You probably already know that your characters shouldn’t be perfect, but how can you write character flaws the right way?
There are actually multiple reasons why your characters need flaws and it isn’t just to make them relatable or believable. You also need to consider your plot, and that’s where specifically your main charcater’s flaws come in.
Keep reading to learn how to give your characters the best (or the worst) flaws and how to make them work for your story.
What are flaws and weaknesses?
You may have heard of flaws and weaknesses, and I’m sure you’re glad to hear they’re the same thing. Personally I prefer talking about flaws for the very simple and silly reason that it’s shorter. That’s it. But what are character flaws anyway?
Flaws are personality features that have some sort of negative effects. That said, it could always depend on context what is a negative what is a positive effect, and that’s okay, we’ll actually talk about that more later.
But what kind of flaws do your characters need? You actually have two options:
The two types of character flaws
Character flaws come in two flavours: moral and psychological. Moral flaws are something that hurt other people and psychological flaws are something that hurts the person themselves. (Some people also suggest there are “social flaws”, but I wouldn’t go ahead and say that things like poverty are characters flaws.)
It’s important to have both kinds of flaws because if your character is only hurting others, readers will get sick of that bastard quite quickly. If the character’s flaws are only hurting themselves, they might seem like a sad-sack with no agenda, and that’s not good either.
Moreover, it’s just realistic to have both kinds, because that’s what people are like, and often our flaws have complex manifestations. If your character is mean to everyone (hurting others), they might be doing that because they’re scared of letting other people close (hurting themselves).
Does every character need flaws?
Yes. Next question.
Okay, fine, let’s elaborate. Characters without flaws are both unrealistic and boring. Sure, some people like characters who are perfect cinnamon buns, but it’s hard to give them proper plots when they don’t have a lot going on for them. You know Mrs Hughes from Downton Abbey? She didn’t really have any plot lines of her own besides getting married to Carson because she didn’t have a lot going on for her – she was just a nice mother figure. (Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but still. Think of how much more airtime Thomas got.)
Every now and then I stumble upon internet conversations about how some characters are so annoying, and when I read what they mean, it’s just the character having flaws. No, you don’t have to like every character – that would be silly – but it’s just absurd to expect all characters to be perfect all the time. Every single person you know, yourself included, makes mistakes.
This is important: You wouldn’t be nearly as interested in any stories if the characters were perfect, flawless people who never made mistakes and never had conflicts with anyone and anything. So don’t cheat your readers out of interesting stories either – let your characters have real flaws.
How flaws and strengths are related
Sometimes, flaws and strenghts can be different sides of the same coin. Any strength taken to the extreme can become a flaw.
Let’s think about bravery. It’s good to be brave, right? But what if you’re a little too brave and you don’t stop to consider the consequences of something, and that gets you in trouble and costs the lives of multiple people? What if your kindness invites bad people into your life and you refuse to see their true colours?
You don’t even need to take the strength to an extreme for it to have negative effects. If you’re a genius, it can drive people away or come across as something unintended like arrogance. If you’re always positive, that can also annoy other people. Yeah, people really like making their own flaws other people’s problems, so keep that in mind as well.
A flaw could become an advantage
At the same time, a flaw could become an advantage in your story.
Maybe someone who’s too shy to participate in things manages to observe something that the more outspoken and social people miss. Perhaps a grumpy person inadvertently drives away a dishonest person who would have taken advantage of them if only they were a little more approachable.
And hey, what if something isn’t actually a flaw to the right people? What if it’s okay to be quiet and bookish? What if you found friends who understand you when you blurt out the first thing that comes out of your mouth? What if it was never bad to be scared of the dark?
I can’t give you a prescription for how you should approach flaws and strengths mirroring each other because they should always fit your particular story, but hopefully this has given you some inspiration and ideas.
How flaws and problems are different (but also related)
Make no mistake, your characters also need problems. But how are they different from flaws?
Problems are generally speaking actionable things that your character is struggling with. For example, having no money can definitely be a problem, but it’s not a character flaw. However, being a compulsive gambler is definitely a flaw and that can lead to losing all your money, so flaws can definitely be connected to their problems and often should be.
Your main character should have two kinds of problems: Ongoing problems that they already struggle with (probably because of their flaws) and new problems that are a part of the plot. I like to call the main conflict of the story the Big Problem, and it’s usually exacerbated by the character’s flaws and ongoing problems. Yikes.
If you haven’t already, I wholly recommend reading up on story structure to understand some of the things in this blog post a little better. It’s like having a picture of the puzzle before you try to put it together.
What about the ghost/shadow/shard of glass?
Your character’s ghost, or whatever you want to call it, is something that has happened in the character’s past that still has a negative effect on your character. Remember those ongoing problems I mentioned earlier? They’re often a result of dealing with the ghost badly.
The ghost doesn’t have to be some super traumatic experience like witnessing your parents getting murdered, but of course it could be. It could also be not being your parents’ favourite child, growing up in poverty, embarrassing yourself in front of the whole school or having your very first car stolen.
