A flawed character becomes likable when audiences trust the character’s honesty more than they judge the character’s mistakes.
Memorable characters come in many shades—everything from Heathcliff’s murderous manipulation to Steve Rogers’s aw-shucks idealism. Sometimes, the not-so-likable characters end up being all the more interesting and enduring for their inner darkness. But, generally speaking, most authors are on a mission to write a likable character.
We want readers to become fascinated with these characters. We want them to wish our protagonists lived next door so they could go out for coffee once a week and chat about saving the world. But how can we be sure of creating personalities that are lovable—or at least so compelling that audiences can’t look away?
The answers are as vast as the personalities we know in our own lives. We might like one person for his wit, another for her kindness, another for his daring, and yet another for her virtue. And when it comes to characters, the truth is: we also like them for their flaws—to a point.
So the new question becomes: How do we create a character who is flawed enough to avoid the Goody Two-Shoes Award, while still being likable in spite of those flaws?
Audiences Forgive Flaws—But Not HypocrisyIt’s important to recognize a distinct difference between likability and perfection.
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Audiences neither expect nor desire perfect characters. (If nothing else, you’re not likely to get much of a character arc.)
Even though we often desire morally heroic or courageous characters, we crave those same characters to be flawed.
Audiences will forgive an array of personal flaws—everything from pettiness to bravado to cowardice and even brutality—as long as they can still sense a core of authenticity within the character’s self-awareness. Audiences can forgive moral failure. What they can’t forgive is hypocrisy—particularly if the hypocrisy is unintentionally created by the author.
Unintentional or unaddressed character hypocrisy destroys trust and suspension of disbelief. This means one of the easiest ways to anchor audience empathy for even deeply flawed characters is to allow those characters even just one moment of self-recognition.
How Honesty Makes Flawed Characters More LikableIn short, make your characters honest.
I don’t mean never-fish-for-spare-change-in-a-vending-machine honest. I mean tell-it-like-it-is-and-own-up-to-it honest.
Audiences will forgive characters any number of flaws if the characters are honest about who they are and what they’re doing.
This does not mean characters will tell others the truth all the time. They can deceive, coerce, and keep secrets.
This also doesn’t mean characters must always be self-aware. Indeed, character arcs require the Lie the Character Believes to be prominent at some point in the story. In a Positive Change Arc, the characters will arc toward their capacity for self-awareness. By contrast, beginning a Negative Change Arc with at least some modicum of self-awareness can increase the ironic poignancy of the character’s descent into deception (of self or others).
3 Examples of How Honest Characters Earn Audience TrustThis post was originally inspired by an excellent moment in an otherwise forgettable Golden Hollywood movie that you’ve likely never heard of…
Sylvia Scarlett: Why Honest Characters Win Audience EmpathySylvia Scarlett is an early Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant vehicle, in which Hepburn plays a young girl masquerading as a boy to help her crooked father escape the police. Out of its otherwise chaotic storytelling, we have a beautiful example of how to “show” a character’s honesty even in the midst of otherwise unlikable actions.
Early in the movie, the originally virtuous Sylvia finds herself talked into being a thief despite her convictions. In short, she’s a hypocrite—potentially the most dislikable of all character types. But she saves herself from viewer disdain. How?
You guessed it. She’s honest.
Sylvia’s willingness to admit the truth about herself transforms a potentially unlikeable hypocrite into a character audiences can empathize with. (Sylvia Scarlett (1935), RKO Radio Pictures.)
Tipsily, and still in her guise as a boy, she reveals the truth to a young housemaid who was about to unwittingly take the fall for a crime committed by Sylvia and her companions.
Sylvia points at her father, their traveling companion, and then herself, saying, “He’s a crook, he’s a crook… he’s a crook.”
And just like that, despite her multitude of sins, she wins viewers back. She’s struggling. She’s tempted. She’s fallen. And… she knows it. In admitting the truth about herself in an unguarded moment, she invites viewers into her relatability.
Tony Stark: Why Transparency Creates Reader TrustTony is the poster child for a flawed but likable character. Right from the start, he proves himself arrogant, reckless, provocative, and disrespectful. And yet, one of the reasons audiences rarely resent him is that Tony almost never pretends to be someone he’s not.
When Steve Rogers challenges him in The Avengers by asking what he is without his Iron Man suit, Tony’s famous reply—“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”–is subversively transparent. In conversation with someone who is in many ways his polar opposite (i.e., humble, sincere, genuinely likable), Tony unapologetically owns his flaws. Tony shows the ability to arc over the course of the series, but right from the start, his often reckless honesty (“I’m Iron Man”) subverts his arrogance into authenticity.
Iron Man (2008), Marvel Studios.
Raylan Givens: How to Get Audiences to Trust Morally Gray CharactersFinally, we can also consider Raylan Givens from the show Justified.
Justified (2010-15), FX.
As a deputy U.S. marshal, Raylan regularly skirts into the gray area of the law. His shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach makes him a throwback lawman more than a socially acceptable hero.
In the pilot episode, after Raylan shoots a suspect, his ex-wife questions what happened. Raylan’s earnest response is simple: “I was justified.”
Throughout the rest of the series, Raylan operates according to this personal code of “justification,” which he never attempts to gloss over. He understands his moral grayness and doesn’t try to convince either himself or others that he is otherwise.
Ironically, his honesty often makes his flawed behavior all the more stark. Although he lacks self-awareness in many areas, it is his integrity to his own code that allows viewers to connect with him even when he leads them into the gray.
7 Questions to Ask About Your Flawed CharactersIf you’re worried your characters may be crossing the line from flawed to unlikable, here are some questions you can explore:
A little well-dramatized self-awareness and honesty is more than enough to make even the most flawed character surprisingly likable. When characters prove able to face the truth about themselves, this is what sets the groundwork for strong character arcs. It also means that, even at the lowest moments in those arcs, audiences will be able to forgive seemingly unforgivable flaws. This is because honesty gives your characters’ imperfections context, humanity, and credibility.
And that’s what keeps readers turning pages.
Want More?One of the reasons I love using the Enneagram in character development is that it helps authors create believable flaws. Every Enneagram type carries its own core fears, desires, strengths, blind spots, and coping mechanisms. When you understand those deeper motivations, your characters’ weaknesses stop feeling like arbitrary quirks and start feeling like natural expressions of who they are.
In the Enneagram Character Arc Worksheets Bundle, each worksheet explores one Enneagram type and shows how its defining personality traits can develop through either a Positive Change Arc or a Negative Change Arc. If you’re looking for authentic flaws and psychologically consistent motivations, these worksheets offer a practical way to create personality-based character arcs that feel realistic and authentic.
Available as an instant digital download.
Enneagram Character Arc Cheat Sheet Full Bundle
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What are your favorite examples of flawed characters whose honesty makes them more likable? Tell me in the comments!The post Why Honesty Makes Flawed Characters More Likable appeared first on Helping Writers Become Authors.