Young Writers Society

Yes, at first when I started writing my character, I made him super-human, to a certain extent he still is, which is something i'll be fixing if I get around to doing a re-write.
At first he was one of those good looking perfect characters, then I made him normal, and made him more human, and it really made the story more interesting, and much easier to write (because he didn't overcome every obstacle with such ease), I've even decided (on the advice of a friend) to make the character's emotional problems more complex, so that way, the conflict that is supposed to be in the story, will be much better, and more obvious.

So those 5 tips are very helpful
(Though I still have problems finding 5 flaws )

So true, Eloere. Take some of our favourite comic book characters. Spider Man and Superman are both attractive, with all the physical strength you could ask for, plus a bunch of other great physical abilities. But that doesn't make their stories uninteresting. Their weaknesses are in their heads and in their hearts, like the burdons of their secret and the responsibilities of that secret, the fact that as long as they remain who they are, the people they love will always be targeted, and the fact that they can't make everything right. Superman can't solve the world's problems. And if you a watch a show like Smallville, despite his abilities, you can relate to the teenage Clark like any other kind-hearted teenager.

That's one thing I like about the genre. Since these characters are essentially unreal, the effort up into making them real creates much stronger characters, and therefore more interesting and emotionally compelling character stories, even in cases where the story over all is largely plot driven.

About flawed characters as opposed to perfect characters, I definitely agree (of course) that a character should be flawed, but I think some writers write characters who are too flawed. I mean, who wants to read about an ugly stupid unpopular unathletic untalented loser? And then, I think there are a lot of writers, especially in the teen genre, who have really flawed protagonists but then give them a totally perfect love interest.

About the flaws you listed, I agree with ohhewwo that they're not flaws. They're bad things that have happened to him, but flaws have to be bad things about him.

MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS UGLY

Obviously they shouldn't all be good looking, but certainly there's nothing wrong with having some good-looking characters. In real life, some people actually do look perfect. I agree, though, that descriptions like "He brushed back his jet black hair and looked at her with piercing silver eyes" suck, and it seems like I read descriptions like that all the time. Most of my protagonists are good-looking, but I would never write a description like that.

Thanks for the tips, though. I think most of the advice was good.

I never understood why people make their characters perfect.

I think it's an attempt to make them likeable. Now that I think about it I can't think of anything I've ever read that had a character who was too perfect, but a lot of people must write like that, because I hear about that problem all the time (especially on NaNoWriMo...MarySues).

Perhaps flaws was the wrong word. Weaknesses would be much better. But... flaws sounded catchier? Nah... a character must have weaknesses. And, in this case, this man is a good man at heart, which means he cannot have too many flaws, but because of that his weaknesses must abound.

Also, like you noticed, they had to be balanced. And having a character who only has weaknesses can be okay, but there has to be some humanity to the character, or else everything falls apart.

We humans are not naturally just boring sob stories who lament over their lives continuously. We are vibrant beings who, though suffer, rejoice in life. There are, of course, times where we do not feel great and sometimes feel rather suicidal, but that is not our whole life.

Shadow Knight pointed out something very great. "At first he was one of those good looking perfect characters, then I made him normal, and made him more human, and it really made the story more interesting, and much easier to write." He noticed it was easier because the conflicts came easier. But that's not the only reason! We can connect with a character who isn't perfect. A character who both shines and then falls. Why? Because it's human. To have a character so totally devoid of emotion is painful for us to read and sometimes it will even cause us to stop the story.

And Sam asked a question, which I totally missed.

Snoink-

for finding flaws, is it better to start with a storyline and then come up with characters?
Or is it better to start with characters and fit a storyline around them?

I tend to favor the latter.

For FREAK, I started with the storyline and then added the characters. But then again, that is a rare story in which I try to showcase the lack of humanity of the characters at first and then slowly flush them out. Usually I have my own characters which I will use repeatedly. There's Daisy, the spunky teenager who will let nothing get out of her way; Solea, the motherlike character who is extremely quiet but has a heart of gold; the father-figure, who is actually the mysterious person that usually represents God to me; the young lad that has messed up, but anxiously wants to get back and win the girl... the list goes on. And even in FREAK the characters there, not yet developed, will become exactly those. So sometimes both, but most of the time the latter.

Then again, I don't find it matters much. It's up to you and the story to figure it out.

Absolutely wonderful advise. I've heard some of that before, such as the "like your characters" and don't make them perfect stuff, but the "make them ugly" is cool. I like how your put everything. Thanks for the help!

AAAH! I totally agree. I love all my characters... even the really sick, evil guy. I always give my characters a very distinguished look, and never make them look great. Although... there is one girl in my current story who's described as enviably perfect, but what she has in beauty, she lacks in grace.

So true: I AM NOT and HAVE NEVER BEEN IN CONTROL OF my STORY! It goes where it goes and I follow. As much as I would love to do something totally out of character with my... er... characters, its almost painful to do so.

Check out the RP and Story Boards, people have god characters.

However, having characters seem cliche also ruins the person.

Who wants to read about someone who has "amnesia and wants to find out who he/she" was?
Who wants to see an evil villan with a scar over some random eye?

Watching 2 perfect people fight off is like watching dragon ball z, extreme exaggerated, gets old and repetive, and boring.

Comics are a quick way to see how people are portrayed.
The comic with the most human emotions for the oddest things are... http://roadwaffles.com/ (two and three)
Dealing with sudden changes in their life, even given the information that they're in a webcomic.

There is a person in Road Waffles 2 that becomes a god of his universe. But Eight (the author) keeps it convincing. Its really an inspirational comic.
Flaws are extremely obvious here and thats what make them human.

