forum Help! My poor character has no flaws.

Started May 14, 2018 by @@Rubyjane

tune

Please help! I accidentally made Lukas a little too perfect. If anyone has any suggestions for flaws that would make him a more developed character that would be awesome! Also, any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

He could be good w/ hand-to-hand combat but horrible at long-range? And maybe his motivation could be more selfish, like, ‘if i dont i die’, or ‘if i dont my brother dies’ or something

Well I know I know barley anything about this character, but maybe you could lead the being quiet and is nervous with him being not all there mentally. He could go off of instinct sometimes, or believe things that aren't his fault are. Or since he seems near perfect, once you get him talking he could not stop or brag a lot. this would create a contrast personality which a lot of real people have. He could be very dependent because it already seems like he kind of is with Camie. Maybe because he is quiet he could mumble and it would be hard to hear him, annoying people. Idk though, just some ideas

Something I do for character flaws is ask myself when is this character mean? What does it take to make them look back on themself and be ashamed of how they acted or how they spoke to someone? Basically what makes them not a good person. That's what I do if I have trouble coming up with flaws.

i just kind of skimmed the nature part of his profile, maybe you could make his fear of failing something that controls his actions and makes him act brashly, or make him only act for himself in order to avoid failure.

maybe you could actually think about something to do with character growth, something that shapes his personality and/or make him a bit less of a sap

Thank y'all so much. This has helped so much

I have some advice for this "flawless" problem (which, I've actually seen a lot on writing sites) - I'ts possible to make a characters perceived perfection a flaw. If you've made a character who is just a genuinely good person who has no physical or mental problems, that could be the subject of envy for others. I think it would be interesting for someone to try out making a character with few flaws, and showing the reactions their nature has on people around them. When I think about a flawless character I often think of captain america, and how tony stark seems to despise him because of his paragon nature. "sometimes I just want to punch you in your perfect teeth." And Cap's reckless heroism in it self could be considered a flaw. I think it's OK to have protagonists that are seemingly flawless heroes, but to make it realistic, you need to consider realistic reactions of others and downsides to being a perfect person.

Sorry if that was a bit preachy.

@doug
Thank you! This actually has helped a lot and makes me feel better about Lukas:)