HOME | DD

WritersArchives — Character Flaws - Emotional
Published: 2008-10-07 21:13:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 23197; Favourites: 478; Downloads: 86
Redirect to original
Description Emotional flaws are an integral part of making your character likeable to your readers. Believe me when I say, the more perfect your character is, the more your readers are going to be turned off by him or her and the more likely they will be to drop the book and never read it or another one by you again.

The reason is: they won't be able to identify with the character. No one in this world is perfect. If you make a perfect character, your readers are going to feel inferior to that character and hate him/her. They're not going to like the fact that s/he is always right, always wins, always knows everything, always says the right thing, etc., etc.

A character should always have at least two flaws. Especially a main character. This way, your reader can watch them grow and grow with them. If you have a series, I would choose 5 flaws so once your character defeats one flaw, they can start working on the next, just like in real life. Choose one flaw to be the major one, while the others are subtle and go unnoticed until the first flaw is fixed, then the next one can show itself boldly. Remember, also, a person—even once they have worked on a flaw—will sometimes fall back into the flaw from time-to-time.

Look at your friendships and relationships with those around you. Use your and your peers’ flaws.  

Don't have an idea of what you can use as character flaws (also called weaknesses in the Character Sheet)? Here is a list to get you started:

CHARACTER FLAWS
1. Pessismistic (the belief that the worst thing is going to happen in every situation. I.E. "We're all going to die")
2. Cynical (distrusting the motives of everyone and everything around them, cynics are often confrontational. )
3. Sarcastic (always mocking the comments people make)
4. Inner Pride (the opinion that oneself is better than someone/everyone else, feels it but won’t necessarily expose their pride)
5. Showing Pride (the act of verbally/physically expressing one's pride/arrogance to others)
6. Blind Stubborness (unreasonably inflexible, not giving in when it is obvious to everyone else a better alternative can be reached later)
7. Selfish (hoarding things to oneself, also the lack of caring of how others feel)
8. Dishonest (a compulsive liar)
9. Need to Be Right 24/7
10. Playing the Victim (someone who twists situations around to make it look as though they were the ones who were suffering)
11. Control Freak (Everyone knows someone like this)
12. Greed (wanting everything and then some for yourself, a sub-category of selfishness)
13. Laziness
14. Traitor
15. Cowardice (we’re not talking the normal fear that everyone feels in desperate times with that fight/flight instinct. We’re talking bold outright cowardice; someone who does everything they can to stay out of a sticky situation and make sure others reap the hazards. They’re only goal is to look out for number 1. Also people who put the blame others just so they themselves won’t get in trouble for something they did, but especially when that other person had no part in a situation.)
16. Fear of Something (heights, spiders, death, etc.) to the point where it can get others hurt or even killed
17. Ignorance/Stupidity
18. Indecisive (inability to make decisions)
19. Slow-thinking
20. Inability to Adapt (will oftentimes be stumped as to what they should do when things change all of a sudden because they can’t cope with changing situations)
21. Folds under pressure (characters often have high anxiety)
22. Angry (quick to anger/angry all the time)
23. Cold-hearted
24. Holds Grudges (i.e. refusal to let go of past quarrels/wrongs made against him/her, etc. and refusing to accept apologies)
25. Lives in Fantasies rather than Reality (i.e. wanting something they can never have/fantasizing about having something they never can like the way 'things used to be', or about a certain person, etc.)
26. Inability to move on (dwelling on things that happened in the past, rendering them incapable of moving forward)  
27. Workaholic (taking on so much work they oftentimes overwhelm themselves and their daily lives are often filled with stress, especially from not being able to finish all the work they set out to do.)
28. Immature to a fault (especially when they’re old enough to know better than to act a certain way)
29. Torturer (these characters love making others suffer, generally for no other reason than to see others in pain. They may only purposefully say hurtful things, or go as far as physically harming others)
30. Quarrelsome (always fighting/arguing about something)
31. Town drunk
32. Immortal Complex (These people tend to think nothing bad will ever happen to them and may fall into a state of shock when it eventually does. They will often endanger their own lives or others’ lives because of their unrealistically high optimism.)

