Desmond’s Drops: Character Flaws
By Desmond Hall | November 20, 2024 |
Welcome to a new edition of Desmond’s Drops!
This month, enjoy three drops focused on one topic–pacing–each packed with great examples.
Email subscribers, please click directly to staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud to view, or visit all of Demond’s Drops on YouTube.
Have your own bit of wisdom to share? Drop it in comments.
Desmond Hall, author of YOUR CORNER DARK, was born in Jamaica, West Indies and then moved to Jamaica, Queens. His second novel, BETTER MUST COME, a fiercely evocative, action-packed YA thriller that examines that darker side of light-filled Jamaica, released in May, 2024. He’s worked as both a high school biology teacher and English teacher, counseled at-risk teens, and served as Spike Lee’s creative director at SpikeDDB. He’s also written and directed the HBO movie, A DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE, which was nominated for the Gordon Parks Award. He’s written and directed the theater play, STOCKHOLM, BROOKLYN, which won the audience award at the Downtown Theater Festival at the Cherry Lane Theater. He’s also served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and was a judge for the Addys, and the Downtown Urban Arts Film Festival. Named one of Variety Magazine’s 50 creatives to watch.
Thanks, Desmond. I always take notes and greatly appreciate your delving into important aspects of character building. Bravo!
Yes! I have just finished taking notes on these three videos. Thank you, Desmond. I am already seeing ways to enrich my WIP by applying these very helpful insights. And not only to the main character.
Thanks, Beth! Happy Thanksgiving!
Amazing suggestions, Desmond, thank you! I think it’s important to connect a character’s flaws to the story. For example, a character could have a severe fear of water (bodies of), but if that fear doesn’t have a strong connection to the story/plot/premise, it’s just a floating character flaw without purpose. The character can and should experience situations where the fear of water is vital to the story/plot/premise. Perhaps the character watched her father drown when she was a child, and now she must cross a body of water to survive.
While an author might feel that flaws are merely used to build three-dimensional characters, which is true, this mindset misses the opportunity to add depth to characters AND the story/plot/premise. Flaws should be carefully chosen for maximum impact.
Loved your videos. Will share!
Hugs,
Dee
He Denise! Love how you broke that down! Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello Desmond. You offer many points worthy of comment, but being a contrarian, I want to take issue with conventional wisdom. I think it’s more interesting (at least for me as a writer) to find alternatives to, say, a character’s major flaw, or the wounding event. I like developing characters whose big flaw is also the defining attribute with what makes her/him intriguing or even admirable. How about an alternative to Toni Morrison’s cold, racist slum landlord father? What if he were cold but guided in how he treats his tenants by social justice? What if he were warm and even generous to his tenants, but a racist? This approach locates paths to character development that are off the beaten path. I have a character whose first wounding event occurred at the age of seven, but it didn’t shape his life or define him as an adult. It didn’t wound him, but when happenstance places my character in a particular situation, the early experience is remembered and makes the character more sympathetic and understandable.
Thank you. I always view your drops, because they’re thought-provoking.
Good point, Barry. Not all traumatic events or trauma-inducing conditions are wounding. But a more sympathetic father would have detracted from his impact and made Milkman a different character and Morrison’s novel a different story.
All true, Christine. My only point is that working against type generates characters at odds with cliche or conventional wisdom. What could be more conventional than a cold, racist slum land lord? But when it’s done by a true talent, it still works.
Hi Barry! Love your contrarian stance. Not only would I be interested to see a character drawn the way you described, I’d pony up the dough to buy a copy. The conventions of genre are great to know and sometimes even better when we break them. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for the comprehensive drops, Desmond. Another challenge is making the relationship between the flaws and inducing traumas believable but not obvious. A hatred of dogs isn’t only caused by being bitten by one as a toddler. It might be more subtle, like how dogs’ eagerness to please reminds a character of his own useless efforts to please a cold, orderly demanding parent.
Wow! Now that’s interesting.
I like that. It reflects a wish to find a more imaginative path.
Hi Christine! I dig that subtle example! Happy Thanksgiving!
Desmond, your advice is always stimulating. I like how clearly you target these flaws and their performance in the storyline. Your background music is great. Is this by an artist we might know and find online to listen to, or is this your own signature soundtrack?
Hi Paula! Thanks for the comment. As for the music–I’m not musical like that. (I have a cousin back in Jamaica who’s an amazing keyboard player though.) And as for the track, it’s one I license.
Btw: Loved Dazzling Darkness – Bravo!