Characters need personal growth to achieve their goals. If the character seeks to improve themselves in some way — at work, in relationships, or spiritually — or defeat the villain, their fatal flaw will often sabotage early efforts.
Who they are and what they want is at odds with their fatal flaw, which makes it almost impossible to succeed. The character might not even realize they have this flaw until a situation, experience, or event triggers a tsunami of inner turmoil.
Fatal Flaw Defined
A fatal flaw refers to a character trait that leads to their downfall. The term fatal flaw implies the character is heroic and admirable in many other ways. Even the fatal flaw itself could be considered admirable in a different situation but it hinders them in the storyline.
The TKZ archive has several articles about character flaws (here, here, and here, to name a few).
But where does their fatal flaw stem from?
Often, the past is to blame. It doesn’t necessarily need to be from the character’s childhood, though it can be. Was the character abandoned as a child, emotionally, physically, or both? If so, they’d deal with abandonment and/or trust issues as an adult. Or perhaps, their fatal flaw stems from the opening scene in the novel.
What happened to the character to create the inner turmoil within them? We call this the “wounding event,” and it’s crucial to understand the character on an emotional level.
Many factors play a role in determining who we — and our characters — become in life, including environment, mentors/teachers, parents, genetics, and how they were raised. Life is filled with flawed people, all battling their own demons, some more than others. Specific events and long-term exposure to unhealthy ideals, behaviors, and relationships all play a role in shaping a human or fictional character.
The Wounding Event
The most crippling is emotional trauma. Unresolved pain — the wounding event — should impact the character’s life. This defining emotional experience from a character’s past is so debilitating they’ll do anything to avoid that pain again. It colors how they view the world and alters what they believe about themselves and others. The trauma instills a deep fear that it may happen again if the character doesn’t protect themselves.
Or perhaps, your character has a physical defect with long-lasting psychological effects, such as a crippling illness, birth defect, scarring, or disfigurement. The mistaken belief that the character must harden themselves to feel emotionally safe is what allows negative traits to emerge.
The wounding event creates a core belief or insecurity that manifests as a character flaw, causing them to act defensively or in self-sabotaging ways to avoid reliving the pain. The wounding event also refers to a traumatic experience that significantly impacts the character’s psychology and development, or a set of deeply ingrained fears that shape how they interact with the world. It’s the pivotal moment that created the underlying emotional wound that drives their behavior.
Whatever wounding event you choose when crafting a character, it should be hinted at or shown on the page. This will help the reader relate to, and empathize with, the character. It’ll also explain their actions.
At some point in the novel, the character must face their fears — an important scene in the character arc is about confronting and healing from their wounding event.
The ideal placement is about the midpoint. This confrontation within themselves gives the character the inner strength to overcome their fatal flaw and spins the story in a new direction, with a clearer perspective on how to proceed. Or they figure out how to use their fatal flaw to their advantage “through a vein of moral rightness,” as JSB said in an article about character.
Sounds a lot like the mirror moment, doesn’t it? 😉
Secondary flaws can also arise from the wounding event, which will compromise the character’s path and prevent them from reaching their full potential.
Wounds are powerful. Taking the time to probe your character’s past to unearth their wounding event will help you — and the reader — better understand what motivates them and their behavior.
For discussion, what fictional wounding event has stuck with you? To avoid spoilers, only include the title if the wounding event occurs early in the novel.
Or tell us about your character’s wounding event and the fatal flaw that followed.
As a mostly self-taught writer, I just wrote stuff without knowing there were names for things I subjected my characters to. I approached them from a GMC angle after workshops from Deb Dixon.
Most of my Blackthorne books started out with something like what you’re describing here. Something goes wrong, and they have to deal with it and move past it. Example: In When Danger Calls, Ryan has a young child die in his arms (off the page, of course). When he encounters the heroine, she has a child about the same age, and he has a lot of trouble dealing with accepting her because of the memories she brings up.
Perfect example, Terry. Same here, re: names of craft elements. Many have several. I do find it helpful to attach a name, though.
Meaty post, Sue! Digging down to find the hero’s wound is fascinating but even more so for the villain. What wounds are terrible enough that they cause a villain to knowingly harm others?
In the first book in my thriller series, <iInstrument of the Devil, Tawny Lindholm’s wound is the death of her beloved husband. Loneliness makes her vulnerable to the charms of a handsome psychologist, also widowed. Turns out he’s also a terrorist. Trusting the wrong man almost kills her. Spoiler alert: she survives to have adventures in more books.
Perfect example, Debbie! Agreed. The antagonist needs a wounding event, as well, though the reader might not find out what it is till much later in the story. Thanks for adding our beloved villains!
The main character in Lacey’s Star has issues of trust after a bad experience as a teenager. Throughout the book, she makes choices about whom to trust. Often she’s wrong.
Spoiler alert: The very man she says is untrustworthy in the first paragraph of the book turns out to be the person who saves her life in the end.
Excellent, Kay! Love full circle moments like that.
I call it “The lie she believes” For instance, in my WIP, Lauren believes she will never find love because she’s overweight. Her former boyfriend dumped her because ‘I don’t want to see you naked.” That’s her wounding moment.
Ooh, that’s a rough wounding event with far-reaching emotional trauma. Excellent, Jane. I also like “the lie she believes.” Hope you killed the ex. LOL
I love this subject. Good post, Sue. Characters without such defining events are, well, usually boring. Sort of like real people. 🙂 I’m riffing on this idea in my post tomorrow — a plea for fiction that disturbs us.
Love that idea (and title), Kris! Looking forward to your post.
Thanks for the shout out, Sue. Good stuff here. I love the wound because it can stay hidden for a long time, yet have the MC acting or saying things which are a bit off center, creating mystery as to why. That’s done masterfully in Casablanca. It’s why Rick keeps saying, “I stick my neck out for nobody.” Why he drinks and tosses women aside. But we also see a small redemptive possibility, as he agrees to help Ugarte hide the Letters of Transit. The why comes in the middle (yes!) with the flashback, and then Ilsa showing up for the “mirror moment.”
Perfect example, Jim! Agreed. A hidden wound only hinted at works to hold reader interests. 😁
In my current WIP, my heroine’s father is a recovering alcoholic, and he takes a drink after 40 years of sobriety, gets drunk, and the next day he has a huge hangover, and there’s a wreck, and her mother is killed. She blames her father, and the lie she believes is that every recovering alcoholic will eventually drink again. Of course, the hero is a recovering alcoholic…
Wow, Patricia. Love the spiral effect that stems from that one night of drinking. I can envision all kinds of flaws from the protagonist’s wounding event.