I’m struggling with an important aspect of my novel. I had a good workshop in class on chapter 4 yesterday and this didn’t even come up, but it’s something that I need to address. I need to give my primary protagonist a flaw. I’ve never liked flaws. Crud, I’m a certified perfectionist, that much should be obvious. All of my early crushes (and many of my later ones) were on fictional, almost flawless characters. But an important part of this story is about dealing with suffering, and so it is vitally important that I flaw my main character. It’s not just difficult because of the logistics — some flaws will interfere with who he is or what he has to do — but because I am my mother’s daughter and it’s difficult to put my fictional ‘children’ through the things I need to put them through. But they need it not only to be real and more easy to relate to, but to grow. Flaws are necessary for all of us.