There are more character flaws than these, of course. These are just to get you started.
Related content
Comments: 36

cartoonygothica [2021-02-06 09:20:02 +0000 UTC]

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

SelenaMiley [2019-05-08 23:45:31 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! I'm so using this!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Rathaloshunter16 [2018-12-26 18:24:36 +0000 UTC]

My character´s flaws in my story Dragon among humans are:
5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 22 and 23.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

NinjaEeveeKitty [2018-10-25 16:09:26 +0000 UTC]

Is it okay if I reference this in a character creation tutorial? I can't link back to it because fanfiction.net refuses to allow many links, but I'm putting the title and author in full for people to look up themselves. I just want to check and see if you don't mind, because this is far better than what I could have done myself, going into an amount of detail that I'm not yet capable of going to.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

PAPotato [2018-04-19 21:10:46 +0000 UTC]

My character's flaws:
Fear
Inability to move on
Sarcastic
Cynical
Dishonest (to self)

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

GreyRoseKit [2017-08-26 03:20:37 +0000 UTC]

My character's flaws
-Fear (of small spaces, water and being touched)
-Cold-hearted
-Control freak
-Torturer
-Dishonest 
-Immortal complex 

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

NictheWerecatqueen [2017-06-05 13:31:26 +0000 UTC]

My character's emotional flaws
Fear of Something (heights, spiders, death, etc.) to the point where it can get others hurt or even killed
Indecisive
Folds under pressure
Workaholic
Inability to Adapt

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

ViktoriaMagrey [2017-03-27 05:42:45 +0000 UTC]

My character finally found a rather decent in between point thanks to these stuff. 
Sbe´s rather forgiving, and can be loyal and very creative with solutions. She used to be very pessimistic and arrogant, now she turned it down a little. But something I made her be a lot of people don´t make their characters be unless they´re intended to be side characters or the typical flawed "hero" is the lazy trait. 
I am really happy of how she´s coming together

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Manu-Santoos [2016-10-15 06:41:09 +0000 UTC]

But... but we're all going to die ;-;


Haha, lol, nope. Ahem.

Nice article! Very helpful! Keep up the good work, please!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

RockmanGurl [2015-10-04 20:48:41 +0000 UTC]

This is why flaws are so important to me. Yes, you want your characters to be likable, but you want them to be REAL. And nice all the time and perfect ISN'T real. 

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

SkyeWolf1312 [2015-04-24 00:39:58 +0000 UTC]

Hmm. If a characters' flaw is an inability to moveon from a tragedy and they brought the person they were grieving back to life, it wouldn't help them eliminate that flaw would it?

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

candle-liight [2013-08-24 16:40:44 +0000 UTC]

This is one of the greatest tutorials on flaws ever   Thank you so much for posting it!  It's helped both me and a friend of mine a lot

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to candle-liight [2013-09-28 14:10:18 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! 

I plan to update it here soon.  

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

PetLoverSpy [2013-01-30 20:57:25 +0000 UTC]

... My character has half the stuff on that list x'DDD I tend to create very flawed characters, but still, this list is useful!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to PetLoverSpy [2013-06-16 20:56:49 +0000 UTC]

Looks like you've got quite some experience behind you! Your avatar is so cute. Mine hurts my eyes.
Must. Fix. My Avatar.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

PetLoverSpy In reply to WritersArchives [2013-06-29 21:49:40 +0000 UTC]

Ahaha, thanks! Yours is funky, though I'm no sucker for GIFs either :3
Just realized I forgot to +Watch you! I can definitely use the tutorials, so here's an extra watcher.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to PetLoverSpy [2013-09-28 14:10:34 +0000 UTC]

Aww, thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Lauren-Eliz [2010-06-29 03:11:53 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! Will use.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to Lauren-Eliz [2013-06-16 20:55:27 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! And thank you!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Aracely [2010-03-27 04:28:25 +0000 UTC]

Sweet! I can use this for my story. Thanks for posting this!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to Aracely [2013-06-16 20:55:05 +0000 UTC]

No problem!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

admiral-squee [2009-12-13 23:51:37 +0000 UTC]

Flaws are fun! I should show this to one of my friends...

