Posts in Series for Annette McCleave
- Support
- Just for fun…
- Writing Mastery
- Golden Heart
- The Yin Yang of Character
- Generosity
- Passion
- Setting Goals
- Observing
I’m going to offer this out there, not because I think I’m an expert in character development (’cause I’m not) but because it helped me. A lot.
Have you ever struggled when developing a character, trying to get their strengths and weaknesses just right? Maybe it’s just me, but I used to agonize over what flaw my characters were supposed to have — I loved them so much, giving them a horrible flaw seemed cruel, even though I knew I was going to help them grow through it by the end of the book. Picking the right flaw was hard. 
Until someone enlightened me with: a person’s greatest strength is often also their greatest weakness.
Huh? I had to think long and hard on that.
But now I can see how true it is. Let’s say, for example, your heroine’s greatest strength is that she’s tough — she can handle anything that comes at her. Doesn’t it make sense that her greatest weakness is that she never thinks to ask for help? If your hero’s greatest strength is that he’s honest, doesn’t it make sense that he’s going to say things that hurt? If you have a character who is extremely generous to everyone, isn’t it possible s/he is emotionally bankrupt when at home? Or, if you have a character who’s intelligent, that s/he tends to debate even the most trivial of things when they don’t make sense? This yin yang concept works really well in reverse, too. If your villain is bitter and twisted over his mother having abandoned him as a child, doesn’t it makes sense that he finds homes for stray kittens?
I know, for some of you, this is “duh, of course that’s the way it works, silly” but understanding this concept really helped me. I hope it can help someone else out there in blogland, too.
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Annette, good post! A writer friend once pointed out to me that a hero’s (or heroine’s) greatest strength should/could be used to overcome their fatal flaw for the ending of the story. I was like, hey, duh! That works! (need a smacking forehead smilie)
Isn’t Annette fabulous? *g*
I thank my lucky stars for her daily.
Honestly, I’m so craft ignorant I don’t know WHY things should be a certain way. I’m always very grateful when someone explains it to me. It’s like learning the mechanics of a magic trick. Once you know how it’s done, you know how to repeat the magic.
Hmm, thought-provoking post, Annette. Definitely makes sense to me. Thanks for sharing
Hey Carol, just glad it helped someone besides me.
Okay, so I don’t read extremely thoroughly. LOL
Thanks, ANNETTE!
Yes! Makes perfect sense and I think I knew this, but just wasn’t applying it with the revisions I’m currently doing. OMG, you just gave me a lightbulb moment of how to make everything work.
Thanks, Sylvia!
I’m definitely a can’t see the forest for the trees kind of person and this brought the forest into focus.
You made some very good points, Annette, that sometimes we forget and that can be very helpful to many writers.