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I thought those 'character flaw generators' were just lazy writing crutches until I used one for a stubborn protagonist.
It spat out 'fear of being forgotten' and that one phrase unlocked his entire backstory in my Portland-set novel. Anyone have a tool that actually helped you break through a block?
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phoenixb345mo ago
Honestly the real trick is using those tools wrong on purpose. I got stuck with a side character and fed the generator a bunch of nonsense words from my notes. It gave me "fear of being too loud" which made zero sense for a quiet librarian. But then I twisted it into a fear of her own inner voice being too loud, like her private thoughts are dangerous. That weird mismatch forced a way more interesting conflict than if it had just given me something obvious.
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sarah8185mo ago
Love that, @phoenixb34 (makes total sense).
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the_anthony5mo ago
Yeah, that "fear of being too loud" twist from @phoenixb34 is a great trick. When I get stuck, I'll take a flaw and just flip it to its opposite. Like if a generator says "too trusting," I'll make the character pathologically suspicious of even good things. It forces you to ask why they're like that, and the answer is usually the backstory you need.
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