vice does not make you a 'perfect' human being, just one that will probably behave more morally.
I should also differentiate vices and virtues from 'quirks' -- vices and virtues are part of what makes a character unique and interesting to read, but they aren't the whole picture. For example, Monk (from the TV show) has quirks that make him amusing to watch, but which are not either virtues or vices. We would not want him to 'overcome' his quirks* -- they make him fun to watch, and give color to his personality.
* Except when his quirks become vice-like, such as when his fear of dirt prevents him from chasing a suspect down into a sewer. And even then we don't really want him to permanently overcome his phobias -- just, with much agonizing, do what is necessary despite them.
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Anyone ever read Red Dragon?
Where the guy went to New York and devoured a William Blake painting to get the voice out of his head? Now there goes a poor bastard trying very hard to rid himself of what he perceives as character defects. It's almost a pity that he overlooks the greater defect of being completely insane, but, at least he tried to stop using whole families as sex toys.
It was a valiant effort.
Where the guy went to New York and devoured a William Blake painting to get the voice out of his head? Now there goes a poor bastard trying very hard to rid himself of what he perceives as character defects. It's almost a pity that he overlooks the greater defect of being completely insane, but, at least he tried to stop using whole families as sex toys.
It was a valiant effort.
One of the protagonists in my future fantasy novel is extremely overcautious. He's also terrified of spiders. Those are perhaps his greatest flaws. Many misinterpret his caution as cowardice, and some even exploit his greatest fear to humiliate him.
During the course of the story, he manages to brave his fear in one scene to save his comrades.
During the course of the story, he manages to brave his fear in one scene to save his comrades.
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Mine too! He's a soldier who has to return to a planet inhabited by giant spiders to rescue his captured crew. They issue him with special baggy pants.
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Both. Usually, the main character will overcome at least one flaw/grow as a character (or shrink as the case may be). But I don't think real people overcome their flaws; I know I haven't. So why should characters be perfect at the end of a story?
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I think real people rarely overcome they flaws, if ever, and few things annoy me more than characters who overcome serious flaws overnight. What I think is undoubtedly true is that people adapt to different circumstances, so when their environment changes, they change too, but this is different from overcoming flaws.
I'm sorry that you feel that way, but I couldn't disagree more. I have seen people change completely, and I have experienced miracles in my own life that make me sure of that. I can see why you would feel that way, because it's becoming more and more rare that people actually do it. But change is always there waiting to happen, when and if you're desperate enough to look for it, or if you've found something worth changing for. I did.
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A related thread in Writing Novels forum, if you haven't already seen it:
Flaws - what endeared you?
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126901
-Derek
Flaws - what endeared you?
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126901
-Derek
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