Can the ghost be the reason for some of the character’s flaws? Absolutely. Perhaps they have trust issues because kids in school used to ask them out as a joke, or maybe they’re always angry because they think no one will be on their side anyway.
How character flaws are important to the plot
You don’t need flaws just to make your characters real and interesting, they’re also important to the plot.
First of all, the Big Problem is partially a big problem because of the main character’s flaws and their ongoing problems. When Elle Woods’ boyfriend told her that she wasn’t good enough to be a future lawyer’s girlfriend, it would have been a completely different thing if she’d already been Harvard-bound. She would have just been like “What are you on about, silly? See you in law school.”
And you know all those problems your protagonist has? They shouldn’t solve them in one fell swoop, they should be trying and failing. They should be making mistakes. If they already had the right solutions to their problems, they wouldn’t be problems, they’d just be a regular Tuesday.
Character flaws will make the problems harder initially, but they also contribute to making things worse later on. Around the 3rd quarter of the story, things should be getting increasingly difficult, and that’s in part because the protagonist’s (and possible other major characters’) flaws and mistakes will be catching up to them. The flaws are not there just for decoration, they have consequences.
Should your characters fix their flaws?
Your characters dealing with their flaws are also a part of the plot. Because of all the events in the story, the characters change as people and they learn new things, and that’s how they also “fix” their flaws which can mean many different things.
Pay close attention here: Your characters don’t need to (and shouldn’t) become perfect people by the end of your story. You don’t need to change all their flaws into strengths. That would be unrealistic, but also, changing a person completely takes a lot of time and you need a lot of important events. You might not be writing a 2000-page opus spanning over a lifetime.
Here are some ways that characters can deal with their flaws:
- They stop letting a personality trait rule (and ruin) their whole life
- The flaw is no longer a flaw, or at least not a big deal, in a new environment and/or with different people
- They forgive or let something go
- They see something differently now because they learned/experienced something that altered their perception
- They heal emotionally or physically
- They learn new information that clears a misconception or they learn a new skill
- They find someone who accepts them exactly as they are or perhaps like them precisely because of their flaws
So yeah, sometimes the character changes and becomes different and sometimes the world around them changes, but it could also be as simple as a change in perspective. It’s a lot harder to be full of anger when you learn that you were never angry for the right reasons.
An example of how flaws can affect the plot
This example is a mishmash of stories I’ve read/watched:
- From the beginning, the hero is shown to be smart but set in his ways and kind of stubborn (because clearly he knows the best)
- The hero gets a new boss who wants to change almost everything at the workplace
- The hero resists all these changes and makes a very bad impression of himself to the new boss
- He thinks the solution is to change the new boss’s mind and keep everything the same
- The more the hero acts against the new boss, the more problems he causes to everyone, but he’s still blaming the boss for this
- The hero gets fired before he causes complete financial ruin, and he decides to make it on his own
- Turns out, it’s difficult to make any progress on your own, and the hero finally understands his ideas and methods are outdated
- He realises how to save the new boss from a catastrophe and offers to fix things for free because then no one else will lose their job
- [Some kind of a satisfying ending where all loose threads are tied and gained life experience is applied]
Of course, sometimes your hero succumbs to their flaws and problems, but usually stories end with “yeah, things turned out okay, even if not in the way we wanted them to or thought they would”.
Character flaws in a romance novel
Although all of this applies to romance novels as well, it’s important to remember that the central relationship is central to the plot, and that’s why the flaws will directly affect it as well. You can read more about writing a romance novel here.
In a romance, the two characters can’t simply jump into their happily ever after as soon as they see each other, or else you’ll have no story. They need to get closer and then pull away, get closer and pull away again. They can’t get together for real until they’ve dealt with their flaws and problems.
Again, that doesn’t mean becoming completely different people. Usually, the characters will have loads of excuses for why they can’t be together, and some of those excuses are based on their ongoing problems, ghosts and flaws. They often need to learn to see things differently before they can properly choose love and give each other a real chance – in other words, they need to stop being stupid.
Why you shouldn’t use a character flaw list
As you can see, your character’s flaws should be (or definitely will become) highly relevant to the plot. That’s why you can’t just choose them randomly.
If you’re still brainstorming your characters and plot, then sure, looking at a list can help you get unstuck. Still, you should always look at your characters as full-rounded people, not as empty puppets that you can glue things on willy-nilly.
How to show your character flaws
Here we are, talking about “show, don’t tell” again. I really need to write a whole blog post about that ancient yet important writing tip.
Don’t just say “she was a very angry girl who easily got in trouble with teachers because of her bad temper and impatience, and so her academic success suffered as well”. Don’t be lazy and don’t treat your readers like they’re dummies!
Instead, show these flaws in action. Start the story with your heroine in school, arguing with the French teacher over diacritics, getting in trouble with the headmaster and being told about how he’ll never recommend her to the prestigious university of her dreams.