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to admiral-squee [2013-06-16 20:54:51 +0000 UTC]

lol! I know the feeling.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

nickynamo [2009-10-06 23:03:36 +0000 UTC]

Oh god. I've been saved from the evil Mary Sue!

I've been having real issues with finding flaws for my currently "perfect" character. But now, it's time to make her more human.

Thanks a million!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to nickynamo [2013-06-16 20:53:53 +0000 UTC]

No problem! I used to make perfect characters. My ex-friend still does, as far as I know. When we stopped being friends, she had to make her characters the most powerful ones around (i.e., in a Star Wars role play, her characters were even more powerful than Force Users and would give Force Users headaches, and they were basically impossible for Force Users to kill, even though they also used the Force, but used it in a different manner. In another story where she created her own world, her character again had to be the most powerful, most talented in her that particular power), they had to say everything right, and her characters were always bashing what other characters wore as if her characters knew the most perfect fashion trends.

It got old after the first character. I felt I had to keep making my characters more and more flawed to make up for her characters' perfection. It was horrible and annoying. No matter what world she was writing in, that was the theme for her character. Most powerful, most perfect, other-character-bashing character. *shudders*

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Ciel-Hedgehog [2009-09-12 14:26:55 +0000 UTC]

Not only is this a good point, but there are a lot of examples I never even thought of! Great job! ^^

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to Ciel-Hedgehog [2013-06-16 20:48:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I LOVE character flaws. They are so much fun to work with. I one time made a character with way more flaws than perks and I loved writing that character, but hated the character himself at the same time until he grew up.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Miyo-sama [2009-03-07 21:28:23 +0000 UTC]

Twilight is bad at flaws, This is helpful Thank You!

👍: 0 ⏩: 2

WritersArchives In reply to Miyo-sama [2009-04-24 18:08:12 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

SimpleBend In reply to Miyo-sama [2009-04-18 00:34:23 +0000 UTC]

LOL. Good observation.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to SimpleBend [2013-06-16 20:45:09 +0000 UTC]

Yes, lol, very good observation. Back in 2009 I didn't even realize what Twilight was. I still haven't read the books, only saw the movie and ran screaming in the opposite direction, and refuse to read the books.

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Ankh-of-chiaroscuro [2009-01-02 00:19:11 +0000 UTC]

Okay, I would REALLY like to thank you for this tutorial. When people talk about realistic or perfect characters, physical appearance has always come up. At least until now. (For the love of God, ugliness is NOT a character flaw!)
Thanks for focusing on what REALLY matters in making a character.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to Ankh-of-chiaroscuro [2013-06-16 20:43:46 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome. I agree! Ugliness isn't a flaw, it's a physical trait. Which, looking back on this now, I really need to remove the disability from the character flaw. Because mental/physical disabilities aren't character flaws either, they're another physical trait. I always thought of wearing glasses as a flaw because I have to wear glasses. >.< Now that I'm reaching 30 I'm learning to accept my physical traits. Hmm, inability to accept yourself as you are, or others as they are--now that's a character flaw and one I should add. See, people? I've grown! I could write a story about myself! (no, it would be boring, really).

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Safaia-no-Sora-hime [2008-10-23 13:20:36 +0000 UTC]

thx for posting! this is gonna be really helpful for my characters.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

WritersArchives In reply to Safaia-no-Sora-hime [2008-10-29 17:40:51 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome. I'm glad to see that my tutorials are helping you and others. It makes me very happy.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Safaia-no-Sora-hime In reply to WritersArchives [2008-10-29 23:09:28 +0000 UTC]

glad you're happy!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0