Comments on: Flawed Characters vs. “Too Dumb to Live”: What Makes the Difference?

By: Rick Vasquez

Rick Vasquez — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 21:20:56 +0000

I completely agree with what you have written. I hope this post could reach more people as this was truly an interesting post.

By: Transformation: Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Transformation: Actions Speak Louder Than Words — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 18:06:13 +0000

[…] Flawed Characters vs. “Too Dumb to Live”: What Makes the Difference? […]

By: Step

Step — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 15:43:04 +0000

I typed a question into the Google, and arrived here at your excellent piece on characters…TY ?
My question was actually about the distance from usual intelligence to the far end of the Poisson curve…way out there in “Limitless” territory…. a four-digit IQ as the Protagonist states (boy, that’s f¥~n hilarious to me…) Can (or Should) these chosen ones interact w/ regular peeps ? And if yes, How…
Again, great teaching example vis-a-vis The Edge.

By: robertcday

robertcday — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 13:35:36 +0000

Loved this read. So happy that I don’t do any of this. Thanks for the confirmation that there’s hope for me yet. 🙂
Robert,

By: Want to improve your characters? | RKCAPPSCOM

Want to improve your characters? | RKCAPPSCOM — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 13:56:50 +0000

[…] Read this, and get yourself some flawed characters. […]

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 09:54:56 +0000

The problem is people are stupid… I only need to craft a character a little bit smarter. Sadly, too many writers seek a fantastical assurance from poorly formed characters so they rely on the overly complex solution, or a naively satisfying one.

By: robintvale (Jessica)

robintvale (Jessica) — Tue, 28 May 2019 19:45:11 +0000

My main photog in chap. 1 made a bad decision because of the circumstances she’d never faced in her fear she did something really stupid trying to make sure she had what she was after and by looking it over messed up bad. Well, hey it kicked off (should I say exploded up?) the story nicely. ^_~ Sadly I may need to revise chapter one yet again as I don’t think it’s going to work having the main antagonist be both a soldier and a crazy warlock/magician type lolz. Well unless I do some flippy-flop with his story. Hey, it’s fiction I can make stuff up. <3 don't you love that? (Or not, it becomes too stupid i'll have to fix it.)

By: Diane Stephenson

Diane Stephenson — Mon, 20 May 2019 18:12:30 +0000

I haven’t commented on your blog for quite some time, but this post calls me to comment. This is a great article filled with excellent tips. When I am reading, I want the characters to be real, to be the way they would be if they actually walked into my home to visit. I don’t want Mr/Mrs/Miss Perfect, either in appearance or action, but, as you have stated so well, I don’t want stupid either. I have read books with both of those kinds of characters and have tried to read until the end in the hopes of it improving as it goes along, but often just close the book and forget about it. Because of this, I have attempted to make the characters in my first novel totally believable. They are inherently good, but at times react badly when bad things happen, though in the long run they come out of the situation a better person. I like to know that when bad things happen there is still hope, whether it be in my personal life or in the characters in a book. Except, of course, the inherently bad characters which I want to see come to their deserved end. And I like surprises as long as they too are believable. Thank you for this post, Kristen.

By: Charlayne Elizabeth Denney

Charlayne Elizabeth Denney — Tue, 14 May 2019 05:45:05 +0000

Love this, as usual. Woke my husband laughing. His retort, “I’m not a husband, I’m a plot mistake!”

I think a lot of TDTL is done in those scream-blood fests that serve as the teen slasher films. Answering the phone when you know it’s going to end bad, going outside when you know killer birds are stalking every human (and not just to poo-bomb them), that sort of thing. I gave up on those types a long time ago, lost my voice screaming “You are a moron!”

I’ve been watching the melt-down on the internet today about the Game of Thrones plotlines. It’s been interesting to see people analyze the same piece of celluloid and get different conclusions. (yes, no spoilers here, sticking to generalities). Some people just can’t accept what happened, others are all “yay, this happened!” Still others are just confused.

I’ve also noticed that the closer you are to the characters, the more willfully blind you tend to be. WE know that there is TDTL going on in that story but the author says “no, it’s just character development.” No, it’s reader/watcher abuse. Some of the folks watching the last episode are so invested in what they think they know about xxxxx character that they are absolutely refusing to see yyyyy about them and totally forget about zzzz seasons ago. So the fight is on and we have no referee to keep the screaming to a low squeal.

Is that suitably vague enough but still gets the point across?

TDTL…I’ve seen it. Not pretty.

By: Deborah Makarios

Deborah Makarios — Mon, 13 May 2019 23:53:26 +0000

What drives me nuts is authors who try to get a free pass for dumb decisions/behaviour by having the character recognize it’s dumb… and then carry on with it.
“Why do I keep doing this?” the character wails. “I dunno, I guess I’ll just do it some more.”
Cue loud thump as book hits wall on far side of room.