Unfortunate Traits We Bequeath to Our Fictional Characters

  A great blue  heron’s call is an ugly thing, resembling’s someone’s great-aunt Millie clearing her throat after a forty-year pack a day habit.  Harsh, inelegant, an ironic trait for such a beautiful birds.  The geese must laugh behind their backs.   After creating Celeste, I realized I’d saddled her with a honk the Three Stooges would have been proud of.

Deborah, in Hungry, has bathroom issues that flare up when her species hits puberty.  I just had to mortify her.  Couldn’t help it.

As a writer, have you ever created a trait that you realize has given your character unintentional baggage?   As an avid reader, have you ever snickered at the pitfalls of characters, especially very virtuous ones?