I've been working on a new novel lately that has two main characters. One of the characters, I absolutely love. She's spunky and friendly, and everyone loves her. (She's nothing like me, but very much what I wish I could have been growing up.) The other character is cold and manipulative and entitled. (Also nothing like me, thankfully.) The readers aren't necessarily supposed to root for her, just enjoy the counterbalance she offers to the other MC.
I just hit 34,000 words on the story, so I'm getting close to something of a complete draft. Most of the major scenes have been written. I have a few more outlined, then I just need to tie it all together. With how easily this book has flown out of me, it could theoretically be done rather soon. Some of the last scenes to write, however, are about the MC I don't like. I have to write from her point of view, and it's getting harder as the story goes on and she gets more and more frustrated with the situations I'm putting her through. I started writing a particular scene last night and had to stop because I realized I was getting mad at my MC for how she was behaving.
This character is my own invention and I'm getting mad at her. Sheesh.
But it's a common problem that writers face. How do you put yourself enough into the mind of someone you dislike in order to be able to write from their point of view? We experience this with antagonists a lot, but they usually aren't the MCs. We just write them tangentially. When the character you don't like is the one narrating the scene, how do you get around that dislike and find something to connect to? Their passion. Their distress. Their insecurities. You have to make yourself care about them in order to give them a voice.
Hi, Kylie- We just became FB friends and I followed you on Twitter. To answer your question, it's not a prerequisite to like your characters. For the sympathetic ones you'll want your readers to like, yes, it helps. But it's not as if you'll follow each other on social media. Character creation and delineation is strictly transactional or ought to be. It all comes down to whether they serve the plot and not themselves. Like many others, I write thrillers and create bad guys all the time. I don't have to like them. I just need to make them compelling and integral to the plot.
ReplyDeleteAs for getting in their heads and writing in their POVs, that's trickier and I'll have to tell you to fall back on your own devices. Personally, I have no problem hopping from one skull to another but that's my particular gift. Imagining the book cinematically is certainly a great aid in character delineation. It helps you get a better handle on your characters and enables you to write more vivid dialogue. Writing in first person also helps to stovepipe you directly into that character's head. But imagining things as a passive spectator also helps to establish some remove and helps establish objectivity without your personal feelings gumming up the works.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, you can email me at Crawman2@yahoo.com.