The Blind Nun

Character flaws

Just gonna go on a tangent about this for a second, because like

Part 1: Why they don't work and never have

The number one piece of advice people get about writing is to give their characters flaws. Your characters can't be too perfect. Flaws will make them interesting, dynamic, compelling, more real! Flawed characters make for a perfect story! But then someone will ask how to give their characters flaws, and the response is almost invariably something along the lines of

"Just don't make them perfect. Give them a scar or a disability or something."

This is some of the worst writing advice I've ever heard, right up there with "NEVER use adjectives ever" and "Nahh, you don't need to make backups of your work, it'll totally be fine and nothing bad will happen." It's also the single most common piece of writing advice I've come across. This is bad advice.

Because like… Scars aren't a personality flaw. Disabilities especially are not a personality flaw. Both these things have their uses in writing characters, but they aren't flaws. Honestly it's a little shocking that people think it's okay to outright say they think a disability is a character flaw to begin with, because like. Excuse me?

The next problem with this is that, even if these were somehow character flaws, most people don't want to make literally all their characters scarred and disabled. That's like saying that good characters are required to have blonde hair and bushy eyebrows. A character or two with those traits isn't an issue, but telling someone all their characters need one or both of these two traits? That's incredibly limiting.

Lastly, it encourages people to think up a character and then tack on the 'flaws' after. It's why we ended up with an era of perfectly smart perfectly beautiful perfectly skilled characters that had a disproportionate amount of angst about some tiny barely noticeable scar on their back. It's how we get characters that are 'clumsy' (in no way that actually matters to the story), or who have the sole flaw of being too perfect.

People made characters they liked, and they liked them exactly that way. Then afterwards, they had to tack on some 'flaw' they didn't actually want to be part of the character. So they of course make that 'flaw' as small and unimportant as possible. To go back to the "all characters must be blonde with bushy eyebrows" comparison, it's the writer trying to work around this unwanted restriction by giving everyone rainbow hair dye and eyebrow trimmers.

So, how do we fix that?

Part 2: How to fix that

… Or one way, anyway. There are infinite ways to solve this problem, most of which start by completely throwing out the standard scar/disability advice. Everyone has their own way to write characters. But just saying "idk, everyone is different, there are lots of ways" is ridiculously unhelpful. So, here's one way to do it that I really like to use personally. You can use it too, if you want.

instead of a flaw, I like to give my characters an Unshakeable Trait.

What is an unshakeable trait? It's the term I like to use for something that will always be true about a character. Something core to them, something that will never leave them for as long as they live. It is, most importantly, not a flaw.

Let's come up with a quick character as an example. Meet Alaric, who always keeps his word. Anything Alaric says he will do, he will do it.

This is Alaric's greatest strength.

Alaric says he will save all the orphans from the burning orphanage. People doubt him, but he does it. He said he was going to do it, so there was nothing that could stop him from doing it.

Alaric says he will catch the thieves hiding in the mountains. Many have tried and failed to do this, but Alaric says he can do it. And thus, Alaric does it.

Alaric says he will move a mountain? He wouldn't say it unless he could and would make it true. We've seen him do amazing things before. We don't know how yet, but we know that mountain is about to move.

One day, Alaric says he will slay the dragon. We know, for certain, that nothing will stop him from slaying that dragon.

… Not even if it turns out the dragon wasn't really bothering anyone.

… Not even if something goes wrong and Alaric ends up without the important tools he'd prepared for this task.

… Not even if the battle is likely to kill his entire party. Not even if killing the dragon will only make way for more dangerous monsters to move in. Not even if his friends beg and plead with him, Alaric you must stop, this is a death sentence to us all!

Alaric said he would do this, and he will.

Because this isn't just Alaric's greatest strength. It's also his greatest weakness.

The hearts of the readers are heavy as they realize what is about to unfold, but they are not surprised. By now they know Alaric and they know who he is. They know the dragon will die, no matter the consequences.

In the battle, the entire town and all the people who once lived in it is burned to the ground. Every last one of Alaric's friends die in battle. When the dragon falls, only Alaric is left alive.

… And that makes for a really interesting story! Gosh darn! That's way more fun than a story where some cool guy just always solves everyone's problems all the time! And now that we've seen the terrible consequences of Alaric's actions, we can take it even further! How exactly does Alaric react to what he's done?

Is he unable to cope with his terrible mistake, and twists himself into something awful trying to justify his actions?

Does he plead with the ashes, begging the charred town for forgiveness he cannot have?

Does he vow to take back what he's done? Drive himself to madness in pursuit of an unobtainable goal, every action an even greater mistake than the last?

