Dealing with characters you don't like

[Sasha Distan]

 I did this with a novel a few years ago, and I had a few people write in and say, "hey! I hate this guy! I don't want to read this story!" But the longer you stuck with it, the more you see the guy was guilty of making several bad choices in life, pretending he was somebody he wasn't, and eventually beaten down by a tough adversary and forced through circumstance to accept who he really was.

 

Sounds like a good book. i'd read it.

[Thorn Wilde]

Yeah, it's tough to write characters (especially lead characters) you dislike. But I've often found that it's the characters' flaws that make them interesting: maybe they have a bad temper, or they tend to criticize others, or they're impatient and snippy. Maybe they're overconfident, or they have a bad habit of being so arrogant, they step on other people without even realizing it.

 

What can be fun is when they have their comeuppance over time, and by the end of the story, they're sadder but wiser, even (hopefully) changed people who are much more rounded and more human. I did this with a novel a few years ago, and I had a few people write in and say, "hey! I hate this guy! I don't want to read this story!" But the longer you stuck with it, the more you see the guy was guilty of making several bad choices in life, pretending he was somebody he wasn't, and eventually beaten down by a tough adversary and forced through circumstance to accept who he really was.

 

Flaws are ridiculously important in any character, but just because a character is flawed, that doesn't mean you necessarily dislike them, depending on the flaws, of course.

 

Alan is a bully and a homophobe, but I know that that's because he's struggling with things within himself, so I can't hate him for it. 

 

Ben, from the new story I'm working on, is over-confident and slightly arrogant, and is an actor who never takes off the mask, but I love him anyway because I know that through his relationship with Mark he can break those habits and become more human, and because he's charming and super-hot.

 

Craig, on the other hand, has few redeeming qualities, and as much as I pity him, knowing what made him the way he is, what he's been through just isn't enough to weigh up for all the horrible things he's done to other people and therefore I cannot like him.

[meanderingsNmusings]

I wrote a screenplay about a guy in depression and I personally did not like him because to me he kind of gloried in his sorrow and pushed people away. Difficult to explain that without sharing the screenplay but the net effect was that the character came off passive. All the action in my plot was getting driven by other, more interesting characters. In my defense my protagonist tends to internalize his feelings and runs from the truth (much like Bay seems to be doing) but it is important to hand some trait which need not necessarily redeem the character but gives him more to do in the plot. Bay seems to have too much of a victim's mentality, he's unwilling to take charge in any way. I think if you let him do that, you may be able to grow him without necessarily having to like him. Eventually I hope you give him redemption, unless you think he should get a come-uppance. Happens often in gay movies with repressed characters.

[Sasha Distan]

 tends to internalize his feelings and runs from the truth (much like Bay seems to be doing). Bay seems to have too much of a victim's mentality, he's unwilling to take charge in any way. I think if you let him do that, you may be able to grow him without necessarily having to like him. Eventually I hope you give him redemption, unless you think he should get a come-uppance. Happens often in gay movies with repressed characters.

 

Oh Bay is really good at running away from his feelings. He gets redemption and come-uppance. and hopefully he'll learn to deal with his feelings

[Thorn Wilde]

I wrote a screenplay about a guy in depression and I personally did not like him because to me he kind of gloried in his sorrow and pushed people away. Difficult to explain that without sharing the screenplay but the net effect was that the character came off passive. All the action in my plot was getting driven by other, more interesting characters.

 

Sounds like a friend of mine, actually. Clinically depressed and completely unable to get off his arse and do anything about it. Sadly, apathy is one of the most common symptoms of depression. It's not his fault. Still very frustrating to talk to him sometimes, though.

[The Pecman]

Flaws are ridiculously important in any character, but just because a character is flawed, that doesn't mean you necessarily dislike them, depending on the flaws, of course.

 

I think the flaws only work for the hero if they find a way to overcome them. But there's always secondary characters who are going to start with flaws and stay the same... or, perhaps more interestingly, characters we initially think are OK or even good people, and then we learn over time they're terribly flawed, awful people. And there's certainly flawed people whom we can pity.

