Character Flaws

There are two common reasons for picking character flaws.

The primary, and most important reason, is to make your character more interesting. In terms of story-potential, weaknesses give you as much to deal with as strengths. Most of the best stories revolve around weaknesses and how people overcome them. The second, less important reason, is to balance your character out for fairness.

Why We Want Flaws

We look for flaws in your character's application because it is one way we can tell how thoughtful you are with your writing. The approval process is there to determine if you'll be a good fit with the other writers, or if you'll spend time challenging them and trying to be superior.

You can also use flaws to balance your character out for fairness, but be careful with this approach. It can be tempting to tack on potentially insignificant flaws as an afterthought. A real flaw should be an important part of your character's life, perhaps even a defining characteristic.

Good Ideas

Good weaknesses are those that create storylines: a curse your character is seeking to remove; a limitation which forces the character to recruit others for assistance; a personality trait which gets your character into trouble or significantly and negatively impacts your character's life. These are all good choices for character flaws because they can provide inspiration to color your writing, and they can give your character (and others) a challenge to deal with.

Bad Ideas

Bad weaknesses are those used to pad your character profile because you feel like you need a weakness to get through the approval process. The most common ones we see that fit into this category are greedy, selfish, untrusting, and having a weakness to the opposite sex. Typically these flaws get tossed on after the character is finished being made, and don't have much of an impact.

We do not mean to say that it's a bad idea to be greedy, selfish, untrusting, or a womanizer. These types of flaws can help add color to your character, and when taken to extremes they can be serious obstacles. However, if you're adding it to your character solely so that you'll have something there to make it look like you took a flaw, because you couldn't think of something else, or couldn't bring yourself to do something more punishing to your character, it's not a good sign.

Fake Flaws

An inability to do something extraordinary is not a flaw. Just because your character can't fly, use magic, or kill a hundred men, does not mean it should be listed as a flaw. Not being able to use magic is only a flaw if your character is someone who is expected to be able to do magic. A mage or a fairy with no magical ability would have a real flaw. A regular person with no magical ability is a regular person and does not have a flaw.

A slight exception to near invincibility is not a flaw. Unless it has been pre-approved by a staff member, you shouldn't be making a character that is anywhere near invincible. You cannot balance such a thing with "On the second night, of the fourth full moon of an odd calendar year, you must go to this specific place and perform a ritual..." It's too complicated and would never happen.

Finding something 'difficult to do' but being able to do it anyway is (probably) not a flaw. So you can shoot a fireball that incinerates buildings, but it makes you sweat to do it. That's not a flaw. Hercules probably breaks a sweat when he throws boulders at people too. There is a gray area here and you'll have to use some judgement.

Severity

How severely your character suffers from a given flaw can change the nature of the flaw completely. Alcoholism cam be anything from a bad habit to a life destroying addiction that leaves your character destitute and wallowing in self pity. Simply stating that your character has a problem with drinking is one thing, but integrating the ruinous cycle of addiction and depression into his or her storyline is another thing entirely.

List

This is not an exhaustive list. It is here for ideas and comments.

Physical

• Old Injuries / Disfigurement: Missing an eye or a limb. Having an old wound that can open up.
• Size: Being particularly small or large and obese.
• Illnesses: An illness, not easily cured, can cause all sorts of unpleasant symptoms.
• Blind / Deaf / Mute: Loss of hearing/sight/etc.
• Birth Defect or Deformity
• Age / Arthritis / Physical Frailty: Whereas the young often lack experience and wisdom, the elderly have physical ailments to deal with.
• Allergies: Animals, pollen, hay-fever season, coughing, sniffling, sneezing, finding it difficult to concentrate.
• Hypersensitive: Increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, or sudden changes in temperature/weather
• Headaches / Migraines: From irritating to debilitating.
• Silver: This is a common shifter weakness. Silver can cause severe burns when pressed against the skin of a shifter and the wounds may take longer to heal.
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome:
• Indigestion / Acid Reflux: Mildly annoying, may be funny.
• Eczema: Itchy, flaky skin, especially in cold and dry seasons.
• Hip Displasia:
• STDs: ( ALSO HERPES )

Mental

• Fears:
• Other Mental Illness: Be careful with this one. We suggest you do your research and handle it in a way that is respectful.
• Insecurities: Some people constantly need to prove themselves, and make it obvious to everyone around them.
• Addiction: Severe addiction can ruin lives.
• Pride / Arrogance / Vanity / Ego: Nobody likes a boaster.
• An inability to say "NO": (either to others or yourself)
• Childish / Poor Impulse Control
• Laziness:
• Racism:
• Stress: Stress can reveal itself with anything from nervous ticks to emotional breakdowns.
• Perfectionism
• Ignorance
• Lack of patience
• Paranoia
• Insomnia
• Frequent Nightmares: Can be interesting to write about, but this doesn't usually affect daily life.
• Madness / Delusional: Don Quixote has nothing on you.
• Forgetfulness: I'll fill this in later.