Characters in a novel need flaws. Everyone has flaws,
even Super Man. Otherwise there is no story, because readers cannot identify
with the story, cannot find themselves in it. The flaws create conflict, either
within the character or with other characters, and it is conflict that drives
the story and creates the interest. As readers, we want to find out how the
character will resolve the conflict.
Self-destruction is not the same thing as a flaw. I can
stand a little self-destruction in a character, but when characters don’t learn
from mistakes, and almost perversely keep on putting themselves and others into
jeopardy, they are not interesting, just stupid. I encounter too many of those
folks in real life to want to read about them in a story. I shout at them to
grow up and get with it. If that doesn’t work, I stop reading about them.
Writing VETS, which will be published by Black Opal Books
later this year or in early 2015, I had to tread carefully on that tightrope
between flaw and self-destruction. Iraqistan vets Joe and Lonnie and Victoria
and Zan are all handicapped, automatic flaws. But is it paranoid self-destruction
that they refuse to “come inside the system” of the VA to get help? From what
we are learning about the VA right now, their mistrust is just being smart.
John Robert McFarland
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat:
I tweet as yooper1721.
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher,
but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,”
though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do
something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
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