Friday, October 28, 2011

The Lure of Imperfect Characters

I am not sure about other writers, but personally I love Imperfect characters; both while reading and while writing. Most of the characters I create have some or the other imperfection in them. Imperfection is actually the new perfection. The smudge of Imperfection in characters adds an unexplainable and undefinable appeal.

Characters in books mirror real life people. We all have our own individual idiosyncrasies, flaws, shortcomings and insecurities. So it’s nothing unusual if characters reflect these traits. Actually this quality (Imperfection) makes a character more real. Readers find it easy to identify with someone who is imperfect. Someone who makes mistakes, is swayed by emotions, is prone to mood swings is more real than a character who is calm and unruffled and who never makes mistakes. Though we look up to perfect people, they do give us a temporary sense of insecurity.  We feel small in front of them. We may even secretly and subtly resent their perfection and larger than life image. But it’s the imperfect characters we bond with. In their presence we revel in our own imperfections. 
 Have you all noticed that more and more often our protagonists lead imperfect lives. As the story unfolds, these imperfect characters leading imperfect lives try to resolve the conflict by tackling their own personal imperfections first. 
Aristotle called it Hamartia, which was seen as a character flaw. This character flaw can be a limitation, a problem, a phobia, or a deficiency present in a character who is otherwise quite normal. The character flaw may be a violent temper that may turn out to affect the character’s actions, abilities, or interactions with other characters. Sometimes it can be a simple personality defect which only has effect on the character’s motives and social interaction and nothing else. 
Flaws or imperfection add depth and humanity to the characters in a narrative. For eg the mayor with a penchant for gambling, the hero with claustrophobia, the heroine with an alcohol problem. One of the most famous example is ‘ Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.’ 
Character flaws can be slotted into three categories.
 Minor Flaws make the characters memorable in reader’s mind, these give the character individuality, but other than that they do not affect the story in any way. They can be a scar, an accent, biting the lower lip, twirling the moustache, a girl constantly flinging her hair back. A protagonist can have several minor flaws, each having no effect on the plot.
Major Flaws are noticeable and important. They affect the individual physically, mentally, emotionally, morally or spiritually. Major flaws are not necessarily negative : they can be rigid religious beliefs or a strict adherence to a certain lifestyle. Major flaws like: greed, blindness, deafness, lust, often hamper and restrict the character in one way or the other. The major flaw is important for the character’s personal development and the story. Heroes and heroines must overcome their own major flaws either partially or completely, either temporarily or permanently, at some point in the story, very often by the climax, by sheer determination or skill to be able to solve the larger problem at hand. For a villain his major flaw is frequently the cause of his downfall. The protagonist’s major flaw defines the core problem, the entire journey to remedy this problem forms the firm backbone of the story, sometimes prodding the plot forward.
The last flaw is the Tragic Flaw, it’s the cause of the character’s downfall and eventual death. Tragic Flaw arises out of the character’s misplaced trust in another character, an excessive amount of curiousity that sucks him into problems, pride that plunges him into a world of loneliness. The fall that often arises out of the Tragic Flaw occurs at the beginning of a story.
Do you like perfect characters? Or Imperfection is the new perfection for you? What kind of character flaws do your characters have? 

22 comments:

  1. Rachna, this is a brilliant post, with which I agree in entirety. We are all imperfect (even if we'd never admit it to ourselves). Therefore we naturally seek the imperfections in others- a form of validation, that the imperfection acts as a conduit, allowing us to open up and share.
    I think readers especially love to see a character who is able to rise above his imperfections particularly because we ourselves yearn to rise above our own...
    Something to think on... :)
    xx Tee

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  2. Rachna- Your each post is like delving into a treasure trove! Very well written. Happy Diwali!!

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  3. I wouldn't know where to start writing a perfect character. I start with the flaws and pad from there.

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  4. Brilliant post, Rachna. Especially since I sometimes have difficulty reading about MC's that are a little TOO flawed. They're so imperfect that I can't stand them for long. And if I can't stand them for long, I won't sit and read for them for more than a few minutes. I need to at least like the MC. Preferably love him and I've recently seen a spate of unloveables. Don't get me wrong, I love complicated characters. Snape is AWESOME, for instance. But he's not the MC. I need to at least start off liking the MC, though flaws can be obvious, but I guess I feel some writers can take this trend too far.

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  5. I couldn't agree more! When crafting characters I always ask myself, what's their primary flaw, and once I have that I understand that character:)

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  6. I love imperfections. Sometimes I've had problems with making characters so imperfect that readers might not be able to identify with them. It's a balance!

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  7. Imperfect characters are more interesting to read about! If the character is "too" good and life for them has no ripples to overcome then what holds the reader's attention? Great post, Rachna. Liked how you broke down the categories of minor, major and tragic flaws. And I'd never come across the word hamartia before. Love learning new things :-)

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  8. You did an excellent job of explaining this! I now know my characters' major and minor flaws--I knew they weren't perfect but I couldn't have spelled them out to anyone.

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  9. Perfect characters are good in small doses. Assassins make good perfect characters. Someone so deadly, and perfect at their job that they scare everyone, even the reader.

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  10. I struggle with finding the flaws in my characters--or deciding what is actually a flaw. Some things depend on the reader; for example (to use one of the major ones you listed in your post), there are those who would consider a strict lifestyle to be a good thing.

    And I also think it depends on how the other characters in the story perceive those flaws (or lack of them)--if they act like the character is perfect, blind to what s/he is actually doing when there are imperfections, is the character imperfect? Is the entire cast?

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  11. but your posts aren't an inch imperfect :)

    Weakest LINK

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  12. With many imperfections we 'real' people live our lives in this imperfect world. So too our characters should be. I start with incomplete, flawed characters and then they become really damaged. It's the only way to write.

    Hope you had a great time on your break.

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  13. I like that - "Imperfection is the new perfection". That will definitely come in handy! :)

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  14. well learning is becoming more interesting for me now...and i am surly going to experiment with what u have beautifully said "Imperfection is the new perfection"...and Mam for bringing it out for us here...and i am happy that this will also help my friends to write more beautifully ...

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  15. Interesting post.

    Maybe that's why people find beauty in imperfections. It gives them an opportunity to mould that imperfection.

    A point to ponder would be - would we allow our imperfections to be shaped and corrected by others?

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  16. I realised in the killer characters blogfest that my fav characters are the imperfect ones that have some colour to them. My protagonist is quite self absorbed and yet she can also appear sympathetic I've been told. I have yet to write a truly colourful character though.

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  17. Great post, Rachna! Hey do drop by my blog – I’ve put my Ten Commandments for Writers!

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  18. My main character in the new book I'll be starting for NaNo will have some major flaws. The main one is that she has a hard time trusting people and when she does finally put her trust in someone it's the wrong person. (I'm so mean to my characters!).

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  19. My favorite characters are always the imperfect ones. I love Tony Stark in Iron Man because of just that reason. Another favorite is Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot-- he's so brilliant, and so arrogant, but I LOVE him.

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  20. another good read Rachna. Hope you had a good Diwali:)

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  21. Another great post, Rachna. Let's hear it for flawed characters. I actually had an epiphany with my WIP recently when I realized I was writing from the point of view of the 'wrong' brother. Brother no. 1 was a bit too soft, positive and just all-around "nice." Brother 2 was the polar opposite, and when I started writing the scenes in HIS point of view, things really just FELT better and started to take off!

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  22. Another excellent post, Rachna! I hear you on imperfect characters. They make for more believable and realistic multi-dimensional characters. ;)

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