Character Flaws List: 120 Flaws and the Trouble Each One Causes

Q: What is a fatal flaw?

A fatal flaw, from Aristotle's term *hamartia*, is the failing that brings a tragic hero to ruin. Classic examples are Macbeth's ambition and Othello's jealousy. In most modern fiction, characters survive and change instead.

A character flaw is a trait that leads a character to make choices that hurt them or the people around them. It isn't a quirk or a bad habit on its own. A flaw earns its place in a story when it makes something go wrong that wouldn't have gone wrong for someone else.

Most flaw lists stop at the word. This one gives you 120 flaws and, next to each, the kind of trouble it tends to cause, so you can pick a flaw for what it will do to your plot. After the list, there's a short method for choosing one and a few “flaws” that don't really work.

At a glance

A flaw is useful when it causes a bad decision at an important moment. If it never changes an outcome, it's decoration
Pick one main flaw per major character. Small ones can sit around it, but one should drive the arc
The best flaws grow out of something good: loyalty becomes blind loyalty, caution becomes cowardice
A flaw readers find cute (clumsy, too nice, works too hard) usually reads as a virtue in disguise

Flaw, weakness and fatal flaw

These words get used interchangeably. In craft terms, they mean slightly different things.

	Flaw	Weakness	Fatal flaw
What it is	A trait that leads to bad choices	Something the character can't do or is vulnerable to	A flaw serious enough to bring about the character's downfall
Example	Pride	Can't swim, afraid of heights	Macbeth's ambition
Can the character change it?	Yes, and that change is often the arc	Sometimes, through training or help	In a tragedy, no. That's the point
Where it shows	In decisions	In situations	At the climax

The fatal flaw goes back to Aristotle's Poetics, where hamartia is the error or failing that leads a tragic hero to ruin. In most modern fiction, characters survive their flaws. Facing the flaw is how they change, which is what a character arc tracks.

120 character flaws, with the trouble they cause

Each line names the flaw and one way it can go wrong in a story. Use the trouble as a starting point; your plot will suggest its own.

Moral flaws

Arrogant: dismisses the warning that would have saved them
Greedy: takes the deal that costs a friend
Dishonest: one lie needs three more to cover it
Selfish: leaves someone behind at the worst moment
Vain: chooses being admired over being right
Envious: sabotages a friend who's doing well
Cruel: wins the fight and loses every ally
Hypocritical: is caught doing what they punished others for
Manipulative: is believed less each time it's discovered
Ruthless: gets the goal and finds no one left to share it
Corrupt: is owned by whoever knows their secret
Disloyal: switches sides once too often
Cowardly: freezes when someone needs them to act
Spiteful: hurts themselves to hurt someone else
Self-righteous: refuses to hear that they're wrong
Entitled: expects rules to bend, and they don't
Petty: turns a small slight into a war
Vengeful: lets the past choose every next step
Callous: misses the grief right in front of them
Exploitative: uses people until they stop showing up
Opportunistic: is trusted by no one when it matters
Unfaithful: breaks the one promise that held a relationship together
Two-faced: tells different people different stories until they compare notes
Bigoted: underestimates the person who could help
Power-hungry: confuses control with safety
Smug: gives the rival every reason to try harder
Ungrateful: loses the support they took for granted
Deceitful: can't be believed when they finally tell the truth
Unscrupulous: crosses one line and finds the next one easier
Gluttonous: can't stop when stopping is the only safe choice

