your help please - character flaws

[highconcept]

what is the "three character flaws"?
can you explain it please?
thank you..

[Writing Again]

Don't know about "3 character flaws" but I remember reading a book on writing once that you could do no better when developing a character than the 7 deadly sins.

In small doses they are flaws. In huge doses they are evil.

Pride

Envy

Gluttony

Lust

Anger

Greed

Sloth

Now you can say that envy, gluttony, lust and greed are all aspects of wanting more that the person's fair share of something. Just variations of greed.

That leaves pride and anger.

I think sloth to any real degree can be discounted in the sense of story for a primary character, either hero or villain because slothful people are basically lazy. For a secondary character it would work. Burt Reynold's girlfriend in "The End" comes to mind.

Sloth here should not be confused with those characters who actively cultivate disgusting surroundings for the purpose of personal pleasure or shock. There is a huge difference between a slothful person who allows cockroaches to breed in the garbage they are too lazy to take out and the vile character who purposely breeds cockroaches for Friday night supper.

So the 7 deadly sins could be reduced to Greed, Pride, and Anger, with character flaws being one degree or another of this trait.

It is interesting in itself that all 7 of the deadly sins could be considered one variation or another of disobedience.

Don't know if this helps, but it is one way to get a handle on basic character flaws.

[captain bligh]

never heard of "the three character flaws."

also, i bet it don't matter. it probably just amounts to suggesting you make your characters human. good advice, unless you're writing about dogs.

[DUCPHO]

Never heard of "the three character flaws"!

I can think of a number of things that a writer can do however to flaw his or her characters.

These would include;

Underdevelopment of the character- Usually resulting from not revealing enough about the character and his plot goal.

Failure to identify this plot goal for the character, which leads directly to motivation and serves to drive the character, even if it's something as mundane as being a good friend to another character (or) being the Department Manager in a Department Store where part of the story takes place, is a major stumbling block for some writers. However, once you have arrived at the plot goal your motivation is easily established and you can build your character around it, to whatever depth (or) length you may want to go while at the same time propelling the storyline forward.

The degree to which you reveal anything about any character should correlate directly to it's intrinsic necessity in moving the story forward and remaining constant to that character's plot goal.

Again we are back to motivation for the character... this defines what we want to reveal about the character, those things that drive his motivation(those things he does within the story) in a way that the reader understands and hopefully empathizes with.