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Also maybe an unnecessary addendum, but don’t hold back too much on making them flawed. I see a lot of writers (and myself in the past) really hold back or temper any flaw. Maybe they have a certain flaw but there’s a really good justification for it! Maybe they just seem selfish/cold/etc but aren’t actually.

A character can be deeply selfish, lack empathy, be cowardly, be ruthless, or any of all sorts of distasteful flaws while still being compelling and even likable. Characters can often be endearing purely because they are raw and human, not because you can weigh their soul against a feather.

There’s nothing wrong with making morally good characters, but I just found it deeply freeing to realize that I could push those more negative traits a lot farther than I’d been doing before and still have a character I liked and wanted to root for. I honestly like a lot of my more gnarly, messy, characters way more than my perfect moral paragons.

3 tips to writing character flaws

1) make their flaw congruent with the rest of who they are.

There’s a lot of different ways to do this, most commonly I’ve seen the “their strength is their flaw” which you can do but I’d recommend exploring it more deeply.

For example, maybe they’re good at attacking things head on, being honest and straightforward, but because they’ve always relied on that they don’t have the practice or an inclination to rely on other methods such as being more crafty, diplomatic, and subtle which are traits a situation sometimes calls for. I call this the “wrong tool for the job” flaw where an over-reliance on their strength handicaps them in situations where a different approach seems better suited. I think people and characters also just have a habit of using their tool for the job rather than the ‘best’ tool.

2) Don’t just tell us their flaw, show it.

Show this character trait coming out in their actions, have it influence the plot in key moments. If they’re reckless, don’t just have another character call them reckless, have them act reckless in a way that impacts their relationships with other characters or the plot.

3) Screw the whole “strengths vs flaws” thing altogether

try viewing character traits outside of a rigid binary of good and bad that you pull from a deck, and instead derive/connect them to deeper truths about who the character is, (how do they deal with problems/what is their ‘go-to’ method? what do they value? what are they skilled or unskilled at? what do they believe about the world and themselves?) and then why the characters is that way (note that it doesn’t all have to come from trauma. Please don’t attribute everything to a trauma. General life experience informs a lot of beliefs/traits, and then some is also just an inborn inclination) I have a longer post about how I tend to try to build a cohesive layout of who a character is.

Note as always, that these just things that I currently find helpful. Use or discard as works for you and your work. Happy writing!

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Reblog if you want people to send you asks.

Please, my inbox is so empty and devoid of life

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Jack: Hey, it’s really good to see you

Mac: You too, man

Jack: A big hug?

Mac: We’ll save it for after the flight, alright?

Jack: I love you buddy

Mac: I love you too, big guy

Poor drugged Jack XD And Mac is seriously the best kind of friend

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The perspective of someone who was homeschooled their entire life up to college.

First, a background on my specific experience. I was homeschooled secularly (not based on religion) and primarily taught by my mom who is a mechanical engineer (well educated) with no background in education. I am also neurotypical — to the best of my knowledge — so nothing that would immediately set me back in a typical school environment.

Socialization. This is a concern I hear brought up a lot about homeschooling. I could go on a whole rant about how weird and misleading ‘socialization’ is at schools, and that it’s something that has to be unlearned (cliques? Segregated to primarily interact with only your own age? Us versus them mentality with adults?) but instead I’ll just talk about my own experiences with it. Through my childhood my mom sought out opportunities to hang out with other kids. I studied martial arts for most of my life and made good friends in class, I went to hang out in other groups of homeschoolers, and as I got older I ended up being pretty active in my church (Lutheran fyi). As a teen I volunteered to work with kids both at my library and church. There’s a lot more stuff I could bring up, particularly regarding extracurriculars, but I think that paints a good enough picture. I’m introverted by nature, but I’d argue that I got plenty of opportunities to satisfy what little social itch I had, and developed good communication and collaborative skills with people of all ages.

