How to Write Complex, Flawed Charaters | Terrible Writing Advice

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Having flaws is an essential part of the human experience. Most of us masturbate 10 times a day or tell pointless lies to our coworkers about dead family members. As a fiction writer, you need to use flaws like these when constructing your characters.
Characters need to have both minor and major flaws to be compelling and three-dimensional. Minor flaws, like having a giant scar across your face, can be memorable but don't drive the narrative. Major flaws are often something that needs to be overcome and it does drive the story's conflict.
In this video, we'll look at ways writers can create flaws that are unique, relatable and that go along with the narrative to make for interesting fiction. For example, you want your characters to have a balance between negative and positive traits, like how Hitler was a vegetarian, but also did some pretty bad stuff.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - Title Sequence
01:06 - Product Placement
01:49 - What are Character Flaws?
02:36 - Minor Flaws
03:01 - Major Flaws
03:23 - Fatal Flaw
03:50 - Step 1: Create Relatable Flaws
04:23 - Step 2: Don't Get Preachy
04:51 - Step 3: Find a Balance
05:31 - Step 4: Use Flaws to Create Conflict
06:24 - Outro
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[@futurestoryteller]

I watch these and I always feel like you miss the best ones. For example: "Write hypocrite; become genius." is my favorite piece of advice for writing complex flawed characters. It's so hilarious because you can see why an amateur would think that's good advice, but they never explain why we're not automatically lovestruck by every depiction of an inconsistent hypocrite. Plus it's usually not amateurs...

[@charliegriffin2867]

This might just be your best one yet

[@paulmahoney5326]

I dare say that the border between the Grand Canyon and Mexico has confused many. 😉

[@Bizarro69]

The fiction writing community has been infected by dullards!

[@DEpublishing]

Totally.