 

But it's all part of the human experience. What I object to are stories -- particularly on the net -- where the characters are paper-thin, a lot of stereotypes, and we basically know who they are in one or two paragraphs. I particularly dislike them when they complain a lot, cry a lot, whine a lot, and are otherwise characters who don't take enough of an active role in their own lives -- they merely react to things that happen. I prefer people who make things happen, which is a lot more of a challenge to write. I also like to think that people are more complicated than a simple character sketch, and that people we initially see as villains might actually have some good qualities, and people we initially admire as heroes are more flawed than we want to believe. 

 

In all four of my novels so far, I've had different mixtures of these as characters. In fact, I haven't had a single villain who wound up not having at least some redeeming qualities. One (the title character of Jagged Angel) is a case where I'm not sure if the kid was completely narcissistic and anti-social, psychotic, or just had a bad temper... or even if he might have been redeemed, under the right circumstances. I left a little open to conjecture, kind of like a gay version of The Bad Seed (a book and movie I admire quite a bit, and acknowledged in the introduction). 

 

I pulled a trick in my new novel where there's a character that knows about some pretty awful stuff that's been going on, and we only find out at the end how bad they are. So they're not so much a terribly-flawed person... they're somebody who allowed terrible things to happen without stopping it. I think that was a pretty surprising reveal for most of my readers, judging by the feedback.

Edited June 4, 2013 by The Pecman

[Former Member]

 I particularly dislike them when they complain a lot, cry a lot, whine a lot, and are otherwise characters who don't take enough of an active role in their own lives

 

 

 

S'called a Mary-Sue.  The best one I can think of in popular 'literature' is Bella Swan.  It's like the rainbow-unicorn-I'm-so-happy-but-everything-wrong-has-happened-to-me-but-I'm-still-beautiful-and-love-me.  Any self-respecting author also hates them XD

[Thorn Wilde]

I think the flaws only work for the hero if they find a way to overcome them.

 

All people have flaws. They don't have to be catastrophic, but we all have them. I am, for instance, very lazy when it comes to house work. I love to cook, but I hate to clean and as such leave kind of a disaster area in my wake that I only feel a little guilty about leaving for boyfriend to clean up. This is a character flaw with me. I'm also prone to stress and anxiety, to sudden bursts of anger and to poor self-esteem. All of these are what I'd call character flaws, and all of them are things I try to work on, but completely overcoming all of them is highly improbable, and either way, perfect people aren't interesting. I try to never let my characters, heroes or otherwise, end up perfect at the end of the story. They always retain some of their flaws, and oftentimes their flaws aren't even the issues they have to solve for the plot. And I love a good anti-hero.

[Former Member]

Anti-heroes for the win!  I can't write them worth crap, but it's something I'm working on.  Reluctant heroes are my faves though.

[Sasha Distan]

S'called a Mary-Sue.  The best one I can think of in popular 'literature' is Bella Swan.  It's like the rainbow-unicorn-I'm-so-happy-but-everything-wrong-has-happened-to-me-but-I'm-still-beautiful-and-love-me.  Any self-respecting author also hates them XD

 

Very single one of my characters scores really low on the Mary Sue test. of this i am proud. and yes, your example is very apt.

[Former Member]

Very single one of my characters scores really low on the Mary Sue test. of this i am proud. and yes, your example is very apt.

 

I could have added probably ten more things to it.  Before I send a character off to for public viewing, I run it by one of my best friends and harshest editors.  She sets me straight if there's too much Sue-ness goin' on.

[RobsWriting]

I think for me, it was Professor Dieter Bracker in "The Shadow in the Night". He was not a nice person and was a real challenge to write for. As a person, if I met him, I would dislike him intensely. From a writing perspective, I had to keep re-visiting him and making him ever-nastier during each edit as I didn't feel that he was acting according to his reputation. On the other hand, I loved having him as the principal villain. He was, at least, more nasty than my lead character, Milo Underwood, who has his moments, but is nowhere near as bad.

 

On the other hand, if I didn't really dislike my principal villain, it tends to tell me that they're just not villainous enough yet.

 

Liam is also a character who is apt to drive me nuts sometimes with his infant-like fascination with the question "why?". I love having him in the story as he's the person through whom the magical world is explained, analysed, criticised and challenged, but sometimes it gives me a headache that he won't take facts at face value. Come to that, I seem to recall my university lecturers saying the same of me.

Edited June 12, 2013 by RobsWriting