Characters, the Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Bewleybrother]

Wow, Breanna sounds like a real piece of work. But now I want to read about her.

I found this quote from playright David Mamet, "I began to question what I actually thought and found that I do not think that people are basically good at heart; indeed, that view of human nature has both prompted and informed my writing for the last 40 years. I think that people, in circumstances of stress, can behave like swine, and that this, indeed, is not only a fit subject, but the only subject, of drama.”

I just can't look at the world that way. I usually find redeeming features in the people I write about. Probably my most unsympathetic character (a woman; I haven't published the story yet) is more "disturbed" than consciously evil. She does cause quite a mess for someone else in the story.

Watch Harold Pinters "The Homecoming" then you'll get serve implacable motives without histrionic language.

 

[Abbafan]

I like those stories in which a character is "good" or sees themselves that way, but ends up doing something they consider very naughty if not bad. Normal seeming people overcome by desire, that kind of thing. Stories in which the characters start out as complete sex fiends and are banging by the third paragraph don't usually interest me.

I find myself in the taboo category a lot.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Right. The old one about when life gives you lemons...

What happens when life only provides assholes?

Then you fill the assholes with lemons, silly!

 

[gunhilltrain]

Watch Harold Pinters "The Homecoming" then you'll get serve implacable motives without histrionic language.

His "No Man's Land" is on YouTube; looks like it's a filmed play on the stage. But the sound is messed up; there almost is no sound.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Most of my characters are basically good, but flawed. Who wants bland anything? Salt and lemon juice and cayenne - in the right amounts - can turn bland into delicious.

I have a few baddies, but not that many and most of them are simple amoral rather than truly evil. My 'eloi' in E.V.T. were simply utter selfish dedonists - more uncaring or unthinking. And yes, I've written a couple of truly nasty characters, too, but not that many, given the generally desired pleasant tone of this site. (Who goes to an erotica site to feel bad?)

Now that I think about, I have several stories where young women - college students - dump their young boyfriends for older men with jobs, money and cars.

I'm working on a series in which a male student meets a fellow student who is also a part-time hooker on campus. She tries to get him to be a customer, but - it's complicated - he turns the tables on her and makes her his girlfriend.

They have a weird relationship - they grasp that they are not right for each other - filled with insults, fights, strange role-plays and BDSM activities (which they find they enjoy). But, for a while at least, they also have some fun and even declare their love for each other.

I have a story (as yet unpublished) in which a student with a girlfriend runs into a "nymphomaniac" (it's now termed hypersexual disorder) and has several abrupt but passionless encounters with her. She develops a grudge against him because he has the delusion that she will become an additional girlfriend. After pestering her for a while, she comes up to this guy when he's with his actual girlfriend (at his own graduation ceremony, no less) and "outs" him. She describes what his penis looks like, which clinches her story.

So yeah, not everything I write is sweetness and light. There are some strange things happening on college campuses.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Some of my female characters would be classified as sociopaths, such as Breanna from my fetish story series 'Trailer Trash Teen Hates Rules.' One reader described Breanna as the most hateful character he had ever read about.

Breanna, a nymphomaniac trailer park girl from the wrong side of the tracks, uses the toilet with the door open to shock and offend people; throws her used sanitary pads on the floor; shoplifts, steals money and commits a robbery; plays mean-spirited pranks on people; uses physical violence such as throwing a bottle at her brother's head; sprays graffiti; mocks disabled people; hates homosexual men despite being bi herself; and cannot go a sentence without using the word shit, fuck or cunt.

RetroFan, I'm in the middle of reading your first chapter, but I'd already say: you've got great material there. Not only is it one of the funniest things I've read anywhere, but there is excellent storytelling too. Now I want to read your other stuff, including the Spoiled Princess series.

I love the bit about the New Jersey Pine Barrens. (I know some people who live down there, so I'm familiar with the area.)

Spaghetti with ketchup! Like you couldn't just buy a jar of tomato sauce - and it tastes quite good - at about any store in the United States.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what else you've come up, starting with the whole Trailer Trash series.

 

[jehoram]

Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing I find more boring than a truly evil character, like Moriarty in that Benedict Cumberbatch "Sherlock" series. No introspection, no clue as how he got that way. It reduces him to a device to pitch against Sherlock.

Give me a bad guy who's got some past, some conflict, some reason to do what he's doing. That way, you can get inside his head and anticipate what he's going to do next.

 

[Brutal_One]

Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing I find more boring than a truly evil character, like Moriarty in that Benedict Cumberbatch "Sherlock" series. No introspection, no clue as how he got that way. It reduces him to a device to pitch against Sherlock.

Give me a bad guy who's got some past, some conflict, some reason to do what he's doing. That way, you can get inside his head and anticipate what he's going to do next.

With you there. Evil characters are made not born so understanding the reason why they become evil is the story. Was the fact that Hitler was born out of incest have any bearing on how he was, it was probably just one of many factors. Brutal One.

 

[Emirus]

Maybe it's just me, but there's nothing I find more boring than a truly evil character, like Moriarty in that Benedict Cumberbatch "Sherlock" series. No introspection, no clue as how he got that way. It reduces him to a device to pitch against Sherlock.

Give me a bad guy who's got some past, some conflict, some reason to do what he's doing. That way, you can get inside his head and anticipate what he's going to do next.

The books always have more information in them than the films. When reading it does make it more interesting if you have information about the villain’s background but they don’t really have the time particularly in the action adventure type of film.

In real life you can’t always work out why the sociopath or psychopath is the way they are but in fictional writing you can write whatever you want.

 

[RetroFan]

RetroFan, I'm in the middle of reading your first chapter, but I'd already say: you've got great material there. Not only is it one of the funniest things I've read anywhere, but there is excellent storytelling too. Now I want to read your other stuff, including the Spoiled Princess series.

I love the bit about the New Jersey Pine Barrens. (I know some people who live down there, so I'm familiar with the area.)

Spaghetti with ketchup! Like you couldn't just buy a jar of tomato sauce - and it tastes quite good - at about any store in the United States.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what else you've come up, starting with the whole Trailer Trash series.

Thanks gunhilltrain - I'm glad you're enjoying reading my story about trashy Breanna and I hope you like the rest of the stories in the series, plus its predecessor 'Spoiled Princess Hates Camping'.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thanks gunhilltrain - I'm glad you're enjoying reading my story about trashy Breanna and I hope you like the rest of the stories in the series, plus its predecessor 'Spoiled Princess Hates Camping'.

I have to see how much damage Breanna actually does before I qualify her as hateful. So far she and the other characters are disorganized, heedless and mean-spirited, but not hateful yet. I could be proved wrong.

Usually I'd reserve hateful for people who have real power to abuse - Pol Pot, Pinochet, and so forth. Charles Manson was hateful, even though his power only extended over his own followers. Jim Jones would certainly qualify.