MAKE SURE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTERS

*sniff* I'm gonna hate it, literally hate it when my story comes to an end. My current characters are very much alive inside my head. Man, I think I'm losing it, lol. But yeah, I agree. Each of my characters have their quirks, so as a writer, it keeps me on my toes.

CHARACTERS ARE NOT PUPPETS

HAHA! That statement couldn't be more true. I often say, "I have my story all planned now I just have to write it." Pfft...Yeah right... I personally have absolutely no control over my character's actions. Last night, one of my characters, Samuel, received a present from a historical person in the 1700's. That one kept me awake a few hours, lol. I was like, "OK, where in the hell did that one come from, guys?"

A FATAL FLAW IS NECESSARY If you look at amateur writer’s work, you'll notice that there are a lot of heroes who are perfect. They are drop dead gorgeous, smart, witty, individuals, and their only problem is being slightly misunderstood by everyone else.

What's wrong with drop dead gorgeous characters? Good point. I think everyone has made this mistake early on. I know I did at a very early age, before the teens. Surprisingly, I got B's; stupid, idiotic teachers! Flaws are my best friend because it's so fun to manipulate characters, lol.

DON'T TELL YOUR READER EVERYTHING

Aw, no comment except it's a hard lesson to learn.

MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS UGLY

Yeesh, I've seen some pretty nasty, ugly, grotesque people. Why? Because one of my hobbies is People Watching, yay! I think this is the most fun a writer can have. I love finding new ways to make 'em ugly, even though... erm... even though I sometimes slip into my horror writing habits. In which case, gore gets involved. Well, at least they stand out, lol.

On a more serious note, the streets are flooded with some very strange individuals. Besides, there is no such thing as perfection, only faults. Why not grab human faults and work them into stories? Believe me, it's very fun.

Me: *gets up in front of group* Hello, my name is Dusky.

Group: *in unison* Hello, Dusky.

Me: And I... *chokes up* want to be a dog walker, not a puppeteer!

Group: Awww....


lol. That's what that last line on tip 2 made me think of.

Great tips though, Snoink. Thanks for posting them here.

Good points, Snoink! I personally like creating characters best.
And I like flawed characters. The first characters I ever did were unmitigated Mary-Sues, and looking back on them...*shudders*

Still, I remember the first time I read the book The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff I didn't like it that much because the main character - Aquila - was so prickly and bitter. Now that I've read it more, it's become one of my favourite books.
And now I'm thinking of all the prickles I can put in my characters' personalities. Bad temper seems to be a favourite flaw to put in, as well as being touchy. They're easy to do; I need to think of other weaknesses as well.

-ST

I agree with all your points, but sometimes people follow them and bring them too far making some hopeless character who's ugly, everyone hates them, and they have so many flaws. I find that just as annoying as perfect characters, which I absolutely abhor. I used to read the series Fear Street by R.L. Stine, and his characters annoyed me so much that I had to stop. They were either "fat, ugly, and no one cared for them" or "beautiful, smart, with an amazing boyfriend." There were absolutely no flaws or their were too many, and no character development whatsoever. I read one, and in it this guy's friend died and he cried for about a day and then the next day he was dating his girlfriend...it ruined the whole plot those boring, vapid characters.

It's difficult to find that happy balance, but it seems you pinpointed them, Snoink.

...Man, my dead girl needs flaws. Seriously. Of course, I'm not completely sure where I'm going with my latest attempt into novel writing. I don't even know how everything is going to connect! o-o But, I'm having a blast writing it.

Though my characters control everything. Just the way it goes *nods* Great tips though! Especially about the ugly people, I need more of those.

Hahaha....good to read through these again - I'm currently working on the character development for my first (**cough**) novel attempt and it's driving me crazy, so it's a timely resurrection

I too have found my characters to be an unruly bunch...in particular, there is this one character who INSISTS on killing her mother, even though I repeatedly try to stop her -_- Writers are in control of their stories? Yeah right. The more I work on this the more surprised I become....

On the topic of MAKE SURE YOU LIKE YOUR CHARACTERS, I don't think that you exactly phrased this correctly. Making them interesting, yes, it a good point.. but more so, it's not liking them as so much as being able to relate to them or being able to relate to how another character would feel about.. not being able to relate. Your character cannot be boring, that is correct. Likewise, you have to have a certain relationship with your character. Love to hate him/her, whatever, as long as there is a relationship with this fictional being, so that way they are more than just a pawn to you.

Relationship with a fictional being? Writers are so crazy ><

You know, I've been writing for a long time and never really paid any attention to my characters. Strange as it seems, it's true. I'd make a character, patched together out of dozens of completely irrelevant trait, then stick 'em in the story. And it worked...usually.

I get on a few authors a lot since their characters don't stay in character. What I mean by this is that complex characters should stay complex, simple characters should stay simple, stupid characters stupid (unless it's your aim in the story to make them smart somehow), boring people stay boring, and so on.

For instance: when you start constructing a character, let's just say you want them to be serious. So you take the seriousness, and it leads to traits such as thoughtfulness (in all that seriousness, they're probably musing over something!), maybe make them annoyed over silly/stupid people (and by silly/stupid people, I mean people who can't just settle down, shut up, and make a decent conversation), whatever compliments that serious character.

There are some characters that are just random, their personality doesn't "make sense" to the reader. AKA the reader can't count on that character to stay the way they are- whether they're boring or talkative. These kinds of characters act against the way we expect them to, such as in Eragon, the herbal witch Angela. Christopher Paolini (the author) even said that she isn't such a reliable character personalitywise since she's both serious, secretive, all these different traits.

To stop me from rambling on, I can't say that flaws are bad. Flaws are beautiful in a person, sometimes, and they don't necessarily bring the character down, but they're the glimmer of hope that not everyone is painstakingly perfect. That they make a character unique. Maybe that character's learned from that flaw, you'll never know.