The beginning of the story is extremely important in making the rest of your story believable. You need to show your character’s potential, in good and bad. If your protagonist ends up killing someone on page 250, you need to show them be cruel to someone, blindly follow instructions or perhaps wildly defend something in the first 10 pages. Yes, things need to escalate, and that’s exactly why you need to set them up properly, your readers need to see where all this started.
Remember your point of view when introducing character flaws
Who would have known that point of view matters here as well? The thing is, people don’t generally think of things that are completely obvious and normal to them. For example, I don’t start every (or any) day by thinking “I’m a writer and I have two children, aged 7 and 10”.
That’s why it would be quite silly to have your characters state their flaws or other life details outright when you’re writing in first person or third person intimate.
Also, there’s a lot of stuff that people aren’t aware of or just don’t want to think about, so why would a character be like “yup, I sure have a bad temper and it stops me from advancing my career” unless that’s just a BS excuse and their real issues are something else? Remember, people are really stupid about themselves and most aren’t going to therapy, so give them time to figure out their flaws for themselves.
When writing from the omniscient point of view, you can describe your characters as you wish because you get to see anything and everything as the narrator. That said, your story still needs to be interesting, and listing someone’s flaws and other personality traits might not be interesting.
Are there bad character flaws?
Don’t be too gentle with character flaws, they should cause real problems to your characters. If you want to know what “bad flaws” would be, I’d say flaws that aren’t real flaws would definitely count. Of course, it’s a matter of perspective like we’ve talked, but I mean flaws that don’t actually have proper negative consequences or are just irrelevant.
Is your character simply too beautiful to bear? Are they supposedly too nice or too perfectionistic without either of those things causing any harm to them? Then they’re not real flaws. Flaws should hurt.
What if your character is a bad person? Can their flaws be that they’re racist or violent, or are these “bad flaws”? Can you write about truly bad people? You should be able to write any kinds of characters and they all have a place in different stories, so you don’t have to rule anything out. Is your story racist or does it promote violence? That’s a completely different issue and having a racist character on its own won’t make your story racist, just to give you a very simple example.
If nothing or nobody takes a stand against “bad people” in your story, there are no unwanted consequences, and you’re not showing that they are, in fact, “bad” and not kinda cool, you might actually be on their side. But simply having bad people or bad things happening, though, doesn’t mean you’re promoting or supporting them. You need to look at the bigger picture.
Just because you think it’s a flaw, doesn’t mean it’s one
Again, I know we’ve talked about perspective, but I wanted to include one more thing in the subject of “bad flaws”.
Is your character overweight? Unattractive? Disabled? Schizophrenic? Gay? They could be all of those things, but none of them are flaws. I hope this helps.
No, but really, just because you don’t like something or wouldn’t personally want to be that way, it doesn’t make it a flaw and it doesn’t mean it’s bad to be that way. Sure, being disabled can have a negative effect on a person especially if the world around them isn’t accessible to them or if they suffer from pain a lot, but it’s still not a character flaw. It has nothing to do with their personality.
Of course you CAN write these types of characters, but the point here is that they’re going to need some actual flaws, too. And for the love of Pete, don’t write about how they need to be fixed in order to be happy – we don’t need more ugly duckling stories.
Writing prompts about character flaws
I LOVE giving you writing prompts and writing exercises, so here are a few that you can use for writing character flaws. Let me know if you like them and I can add more.
- Write a scene where your character receives an award for some kind of an achievement (choose what it is and make it specific) but because of their personality, they make a mess of the whole situation
- Your character is an impatient person with a bad temper, and somehow someone has talked them into reading a story to seriously ill but also very badly behaved children
- Your setting is a very prestigious boarding school with very complicated social rules and hierarchy between students. Who would struggle there the most and who would thrive? Write a conversation between these two people.
- A successful author is at the height of her career, but unfortunately she has a flaw that means her personal life is in total shambles
- Think about three things you dislike in a person. Write about those three things saving the world one day.
- What are your three favourite things about your best friend or partner? Write about those three things causing chaos and disaster.
- Come up with a character who’s at the rock bottom. Plot their way to a happy life without giving them more money or having them fall in love with anyone.
Use character flaws and problems to plot your entire story
Here’s the best part, in case you missed it: those flaws you’ve lovingly given your characters? They’re not just backstory, they’re plot fuel.
If you’re not sure how to actually use those flaws to map out what happens in your story, that’s exactly what The Genius Plotting System is for. It teaches you how to turn internal messiness into external conflict using my Troublemaker Method, and you get the tools to map your plot without melting your brain. (We both know your brain has suffered enough as it is.)
I don’t tell you what to write, I simply show you how to find the answers for yourself. (How’s that for “show, don’t tell”, huh?) Don’t make it your character flaw that you never actually write your story. You can find everything you need inside the Genius Plotting System.
Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.
