Character flaws.
It seems like a pretty common and basic piece of writing advice that characters need flaws to be interesting and worth reading about. I have found this to be completely factual. Part of it, of course, is that perfect people are not conducive to conflict, and if there's no conflict going on, I am just not there. But on another level, I think being imperfect is such a huge part of being human, of existing in the first place, that it's just not possible to connect to anyone who does no wrong enough to be invested in their welfare. They are too unlike actual humans, which are... the things we're hard-wired to connect with.
I made that up just now to justify my affection for characters who are total dicks, relentless screw-ups, etc. I'm kinda pleased with it.
...Okay, but seriously. I find it a chore to read about characters who have no bad traits that impact them/the story in a meaningful way. I mean, if they're fundamentally good people, fine (I guess), but they better be more complicated than that. And I think I've figured out how this applies to my own writing and some of the difficulties I've been having lately.
So, in terms of reading, flaws > no flaws, right? But in terms of writing, it's a bit more specific. There are characters I have an easy time getting a handle on and characters I never quite figure out, even in some cases like 60k words in (LOOKING AT YOU, JARVIS). I guess the most reasonable assumption would be that the characters I manage to nail down immediately are the ones most like me, but that's actually not the case. Jarvis was superficially a hell of a lot like me (nerdy, sarcastic, skeptical, chronically alarmed by anything resembling feelings). Gerald and I have a similar brand of social tone-deafness, manifesting in large part as the tendency to heedlessly ramble about Exciting Things, at great length and in stupefying detail, to uninterested parties in the misguided hope that they will BECOME interested no you don't understand their EYES are THE SAME TEMPERATURE no matter HOW DEEP THEY SWIM. But... that does not translate into having an easy time writing them, knowing how they'd react to stuff and what makes them tick.
What makes the difference is, the characters I figure out quickly - who I often end up enjoying writing more because it isn't some monumental difficulty, and who turn out, as far as I can tell, being more interesting to people who aren't me - the things they have in common with me are THE MOST TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME. They're not self-inserts or anything, and they usually have a lot of other things working against them in addition, but there's some area where their failings match up with mine. I mean. For example. I hope it is pretty clear that Essio is not me. But... I might admit, maybe, under duress, that I know a thing or two about empty bluster and trying way too hard to maintain this imaginary reputation as the baddest of badasses that NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE, and generally bullshitting everyone 24/7. It's possible that this is a phenomenon I'm not unfamiliar with. ...Is what I might say if I were not way too goddamn awesome to make any such concession.
Which is kind of weird. I mean, I guess unless I can break through this, the number of characters I can write is limited by the number of glaring character flaws I personally have, and my awareness of such. It's also weird that when I write a character sharing my own worst tendencies I'm like "HAHA YES WHAT A BASTARD. BEST CHARACTER" whereas in real life I look on these same traits much less favorably. FICTION IS STRANGE. And I have profound difficulty writing people who have things in common with me that AREN'T overwhelmingly negative? Gerald I'm sorry you are just too good a guy. You are a way better guy than I am. I don't get you.
...I guess this applies to the characters I write fanfic about, too, huh? I mean, it's basically documented that I originally latched onto Shinon because I, ahem, can relate a little too strongly to his RAGING IKE-HATRED. (Not in that I hate Ike, but someone important to me died and was replaced by someone so completely unworthy of my respect I don't know how they don't collapse under the weight of my scorn and resentment from day to day and - yyyeah) I can see my fingerprints all over my Pelleas, too - then again, maybe it's just a matter of my interpreting the characters in particular ways in the first place due to my own prior experience and weirdass mindset and. This is really a matter for an entirely different post, isn't it?
I made that up just now to justify my affection for characters who are total dicks, relentless screw-ups, etc. I'm kinda pleased with it.
...Okay, but seriously. I find it a chore to read about characters who have no bad traits that impact them/the story in a meaningful way. I mean, if they're fundamentally good people, fine (I guess), but they better be more complicated than that. And I think I've figured out how this applies to my own writing and some of the difficulties I've been having lately.
So, in terms of reading, flaws > no flaws, right? But in terms of writing, it's a bit more specific. There are characters I have an easy time getting a handle on and characters I never quite figure out, even in some cases like 60k words in (LOOKING AT YOU, JARVIS). I guess the most reasonable assumption would be that the characters I manage to nail down immediately are the ones most like me, but that's actually not the case. Jarvis was superficially a hell of a lot like me (nerdy, sarcastic, skeptical, chronically alarmed by anything resembling feelings). Gerald and I have a similar brand of social tone-deafness, manifesting in large part as the tendency to heedlessly ramble about Exciting Things, at great length and in stupefying detail, to uninterested parties in the misguided hope that they will BECOME interested no you don't understand their EYES are THE SAME TEMPERATURE no matter HOW DEEP THEY SWIM. But... that does not translate into having an easy time writing them, knowing how they'd react to stuff and what makes them tick.
What makes the difference is, the characters I figure out quickly - who I often end up enjoying writing more because it isn't some monumental difficulty, and who turn out, as far as I can tell, being more interesting to people who aren't me - the things they have in common with me are THE MOST TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME. They're not self-inserts or anything, and they usually have a lot of other things working against them in addition, but there's some area where their failings match up with mine. I mean. For example. I hope it is pretty clear that Essio is not me. But... I might admit, maybe, under duress, that I know a thing or two about empty bluster and trying way too hard to maintain this imaginary reputation as the baddest of badasses that NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO BELIEVE, and generally bullshitting everyone 24/7. It's possible that this is a phenomenon I'm not unfamiliar with. ...Is what I might say if I were not way too goddamn awesome to make any such concession.
Which is kind of weird. I mean, I guess unless I can break through this, the number of characters I can write is limited by the number of glaring character flaws I personally have, and my awareness of such. It's also weird that when I write a character sharing my own worst tendencies I'm like "HAHA YES WHAT A BASTARD. BEST CHARACTER" whereas in real life I look on these same traits much less favorably. FICTION IS STRANGE. And I have profound difficulty writing people who have things in common with me that AREN'T overwhelmingly negative? Gerald I'm sorry you are just too good a guy. You are a way better guy than I am. I don't get you.
...I guess this applies to the characters I write fanfic about, too, huh? I mean, it's basically documented that I originally latched onto Shinon because I, ahem, can relate a little too strongly to his RAGING IKE-HATRED. (Not in that I hate Ike, but someone important to me died and was replaced by someone so completely unworthy of my respect I don't know how they don't collapse under the weight of my scorn and resentment from day to day and - yyyeah) I can see my fingerprints all over my Pelleas, too - then again, maybe it's just a matter of my interpreting the characters in particular ways in the first place due to my own prior experience and weirdass mindset and. This is really a matter for an entirely different post, isn't it?