Compelling fantasy characters are made relatable and interesting through flaws that are intrinsically linked to their greatest strengths, rather than being randomly assigned.
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Flaws are the secret to making your
fantasy characters relatable and
interesting. Yet, most new fantasy
writers approach flaws the wrong way. I
know I did when I started out, but after
publishing four fantasy books and after
coaching over 200 writers in my
different programs, I've realized that
there's a much better approach to
designing meaningful flaws for your
characters. Once you see this, you're
never going to be able to unsee it again
because you're going to realize that
this approach has created some of the
absolute best characters that you have
ever read. Okay, so to start with, what
is the wrong way to build character
flaws? Well, the wrong way is to do it
randomly. Maybe you look at a list of
different character flaws and you go,
"Hm, I guess my character is impatient.
I guess maybe she's greedy and maybe
she's clumsy as I'll explain why this
approach is an issue in a moment. But
first of all, if you're feeling called
out here, don't stress. When I was a new
fantasy writer, I did this all the time.
And in some of my previous YouTube
videos, I've probably even shared lists
of different character flaws to get you
to use this approach. It is certainly
better than not having any flaws for
your characters at all. That's because
when you write characters without flaws,
they just don't feel that interesting
and they just don't feel that relatable.
and you're not really giving them any
room for growth or the capacity to go on
this adventure to overcome this internal
struggle within them. Because like it or
not, you and me, we both have plenty of
flaws in our life. I know I certainly
do. And when we see those reflected in
the characters we read about, it makes
it so much easier for you and me to
identify with them and to cheer when
they overcome those flaws. Okay. So,
what actually is the issue with the kind
of random flaws approach where you're
just grabbing flaws from anywhere and
you're just pasting them onto your
characters. Well, the big issue here is
that it lacks a sense of cohesion with
the character's true nature. So, let me
explain the better approach to designing
character flaws, and you're going to see
why this is far superior. The better
approach is to ask yourself, what is my
character's greatest strength? And then
you ask yourself, what weakness does
that strength create? I call this the
power paradox. And the reason why this
is so interesting is because in life,
whatever our greatest power is, when
it's taken to an extreme, it often
becomes a liability. So, for instance,
if you are extremely organized, that is
amazing. It probably means you stay on
top of things. But it might also mean
that you suffocate the fun out of some
experiences and you say no to things
just because they're spontaneous and
they don't fit into your organized
plans. If you are extremely confident,
that maybe allows you to inspire other
people and it maybe means that you are
quick to take action because you just
know that this is going to succeed. But
it probably also means that sometimes
you rush into poor decisions. Likewise,
if you are extremely kind to other
people, always doing things for other
people, that probably leads to you being
able to give a lot of love in your life,
but it might also mean that you are a
tremendous people pleaser or that some
people take advantage of your
generosity. So, that right there is the
power paradox. Your greatest strength
often forms your greatest weakness.
Let's run through five character case
studies to see this principle in action.
The first example I want you to look at
is Logan Ninefingers from the First Law
series by Joe Abocrombie. Logan's
greatest strength is that he is this
incredibly fearsome barbarian warrior
from the north. His name sparks terror.
He survives brutal battles. He outsmarts
his enemies and he wins from seemingly
impossible situations. But that same
strength also forms his greatest
weakness. Because throughout the series,
Logan is trying to get away from the
violence of his past. He is constantly
trying, or at least he says he wants to
become a better man. Yet, the very thing
that made him strong, his tremendous
skill with violence, keeps dragging him
back towards bloody situations. Another
example is Harry Potter from the Harry
Potter series. Harry's greatest strength
is his willingness to sacrifice himself
for others. In this sense, he's a polar
opposite from Voldemort, who tries to
get other people to sacrifice themselves
for him. So, this means that Harry
repeatedly puts himself in situations
where he is in danger in order to try
and protect the people he loves. But you
can probably see where this is going,
right? That same strength of being
willing to sacrifice himself for others
also creates his greatest weakness.
