Could this be considered a character flaw?

I'm trying to avoid a So Beautiful, It's a Curse type flaw. Let's say Bill is a really nice, generous guy. He tries to help everyong he can, but doesn't know how to prioritize. (kind of like a Buridan's ass kind of thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan%27s_ass) This gets him in trouble with his family and such and actually causes a couple people to dislike him. Thoughts?

edited 4th Nov '12 7:45:09 AM by TheMuse

I am really not sure, I would say this can depend, on execution, but I would think of making a better flaw. Something like this, can be interpreded, as Mary sue character having minor flaw, or complitly oposiete, a good character in World of mary sue .

See, this doesn't seem like the most efficient way of going about developing a character to me. If you've got a well-developed character that you treat like a person, then they should naturally develop flaws that make sense for them. It shouldn't be about checking boxes, like, "Oh, right, this character needs flaws. Let's see, I will make them x and y. DONE."

That being said, this is, in fact, a flaw, and if you give it to a character he will, in fact, be a flawed character. So, yes, yes it could.

I could easily see that being a flaw if he takes on too many projects or tries to help too many people with different things and doesn't leave time to take care of his own needs or tries to help with things that he doesn't really know how to do and ends up causing more trouble by trying to help. I don't really know this Bill character or the setting or anything, but an easy comedy plot that could result from this flaw is if he gets involved with two different projects/things he's helping with that are at the same time and because he can't prioritize and pick one that he wants to help with more, he tries to help with both at the same time, rushing to and from each place. Kind of like the scene in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic from Sweet And Elite where Rarity tries to attend both the garden party and Twilight's birthday party. Or he ends up realizing later that they're at the same time and angsts over not being able to help both and upsets one of the people he promised to help because he had to fulfill a different promise.

I could easily see a character like this becoming an in-universe example of Stop Helping Me if this was played for comedy and Bill was incompetent and/or annoying enough.

edited 4th Nov '12 12:15:17 PM by Rainbow

That actually sounds like a pretty good plot-affecting flaw. If shown to be consistent and having real ramifications (the inability to prioritise actually making it hard for him to achieve his goals in the story as well as the being disliked and getting into trouble with family/workmates/managers), it should create good conflict - with others and with his own flaw as he struggles to get what he wants.

If you haven't already, it'd pay to look at the personality of a person who has priority issues and make sure that the rest of the character's personality meshes and it doesn't look like it's been "tacked on" to the character.

Think on how it would have affected his life so far to work out where he's at. What effect would such a flaw have on how he's living and what he has or hasn't got.

And of course, part of the climax is going to have to be to put him in a "water vs straw" situation that must be resolved.

Its one that can be played at different levels- from my WIP

How his self imposed duty to his friends affects his partner has varied depending on the stage of their relationship. Drama is about conflict- where you use the flaw doesn't have to be about what it does to him, but how it affects his relationship.