"the best flaws are baked in deep, 'cause they're really just virtues turned upside down."

I don't remember where exactly I heard or saw this quote, but it really helped me with making better characters. Because I started to realize I was attempting to create them backwards. How? Let me explain.

When I first started writing beyond the stages of "I have no idea what I'm doing and every sentence sounds like a robot trying to construct a narrative" and made it into "hey! This doesn't sound too choppy, and there's even a plot surfacing. I am a genius." (Okay, maybe that's a minor exaggeration, but you get the point.)

I thought that the way to create a character was to make them exactly how I imagined this perfectly shaped character—no matter who or what, and oops, gotta add in some bad traits to make them realistic. Unfortunately, this meant they all seemed—flat. It didn't make sense to me. Why are these characters I crafted so carefully not feeling believable, three-dimensional, or remotely real?

Then, I heard that quote, soon followed by my second time meeting my all time favorite author—Victoria (V.E.) Schwab. She had sat and talked about how in each of her characters, there's a sliver of her. Sometimes it's buried, but it's always there. Often times—for me at least—it was those qualities that made the characters breathe and truly live beyond the page.

So, I took it to heart and tried a new approach. It didn't start as much, just a character having a quirk I had. Then, over time, it became more. My characters started to have slivers of me—often buried, but there. It was in one who often spiraled down into anxiety. Another who was so loyal, they ignored the hurt others caused them because of the need to stand by their side. Even one who avoided lies at all costs, because she had once been scarred so badly by them.

And after a while, sharing them start to feel cathartic. Especially when I see others relating to that bit me buried there. Before hand, sharing my stuff was terrifying and for the wrong reasons. But with characters closer to my heart, it was like writing a piece of my story I didn't know how to tell any other way, and sharing it was letting some of that go.

Flaws aren't—and never should be—an afterthought. They should be such a deep part of the character that it could actually be something good, but it's taken too far. Nobody is perfect, and it's not an afterthought. So don't make it one for your characters either. Think of them as real people, an extension of yourself, or whatever works best to help realize and remember to make them whole, flawed, breathing people.

And stay beautiful, darlings. Xx
— Sai