Tag: character trait

Posted in Characterization

Characterization: Collecting Characters

Posted on by L. M. Montes

You have an idea for a story you want to write, but you are unsure about how to create the main character. Don’t over think this. If you do, you will come up with very little. What I like to do is collect characters. More to the point, I collect character traits I see in other people. Write this information down if you have to. I don’t. I tend to keep up in my head. I shouldn’t do that, and neither should you. Some people really strike a cord with me to the point that I can’t forget them. One such person comes to mind. I met her at the casino last week. She was nice but then turned into one who spoke down to my friend and I like we didn’t have a brain in our heads. I listened with a smile and thought, I’m going to use this in a short story. So my mind started coming up with a story right there on the spot.

I was irritated with the above example as it was happening. That’s ok. Those emotions worked toward the story being played out in my head. That’s good. Collect what is in front of you. Something else you can do is combine personality traits of two different people to create one character. I did this with my character Maggie in all three of my novels. When creating her character, two female friends I knew years ago with different yet strong personalities came to mind. These two ladies I always admired because of their strong will and positive attitude. In my mind their different traits came together to form Maggie.

Creating characters doesn’t have to be a mind blowing chore. Relax and take notes. What you come up with will be great.

Posted in Characterization

Character Flaw

Posted on by L. M. Montes

According to Wikipedia, a character flaw (sometimes called a fatal flaw) is as follows:


Character flaw – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Character flaw
In the creation and criticism of fictional works, a character flaw or heroic flaw is a bias, limitation, imperfection, problem, personality disorders, vices, phobia, prejudice, or deficiency present in a character who may be otherwise very functional.

How do you choose a character flaw for your main character? That is up to you. I centered it around the story. Once you choose a flaw, how do you use it within the story? Is it just there throughout and that’s all and the character goes about their business within the story and never learns anything from circumstances or their actions, etc? If that’s the case, do we even have a story? No. Not really.

The protagonist in your story is supposed to learn along the way. Their character flaw inhibits this at first, but gradually he/she comes to realize they need to change in order for their mission/goal/quest to succeed. By the end of the book they will have overcome this flaw.

Example:

Let’s say you have a main character named Molly, who’s in high school. Her flaw is that she’s timid/shy. She doesn’t like confrontation or violence and prefers to avoid it at all costs. She doesn’t like to hurt the feelings of others, so she avoids situations where she might have to speak up and maybe make people angry. Therefore, she doesn’t speak up for herself either. So, how does she learn to overcome this and become stronger inside? How does she get others to stop picking on her? How does she speak up for the truth and defend her friend Johnny?

In the above example, you have to get Molly from point A to point B to point C to point D; point D being the end of the story where she finally speaks up and gets over her shyness. Getting from one point to the next will involve a series of events called trials and errors that will serve as learning opportunities for her grow, but she can’t do this without these trials and errors.