#character flaws

[luna-azzurra]

List of 40 character flaws

Stubbornness, Unyielding in one's own views, even when wrong.

Impatience, Difficulty waiting for long-term results.

Self-doubt, Constant uncertainty despite evident abilities.

Quick temper, Excessive reactions to provocations.

Selfishness, Prioritizing one's own needs over others'.

Arrogance, Overestimating one's own abilities.

Trust issues, Difficulty trusting others.

Perfectionism, Setting unreachable high standards.

Fear of change, Avoiding changes.

Haunted by the past, Old mistakes or traumas influencing the present.

Jealousy, Envious of others' successes.

Laziness, Hesitant to exert effort.

Vindictiveness, Strong desire for revenge.

Prejudice, Unfair biases against others.

Shyness, Excessive timidity.

Indecisiveness, Difficulty making decisions.

Vulnerability, Overly sensitive to criticism.

Greed, Strong desire for more (money, power, etc.).

Dishonesty, Tendency to distort the truth.

Recklessness, Ignoring the consequences of one's actions.

Cynicism, Negative attitude and distrust.

Cowardice, Lack of courage in critical moments.

Hotheadedness, Quick, often thoughtless reactions.

Contentiousness, Tendency to provoke conflicts.

Forgetfulness, Difficulty remembering important details.

Kleptomania, Compulsion to steal things.

Hypochondria, Excessive concern about one's health.

Pessimism, Expecting the worst in every situation.

Narcissism, Excessive self-love.

Control freak, Inability to let go or trust others.

Tactlessness, Inability to address sensitive topics sensitively.

Hopelessness, Feeling that nothing will get better.

Dogmatism, Rigidity in one's own beliefs.

Unreliability, Inability to keep promises.

Closed-offness, Difficulty expressing emotions.

Impulsiveness, Acting without thinking.

Wounded pride, Overly sensitive to criticism of oneself.

Isolation, Tendency to withdraw from others.

[3hks]

Flaws to Give to Characters II

When I first posted "Flaws to Add to Characters," it gained a lot more popularity than I thought it would! And since you all loved it so much, here's another one!

>>> Selfishness - When one becomes too focused on themselves, they start to ignore those around them who've helped along the way.

>>> Indecisiveness - When one can't make a decision, ultimately, they are stuck and unable to progress.

>>> Self-Centered - Self-centered people are often too consumed with themselves to worry about anything else. Sometimes it's similar to selfishness, and other times it's not. They may be too vain or too busy victimizing themselves to care about others.

>>> Gullibility - A seriously gullible person is easy to trick, manipulate, and hurt.

>>> Skepticality - People that are just too skeptical can be difficult to deal with because they seemingly have to question every action. There's always a motive behind kindness, right..?

>>> Bluntness - Though honesty is the best policy, bluntness is something else. Being too honest can be quite hurtful depending on the situation.

>>> Pushover - Not being able to say "no" when one wants to makes it difficult to be able to advocate for themselves. Additionally, they can get taken advantage of and used.

>>> Easily Offended - This person will absolutely take EVERYTHING personally. Those around them have to be careful about their words, actions, or even behavior because they will look too deep into the most non-meaningful actions. This is usually a result of insecurity.

>>> Overthinking - We all have our moments with this one. Overthinking can often lead to indecisiveness, ensuring that a decision won't be made in the future.

>>> Impulsivity - Sometimes it's better to just think things through. Being too impulsive can lead to unideal situations, events, and outcomes.

Whaddya think? Were these helpful? I'm thinking about continuing these series, but what do you think? (Not gonna lie, these posts help me get my ideas and thoughts in order too.)

Happy writing~

3hks <3

[imbecominggayer]

How To Write Character Flaws

One of the most important aspects when writing a character are flaws since flaws increase reader immersion, reader investment, and the overall compelling energy of a story.

Flaws are necessary in creating character arcs where either these initial problems are improved or exacerbated.

Despite the fact that flaws are important, writers can struggle with how to seemlessly incorperate flaws within their characters in an interesting and natural way without just feeling like they're throwing bad traits in randomly.

Here we go!

A) All Character Traits Are Both Flaws And Strengths

Flaws are often dark reflections of the positive qualities identified in an individual.

If your lover is a strong and determined person then you are also likely dating someone who is stubborn.

