Angela Ackerman - The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Flaws

THE NEGATIVE

TRAIT THESAURUS:

A Writers Guide to Character Flaws

Angela Ackerman

Becca Puglisi

Copyright 2013 by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

Published by: JADD Publishing

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in print or electronic form without prior permission of the authors. Please respect the hard work of the authors and do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials. All rights reserved http://writershelpingwriters.net/

ISBN: 978-0-9897725-2-5

Original Source: The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Expression , by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Paperback Edition: October 2013 (ISBN: 978-0-9897725-0-1)

Edited by: C. S. Lakin ()

Book cover design by: Scarlett Rugers Design 2013

http://www.scarlettrugers.com

Book formatting by: Jason Chatraw

http://greene-books.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Angela Ackerman is a member of The Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and writes on the darker side of Middle Grade and Young Adult. When she isnt creating new writing tools or plotting mayhem, shes carefully deleting her browser history and pretending to live the life of a normal, quiet Canadian.

Becca Puglisi is a YA fantasy and historical fiction writer who enjoys slurping copious amounts of Mountain Dew and snarfing snacks that have no nutritional value. She has always enjoyed contemplating the What if? scenario, which serves her well in south Florida. As a result, during hurricane season, you can find her stalking the local weather forecasters and muttering unkind words toward the Atlantic.

Together, Angela and Becca host The Bookshelf Muse , an award-winning blog at the Writers Helping Writers website. This resource offers a number of unique thesauri to aid writers in their descriptive writing efforts. Their best-selling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Expression, is the first in their Writers Helping Writers series.

MORE WRITERS HELPING WRITERS BOOKS

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Expression

The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Attributes

For more information on how to purchase these books or take advantage of the many articles and free writing tools, please visit us at Writers Helping Writers. You can also find Becca and Angela on Twitter, check out their Facebook page or sign up for their Newsletter, which offers a treasure trove of content for writers.

DEDICATIONS

To my second set of parents. No one could ask for a more supportive, encouraging, loving, accepting, and fun pair of in-laws. Thank you for everything that youve done for your son, for me, and for our children. Love you bunches!

Becca Puglisi

To my family and friends (online and off!) who taught me to believe.

Angela Ackerman

Our deepest gratitude to writers everywhere, who inspire us through their dedication, perseverance, and heart. With this book we particularly honor the memory of Carolyn Kaufman, who was taken far too soon. Her insight and friendship will be greatly missed.

A & B

PRAISE FOR THE EMOTION THESAURUS

One of the challenges a fiction writer faces, especially when prolific, is coming up with fresh ways to describe emotions. This handy compendium fills that need. It is both a reference and a brainstorming tool, and one of the resources Ill be turning to most often as I write my own books.

- James Scott Bell, best-selling author

of Deceived and Plot & Structure

FOREWORD

by Carolyn Kaufman, Phys. D.

PERSONALITY THEORY SAYS THAT all of us have five to ten central traits that define us. Its easy to identify themjust make a quick list of the characteristics that best describe you. If you want some verification, ask a couple of close friends or family members to make their own lists describing your personality and then compare notes. Youll likely find striking similarities.

While you and the people who care about you will probably emphasize your positive qualities, theres more to all of us than positive attributes. As a writer, youll want to make sure you also explore your characters more problematic traits, because thats where youll find both inner and outer conflict. Thats where youll find your story.

When I started doing psychotherapy as a counselor, I was privy to many peoples secrets. I quickly learned that no matter what you see on the outside, everyone struggles on the inside. Everyone is damaged, some people more severely than others, and the hurts weve experienced in life leave wounds that change the way we view the world and ourselves. Sometimes flaws develop as we attempt to defend against further hurts.

Other flaws are the dark sides of our positive attributes. For example, if your character is a confident, attractive, high-powered success, theres a good chance that those positives qualities are also casting shadows. For example, taken to extremes, confidence can become swaggering haughtiness, just as attractiveness can lead to vanity and superficiality. And for all of their charisma, successful people dont usually get ahead by being gullible or wishy-washy. Your character may have climbed to fame or fortune by relying on the positive aspects of manipulation, scheming, and cold-hearted decision-making. But those very same flaws may be his downfall.

Sometimes people know their flaws are problems, but other times they live in merry denial. Even when their flaws are pointed out to them, these people say things like Oh, Ive heard that before but I dont believe it. A few people are so blinded by their flaws that theyve lost all perspective. For example, the arrogant intellectual might claim that hed treat others better if they werent so dumb. Or the self-absorbed television personality might argue that shed be happy to listen to others if they ever talked about anything interesting.

Each human being exists inside of a subjective sphere created by his own experience. The truth is that you can never truly know just how another person feels or views the world. We must do our best based on our own knowledge of the world and by being open to exploring experiences that are different from our own. The Flaw Thesaurus can help you better understand the flaws you have already chosen or discovered in your characters, and it can lead you to consider possibilities you might not otherwise have.

If you, the writer, are a forthright person, you may find it difficult to get inside the head of someone who is timid or withdrawn; if you are cautious and conscientious, you may find it difficult to understand people who are reckless and impulsive. Fortunately, you have in your hands the writers solution to that dilemma: flip to the entry on Reckless and find out what causes people to become reckless, and how they might characteristically act based on that trait. Remember, in real life there is no narrator to announce the flaws of others to us (she was obviously a hypocrite); instead, we have to rely on behavior to tell us what we need to know.

Once you have identified or developed the flaw, you will need to force your character to deal with it. The Flaw Thesaurus will also help you understand both the negative and the positive aspects of each flaw, since people continue to rely on a flawed approach because it is somehow working for them. The book presents you with possible ways to make your character aware of his flaws, and explains how that new knowledge can force him to confront his issues.

Listen, change is hard. Hard . Even Abraham Maslow, the psychologist who created the familiar hierarchy of needs, acknowledged that many people stall before they reach the self-actualization stage. He called this the Jonah complex.

In the Biblical story of Jonah and the whale, God gave Jonah a challenging task. Jonah subsequently did what many if not most people do when confronted with such a situationhe ran the other direction in hopes of avoiding it. In this case, quite literally, as he booked passage on a ship heading away from the city where God told him to go. A violent storm arose and the sailors, believing God was angry with Jonah, threw him overboard, where he was swallowed by a whale.