Diana Y. Paul | An Affection for Flawed Characters

A good story is all about character. Plot is character too.

As a novelist I am always aiming for my characters to stand out from the page, fully formed, coming so alive the reader understands them, may love them, sometimes hate them, or sometimes both. I want to present a balanced view, even of the antagonists, because they think they are doing the right thing, even when they aren’t. That does not mean the reader has to sympathize with the characters or be their friend. The more complex the motivation, the more freedom I have to reveal each character had something that could have been appealing, could have made them a better person, given the right circumstances.

Most people want to believe that life teaches lessons. Conflicts can be resolved. There is free will to make positive choices. Stuff happens for a reason. We want a protagonist who takes charge of his or her life, and ends the story in a better place. The reader loses patience with passivity. Heroes who can handle pressure and persevere give readers hope (and maybe make them feel a bit better about their own world).

A bit too much delving into unlikeable territory and the reader will disconnect, frustrated by the hero’s obtuseness. Like a joke taken too far, it’s hard to entice a reader back once this happens. It’s easy to go too far. The flawed character can be unappealing, yet in the hero, there are also must be strengths. These types of heroes require caution. Walter White, the anti- hero of Breaking Bad, is a good example of teetering at the edge of despising his ruthless behavior but also understanding the self-sacrificing intentions he had, although all misdirected.

In THINGS UNSAID, my clueless main character, Jules Foster, has to have more beneath the surface than what we first see. A brief scene can reveal her in a positive light, and this is essential to understanding her oblivious view of her family. Characters, like people, are flawed for a reason. As an author, I want to give the reader a glimpse into all the characters’ souls so the reader begins to understand their poor decisions, hostile behavior, sour relationships. The “why” of who they are.

My protagonist, Jules Foster, is a very flawed character, whose guise of helping others only increases the injury to all those she loves. I had to ask myself why she was so blind-sided. I came to realize that those flaws—which Jules initially thought were her virtues and core nature-- would eventually reveal the ill-fated deal she had made with her dying parents, her husband and their daughter—needed to be transformed into her strength. In analyzing character flaws, I hope the reader (as I have done) asks: “What blindsides me?” Without the WHY, a reader is unable to connect, on a deeper level, with either the protagonist or those opposing her .

For all my characters, I imagined their past wounds as the reason why they are who they are. Because of past pain, Jules protects herself from future harm by overcompensating. The wound changes who she is. So, for each of the other character’s core nature, I thought of the flaws and what wound was inflicted to create their present selves. Once I conceptualized the flaw, I thought of their compensating positive traits. If all else failed, I could always resort to a love of animals. But, I never had to use that one.

Flaws are not necessarily problems. They are a fundamental part of who we are. Contrasts between positive and negative traits work best when they’re not absolutes, but fluid and impermanent. So Aida, the main antagonist in Things Unsaid, became narcissistic because her past was a series of broken dreams. The reader can now hopefully see at least a glimmer of the person she could have been: a more loving and forgiving individual. The past is not an excuse for her behavior, but it is a window to understanding why she is the person she has become.

Characters who don’t keep promises or who are self-absorbed and vain, “I told you so” friends,-- here’s where the novelist’s double vision comes in. I can write from within the character’s viewpoint, sympathizing with her, while at the same time being perfectly aware of what outside readers think of the action. I get to see both points of view!

However, if your character has no traits that people can sympathize with, relate to, or find appealing or admirable in some way, they'll simply find your character repugnant and repulsive. If flaws cannot be relatable, no matter what other positive traits the character has, the reader will check out. The flaws and weaknesses I find most fun to discover and write about are character traits that are not inherently negative. They can be "good" traits - but too much of a good thing can be a very bad thing indeed. My protagonist, Jules, has an unbreakable sense of obligation to her parents, which jeopardizes her own family and herself. Her obligation becomes a very serious character flaw and blindspot. Jules, in Things Unsaid, works so hard to make everyone happy that Jules ends up making nobody happy while wearing herself down in the process.

So, I am not afraid to take readers into the dark corners of the psyche, before there is light. I gave Jules her voice. And through my beloved Jules, I found my voice and my niche: writing family drama with a healthy dose of darkness and secrets exposed.

About Diana Y. Paul

Diana Y. Paul was born in Akron, Ohio and is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in both psychology and philosophy and of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D in Buddhist Studies. THINGS UNSAID is her debut novel and published by She Writes Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as at your favorite indie bookstore including BookWorks in Pacific Grove, River House Books in Carmel, Bookshop Santa Cruz, and Folio Books in San Francisco. Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals and she is currently working on a second novel, A Perfect Match. Currently, she lives in Carmel, CA with her husband and loves to create mixed media art, focusing on printmaking in her studio. To learn more about her and her work, visit her other website at www.unhealedwound.com or follow her on Twitter: @DianaPaul10.

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About THINGS UNSAID

Jules, her sister Joanne, and her brother Andrew all grew up in the same household—but their varying views of and reactions to their experiences growing up have made them all very different people. Now, as adults with children of their own, they are all faced with the question of what to do to help their parents, who insist on maintaining the upscale lifestyle they’re accustomed to despite their mounting debts. A deft exploration of the ever-shifting covenants between parents and children, Things Unsaid is a ferocious tale of family love, dysfunction, and sense of duty over forty years.