Member-only story
Owning My Vulnerabilities
When I was little, I wanted to be perfect. Maybe if I was perfect, my mom would love me and wouldn’t think that I’d wrecked her life by being born. Maybe if I were perfect, my dad would be as proud of me as he was of my younger siblings. Maybe if I were perfect, my husband would look up from the TV and would talk to me again. There are so many things that could have been if only I were perfect. There’s only one problem with this idea; perfection simply doesn’t exist as a state of being for humanity. Each and every one of us is deeply flawed, and those flaws are both our greatest strengths and deadliest weaknesses.
My ultimate goal is to write books. Perhaps it is a pipe dream, but perhaps it is my future. There’s only one way to find out. Regardless, the pursuit of this goal has led to me spending hours reading into character development. I read a particularly poignant post on creating believable character flaws. A character’s strengths and weaknesses should be derived from the same underlying trait. A particularly brave hero may make rash decisions that endanger their companions. A desire for perfection can lead to strong motivation and work ethic but can also lead to crippling anxiety and fear of failure. Writing is often a mirror held up to the soul of both the writer and the readers, and our perceptions are the warps in the glass.