Emotional flaws

Hot-tempered: says the unforgivable thing in the heat of the moment
Anxious: plans for every disaster except the real one
Insecure: reads every comment as an attack
Jealous: drives away the partner they're afraid to lose
Moody: leaves others guessing until they stop trying
Melodramatic: isn't believed when the crisis is real
Needy: asks for so much reassurance that friends pull back
Pessimistic: doesn't try the plan that would have worked
Self-pitying: waits to be rescued instead of acting
Fearful: avoids the one place they need to go
Bitter: can't accept help from the people who wronged them
Volatile: becomes the thing others plan around
Easily discouraged: gives up one step before success
Thin-skinned: picks a fight with the one person who can help
Emotionally closed: lets a misunderstanding grow because they won't talk
Hysterical: panics and makes the danger worse
Brooding: misses what's happening now while dwelling on the past
Resentful: keeps score until the relationship can't recover
Guilt-ridden: punishes themselves instead of fixing anything
Self-loathing: sabotages what they think they don't deserve
Hopeless: stops fighting while there's still time
Fickle: loses interest just before the payoff
Possessive: smothers what they're trying to keep
Overly sensitive: turns every scene into their own wound
Impatient: acts before the plan is ready
Restless: leaves just as things start to work
Grudging: helps so unwillingly that it barely counts
Cold: is left alone when they need someone
Worrier: talks others out of the right risk
Perfectionist: never finishes, never ships, never sends

Social flaws

Shy: says nothing when one word would change the outcome
Gossipy: lets slip the secret that starts the trouble
Tactless: wins the argument and loses the friend
Rude: offends the person they'll need later
Aloof: is mistaken for an enemy
Clingy: can't let anyone else in the group lead
Domineering: drives away people who have better ideas
Bossy: is obeyed to their face and ignored behind their back
Know-it-all: gets corrected in public at the worst moment
Show-off: reveals what should have stayed hidden
Attention-seeking: draws the danger to the group
Distrustful: refuses the help that's real
Gullible: believes the villain's version first
People-pleaser: agrees to two things that can't both happen
Antisocial: has no one to turn to in a crisis
Abrasive: is right, and nobody listens
Condescending: underestimates the quiet one in the room
Argumentative: can't let a small point go
Secretive: is suspected of the wrong thing
Indiscreet: talks to the wrong person
Inconsiderate: forgets the promise that mattered most to someone else
Judgmental: writes off the person who turns out to be right
Prejudiced: misreads a whole group and pays for it
Overbearing: decides for others until they rebel
Sarcastic: is never quite believed when sincere
Flirtatious: sends signals that start a misunderstanding
Unreliable: isn't called when they're needed
Withdrawn: hears about the problem last
Overprotective: keeps someone from the danger they had to face
Socially awkward: misreads the room at the meeting that matters

Judgment flaws

Reckless: rushes in and makes the rescue harder
Impulsive: decides before hearing the whole story
Stubborn: holds a position after it's clearly wrong
Naive: walks into the trap everyone else could see
Indecisive: lets the moment to act pass
Overconfident: skips the step that keeps them safe
Careless: loses the key, the letter, the evidence
Absent-minded: forgets the one thing that mattered
Lazy: cuts the corner that collapses later
Procrastinating: starts when it's already too late
Short-sighted: wins today and loses next month
Obsessive: ignores everything but the goal, including the warning
Rigid: can't adapt when the plan breaks
Paranoid: sees a plot where there isn't one and misses the real one
Overcautious: waits until the chance is gone
Gambler: risks what isn't theirs to lose
Literal-minded: misses what someone was really asking
Idealistic: refuses the compromise that would have saved people
Cynical: assumes the worst and creates it
Overthinking: plans so long they never act
Easily distracted: looks away at the wrong moment
Forgetful: repeats the mistake they'd learned from
Disorganized: can't find what they need under pressure
Credulous: takes a rumor as fact
Narrow-minded: dismisses the strange idea that was the answer
Superstitious: follows the sign instead of the evidence
Wasteful: runs out when it counts
Workaholic: is at the office when the crisis happens at home
Single-minded: sacrifices a friend to stay on course
Overcommitted: says yes to everything and fails at what matters

How to choose a flaw for your character

Start from your plot's hardest choice. Find the scene where your protagonist faces the hardest choice. What flaw would make them choose wrong, or nearly wrong?
Link the flaw to a strength. A loyal character can be blindly loyal. A careful one can be too careful to act. When the flaw and the strength are the same trait pushed too far, the character feels whole.
Show the flaw early, at low cost. Let it cause a small problem in the first chapters, so readers believe it when it causes a big one later.
Decide what happens to it. Does the character overcome it (a positive arc), give in to it (a negative arc) or stay the same while the world around them changes (a flat arc)?