If your friend is emotional and caring then they're also overly sensitive.

This is due to the fact that flaws are really just character strengths taken to their logical extreme. As the saying goes "the dose makes the poison". An excessive amount of carelessness, curiousity, love, emotion, confidence, and every single virtue inevitably results in personality defects.

You most likely have your character's strengths somewhat laid out whether these strengths be open-mindedness, kindness, determined, and anything else.

Taking these strengths to their logical extreme, you will often find flaws such as naivety, savior complex, stubborness, and other such flaws.

B) Whether Something Is A Strength Or A Flaw Depends On Context

Character A is trusting and Character B is distrusting.

Let's put them in the situation of meeting someone in order to illustrate how both character's defining traits could be their downfall depending on who this character is.

If this "someone" is a helpful individual, then Character B's flaw of distrust create unnecessary discorse within the group and could drive away this positive influence.

If this "someone" is a manipulative someone, then Character A's trusting nature harms the group as it allows someone harmful to enter.

Whether or not a character's actions are perceived as beneficial or harmful depends on if the result is good or bad for the character's goal.

This means that when you are presented with a character who seemingly has no flaws, what you can do is create situations where these good actions result in bad results.

An open-minded character might accidentally walk face first into a cult because they were too accepting of the weird activities

A kind character might cause their allies to become overly dependent on the individual's generosity

A determined character might be so obsessed with succeeding at this specific task that they fail to see the bigger picture and the more effective solution

[helpful-writing-tips]

A character flaw is only a flaw until it becomes useful.

Is your protagonist overprotective? That sucks... until someone they love is in danger.

Is your protagonist manipulative? Well, that's awful... until they manipulate the antagonist into making a decision that saves the lives of their friends.

Is your protagonist a skeptic? Well, that's not good... until someone tries to lie to them.

Is your protagonist remorseless? Well, that makes them pretty unlikeable... until a hard decision has to be made.

[slayingfiction]

Character Flaws

When creating characters, it's all too easy to envision the most perfect people, especially when it comes to creating love interests. Even our loveable morally grey characters are mostly perfect, if only they would stop killing...

So, here are a list of some flaws (based on personality, not appearance) to help round out your characters. While it's nice to be good at everything, it's abnormal. No one is perfect, and your characters will be much more relatable if you knock them down a bit.

Please note, none of these are (specifically) mental disorders, as I don't consider those a character flaw.

The Good (aka little flaw):

Absent-minded, aimless, argumentative, audacious, awkward, blunt, bold, boring, capricious, childish, clumsy, competitive, complainer, cowardly, critical directionally-challenged, dubious, finicky, fixated, flake, flirty, foolish, gossipy, gruff, gullible, hedonistic, humourless, hypocritical, idealist, idiotic, ignorant, illiterate, immature, impatient, impetuous, impulsive, incompetent, inconsiderate, indecisive, indifferent, indomitable, irrational, lazy, lustful, materialistic, meddlesome, meek, mischievious, nagging, naive, nervous, nosey, obnoxious, overambitious, overconfident, overemotional, overprotective, overzealous, passive-aggressive, paranoid, peevish, perfectionist, pessimist, pest, predicatable, pretencious, prideful, rebellious, renege, rigorous, sarcastic, skeptic, seducer, selfish, self-righteous, shallow, slacker, solemn, spacey, spoild, squeamish, stubborn, supersticious, sycophant, tactless, tease, tempermental, tenacious, theatrical, thoughtless, timid, unpredictable, unsupportive, vain, workaholic

The Bad (aka big flaw):

Addiction, adulterous, aloof, anxious, apathetic, arrogant, belittling, belligerent, bigmouth, bitter, bully, callous, deceptive, dependant, deranged, dishonest, disloyal, disrespectful, egotistical, envious, erratic, exploitive, fanatical, fickle, fierce (at the extreme), gluttonous, greedy, harasser, hubris, impious, infamy, intolerant, judgemental, lewd, liar, meglomaniac, morally grey, narcissistic, negligent, obsequious, obsessive, offensive, prejudiced, quixotic, reckless, rigid, self-martyr, self-righteous, short-tempered, spiteful, squanderer, stingy, unethical, unforgiving, untrustworthy

The Ugly (aka cross the street when you see this person):

Abusive, bigot, controlling, cruel, explosive, immoral, inhumane, intolerant, machiavellian, manipulative, murderous, neglectful, oppressive, racist, remorseless, possessive, self-destructive, threatening, treacherous, vengeful, vindictive, violent

The seven chief features of ego: self-deprecation, self-destruction, martyrdom, stubbornness, greed, arrogance and impatience.

