Talk:How to Create an OC/@comment-3468598-20130906132145/@comment-14800267-20130907055519

Also, something I see in the industry a lot are of flaws that are character traits or pet peeves. This is from pros, published writers and fellow blue sky conceptualists, so don't think it's limited to newbies.

Things like being shy, quiet, swearing a lot, loud, speaking another language when annoyed or distracted, eccentric, only wears blue underwear... these are all things I've seen recently, and every single one of them is a trait. They CAN cause conflict, but most of the time won't and aren't all that detrimental to the character in any way shape or form. Not all traits have to be positive and happy sparkles. Throwing a few negative traits give your character dimention

Pet peeves are different again. Things like hating the sound of people eating loudly, impatience with stupidity, hates selfish people, dislikes rice bubbles... these are peeves, thigns that annoy your character and probably will cause conflict. Even though they can be unreasonable, they refer to ONE SINGLE THING that annoys them, making it a peeve, not a flaw. Peeves and dislikes are also exceptionally useful for making a well rounded character. If they are all love and forgiving, people will get bored of them.

Flaws, like VictorianMycomancer says, flaws need to be exploitable. Building on that, they need to in some way, hinder, detriment and cause problems for your character, even if your character doesn't see it as a flaw. Arrogance, always-right mentality, intolerance, bigotry, vainity, cowardice, laziness... these are all flaws, but they're flaws you need to build into your character without them knowing. They're things people usually don't want to ackowledge about themselves. Build them in even if you don't put them in their "Oh Curses" Moment.

Your character will acknowledge surface flaws. Being shortsighted, forgetfulness, easily startled, hopless at making decisions, untidy, leaving things to the last minute, always stays up late even when they know they have an early class, take hours to get ready. Your characer will acknowledge things like this and it's how you can present the flaws they won't acknowledge. Easily Startled= Cowardice, Untidy=Laziness, Takes hours to get ready= Vanity.

On a last note- NEVER EVER EVER make your character flaw "clumsiness" unless it's utterly unavoidably something that has to relate to the parent story. You will be branded a Mary Sue no matter how well your character is developed.