What are your characters' flaws?

Devil Ledbetter · May 7, 2007

Shamelessly riffing off JPSorrow's excellent post on creating real characters, I ask, what are your characters' flaws, physical, emotional or otherwise?

Here are mine:

Clive is only 5'7" and it affects how he relates to the world. He carries tremendous guilt from an incident that happened in his childhood. His attempts to make a better life for himself are undermined by his deepseated belief that he's doomed.

Rebecca is self-conscious about her missing finger. She's clumsy, especially with sharp things. She has a terrible memory when it comes to names and card games, and she has a habit of taking in strays.

Ellie is an idealist, opinionated and a pothead.

Claudia Gray · May 7, 2007

From different WIPs:

Bianca is extremely shy and not very self-confident. Her parents have sheltered her throughout her life, with the result that she's not nearly as independent or strong-willed as she ought to be. She gets very caught up in flights of fancy and sometimes finds it hard to face difficult realities.

Jared is stubborn to the point of being bullheaded, secretive and hot-tempered. He's distrustful of all authority figures, with or without reason.

Lexie is so secretive she makes Jared look open. She's told a lot of lies and betrayed many people's confidences, and the reasons that seemed good to her at the time don't seem so good after the fact. But she's also so overcome with guilt that she's failed to take the steps to atone and change things.

Thomas is a "difficult personality" -- he's not warm or sociable, he gets ticked off pretty easily and he doesn't suffer fools gladly. The sudden end of his marriage has left him overly bitter, and he doesn't make enough of an effort to understand his unconventional, freewheeling son.

This is fun!

Sassee · May 7, 2007

Kate has relationship problems and has the classic "Show-Me" State (MO) attitude. She won't believe it unless she sees it.

Sidney/Sid is rather surly. She has a foul mouth and no patience, and thinks most people are idiots.

Lana is naive and very stubborn.

Stan's decisions are mostly ruled by his other head.

Micah can be a little bossy, and is uncomfortable being alone. (I mean this in a general sense, not just relationships. He is more comfortable being surrounded by people.)

The Alpha of my werewolf pack avoids relationships like the plague. He's also not as social amongst regular humans as the rest of his pack.

Southern_girl29 · May 7, 2007

Gracie -- She is is very self-conscious but tries not to show it. She's also stubborn and is a typical teenager with her mother.

Sarah -- Gracie's mother wants everything to be safe and perfect and tries to keep it that way by sheltering Gracie from life and from Gracie's abilities (psychic).

Jack -- He wants to be right at all costs. He also has a "save the world" attitude at the expense of his family.

Sam -- He's arrogant to cover up the pain of being different and excluded by his classmates.

ccarver30 · May 7, 2007

My most flawed character is Reece. He's kind of womanizing dick.

Brad has a slight drinking problem and a flaring temper.
Diana talks too much and gossips.
Alyssa has trouble holding on to her emotions.
Clay is perfect. (see avatar) LOL

ccarver30 · May 7, 2007

ClaudiaGray said:
From different WIPs:

Bianca is extremely shy and not very self-confident. Her parents have sheltered her throughout her life, with the result that she's not nearly as independent or strong-willed as she ought to be. She gets very caught up in flights of fancy and sometimes finds it hard to face difficult realities.

Jared is stubborn to the point of being bullheaded, secretive and hot-tempered. He's distrustful of all authority figures, with or without reason.

Lexie is so secretive she makes Jared look open. She's told a lot of lies and betrayed many people's confidences, and the reasons that seemed good to her at the time don't seem so good after the fact. But she's also so overcome with guilt that she's failed to take the steps to atone and change things.

Thomas is a "difficult personality" -- he's not warm or sociable, he gets ticked off pretty easily and he doesn't suffer fools gladly. The sudden end of his marriage has left him overly bitter, and he doesn't make enough of an effort to understand his unconventional, freewheeling son.

This is fun!

Jared sounds like Jared Leto (actor/singer)...

sunna · May 7, 2007

Great question!

Kyali is not very self aware, and has a poor grasp of the effect she has on other people. She's also extremely stubborn and slow to trust. She tends to ignore her own feelings and the feelings of others in favor of hard fact. She will also work herself to death before she admits she needs help.

Jessica is so analytical she'll get caught up in the whys and hows and forget to act, or become too afraid of the consequences to do so. She tends to give more weight to the emotional aspect of a situation, which often means she is scrambling for objectivity at crunch time. She has a very low opinion of herself.

Devin is an abstract thinker who has a hard time concentrating on practicalities; he is very impulsive, and will land feet-first in situations that he didn't spend enough time learning about beforehand. His tendency to find humor in everything gets him into trouble as often as it gets him out of it.

