Fatal Flaws-By Laurie Schnebly Campbell

What fun to be with a bunch of great writers -- and readers!

A few weeks ago a friend asked me why her hero needed a fatal flaw. Wouldn't an ordinary flaw be good enough?

And I realized that it IS misleading to call these flaws fatal...because how often, at least in a happy-ending book, does the hero wind up dead?

(Okay, we won't count the gorgeous vampires.)

But unless we're writing about James Bond or someone else where the action matters more than the character, every single person we write about will have some kind of flaw.

Why? Because real-life people HAVE flaws. And it’s those defects, or the desire to overcome them, which can lead to our characters’ motivation.

SPEAKING OF MOTIVATION...
The fact is, virtually everyone -- in fiction as well as in real life -- is doing the best they can with what they’ve got.

A serial killer? Yep. A cheating spouse? Yep. A compulsive spender? Yep.

As writers, we can make those people every bit as easy to understand as the tax-paying, lawn-mowing, child-loving characters. (Maybe they’re one and the same.)

That doesn’t surprise anyone who knows that even the darkest villains have some plausible motivation for whatever they do.

It's only natural. After all, none of us ever does ANYthing without a reason.
(If you just crossed your legs, you had a reason: your body was uncomfortable in the old position. If you move to Antarctica, you have a reason: maybe you got a job there, or someone you love got a job there and you’d rather be with this person in Antarctica than without them somewhere else. We don’t always think about our reasons for whatever we do, but no matter what we do, there’s a reason.)

So every character, just like every real-life person, is doing whatever they think will work best for them at this point in their life. Holing up in an ivory tower. Partying all night. Nurturing everyone they can get their hands on. Worrying about terrorism. Everyone picks what seems like the best way of getting along in the world.

And what they pick is a clue to their personality type. Which, again, is something that EVERYONE has.

We don’t care much about the cabbie who drives our hero to the train station, so that cabbie doesn’t need any special personality type or motivation...nor any fatal flaws. He doesn't need to overcome any problems in his life or his personality.

But every major character has to overcome something in order to evolve during the course of the book. And that’s why we writers need to know our characters’ fatal flaws.

FINDING A FATAL FLAW

It’s handy that enneagram theorists have already identified a flaw for each of the nine personality types. "Ennea" (ANY-uh) is the Greek word for nine, and enneagrams are handy for counselors and personnel managers who want to understand the people they're dealing with. Which makes them handy for writers as well!

Of course each type has its own special strengths as well as its own particular weakness. And our characters -- just like all of us -- manage to overcome their flaws most of the time.
But stress can bring out the worst in people.

We already know that stress, or conflict, is what keeps a story interesting. So our characters are going to come up against situations that reveal the worst of their flaws...which will give them the opportunity for a triumphant change.

No matter which type they are.

Each type's name gives a clue to their strength, and their flaw is what happens when that strength is taken to extremes:

Perfectionist One: Anger when they (or anything else) isn't perfect
Nurturer Two: Pride in being needed by everyone around them
Achiever Three: Deception to keep up their outstanding facade
Romantic Four: Envy because other's lives seem MORE glorious
Observer Five: Avarice for more privacy and greater knowledge
Skeptic Six: Fear of possible danger to their loved ones (or self)
Adventurer Seven: Gluttony for every possible new experience
Leader Eight: Lust for power, to be in control of their surroundings
Peacemaker Nine: Sloth, keeping life comfortable and decision-free
See the possibilities? That's only the beginning!
(circle diagram)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN...

I've talked enough, here, but if there's anything you'd like to know about your characters or their types -- or the types of anyone else in your life -- I'll be checking back for questions all day.

Bio: Laurie Schnebly Campbell has spent 20 years writing ads, her Master's in Counseling thesis, and romance novels for Silhouette Special Edition -- including one that beat out Nora Roberts for "Best of the Year."

Now she writes about finding people's best traits, and balancing those with traits that'll create conflict...not only BETWEEN credible characters, but also WITHIN them. Today she'll share techniques for creating your hero's (or any other character's) fatal flaw, and you can find out more in June when she teaches a month-long class at www.rwamysterysuspense.org/coffin.html .