Mastering Character Flaws (Fiction Writing Advice)
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- If you want to write compelling characters, one flaw isn't enough. Find out which two you need.
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My video on Character Flaws & Character Lies:
• Character Flaws and Ch...
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Credit to SkyDilen for my video intro.
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I understand the innocent and selfish flaws, connecting them together is the hard part.
I would recommend starting with the innocent flaw, then ask yourself how that innocent flaw might lead to a selfish flaw.
For example, you might have a character who is lazy (innocent flaw) and fails to get his work done at the office. Then when a manager asks him why the work isn't done, he blames his coworkers (selfish flaw) and says they didn't send him the correct info or something like that.
Usually the innocent leads to the selfish.
This was great! I realized a flaw in the character traits I created for my protagonist. Mc is a princess in a magical alt reality contemporary world.. I wanted her to be compassionate. She wants to do a good job and help others but doesn't know how because she hasn't left the palace, but I was going to make her -self centered- ,considering her own desires above everyone elses. Because.... you know, rich pampered princess. But those two traits seem mutually exclusive now. If she really was self centered her reason for leaving the palace would be only her desire for freedom, not to better help others.
So now I think her innocent flaw will probably be her "Impatience." She's always been told to wait until she is older, or maybe something terrible happened in the past previously because she did not take action. This will become selfish when her impatience puts others at risk or in danger. A secret told too soon ruining everyone's plans.
One of her positive traits is that she is brave. So she can justify her impatience as just being brave and having the guts to jump in or move ahead when no one else does.
The impatience is also a product of her fear of failure and insecurity (main flaw for the series).
I am still in the make believe and discovery phase. I haven't got enough to start outlining I just know the concept, setting, major conflict, how it will begin/end(ish), and that it will be a series. It's all still wibbly-wobbly.
Awesome. Your story is still pretty malleable at this point, so it's fine to juggle ideas until you catch something you're happy with. Glad to hear you're making solid decisions about your MC and her flaws--deciding on who your characters are will actually open up more ideas, so try to set things in stone whenever possible
Wow never considered the let them eat cake perspective could be a flaw for a compassionate character.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Aya!
the justification part is a great note. I thought back on my own wrongdoings and it is true. I'd always try to lie or justify it in my head until I realized what it did to other people.
Man, Brandon I've been struggling with character arcs trying to understand the lie and wound and how they fit into more commercial genre fiction and your framing just made it click for me. Thank you! I can't wait for your next *new* video and looking forward to when you introduce yourself as the author of Bad Parts, Entry Wounds and book #3!
Thank you! Hopefully I'll be introducing book #3 early next year
Can I say just how much I love your content. It's so specific and curated with examples and methods to tackle on each topic, it's so good.
The intro though 😔🙏
AMAZING video! I just adore that you decided to call them Innocent and Selfish flaws. A better terminology for sure!
My character is a young 20 year old chef and her flaw is that she’s a perfectionist. When she cooks, she always tries to make a perfect dish all the time. It becomes selfish as when she makes a slight mistake, she throws the food she’s cooked away and wastes food, making it difficult for the other chefs to work, making the head chef more frustrated and making the customers impatient.
Her justification for this is that when she was younger, her mother was extremely strict. When this girl got a bad grade on a test, her mother called it trash and threw it away. Even when the girl worked hard and got 86%, her mother’s response was the same. So the girl strove to be absolutely perfect, overstudied, did every single chore in the house, and never gave herself any break, to the point she didn’t sleep some nights because she pulled an all-nighter studying.
This girl is a talented chef, very skilled and passionate. But her perfectionism and inability to accept a good dish over a perfect one makes her journey as a chef difficult.
I appreciate you brotha, you post videos constantly even tho you don’t get the recognition you deserve! God bless you homie stay passionate because you help me A LOT
Thanks for the kind words! Glad my videos help--let me know if there's ever a subject you want me to cover!
SO insightful and helpful. McNulty understands complex characters!
Flaws makes characters relatable 😎👍
Always. The biggest mistake you can make is to create a character who's perfect.
Helpful! Thank you
I had to take a long break from writing due to a severe head injury but back at it now brandon at about 90k words in my novel and its so great reviewing your videos again (While i paint warhammer hahah) but really missed them!
Awesome, welcome back!
What is your main character's selfish flaw? How does your MC justify it? Let us know!
My character's innocent flaw is not trusting others. Selfish flaw is screwing people over to get what she wants before they get her first.
It might be lame but: Honor and hypocrisy.
@@TrevorDuran3390 Cynicism is always a favorite flaw of mine. Btw glad to have you back!
@@AIRIDAS.1 Not lame at all. Most character flaws sound dumb and obvious because they're so common. But the thing is, they need to be common so that audiences can recognize them
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I always watch Brandon! Always like. I just haven't commented lately. But, you got my support always.
Your videos are always super informative! Thank you for making them!
Sure thing! Let me know if there's a subject you want me to cover!
Thanks for an easy to understand video. I teach creative writing to middle schoolers. Your enthusiasm is great.
Thanks for watching! And that's cool that you're teaching middle schoolers. I didn't take a creative writing class till college, and there were only a couple times before that when my English teachers might encourage me to try fiction.
Just curious, what specific things do you teach? (other than character flaws)
Requesting a video on slow burn romance or friends to lovers writing tips
My character is in high school, he’s a Jr and dates 2 girls at once, the others don’t know it
His justification is that he knows it’s messed up and will choose one to date eventually… he has no intention of harming them or hurting them… to him it’s that he just can’t decide
Hi Brandon, I recently started laying out my thoughts for my first novel and the characters are really getting me running in circles. There are so many different things that different people say are important to know about them before writing and it's hard for me to keep track. Would you recommend any character charts?
My MC is a cop/private eye, depending on the time I set the story I write in. He is very good at what he does, but has a few major flaws: he's a womanizer and to get the job he can be unnecessarily ruthless. Not sure which is the selfish flaw and which one is the innocent flaw.
To my eye, both could be either. It all depends on why your MC holds those traits. Womanising could be a selfish flaw, as he might have attachment issues or something thereof, and it lends to harming others by being a bit of a player. The ruthless attitude on the job could be an innocent flaw, as he has to have that armour up to protect what’s left of his own innocence not knowing that being ruthless is actively hurting him. Just my thoughts though
@the_other_jackal Good thoughts. I thought the womanising is probably the most selfish flaw. He has a cynical view of love and commitment that have been shaped in his teenage years. His professional ruthlessness comes from both his work ethics and a survival instinct.
one of my most favorite character with flaws is the character gatts from a comic called berserk.if all the characters in your stories is perfect non of them are special.well my main character's flaw is she is a thief she gets anger problems because of how humans treat demons she steals because she is homeless and has no other means to survive there is more to it than that but i don't want to give a description
I honestly think it'd be even more interesting if she started stealing from people who specifically upset her--and steal more than is needed (and face the consequences for doing so)
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty that is what i did,this person was scolding her for asking for food so at night time she stole all his food supplies and was caught in action so she ended up having to walk around naked with a candle in her hand as punishment.which is the point where it tells how much humans hate demons and mistreat them when they start throwing stones and rotten apple and even encouraging children to do it and laughing at her
Shouldn't flaws be situational.
What do you mean exactly?