One way to set this up for Maggie Ames, the protagonist of Edie's Atlas, a novel we made up for TypeTak's craft guides. She takes her grandmother's ashes from Ohio to Maine, against her father's wishes.

Strength: dependable. She has run the counter at her father's hardware store for fourteen years and keeps the family calm.
Flaw: people-pleasing. She agrees with whatever her father decides, even about her grandmother's funeral.
Early, small trouble: in chapter one she lets him choose a hymn her grandmother hated, and spends the whole service knowing it.
Big trouble: when her father drives up to Maine to take the urn home, she nearly hands it to him.
What happens to it: at the harbor wall, she tells him the ashes go into the water with Ruth there, whether he comes or not.

Flaws that don't really count

Clumsiness, on its own. Tripping over things is endearing, but it rarely changes a decision. Unless the clumsiness costs something real, it's a quirk.

“Too nice” or “cares too much.” These read like answers to a job interview question. If you want a caring character with a real flaw, try people-pleasing (agrees to things that can't all happen) or overprotective (keeps others from what they need to face).

A flaw that never costs anything. If the arrogant character is never wrong, readers will read the arrogance as confidence. Let the flaw lose them something.

A flaw that's only told. “She was stubborn” in the narration doesn't make her stubborn. A scene where she refuses the obvious solution does. Show, Don't Tell has examples.

A flawless character who wins every time is sometimes called a Mary Sue. Flaws that cost something are one of the quickest fixes.

Keeping a character's flaw consistent in TypeTak

TypeTak is an AI writing editor where you write alongside an agent. When you've given a character a flaw, what you want is for it to show up the same way, chapter after chapter, until the story is ready for them to change.

Keep the flaw on the character's page. Each character gets a page in your World with their wants, secrets and traits, and quotes from the manuscript that back them up.
Catch a scene where the character acts out of character. Feedback checks the passage on screen against your lore. If a conflict-avoidant character suddenly picks a fight with no reason, the Consistency card puts that line at the top.
See how the flaw changes over the story. How a character has changed builds up in chapter order, so you can check that the flaw fades or deepens where you meant it to.

Whether a flaw is overcome, given in to or left as it is stays your decision. For the positive traits that sit on the other side of these flaws, see the Character Traits List.

FAQ

What are examples of character flaws?

Common ones include arrogance, cowardice, jealousy, impatience, stubbornness, dishonesty and recklessness. A flaw becomes useful in a story when it causes a choice that goes wrong at an important moment.

What is the difference between a flaw and a weakness?

A flaw is a trait that leads to bad decisions, like pride or impatience. A weakness is something a character can't do or is vulnerable to, like a fear of heights or not being able to swim. Flaws show in choices, weaknesses in situations.

What is a fatal flaw?

A fatal flaw, from Aristotle's term hamartia, is the failing that brings a tragic hero to ruin. Classic examples are Macbeth's ambition and Othello's jealousy. In most modern fiction, characters survive and change instead.

How many flaws should a character have?

One main flaw that drives the arc is usually enough for a protagonist, with a few smaller ones around it. Too many major flaws make a character hard to root for and hard to follow.

What are the seven deadly sins as character flaws?

Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. They're a classic set to start from, and each has several modern versions in the list above (vain, greedy, envious, hot-tempered, lazy).

Sources

Hamartia: Aristotle, Poetics, translated by S. H. Butcher, Project Gutenberg
Character flaw: Wikipedia — Character flaw