Does he grow, and change his ways? Because he absolutely can do that. An unshakeable trait is always there deep down inside a character, but it is possible for them to learn to overcome it. It will be a battle they'll fight every day for the rest of their lives, and it is a battle they will not always win, but it is possible. Filled with regret, there may be a day where Alaric says he will do something… and then consciously makes an incredible effort to avoid doing it, because he realized it would be a mistake. Today, he was able to overcome his weakness. That trait isn't going anywhere though, and tomorrow is still unsure.

That is my favorite way to write a flawed character.

The most fun part is, this unshakeable trait can be anything. It can be that they always finish things very quickly. It can be that they love their friends more than anything else in the universe. It can be that they're always multitasking. It can be their child-like wonder, or their scientific mind, or even something as silly as their love of sweet potatoes. When made central to their character and taken to extremes, absolutely anything can function as this dual greatest strength and greatest weakness.

That being said, this is again just one way to do it. To say this is the only way to write a flawed character brings us back to "but they must all be blonde and have bushy eyebrows." And sometimes? Sometimes you don't even want to write a flawed character. Sometimes you want an invincible Superman, and if that's what you want then go for it!

This is one place you could start if you're feeling lost or unsure, but at the end of the day it's just a tool in your pocket. It's up to you to choose your favorite tools for the job.

Writing should be fun! Write what you love. Write what interests you, most of all.

Satsuten Fanbook Case 2

Case 2

The man who made himself into furniture – the human furniture artist

This is a short story from the Satsuriku no Tenshi Fanbook.

Written by Makoto Sanada, translated by me.

Keep reading

more people gotta try this shit where bill has not improved and will not change but he's just chilling so its fine probably. its great

Satsuriku no Tenshi Clear Files - Wonderland Version

Scanned by me

I made a comic out of a certain section of The Book of Bill! It's one of my favorite bits. It's just so VISCERAL and disturbing, and I really wanted to try capturing that. Anyways, hope y'all like it lmao

Just recently played through Homicipher - it was a good game. The whole mechanic of slowly piecing together the language was really fun, and the characters are simple- but pretty cool and interesting for having dialogue hindered by a language barrier and seemingly broken speech even when largely deciphered. Mr. Gap is probably my favorite at the moment.

Though I think it says a lot about me that I immediately thought of Zack when I saw Mr. Machete- and the fact that I’m now rapidly thinking of crossover scenarios…

If they did meet- to Mr. Machete, Zack would just be a smol human, an oddly respectable one that can stab and yell funny. And Ray would just be an even smaller human. Really boring though. Shame the funny man doesn’t seem to let him stab her.

Mr Crawling would immediately make it his goal to make Ray genuinely smile/have fun as soon as he sees the dead corpse energy she exudes. But he quickly realizes that that might not be as daunting as as task he originally assumed to be as Ray is morbid as all hell, and all he needs to do is trail her for a bit before she sees something in this horrid haunted place that piques her interest and he encourages her to have fun with it. (Zack watches with a disgusted look in the corner as Ray teaches Mr. Crawling to sew dolls with her)

Of course Ray would be the one actively making an effort to understand the language - and Zack would probably reluctantly pick up a few words here and there if only from the fact that he’s forced to overhear Ray and Mr. Crawling chatting it up all the time.

Zack would hate Mr. Gap specifically with all his heart- I can feel it in my bones.

i don’t want characters with healthy coping mechanisms, actually. i want them to yearn and weep and suffer and have their brutal worldviews informed and/ or altered exclusively by their unyielding love for like. one other person. sorry

autistic folks when their routine gets disrupted, and they don't get alone time when they're supposed to get alone time

If I met anybody remotely similar to Zack in real life, I’d probably never want to interact with them again. Like seriously- when you really think about it he’s incredibly annoying-

Stupidly stubborn, dumb to the point it’d be an pain to explain anything generally abstract or complex, (even if he found the patience to sit through something you’re trying to explain you can just tell he only caught like 20% of it) and refuses to take care of himself to the point it’s annoying for other people- like he must smell absolutely horrendous.

But we all love the man anyways

Imagine an Angels of Death and a Forest of Drizzling rain crossover- I think there's like one(?) official comic about that actually, but THAT ISN'T NEARLY ENOUGH.

Just like- Suga and Zack would totally hate each other guts. I can imagine some hilarious moments where Zack just yells at Suga for shoving memos in his face- and Suga has to resort to charades or something.

Shiori and Ray would literally be such a wholesome duo as well. Ray would also get along pretty nicely with Sakuma I think.

Ray would be an absolute pro at fishing because she just is, and Zack would just scare them all off.