Hercule Poirot was vain. Sherlock Holmes injected cocaine. So many fictional detectives have alcohol problems that you’d think it’s mandatory. The point is, your mystery hero should be flawed. In a new post, Zara Altair says that your sleuth’s vulnerabilities are important to your story.
“Vulnerabilities deepen your character,” she writes. “Those weaknesses also help you create tension in your story. Tension builds when your character faces a conflict and your reader does not know the outcome.” Conflict that arises from a character’s weakness is much more dramatic and potentially devastating for your protagonist.
As with most aspects of your novel, the best way to reveal these weaknesses is to put them in action. Altair suggests four scenes you can use to show your character’s flaws.
- The Action Scene. When you sleuth takes an action, their weaknesses should be apparent. Do they rush headlong into a conflict? Or do they deliberate too much? Do they repeat their mistakes?
- The Quick Blink Scene. “The quick blink is a brief paragraph in a scene that demonstrates your character’s vulnerabilities,” Altair explains. “In one paragraph, you show the reader a specific core character trait that is core, but you do it in a blink. Your reader won’t notice how you’ve revealed your character’s inner core.”
- The Vulnerability Scene. You need to show the consequences of your protagonist’s flaws. They can be small or they could impact their investigation.
- The Big Deal Scene. Give your sleuth an important loss and show how they react to it, in a way that highlights their flaw.
