Sometimes when a story won’t unfold the way we’d like, or sometimes when a novel or script is passed on over and over, I’ve found the key might be the character lacks a “Fatal Flaw.”
Most novels and screenplays are about the journey a character takes because they have something to change or learn. Knowing the character’s flaw can help a writer create more depth in a way that pushes the plot along almost automatically.
A novel or scripted story is where we watch a character make choices under pressure. To apply that pressure, we need to know their flaw—that thing they might not want to admit to but it’s been holding them back in life.
The Fatal Flaw is NOT the same as an ordinary character weakness. More on that later.
Dara Marks, in her wonderful book on the subject, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc, offers this:
“The FATAL FLAW is a struggle within a character to maintain a survival system long after it has outlived its usefulness. …It’s an unyielding commitment to old, exhausted ways…and resistance to the rejuvenating energy of new, evolving levels of existence and consciousness.”
The law of nature is simple: If something or someone isn’t growing or changing, it or the character is heading for decay and death.
To find the Fatal Flaw in your character, think about where they’ll be a few years from now if they don’t change. What’s holding them back from being all they can be?
Examples of Fatal Flaws you may have seen in literature and other media:
- A man grew up using fists to get what he wants and still believes in doing that.
- A woman grew up learning how to please everybody else but never herself.
- A young girl shoplifts to feel important to her circle of friends.
- A person keeps remarrying the wrong kind.
A Fatal Flaw is not just a weakness easily corrected or managed. Shyness, for example, isn’t a Fatal Flaw. A bad habit such as drinking too much might be a symptom of a Fatal Flaw but it’s not a Flaw itself. Sometimes a jerk is just a jerk but that may be a symptom of a Fatal Flaw.
Typically the Fatal Flaw took seed early in life, in childhood or the teen years. Look into your character’s past and create the backstory for them. What is it about their personality now that has lingered since that childhood episode and they need to face it now? What is that past “thing” that changed them?
The antagonist or a buddy is often the key character to point out the Flaw, forcing your protagonist to face the Flaw.
Figure out your character’s Fatal Flaw and you’ll have a good story leading to an explosive, emotional Midpoint Crisis and last-act Climax.
Christine DeSmet: Author 