Devil Ledbetter · May 7, 2007

ccarver30 said:
My most flawed character is Reece. He's kind of womanizing dick.

I think I just choked. I too have a womanizing (minor) character named ... Reese. Oh dear.

Flirts are fun to write, aren't they?

DragonHeart · May 7, 2007

Hmm...from my WIP:

Keith (the desert dragon) is on the antisocial side, and tends to be overbearing and often arrogant. His belligerent attitude stems from a deep insecurity about his own strength and personal worth. He is extremely protective of Amanda and will not let anyone get close to her unless absolutely necessary.

Wilkins (the griffin) is aggressive and rash. He struggles with his instincts, which can overtake his sense of reason and cause a lot of damage, both to himself and others. He's trying hard to redeem himself after a violent episode that resulted in numerous casualties and sent him into exile after escaping execution, but he's still overwhelmed with guilt and self-loathing.

Amanda (Keith's human partner) is dedicated to her job as a Peacekeeper to the point of obsession. She's learned to block most of her emotions, causing mental instability and making her liable to bad decision-making in high stress situations. She must rely on Keith's level-headed judgments to keep them out of trouble.

Katrina (Wilkins' human partner) is strong-willed and she rarely thinks before she speaks. Her brutal honesty tends to give people the wrong impression about her. She can be impulsive at times despite a strong sense of responsibility.

~DragonHeart~

ccarver30 · May 7, 2007

Devil Ledbetter said:
I think I just choked. I too have a womanizing (minor) character named ... Reese. Oh dear.

Flirts are fun to write, aren't they?

LOL Especially when they look like Christian Bale... Rawr!

swvaughn · May 7, 2007

Ooh, nice thread!

My characters all tend to be bastards. But they're sympathetic bastards. (yes, they are! Honest!)

Stew21 · May 7, 2007

character #1 Apathetic, stubborn and sometimes drunk, too lazy to realize his potential. I love him!

character #2 self-pitying and considers himself a victim. Fell from greatness and never recovered. He's pathetic. (but working on it.)

Devil Ledbetter · May 7, 2007

ccarver30 said:
LOL Especially when they look like Christian Bale... Rawr!

Mine doesn't look like anyone famous, but he smells like sandlewood, sex and sympathy. My MC wants to put him in a bag and huff him.

herdon · May 7, 2007

My characters don't have character flaws. They have character challenges.

Kay_XX · May 7, 2007

My female MC is stubborn. So is the male MC who also happens to hate responsibilities and only wants to have a good time. They're both modelled after my dog.

ccarver30 · May 7, 2007

Havlen said:
My character's don't have character flaws. They have character challenges.

You better get that apostrophe out of there!! :rant:

ccarver30 · May 7, 2007

Devil Ledbetter said:
Mine doesn't look like anyone famous, but he smells like sandlewood, sex and sympathy. My MC wants to put him in a bag and huff him.

Yummy!

Storyteller5 · May 7, 2007

From my book I'm editing...

Jen is over-confident (bordering on arrogant to some people.) She's opinionated and not afraid to say what she thinks because she doesn't think about it before speaking. She doesn't apologize either.

Maureen doesn't stand up for herself very often and tends to get taken advantage of. Everyone comes to her with problems to fix and never considers her feelings.

Uma · May 7, 2007

My MC is a walking set of flaws, but as you get to know her, hopefully some of these will soften...

She is an alcoholic, chain-smoking, selfish, stubborn, self-centered curmudgeon. She is also incredibly vain.

Or atleast that is what I am working on trying to show, not tell.

herdon · May 7, 2007

ccarver30 said:
You better get that apostrophe out of there!!

Sorry, I must have had character flaw ownership on my brain 8(

Shady Lane · May 7, 2007

Ian is standoffish, manipulative, anxious, judgemental, and unforgiving.

Noel is irresponsible, violent, antisocial, and impersonal.

Sassee · May 7, 2007

Quick question -

Are these characters your "good" guys or "bad" guys?

I just realized I didn't include any of my antagonists in the above list... Of course, it might be that we automatically think there's something wrong with our antagonists, or they wouldn't be antagonists, right? Hmm. <ponders>

Claudia Gray · May 7, 2007

I don't really know Jared Leto, except that for some reason I think I've seen a mug shot of him on gossip sites -- which would at least back up the hotheaded part!

And yeah, I think this thread is for the flaws of the protagonists. What we need is another thread for the virtues of our villains.

Akuma · May 7, 2007

My protagonist is a damned coward.

My antagonist is a damned sociopath.

swvaughn · May 7, 2007

Akuma said:
My protagonist is a damned coward.

My antagonist is a damned sociopath.

Akuma! You're alive.

What are your characters' flaws?

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