What's Wrong with You?

The lead character in both Random Road and Darkness Lane, Geneva Chase, has been described as:

• Dysfunctional, yet remarkably endearing.
• A likable if flawed heroine readers will want to see more of.
• Flawed but dedicated heroine

Geneva Chase is tall, blonde, attractive, on the edge of forty, and athletic. However, she’s an alcoholic, she’d been married three times (one less than Hemingway), and when we meet her in Random Road, she’s hooking up with a smarmy married attorney. Genie is a reporter working for her hometown newspaper in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It’s not where she wants to be, but she’s drank herself out of every other good journalism job she’s had. For Genie Chase, there’s nowhere else to go.

She’s kind of a train wreck. But she’s smart and a snarky smart-ass and readers seem to relate to her. Especially the smart-ass part.

Do protagonists need character flaws? I think they do, unless your character is either Superman or Jack Reacher. Both incredibly popular and both perfect.

But I think flaws make characters more believable and relatable. Believable because everyone in real life has character flaws and we can relate to people who make mistakes and sometimes make bad decisions. Not that we’ve ever done anything silly or stupid.

Who are some of my favorite characters and just how flawed are they? One of my favorites is Ian Rankin’s retired Detective Inspector John Rebus. He smokes too much, drinks a bit too much, and his personal life is a mess. Oh, and he’s grumpy and Scottish, let’s not forget about that.

Sherlock Holmes, of course. Annoying, arrogant, insufferable, smokes a pipe, and is a coke addict.Yet the character is an evergreen icon.

How about Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch? He’s in a constant state of conflict with authority. But don’t we like that in a person? Harry is always stickin’ it to the man. A good quality unless he works for you!

Let’s give a shout out to the flaws infesting Nick and Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, and heavy drinking Rachel Watson in Girl on the Train, and the kick-ass heroine Lisbeth Salander in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  

My personal flaw is I haven’t figured out how to work in the word “Girl” into any of my titles.

Those are literary characters with flaws, but television has long jumped on the bandwagon. Nurse Jackie was a drug addict. Tony Soprano was a homicidal mobster. Walter White cooked meth. Flawed, flawed, flawed, but we rooted for them, wanted them to win somehow, maybe grow and overcome their problems.

A friend of mine called me when she’d finished reading Random Road and told me how much she enjoyed Geneva Chase.  Then she said something that surprised me. She said, “I like her because I know she’ll never really be happy.”

Is that a relatable flaw?

With Geneva, she’s very self-aware. She knows she has a problem. Using the character’s point of view to show they have insight makes flaws more palatable.

Early on a writer can make a character more likable in spite of his/her flaws. Geneva’s life is a mess, but she has a dog that she adores, a terrier named Tucker. Who doesn’t like puppies?

Or if you have a villain? Bad guys are way cool to write. They’re the ones who are going to kick that puppy. Bad guys will be a whole other blog subject.

As your characters are working through the mystery you’ve created for them, their flaws often get in their way, impeding them, creating tension, adding to the crisis. Isn’t that what a novel is all about?

Enough about character flaws.

Time for shameless self-promotion. On September 2nd and 3rd, I’ll be at the Poisoned Pen Mystery Conference at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. The guest of honor is Ian Rankin (notice how I mentioned Detective Inspector John Rebus earlier in this blog?). I’ll be on two panels on Monday, September 3rd, along with many other wonderful authors—Sleuths and the Media, and Unconventional Women.  FYI…I’m the only guy on that last panel. That’s going to be interesting.

Then, at Bouchercon in St. Petersburg, Florida, I’ll be on a panel on Thursday, September 6th, discussing Journalists in Fiction.  https://www.bouchercon2018.com/schedule/panels/

If you’re attending either of these conferences, please look me up. I’d love to meet you!!