#because of my negative charisma and apparently social cues I don't get

[katyspersonal]

I've had a strange dream tonight..

There was a small round pound and a lot of fish were roaming in it in circles! Fish, and one squid-like creature that also had some eldrich glow emitted from itself. I kept trying to catch a fish all the time, with something like a bug net for some reason and not a fishing road, but they ALWAYS slipped away from me! And at last I've caught one fish but someone near me pointed out that it was dead, in a very grumpy "told you so" manner.. So I looked at that fish, and true, it didn't move. And also strangely had two heads, second head instead of tail, even though in the water it looked normal..

It made me despair and I let it slip back into the pond, and finally decided to abandon the fish and give that eldrich squid a chance. Not only it was way easier to catch than fish, but it even seemed to like me, wrapping tentacles around my arms, then I woke up. Strangely, before alarm clock, too

#dreams #personal #I wonder about the meaning of this but I have a guess...... #it is about my fandom life before summer isn't it. #trying to catch fish and constantly failing = my futile attempts to make friends back then #finally catching a fish but it's dead a literally two faced = making a bond but then- #-finding out people were two-faced (figurally of course) and would not be there for me #especially I think a certain someone that made me feel the safest and warmest Ive felt in a long time #only to block me without a single word and then work against me for not taking it well #and the squid... well... of course it was him #he definitely was an eldrich creature. #the last time I checked he finally became happy and stable (and promptly ditched me as- #-he didn't need me anymore in a happier and fixed life. it happens.) #but yes feels like it. I figured I could not find friends in 'mere ordinary fish'. it was all futile. #because of my negative charisma and apparently social cues I don't get #I also think relevant considering what I posted before going to bed... #damn my brain has interesting ways to illustrate my past or present.

[momo-de-avis]

Hi Momo! I was wondering if you have any tips of how to make flaws for a character with a good alignment, and with very little life experience? I went to some generators but they gove me flaws that don't fit her alignment or her story, but I don't want her to be flawless.

Hi friend! Sorry it took a while to answer, I was doing a lot of stuff at the same time last night and decided to leave this ask for today, with a fresh head to work with.

Okay, so. Picking up on what you have: good alignment. I suppose you have like the basis of the character, not necessarily the backstory (I don’t think you need it at this stage tbh) so make a list of what you consider their good, positive traits. Things that pop out immediately and those sort of characteristics that play directly with the story (I don’t know what this is for, if a DnD campaign or a story, but either way, whatever will become important for the thing you’re developing your character for).

With those traits listed, think of them as counterparts. How are those aspects prone to become flaws in different situations---or how do they create negative traits by simply being there?

Like, let me try to exemplify this. Imagine a lawful good character. A character that is good at heart, that is in a position of power and uses that to the benefit of the majority and not themselves. They are an incredibly by-the-book character and would never break the law. Being by-the-book, in itself, could be a negative aspect to the story: because they might be faced at some point with a situation where, in order to perform good, they have to break their own moral scale. How they react to that could be related to their flaws, and this right here is also a good place to work on the background of the character (by doing that thing I sometimes talk about: start with what you have, and then go back): they refuse to break the law because they sincerely believe the law is not just above everything, but is written and created for the benefit of all. They believe in the power of institutions and they serve that to their best ability. They might be so blindly devoted to this by-the-book mentality that it could cloud their judgement and get in the way of actually performing good. You could also spice it up with a sprinkle of a little thing from their past: they could have grown up in a household where someone at some point broke the law---because they had to steal to survive, or because someone in their family just went downhill---and they did their best to forgive them but the character themselves might have grown up to, instead of understanding, looking the other way and accepting this idea that the law exists to protect people and we must respect it. That could mean the character, however really empathetic with others, is low on compassion---precisely because of this by-the-book mentality that tells them ‘follow the rules no matter what’ which prompts them to find little compassion for people who DON’T follow the rules.

Now let’s go for the opposite, my favourite: chaotic good. A dude who’s the complete opposite: the law fucking sucks and institutions exist to fuck us up. They don’t give a rat’s ass about the law or whatever, but they’re good at heart. They will do whatever they can to help those in need, and wouldn’t bat an eye at like, the destruction they cause halfway there. The Avengers of a DnD campaign basically (imagine people in a DnD world getting insurance because this guy, this specific guy, will NOT stop fucking shit up like, he wrecked a whole inn after two thieves last summer). 

For a guy like this it’s not hard to see where his flaws would be. Because he’s so indifferent to the means---in the sense that, the ends justify it so long as he doesn’t wreck too much havoc, or at least doesn’t get anyone killed---he could be a loner. He sees himself as someone who, despite good-intentioned, brings tragedy to others. Perfect place to add a tragic backstory too, here, which could aggravate this sentiment. So opposite to the above example, I would see this dude who does empathize a lot with others but actually is incredibly compassionate, but adopts a shell of apparent indifference and cold stares to keep others away in what he believes to be their protection.

You mentioned very little life experience---that could be a good starting place! Try to figure out where in the spectrum of good the character is, and ally that to the lack of experience. They could be the sort to try and figure things out for themselves out of either pride or inability to ask help for others (or even both), which often puts them in... shaky situations. That inexperience could reflect itself only in social situations: they suck at making conversations, even worse at reading others and understanding them, though they could very well be quite the empathetic and even compassionate person, just... don’t know how to react to that (characters with low charisma are SO FUNNY). I don’t know the backstory of the character, but their inexperience could be in just one particular area while, at the same time, they could excel at something else. For example, if they’re great at survival skills because they have been living on their own or something, but lack social interaction in, you know, normal society altogether, you could draw out your flaws from there. A person with little social experience AND forest-survival of sorts kind of proficiency will not only miss social cues and body language, they could likely jump to rushed conclusions---act defensively when it’s clearly not needed, mistake a joke for an insult.

My advice is don’t try to think of flaws a bullet point list, like don’t actively search for things you could list as flaws that are recognizable as such. Make it ORGANIC to your story or whatever it is your planning. Look at the character, focus on the positive traits and wove them out of there. If it helps (it helps me A LOT) make AUs in your head. Seriously. You don’t have to write anything down or something, just sit back and think about hypothesis: what would my character do in this completely unrelated situation? Is it a fantasy story? Think about them in modern-day society. Bring them to a sci-fi futuristic setting. Confront them with the unexpected, create situations you would have never envisioned in your story, and just let the character act in your head. It will help you understand them a lot better and those flaws will come out vividly, trust me!

Just let the character’s life grow! You’ll see it’ll pop easily when you start to get under their skin!

I hope it helps, anon!!

#Anonymous