Board Thread:Fanon Discussion/@comment-4598697-20160314010407/@comment-3991308-20160314041242

TBH there stopped being a point where I focused on giving my characters flaws, and I just started making characters.

For me, right now, it's been more of a case of "okay, what traits does my character have? Cool... now, how do these traits affect them positively? How do these traits affect them negatively?". And sometimes I expand these traits, see what other similar traits they might have picked up, and how their history/backstory/upbringing would have affected their personality, how they deal with life and whatnot. I've stopped thinking in terms of flaws, but rather in traits and their consequences.

I mean, obviously you don't want a character who gets through life without anything affecting them negatively. But you also have to recognise it's okay to make cinnamon buns, it's okay to make characters too pure for this world, it's okay to make characters full of innate goodness.

It's just that to make them realistic and likeable, they have to experience some negativity from others, or the world, somehow. Most importantly, I find that the characters I enjoy the most are those who develop and change as a person, and those with struggles I can relate to.

(Exhibit A: Apple White. She's wonderful, she's sweet, but she's also helplessly naive. But you know why the fandom loves her so much? Because she's developed as a character, she's realised she's been doing things in the wrong, and she's trying to fix herself).