 Drama: August 21, 2013 Issue [#5831] |
  Drama
This week: Fatal Flaws Create Powerful Stories Edited by: Joy  
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“Annabeth:My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris.
Percy: the brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?
Annabeth:No, Seaweed Brain. That's HUMMUS. hubris is worse.
Percy: what could be worse than hummus?
Annabeth: Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else... Even the gods.”
Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters
“I'm a coward when it comes to matters of the heart. That is my fatal flaw.”
Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
“Man's fatal flaw is misplaced optimism.”
Allan Wolf, The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about a protagonist's most important asset: his fatal flaw.
Your Drama Newsletter Editors: zwisis NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
As we all know, writing a dramatic story or a script that is gripping, interesting, and one that shows some renewal in the plot or some growth and change in a character depends on character portrayal. A character is never fully developed unless we give him a few flaws.
Among these flaws one of them usually becomes the characteristic that stands above the rest and is the most dangerous. As stasis is not a natural condition, this characteristic is based upon either growth or decay and death.
Fatal flaw is not just any weakness or flaw. In Shakespeare’s tragedies, for example, Macbeth’s fatal flaw is boundless ambition. Othello’s is jealousy; Coriolanus’ s is pride; King Lear’s is self-delusion. Surely, a character may have other flaws or positive and negative sides, but one major flaw usually takes over and leads to his demise, especially in tragedies.
Not all major flaws, however, mean the demise of a character. Some aid in the growth of the character and the rearrangement of the story-world. In Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Jo March’s bluntness goes against the family and creates conflict inside the family. As Little Women’s main theme is family, we can say that Jo March’s fatal flaw works directly against the theme.
The same setup is in Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano, as accomplished as he is, suffers from self-doubt because of his unshapely nose. This keeps him away from the woman he loves. In this novel, therefore, the fatal flaw of self-doubt works against the theme of love.
The old Greeks called fatal flaw, tragic flaw or hamartia, and according to Aristotle, it pointed to a failure of morals or character. In some Greek stories, on the other hand, a fatal flaw can even be not knowing one’s origins or identity to no fault of his own, such as in Oedipus. Then, like Achilles’s heel, fatal flaws can also be physical.
As essential as fatal flaws are to main characters, not all main characters have to be people. Suppose we make a certain piece of land the main character and choose human life as the theme. If the land is in a low-lying area or is susceptible to tornadoes or other forces of nature, it will create a conflict with human existence on it.
Now that we have established what fatal flaw is, let us look at how we can come up with a fatal flaw for a character in a fictional piece.
 If we have a theme, we need to look for the opposite value of the theme.
If we have the main goal of the protagonist, we need to find its opposite goal. The main goal is not what the protagonist wants most in the beginning of the story but what he will want most at the end of the story.
After we’ve given our main character its fatal flaw, if we don’t want to send him to his maker, we help him find his way to personal growth. The steps for a character to fix his life is:
1.Acceptance :
Our character needs to see or at least sense that he has a fatal flaw. Not all characters will openly admit to this, but if at least, our character feels all or part of the problem has to do with his own stance, then he is on the way to solving his problems.
I am acting out by yelling at the staff. Why?
2. Identification and Understanding of his Behavior:
He will need to identify the stimuli and the specific events that cause this behavior.
When my boss doesn’t acknowledge my work, I act out.
3. Making a plan for change:
Once the first two steps are realized, the next thing to do is come up with a plan for change.
If my boss doesn’t acknowledge my work, I’ll work harder and ask for help from my teammates. If need be, I’ll apologize or make up in some way for past mistakes.
If you are like me and create your characters first before going to the plot or theme, there is a psychological quiz on the web to help real people find their fatal flaws. I think this can be used for finding our characters’ fatal flaws, also. Here is the link:
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_s_your_fatal_flaw_1
Until next time…
And...~Sept. 1-13~ HappyThirteenth Birthday, Writing.com!
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