forum Character Flaws and Quirks

Started July 18, 2019 by @I_D_Triskele

tune

"Don't trust a perfect person and don't trust a song that's flawless."

One thing that turns me off to certain books, movies, and other forms of stories is the lack of relatability. Flaws and quirks are the very definition of humanity. Characters that lack both personal flaws and quirks lack an essential element of humanity as well as relatability.
As a very famous Christain author, Gilbert Morris once stated, if you are able to bring to life a very likable as well as relatable character; hypothetically, the plot holds little relevance (I'm not saying the plot doesn't matter, only that your character, not the plot, is what keeps your audience interested.)

Character quirks are just as important since they not only heighten the relatability but also adds humor as well as more likable qualities to the character. It can even be used to explain characters and their actions. For example, a character of mine, Jayce Riker, is a kleptomaniac. He also suffers from OCD, meaning he struggles with compulsive desires to touch items with certain textures (shiny, soft, fuzzy, sharp, etc.). These impulses are part of the reason he steals certain items (you know, besides the whole addicted to the adrenaline rush thing). This is just one example of many concerning quirks and how they can work together with flaws to make your character every bit of the person they are.

This is a thread to discuss character flaws and how or why they were developed. You can also discuss the different kinds of quirks and how they add to your characters. If you have questions I will do my best to answer them. Enjoy!

This seems like an interesting thread, and I'm kinda surprised no one has posted in it yet. Anways, here's some of my character flaws/quirks

Crispin: Crispin has the shortest fuse in the world; he gets angry so easily. He was also raised by an asshole pirate father who told him that crying is a sign of weakness so when he's upset he bottles it up and takes it out on other people (usually Kit). As far as quirks go, his feathers will ruffle when he gets really mad or annoyed. Also low key has abandonment issues which comes from his mother abandoning him as a child and his father trying to kill him at the start of the book.

Kit: Kit is the crown prince so he obviously grew up really sheltered and privileged. His biggest flaw is just that he's really painfully oblivious, especially when it comes to how other people live their lives. Like he's genuinely surprised to hear that Caleb makes like $3 per day and has to hunt for his food because he can't afford to buy it. He's also just really entitled sometimes. Like as soon as someone anything remotely negative about him he's all "You can't talk to me like that."

Caleb: Caleb daydreams a lot mostly to escape the pretty awful life that he's been living. He's a little bit naive but that's kind of understandable since he's only 14 and has never left his hometown. Has a tendency to sometimes get his hopes up a little too high which sometimes leaves him disappointed.

Gerard: Gerard has a really hard time trusting other people. He's super paranoid and will almost always jump to the worst possible situation. Hates change, and has like 0 backbone. Most of these traits come from his really tragic past, which he can't let go of. He works as a healer, but takes on a lot of side projects to kind of keep himself distracted so that he doesn't end up getting super worked up and emotional over things that happened years ago. Also has the world's most erratic sleep schedule.

Matthew: Matthew is a really interesting character to me but I can't really reveal a lot because of spoilers. Anyways, he's the king, but he's also really antisocial and reserved. He has a lot of insecurities, and has a tendency to shut people out (including Kit). Cares way too much about what other people think about him (which as King is probably not such a bad thing, but he kind of lets it get to his head).

Dallas: Dallas is really just kinda jaded and complains a lot about all kinds of things. He's also more on the introverted side (which isn't really a bad thing in itself) but he sometimes gets drowned out by stronger personalities like Ara and Andor and often gets roped into things that he doesn't want to do (the story literally starts with him at a party that he didn't want to attend). He'd basically rather just act as a bystander than step in and take action in a lot of situations.

Ara: Ara is really smart (which also isn't a bad thing) but he tends to act like that makes him better than everyone else. He's really snarky and condescending, is super bossy, and would rather die than admit he's wrong about something. Also drinks an unhealthy amount of coffee. Oh, he's also really judgemental too.

Andor: Andor is really just a disaster. Says and does things without thinking, hates being told what to do (So I'm sure you can imagine how well he gets along with Ara– He likes to say things just to get a rise out of him). Kind of lazy, procrastinates a lot, doesn't have his priorities sorted. He also has ADHD, so some of these traits stem from there. He also grew up in a strict household some of them also stem from him wanting to rebel a little bit.

(I'll go over some more of my characters later. It took me like an hour to write this and it's like 12am right now).

Thank you so much! I love hearing about other people's characters.
Do any of your characters have physical flaws?

I'll give this a try!

Jaxson- Lives in a futuristic world where it's very expensive and time consuming to have children. His parents are wealthy and he was sheltered from the world for most of his life. Because of this he's afraid of many real world things and requires a certain amount of attention to feel loved. So he's rather needy

Jacob- Enjoys lying to people far too much. Finds it all too entertaining to get himself into trouble because he doesn't care what people think of him (Mostly because he figures people will dislike him anyways)

Airabella- Isn't accustomed to being told no. Honestly that's the root of her problem and her being quick to anger makes it very easy to upset her by not letting her have her way

Ella- She's an artificial intelligence, loosely based off of Airabella. Her flaw is not knowing what's really real. That includes herself

Do any of your characters have physical flaws?

Not really. Caleb and Crispin both get injured during the story and that kind of hinders them. Caleb twists his ankle and also gets some pretty severe burns on his wrists. Crispin gets stabbed and breaks one of his wings so his powers are basically useless during the entire story. But they both recover (although there's obviously scarring).

