Stephanie Donelson

Perfect characters are boring. We have no reason to root for them or watch them grow. We like seeing others overcome problems and their own flaws to achieve their goals; no one wants to read about Awesome Anna who doesn’t have to overcome any obstacles to win her happy ending. 

We’re all flawed and we’re all going through our own journey, like any character with a character arc. Flaws drive action, show us how the character thinks, creates conflict and tension, as well as shows backstory. 

Many writers bucket flaws into four buckets: Major, minor, fatal, and tragic. 

When we studied English and literature, we all learned about fatal flaws and tragic flaws. Fatal flaws are flaws that block a character from finding fulfillment or achieving their goal or inner desire. Fatal flaws stop characters from moving on or growing, the whole point of your story. Many characters are blind to their fatal flaws or refuse to see it as a problem. 

The tragic flaw is when the character cannot overcome their fatal flaw and this flaw has led to their downfall, often used in a tragedy. The tragic flaw is also often used to explain why the antagonist is the way they are or why they can’t beat the protagonist. 

So, assuming you’re not writing a tragedy, what other kinds of flaws can you write that are major, minor, or fatal? Let’s cover 10 of them!

10 common character flaws

1. Fear

A debilitating fear of heights, an aversion to blood, scared of spiders, or even being a germaphobe; these are all relatable fears that can be used in creative ways to impede the protagonist from achieving their goal.

These fears should be used by the antagonist, and the stakes should be tied to the character’s ability or inability to overcome the fear. If the knight in shining armor has a serious fear of heights and the princess is locked away in a tall tower, her fate is in his hands to overcome his fear.

This type of flaw can show how the character has found the inner strength and courage to face their fears or overcome them. An inspiring message any reader can identify with.

2. Believing a lie

A lie as a flaw could be a mantra or something the character believes to be true that will get them in serious trouble. Maybe they were hurt by a partner in the past and now the lie they tell themselves is that everyone is out to hurt them.

This stops them from forming relationships, trusting others, or opening themselves up to new experiences and new people. Most often the lie is destructive but the protagonist just can’t see it and clings to this lie because it’s how they’ve lived their life for so long. It cannot be easy for your character to suddenly see the truth and let go of the lie. There will be a lot of self-growth and discovery they go through to see the lie for what it is and overcome this flaw.

3. Addiction

Characters that have addictions are also relatable and this flaw almost adds in a ticking clock on the story as it can easily take over a person’s life or cause them harm or a loss of something important, like family or friendships. Addiction can take the form of gambling, abusing substances, inappropriate activities, sex addiction, etc.

We watch the cycle of the addict craving, giving into temptation, talking themselves out of it, then giving in again. It’s a simple way to add tension, stakes, and conflict in your story in a natural and sometimes heartbreaking way. Characters will feel shame or get super defensive and argumentative to hide how serious their addiction is. They’ll withdraw or perhaps even start doing illegal activities to fuel or finance their addiction.

Overcoming this addiction will not be easy, but if your readers like and believe in the character, they’ll act as a cheerleader even when the character stumbles along the way toward controlling their addiction.

4. Jealousy

The flaw of jealousy can manifest in several ways, like the character being controlling, needy, spiteful, obsessive, or manipulative. It’s another flaw we can all identify with as we’ve all experienced being jealous, but now we’re seeing it in the extreme.

We want to see how the character learns to overcome their jealousy and learn to be happy with their own life. They need to see how their flaw has been responsible for a lot of the negative aspects of their life and how they actually do have control over this part of themselves.

5. Loyalty

You might be thinking I’m crazy by including loyalty as a flaw, but it definitely can be! Characters that are loyal to a fault, blinding them from the truth or another’s manipulations, is a flaw. 

This could be something like having a character that pledges their loyalty to the bad guy, which can set up the story’s central conflict, stakes, and tension as they unravel the truth about where their loyalty should truly lie. Or maybe a character is supremely loyal to their sibling, but now it’s come out that the sibling killed a person. Can the main character remain loyal? We’ll find out!

Often loyalties tie into relationships or beliefs, so make sure the reader is clear on why the character feels their loyalty belongs where it does or what’s motivating them to stay loyal.

6. Impatience 

Impatient characters are great at jumpstarting action scenes or adding new conflict because they just couldn’t wait and now they’ve gotten themselves captured, hurt, or found out by the antagonist.

Impatient characters can also up the stakes of the story as their friends or allies might abandon them due to their impatient nature. We like to watch these characters learn restraint and self-control and wait to know everything they can before taking action. 

7. Arrogance

This flaw makes the character think that nothing can hurt them or nothing has more power than them. They’ll be cocky and talk down to people, an action that might get them in more trouble than they expect. This flaw is a great one but needs to be done with care. If the protagonist is too arrogant, why would readers identify with him or her? They still need to be likeable, unless they’re meant to be unreliable or an anti-hero.

8. Laziness

Refusing to act or being overly lazy can be a major flaw for a character who needs to learn to make decisions and be an active participant in their own lives. Maybe their laziness caused their partner to be kidnapped by the antagonist or their laziness made them late to a job interview and they’re on their last $100 and rent is due.

Like arrogance, this flaw must be handled carefully as it can be very easy to for readers to become disinterested in characters who are super lazy or find ways to blame others for their problems. We still need readers to root for this character and want them to succeed by the end of the book.

9. Bad decisions

Maybe your character is bad at making decisions under pressure or has a lack of common sense or just all-around poor judgement. This flaw can lead to the poor plot point of a person’s phone dying in the middle of the woods because they forgot to charge it.

Being bad at making decisions is a flaw that easily adds conflict as the character continues to make the wrong choice and can quickly add stakes to the story as their decisions get worse and worse, with worsening consequences for the character. You should also make the character stand behind their decisions or feel they were justified in making the choice they did – at least at first!

Just be careful with this one too as if your character makes too many bad choices, people won’t identify with the character or won’t’ have any sympathy for them as the character has moved into the “too stupid to live” category.

10. Hypocrisy 

Characters that embody the “do as I say, not as I do,” are severely flawed and great for upping conflict in stories and adding tension as other characters get annoyed or upset with them. These characters can be funny as we see them be hypocrites, but it can quickly cross into infuriating if done to the extreme.

Are you currently working on a story? What’s your character’s major flaw and why did you choose it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!