Some of these may not even be considered flaws, and some may jump from one category to the next. It's all about how you present these flaws in your characters.

Have any more to add? Did you find this useful? Let me know down in the comments :)

[the-modern-typewriter]

God, I love when a character's strength is also their flaw. It's just *chef's kiss*!

[thepedanticbohemian]

[ahb-writes]

Writing Problem: The Villains Are Cartoonish, Evil-for-the-Sake-of-Evil

Problem: The Villains Are Cartoonish, Evil-for-the-Sake-of-Evil

Solution: Villains require just as much character development as the novel's heroes, protagonists, and perspective characters. Effective villainy incorporates consequential decision making, relatable character motivations, believable perspectives and experiences, and most important, intention. When a writer diversifies these facets of a so-named villain's free will, humanity, personal interests, and relationship with the story's main conflict, one is better-positioned to craft a more diverse and more engaging villain.

Writing Resources:

How Your Character's Failures Can Map A Route To Self-Growth (Writers Helping Writers)

Good Character Flaws: Create Complex Antagonists (Now Novel)

50 Questions to Ask Your Antagonist (Alyssa Hollingsworth)

Antagonist Starts Good, Becomes Drunk With Power (related, master list) (Writing Questions Answered; ahbwrites)

16 Villain Archetypes (Chosen by the Planet; ahbwrites)

How to Give Your Antagonist a Little Humanity (Fiction Writing Tips; ahbwrites)

How to Write the Perfect Villain (Jericho Writers)

How to Build an Antagonist (How to Fight Write)

Negative Trait Thesaurus (Evil) (One Stop for Writers)

Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus (Evil) (One Stop for Writers)

❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Character Flaws

Nobody is perfect.

By depicting characters who mirror that sentiment, it’s easier for us to understand and connect to them.

Flaws don’t just add character depth though, they can also drive the entire story.

They can create personal arcs that raise the tension of the main conflict.

Flaws make the character’s success (if it comes) that much more rewarding.

But when we’re developing our own characters, how do we build flaws into them? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but we can pull some tips from some examples.

A lack of flaws: Characters like Superman who don’t have a lot of character flaws need other kinds of things to create compelling stories. Superman was intended as a symbol of hope. The fact he fights people or lifts heavy things is rarely ever interesting these days, but the way he handles problems and fights for the downtrodden still resonates with people.

Flaws & plot work together: A character flaw should have some meaning to the plot. Haymitch’s (from The Hunger Games) drinking isn’t particularly interesting until you learn about his history and realize that it’s a coping mechanism. Irving’s (from A Strange Loop) get-rich-quick schemes create the conflict in the story. And Hinata’s (from Haikyū!!) flaws are something that he’s constantly working to overcome to reach his goals.

Proceed with caution: Finally, character flaws are an important part of creating well-rounded and believable characters, but if you treat sensitive topics too lightly—or misunderstand them—you risk upsetting part of your audience.

While you might have the best of intentions, if you’re dealing with serious issues that real people deal with, it would be a good idea to do some research or get a sensitivity reader. Or both.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References ⚜ "Well-Rounded" Character Worksheet

[whosthere54]

Noooo babe put your clothes back on I’m going to talk to you about the parallels of destruction and creation as character foils.

[lucy-ashton]

[luna-azzurra]

Character flaws for an anxious character

Constant worrying: Obsessively fretting over even the smallest details.

Overplanning: Creating elaborate contingency plans for every possible scenario.

Indecisiveness: Struggling to make decisions due to fear of making the wrong choice.

Social anxiety: Feeling extremely nervous or uncomfortable in social situations.

Perfectionism: Setting impossibly high standards for themselves and others.

Avoidance behavior: Dodging situations or responsibilities that trigger anxiety.

Overapologizing: Saying sorry for everything, even when it's not their fault.

Hyperawareness of physical sensations: Being overly sensitive to bodily sensations and interpreting them as signs of impending doom.

Catastrophizing: Jumping to the worst-case scenario in any given situation.

Need for reassurance: Constantly seeking validation or reassurance from others.