I have another character named Leo who is blind in one eye, but he's not super fleshed out yet.

I have far too many characters to do them all, but I'll do four:

Bade- Technically, he originated as an antagonist, but when I went to kill him off, I became far too attached… So, long-story short, he became a hero. Of course, I hate it in stories when a super-evil character suddenly decides, "Oh I'm a good guy now," and acts as morally stable as any of the heroes. No, no. This is a long process, so of course, Bade has a lot of problems. He's very inconsiderate, and he doesn't realize it. He cares about himself and the girl he's in love with, and that's it. He denies the existence of his own emotions and refuses to admit when he does feel sympathy for another human, because in the back of his mind, he still remembers what he'd learned as a villain; he's trying to shake it, but it's hard. He hates admitting when he's wrong, and he has a tendency to get way too mad over stupid stuff. He's still struggling with the fact that you can't just kill everyone who wrongs you. Bade does have a physical flaw, too; there's a long scar crossing the bridge of his nose and his left eye, so he's blind in that eye. He has other scars on his neck, back, arms, etc. caused by whip marks, but that goes into his backstory, which I don't have time to explain.

Shane- An original hero of mine, this man was nothing but flaws. A drug addict trying to escape his past, Shane wanted nothing to do with anyone around him. He spent most of his time wallowing in self-pity, so he never really got anything done. His anger issues are pretty intense– and he can't control himself very well when he gets infuriated. Even later in the story, when he manages (with the help of someone else) to break his addiction, he's always tempted to go back to it. He's overly jealous when it comes to the woman he finds himself falling for.

Chip- Chip is an extremely outgoing 14-year-old who acts like he's 7. His main flaw is his extreme EXTREME level of naivety. He always assumes everyone is out to do good, and this is exactly why in one of my books he gets kidnapped. He forgives easily and doesn't seem to learn that not all people are benevolent.

Zev (aka Wolf)- Zev is a good-hearted person, but he won't let himself trust people. He always assumes people are out to do evil to him, therefore he avoids them and can't form lasting relationships with them. He's always afraid of being hurt, and living in that fear keeps him alone. Being one of the most powerful character's in my story-universe, he automatically decides that everyone wants to either use him for his abilities or kill him, so he segregates himself from humanity and traps himself in literal and emotional solitude.

Thank you so much! I love hearing about other people's characters.
Do any of your characters have physical flaws?

I've actually always been curious about this: what makes physical flaws, "flaws"? I've always understood flaws to mean elements that make a character unsympathetic, and categorizing a physical abnormality as such has not really,,, sat well with me? It's sort of along the lines of people putting down mental illness, or disabilities, as flaws: the only reason one would be unsympathetic to a character because of these things is if they were ableist. So, in what way would a physical "flaw" make a character "imperfect", in the way that it's something they can improve on??

I see what you're saying. The definition of a flaw is a mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a substance or object. Physical imperfections or disabilities seem to fit into this definition. Flaws aren't meant to lower people's opinion of a character or cause them to feel unsympathetic for the character. Flaws are a way of giving the readers something to relate to and making the character more real. Fiction has failed if it doesn't cause the reader to actually feel as if the characters could exist or the plot could take place. Flaws are not a hindrance, but rather a characteristic that makes that character special to both you and your readers. Just like flaws in real life shouldn't be a hinderance to us, but rather make each and every one of us unique.
Does that make sense?

@I_D_Triskele I see what you mean, yes. In the way you explain it I understand that a phyisical flaw is just like any other trait that makes a character a unique individual. I guess I just always equated “flaw” with “something that causes the individual to make mistakes, and drives the character to grow and improve by learning from these mistakes, caused by flaws”. If that makes sense? Anyway thank you for your clarification, that actually helps me understand why certain people put things that I normally wouldn’t consider a flaw in their Flaws section. ^^

@Kaloobia Now that you mention it, you may have a point there. Perhaps there are different kinds of flaws.

Helen is THE strongest, smartest, wisest, most knowledgeable character I’ve ever made and also an overpowered mofo that can not die. But she’s impulsive as all can be. She doesn’t bother to ask if she SHOULD do something, she’s only concerned if she CAN. She wants to experience the world to the point that it has nothing left to offer her. She knows she can do it, because she can do anything, so she does it no matter how detrimental or devastating it may be. She’s done all sorts of heinous, blasphemous things in the name of satiating her wicked curiosity. This leads her to getting punished by the embodiment of The Void and earning her a deathless life of suffering. (I mean, things get better, but things have to get worse too.) Her character revolves around deconstructing hedonistic curiosity that destroys others and oneself. She isn’t evil, but she isn’t good. At best, she’s chaotic neutral at its extreme and least beneficial.

Cloven can not relate to other humans, due to her mechanical nature. She does not have the same values as them, and can be insensitive when suggesting things such as a solution for a problem. She lives longer than humans, and such prefers not to form meaningful relationships (although during the course of the story she accidentally does.) She also possesses a major flaw, a “switch” in her programming that her controllers (which don’t control her right now) can turn on to wipe her memories and make her aggressive to those around them but the controllers.
She also views most people as inferior to herself, unless they prove their worth somehow to her. Or do a favour.