How to Stress-Test Your Main Character by Adding a Fatal Flaw
(The following is a guest post by screenwriter and professor, Aaron Mendelsohn.)
Being a stickler about a protagonist’s fatal flaw is one of the key ways you’ll be able to create and sustain a successful screenwriting career.
If you’re pretty informal about how you do it right now, then you’re not story-breaking your protagonist’s fatal flaw correctly. What you need is a method that you can repeat with each new feature and pilot you write.
A good method is this: ask yourself a series of questions that prompt key ideas about your main character and their story points.
What Is a Central Character’s Fatal Flaw?
The protagonist’s fatal flaw is one of the key story drivers. Most three-dimensional protagonists have a fatal flaw. It doesn’t mean they’re bad, or weak, or broken—just that they have a chink in their armor.
♦ Maybe they’re selfish, or greedy, or obsessed with a less-than-desirable goal or love interest.
♦ Or they’re haunted by a tragic event from their past.
♦ Or, if the main character is an assassin or mob boss, maybe their fatal flaw is their compassion.
Whatever it is, in spite of the noblest intentions, that one fatal flaw in their character will inevitably set them on the wrong course in Act 2 until they realize the error of their ways and get back on track.
Ultimately, it’s the protagonist’s flaw that they must confront and overcome at the climax of the story in order to successfully complete their journey.
Always Answer Questions About a Character’s Flaw Truthfully
When you ask yourself what’s your protagonist’s fatal flaw is, to guide you through your story-breaking, the key is to answer truthfully.
If you try to cheat and come up with an answer that’s vague, or that twists a notion you already have in your head so it kinda-sorta fits the question, you’re not doing yourself any favors.
That’s just lazy writing.
When you answer questions about the main character’s fatal flaw truthfully, however, and with a lot of thought and substance, you end up with the foundation of a better screenplay.
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Aaron Mendelsohn is a working screenwriter, a professor of screenwriting at Loyola-Marymount University, and the Secretary-Treasurer of the Writers Guild of America West.
He is best known for Disney’s Air Bud, which spawned eleven sequels. Current projects include a Warner Bros feature, a Spike TV drama series and a Hallmark movie. Aaron’s story-breaking method is now available as an ebook: The 11 Fundamental Questions: A Guide to a Better Screenplay.
For a limited time, he’s offering a 20% discount to Script Reader Pro readers. Go to www.11questionsbook.com for more information.
Enjoyed This Post? Read More on the Fatal Flaw and Creating Believable Characters…
Why Your Script Characters Feel “Flat” and How to Fix It
Why Creating a Character Bio Isn’t a Great Starting Point (And What to Do Instead)
Character Description Examples: How to Hook the Reader
How to Write a Screenplay: The Secret to Elevating It Above the Ordinary
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