Education/curriculum. Another common concern I hear about homeschooling has to do with the method and curriculum of education. Again, I could launch a whole argument about how typical schooling shouldn’t be the gold standard. I have the highest respect for educators, but the system is kinda screwed. I don’t believe any kid can be focused and actively learning for the entire length of a school day, and I don’t believe you can efficiently and effectively teach a huge class full of kids while meeting the needs of each specific one. Some kids are going to understand the concept in the first five minutes and be bored out of their minds, others aren’t going to get it by the end of the class. Everyone is going at their own pace and learning in their own way, and schools just aren’t capable of accommodating for that. I’ve spent a lot of time tutoring the kids who fell through the cracks, so trust me I know. Homeschooling, at least in my home, has been able to accommodate for both ends of that spectrum. My older sister raced ahead and started community college at thirteen, graduated college around eighteen, and is now doing her post-grad research halfway around the world surrounded by friends and passionate about hobbies and her lab work. I struggled deeply with math most of my childhood, but with my mom’s patience and support managed to overcome that (and get my damn A in calculus). I could talk more about methods, but I think the results hopefully speak for themselves. While my own achievements aren’t nearly as impressive as my sister’s thus far, I am closing on my first semester at college with A’s in all my classes (provided I get over a thirty-some percent on my Anatomy & Physiology final). I was prepared for college (even got almost a year of credits met beforehand via online classes, thanks pandemic) and have all the skills and support I need to succeed academically.

There’s more benefits of homeschooling I could talk about. My closeness to my family, the way I got to explore numerous different hobbies and passions due to not being overloaded with schoolwork and homework. My sense of ownership over my own education. However I also want to acknowledge that while I don’t believe this experience is rare, it is also not the experience of every homeschooler. Non-secular homeschoolers concern me, ‘unschoolers’ concern me. My hope with this isn’t to proclaim homeschooling as the optimal solution, to diss public schools, or to convince people to homeschool. My goal is to say that homeschooling can be a valid — or even the best — option for some people, and not just people who fit a specific mold (neurodivergent, educator background, etc)

TLDR: Socialization is kinda a bullshit concept but it can be done while homeschooled. Homeschooling can successfully prepare kids for college/higher ed. It can allow kids to pursue passions/hobbies and teach them to take charge of their education.

“It’s a better option for some kids/circumstances.”

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

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Shot from a WIP (animatic) I’m working on based on one of my fanfics :) I almost never draw backgrounds so this one frame has already taken me a few days.

For reference, it’s supposed to be Jack trying to fold paper clip flowers at Mac’s grave.

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Art is spending hours trying to figure out how to draw fucking rock

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S1E16 Enigma if anyone is still looking

I cannot remember the episode but all the time I think about when SG-1 was going to get into some shenanigans and they were like “well Daniel can’t get court marshaled”

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Me after I go off on an entirely unrelated rant

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Maybe he was exaggerating to Apophis because he wanted his damn glasses back? And likes to stand very close to his friends? Lol. Small inconsistencies especially with characters/characterizations drive me batty sometimes so I get what you mean.

I don’t know if Daniel is canonically near or farsighted, but if I see him standing two inches away from massive glowing script to read it, I think I’m gonna go ahead and headcanon him as nearsighted

(Sg-1 S1E12)

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Jack + Being Protective of Mac (requested by anonymous)

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Finals week so just some of my brain dead Macgyver doodles

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I don’t know if Daniel is canonically near or farsighted, but if I see him standing two inches away from massive glowing script to read it, I think I’m gonna go ahead and headcanon him as nearsighted

(Sg-1 S1E12)

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I don’t know why it was the guy with crippling allergies that brought Sam ‘get well’ flowers but it’s adorable and I love it.

I also love how everyone is waiting outside for Daniel as if he was one of the probes they send through the Stargate to make sure it’s safe.

Did they figure he’d be the most delicate about it? The least biteable? Have they been on a rotation and it just happened to be his turn?

(Sg-1 S2E2)

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Not to come in with the most surface level of takes, but wow the pure stress and anxiety Jack goes through every time he can’t protect Mac is so visible.

Throughout the show Jack handles the craziest, end of the world level threats with a few quips. Both his and Mac’s lives are constantly on the line, and he worries in general, I’m sure he does, but I think he’s fine when he can do something. When he’s there with Mac and there’s stuff he can shoot. But separate them? Whether it’s by a kidnapping madman or a sheet of glass, when there’s something stopping Jack from being able to watch Mac’s back Jack is terrified.

(First S1E8, next three S2E4, next two S2E9, next S2E11, next S2E15, last two S3E6)

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(Sg1 S2E3 spoilers)

The way Jack immediately believes that Daniel would be in trouble the second they landed in prison

Chooses probably the best person to babysit him (Carter could’ve kicked butt to look after him too, but Teal’c has that intimidation factor)

Doesn’t let him be unsupervised for even a second

And, miracle of miracles, he still ends up in trouble

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If I had a nickel for every time the Stargate team thought petting was the proper response to an unconscious teammate…

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No thoughts. Just going to be rotating ten seconds of footage in my head forever.

(Sg-1, S2E1)