So apparently it's #NationalWritingDay. So I'm going to talk about the difference between writing CHARACTERS WITH TRAGIC FLAWS effectively, because that's kinda my thing. https://twitter.com/writeday/status/1275670231197908993

A lot of people don't understand or realise how the things that shaped them have shaped them.
Sometimes it can take years or decades, for us to understand what has happened to us, or the trauma that we've experienced. Some people never understand it.

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Trauma in our past can lead us to make bad decisions. Sometimes it leads us to make self-destructive choices, to isolate ourselves, or to repeat the same mistakes over and over.
When acknowledged, that does not usually stop people making them again.

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A tragic character is doomed to repeat their mistakes, and to be convincing, they need to be consistent. This can be painful to you as a writer if you feel empathy with your fictional pals. But to be real, the reader needs to see them -
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- making the same errors repeatedly. Those mistakes must have negative impacts on the storyline for your hero, and keep them from reaching their goals. A character who can't control their temper, but where that somehow only helps them, isn't tragic.

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In BLACKWING, Galharrow is beset by a deep shame over his perceived failings in the past, both as a military commander and the way he conducted himself afterwards. His shame causes him to push people away, or draw them very close.

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The shame drives him to two extremes:
- Pushing away those that are good for him.
- Drawing close those who are destructive.
I love 'em, but Nenn and Tnota are usually bad influences and encourage his worst habits: addiction, violence, selfishness, sloth.

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And yet, the shame also forces him to the other extreme:
- Deep loyalty to those who he is close to
- Having vastly higher expectations of himself, that he chooses not to admit to or masks most of the time
People are often riven by two extremities.

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Writing about a tragic character is not the same as writing a tragedy. In a tragedy, the character's flaws doom them from the beginning, while heroic characters will at some point overcome them. It is that character development that allows them to succeed.

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But that personal success need not be permanent. There is a bitter kind of joy sometimes in seeing a character returning to their old ways. People are fickle, and changeable.
If you remember the line:
"Hells, it's about time," from CROWFALL then you'll see this in Galharrow.

So in summary:
- Tragic characters probably don't know they are tragic
- Clear, repeated behaviour patterns
- Possessed of diametrically opposed beliefs/behaviours
- Overcome tragic characteristics to resolve storylines

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