Click to read more about this book. This month's question asks: Describe a flawed character you might use as a heroine or hero in a story. How did they become so flawed? How might their flaws affect the story and what will happen to them?
This can be answered any number of ways. There can be physical flaws. In Analysis of Love, the 5th Reyes Family Romance, the hero is physically impaired because he lost his sight due to a childhood illness. He's blind, so he can't see the gorgeous attributes that Catalina Reyes has always used to attract male attention. Dr. Evan Thompson is trained as a psychologist, specializing in helping people to delve into their own psyches to determine what path in life they should take. Catalina's publisher, her editor's boss, wants the doctor discredited, so he tells her to pose as a patient, then find a way to smear the doctor's reputation. What she didn't expect was for him to be so gorgeous--and so nice. Catalina doesn't do nice--but maybe she should start?
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Click to read more about this book. Then there are character flaws. In The Right Choice, Pamela Wilson appears to be a strong, independent woman. She's a veterinarian who owns her practice, and is engaged to be married to an ambitious lawyer. Her lawyer father and her social-climbing mother have given their two kids everything they needed to be successful in life. But Pamela has always felt unloved, often running away from home to get her busy parents to pay attention to her. As a high school senior, she met a guy who loved her unreservedly--and she fell for him too. But he's a blue-collar worker--a car mechanic specializing in the kinds of cars her parents drive. Not good enough for their daughter. So they did all they could to separate the young lovers. Pamela tried to stay away from him, but missed him too much. So she kept sneaking around behind their backs to see him. Once she'd graduated, he hoped she'd see they belong together. But she still needed her parents' help to open her own practice, and pay the bills until she built up a clientele. In desperation, Eric told her to choose--either tell her parents about them, or cut him loose. He wasn't pleased with her choice, telling her she had to grow up someday. But her mother kept setting her up with lawyers, and eventually she agreed to marry one of them. Obviously the wrong choice, but she's grown up knowing that she had to ignore her own desires, to get her parents' cooperation. Now what?
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Click to read more about this book. In For the Love of His Life, Raul Roderick is a famous action movie star, with a well-deserved reputation for being a player. But his character flaws render him unable to feel anything. Raised by a single mom who made her living as a Las Vegas show girl primarily, with side hustles when needed, he always felt alone in a world he didn't fit into. They often moved from place to place, so he learned how to act as if he was confident, while ignoring his real feelings as unimportant. Along the way he discovered that the easy supply of drugs in La-La land enabled him to not feel anything. When he's sent up to northern Minnesota by an indie director who wants him to star in his next movie, Raul expects to continue drifting through life. But the people in upper Minnesota are not like people in LA. Once again, he tries to make superficial changes, to fit in. When he begins to have real feelings for the director's cousin Veronica, he realizes he's never been in love before. But she accuses him of "lying for a living." Will she ever believe anything he says? Will he?
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Character flaws are a large part of what makes a story interesting. Perfect characters who live in a perfect world, would make for very boring reading. I don't like when mature adult characters create drama for themselves by misunderstanding each other, and then NOT talking about it. But when circumstances conspire to keep a couple apart, the story gets more interesting. Character flaws can enhance the readers enjoyment, as the characters proceed to their inevitable HEA. How they get there is the best part!
What do other authors have to say on this subject? Hop along to see!
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2yB
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com