Rumination: Getting stuck in a loop of negative thoughts and overanalyzing past events.

Difficulty relaxing: Finding it hard to unwind and let go of stress.

Overthinking: Overanalyzing every word or action, leading to anxiety about social interactions.

Physical symptoms of anxiety: Experiencing symptoms like sweating, trembling, or rapid heartbeat in stressful situations.

Avoidance of confrontation: Going to great lengths to avoid conflict or uncomfortable conversations.

People-pleasing: Putting others' needs and desires above their own to avoid conflict.

Overpreparation: Spending excessive time and energy preparing for events or tasks.

Self-doubt: Second-guessing their abilities and decisions due to fear of failure.

Fear of the unknown: Feeling anxious about uncertain or unfamiliar situations.

Imposter syndrome: Believing they are not worthy of their achievements and fearing they will be exposed as a fraud.

[3hks]

Flaws to Add to Characters

So, are you searching on how to make your character a little bit less perfect without giving them too many extreme deficiencies? Well, I have a few examples, and some of you guys might've not even realized that they're flaws!

Inability to get over the past - This doesn't have to be as serious as people think! Maybe the past just influenced your character in a way that affects their modern life!

Self-reliance - This doesn't sound like a flaw, doesn't it? Well, in some cases, it could be an issue a character struggles to overcome, and other times, it can actually be a part of a character's development! However, the act of never accepting help from someone is most definitely a shortcoming.

Apathy - I think that this is pretty self-explanatory. Over-passionate people are dangerous, but worse than that are people who don't care enough.

Over-passionate - It's still a flaw, guys! Having too much passion for one thing to the point where nothing else matters is harmful to your character.

Vengeful - Revenge is a strong fuel, but never the answer.

Detached - Almost like self-reliance, but to a more severe degree, where they don't see the need for not only anyone's help, but for anyone in general.

Possessiveness - If a character is too possessive towards another character, it could harm the latter's mental health and ruin any relationship between the two.

Manipulative - Manipulation is detrimental to people's mental health and stability, as they are being used carelessly and left with confusion about their identity, beliefs, and/or purpose!

Self-destructive - Honestly, this has a pretty wide range of examples, it could go from neglecting oneself to actual self-harm. Either way, it's definitely not healthy for a character.

Superiority/God complex - The problem is in the name: a character with these complexes simply believes that they are better than everyone else. It's similar to arrogance, but not quite the same.

Here you go! Ten flaws that you can incorporate in your characters!

Happy writing~

3hks ^^

[lumieumie]

I’ve seen a lot of stuff abt Keefe being emotionally manipulative and I’m not gonna disagree but I do want to point out what he grew up around. Like, his parental environment is very obviously one of the most unhealthy dynamics in the lost cities, and I think it’s been made pretty clear throughout the books that the very last thing he wants is to be like either of his parents. The emotional manipulation everyone points out is very likely not intentional and he probably doesn’t even realize what he’s doing. It doesn’t excuse it, but I just feel like ppl need to look a little deeper than just “Keefe manipulates everyone”. It’s the same thing with Fitz and his struggle with regulating his emotions. Yes, he lashes out and hurts people, but it’s not the intention. These actions are done because these people have been hurt and traumatized in different ways and they respond in an unhealthy way, not because the characters have malicious intent for anyone. It doesn’t excuse it, but it’s important to remember before jumping the gun and being like “xyz is horrible and irredeemable!!1!11!1!!”

[helpful-writing-tips]

giving characters flaws:

turn their best qualities completely upside down. turn those traits around on them.

they're too compassionate? maybe they're way too easily forgiving and get screwed over by it repeatedly.

extremely outgoing and extroverted? maybe they're apathetic to those who struggle with even having small talk, and make those people highly uncomfortable.

brave? maybe they can be reckless and often get themselves in unnecessary danger.

[iamumbra195]

I want to see heroes or vigilantes with secret identities becoming pathological liars.

It started as lies to protect their identity from being revealed but then the lies began to seep into their regular everyday life and now they’re lying about innocuous details in their life that nobody cares about and they don’t know why.

It’s not like it’s on purpose. It just feels like it’s impossible to tell the full truth without embellishing it with an unnecessary lie and now they’re caught in a web of lies they can’t untangle.

Yeah. Heroes that are pathological liars, everyone.