Because Harry's instinct and his
eagerness for self-sacrifice often makes
him extremely reckless and extremely
prone to guilt-driven decision-making.
He carries around this kind of crushing
weight of responsibility from trying to
protect and save other people around
him. And he often struggles with feeling
like he could have done more. He could
have been a better protector. At times,
this leads him to isolate himself from
his friends or to make really dangerous
decisions or go off on really dangerous
solo missions by himself because he
doesn't want other people to get hurt,
but then it kind of leads to other
people getting hurt because of that. Our
third case study here is Shalon from the
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson.
Chalan's greatest strength is her
ability to create alternate identities
using a combination of her lightweaving
powers where she can kind of craft
illusions and also the skills she slowly
develops as a spy over the course of the
series. She learns how to adopt
different personalities like Veil or
Radiance to help her adapt to different
situations. But this same chameleonic
skill is also her greatest weakness
because her ability to kind of create
new versions of herself to have these
alternate personalities, she sort of
uses it to escape from traumatic events
in the past. She fragments her identity
and this means that sometimes she
struggles to know who is the real
Shalan, who is the real true version of
me, which holds her back in her
relationships with others and really
affects her own mental well-being. Our
fourth character case study is Paul at
Trades from June. What do you think
Paul's greatest strength is? I would say
it's his ability to have these precient
visions of the future. He can perceive
the branching paths of possibility,
allowing him to navigate war and
politics and relationships with this
supernatural insight. But as we follow
the power paradox theory, you can see
how this greatest strength of his also
becomes his greatest weakness. Because
Paul's precience, his ability to see
into the future, it often traps him in
the present. And it often leads him into
situations where he feels like he has no
free will. He feels like he's just a
train running down this track with no
ability to deviate. We see this a little
bit in June, but it becomes
significantly more pronounced in June
Messiah, which is the second book in the
series. The more clearly that Paul sees
this holy war that's going to be waged
in his name, the more he realizes that
he is kind of like trapped and unable to
stop this horrible thing from happening.
even though he is a being of tremendous
power and political influence. So his
gift of foresight becomes a prison of
destiny, forcing him to make decisions
that he knows is going to lead to the
deaths of billions of people, but he
knows he kind of has to do it because
there are even worse possibilities out
there in the future. And then our fifth
and final character case study is
Kazreer from Six of Crows by Lee Bugo. I
would say that Kaz's greatest strength
is his meticulous planning. He's a thief
and a criminal and he comes up with
these incredibly complex, really
wellthoughtout schemes in order to con
people and steal money. And he's really,
really good at thinking through every
little detail and every little
contingency. Yet, this same obsession
with planning also creates his biggest
flaw, which is that his need to control
every variable of a situation often
makes him unable to handle the
unpredictability of human relationships
and genuine human connection. He often
keeps his friends, his crew members, and
even the love interests he develops in
the story at arms length because people
can't always be planned for or
controlled in the way that he likes. And
that, of course, is an internal struggle
that he learns to work on and improve as
the story progresses. So, I could go on
with this and you are more than welcome
to leave some other character examples
down in the comments below, but with all
these characters, I hope you can see
that their flaws make them interesting
because they're not just pasted onto
them randomly. They are using the power
paradox to look at this character's
biggest strength and then identify what
weakness that strength creates. And when
you can do this, it creates a much
better sense of cohesion in your own
story. So with your own fantasy
characters, I want you to think about
this right now. Ask yourself, what is
this character's greatest strength? And
then what weakness will that create?
That is how you write compelling flaws
that drive your plot forward in an
interesting way. Of course, flaws are
just one aspect of a great fantasy
character. Watch this video over here to
learn about the 10 most common
protagonist mistakes that I see new
fantasy writers make all the time. If
you can learn how to avoid these
mistakes, you're going to stand a much
better chance of writing a character
that readers love. Keep riding and keep
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