Do you like your Characters?

[nomoretears00]

*Laugh* Penn beat me to it.

I have to find the characters interesting. I don't have to be "in love" with them. I have one I'm working on that I'm not even "in like" with, lol. He's a flat out bastard. Just pure evil. And, of course, he attracts the attention of an even bigger bastard.

I don't like either character, but I find them interesting in their evil ways.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Does anyone else feel like LC and Pilot are characters that need more love-- in a story that needs more editing?

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

*Laugh* Penn beat me to it.

I have to find the characters interesting. I don't have to be "in love" with them. I have one I'm working on that I'm not even "in like" with, lol. He's a flat out bastard. Just pure evil. And, of course, he attracts the attention of an even bigger bastard.

I don't like either character, but I find them interesting in their evil ways.

I can relate. Several of my characters are not so nice. Then there are much nicer ones like Vicki. I tried to make her ex less sympathetic, but he became more likable over time, until he got his own spin-off story (which I need to submit to this site, if I can). The new version of Vicki may need some reworking, however, since it covers some not acceptable Lit material. Not for titillation, just for realism about unpleasant things in life.

Which brings to mind Dinah, the wife of Vicki's ex. Pure evil, that one. Perhaps one-dimensional, but she's not a major character, so I can afford to keep her that irredeemably wicked.

 

[PennLady]

But you include bad guys as characters, don't you? I agree that maybe the OP (and several others) assumed only the protagonist was being considered here--but, even there, I don't always either love my protagonist or let the protagonist only do lovable things. That just doesn't make for much depth--or much of a writing challenge--if you do it again and again in all of the stories you write.

I'd say it depends on the kind of story you're writing. I write a lot of romances where the struggle is more internal. Just normal people trying to get over the obstacles to relationships, or dare I say, happiness. So yeah, they do the wrong thing sometimes. They hurt, inadvertently or not, the people that they care about and get hurt themselves.

But I'm sure we all do different things when we write, we all have different aims and goals and themes and questions and all of that.

Like I said, I want my characters to be interesting, and try to make them so, because if it's no fun for me to write, I imagine it wouldn't be fun to read. But interesting doesn't mean you have to like them.

 

[wet_special]

Jeepers.. has the internet tough guy left the building?

Now, let's get on with the opining and perhaps a little self-promotion.

I kinda like my characters, some of them anyway. None are perfect, especially as they interact and petty issues and emotions sometimes come out.. But I make them caring and sympathetic and very understanding for the most part. Sometimes I play up their bravery and willingness to put their lives on the line. Lynn's right, if I didn't like the characters I couldn't write about them. I've stopped at least 2 small books on account of my failure to make likeable characters. I don't like the idea of making characters so nuanced that they are no longer likeable or sympathetic, though, but sometimes I do enjoy the bitchy vixen -- she may be kinda nasty or emotionally stunted, whorish perhaps, but she still has what it takes in the sex object department, and as she flaunts and revels in it, it's often conducive to the having of one's jollies as far as a short story is concerned.

 

[lance gt]

Each character I write has a personality I want to expose to the reader. I want the reader to love them or hate them, but most of all, I want them to identify with them. I like my 'bad' guys and enjoy developing them into 'real' people that readers see themselves in, or relate to on a personal level.

Characters make the story great, instead of just good. Plots and story lines explode, when the character(s) personalities come out and bring it to life.

 

[lovecraft68]

Does anyone else feel like LC and Pilot are characters that need more love-- in a story that needs more editing?

Editing I can always use. Love? I get that at home. Maybe that's why at the end of the day I don;t have to prove I'm the best at everything like Mr. Low self esteem does.

will take the editing though. Does one of your tentacles use the red pen and the other types in the comments

 

[lovecraft68]

I love that word. Should go in the seldom used words thread. Describes pilot perfectly. He thinks it means gay, but it means sissy, girlie-man, panty-waist and all those wonderful monikers. Gays don't even associate the word with themselves.

But see the thing that gets me, is he's not gay or Bi. That's just another of his lies to get people to think he's more than the vanilla pudding he is. Hell if he were Gay or BI his GM stories would be decent.

 

[nomoretears00]

SEVERUSMAX-

*laugh* this guy is truly without any redeeming qualities. He attracts one of the seven princes of Hell-Lust. It's for a Halloween anthology, lol, thus the subject matter.

I usually stick with (m/m) romance, so this is really a whole new thing for me. And I really don't like either character, lol. But... they are certainly interesting. Plus, I'm finding that every story doesn't have to have a good guy... just which guy is less evil.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

But see the thing that gets me, is he's not gay or Bi. That's just another of his lies to get people to think he's more than the vanilla pudding he is. Hell if he were Gay or BI his GM stories would be decent.

In all fairness, he does have some decent strokers. But with strokers, people don't usually leave a lot of feedback or votes.

That being said, he has a lot of cliches, some faulty grammar, annoying diction, and some stock characters that are beyond grating. (a.k.a., the 'barbarian', the 'cult leader', and 'the big black badass motherfucker')

 

[Kurokami]

I at least like the majority of my characters, since I tend to invest them with parts of myself. Even the ones who embody negative character traits of mine are still my creation; if I don't show them some affection, who will? Even if I hate who they are, I still want them to be the most compelling, in depth sons of bitches I can create.

In terms of specific examples, I'm quite enamored with my current series' protagonist, Sander. Now, he's got many things wrong with him- he's a twisted soul, a kidnapper and a rapist- but he's also got elements of a nice guy to him. He's quite funny, acts as kind of the team dad for his friends, and in a roundabout way even cares for the safety of the aforementioned hostages. And he's got a backstory that I just love: former rich boy gets bitch slapped in the worst possible way, comes back disgraced and looking for a little payback, only to find that the object of his ire is so essential to the running of the universe that he can only get at him indirectly. Because it's always fun to frustrate the amoral sociopath and watch him squirm.

My personal favorite though, is my breakout character, Ren. The genderqueer former soldier rendered practically invincible by an alien parasite, struggling with her nature as a half human growing further and further away from belonging to humanity thanks to the aforementioned parasite. Also, she has a bunch of kinky sex and likes to wear suits... she's pretty much made up of a bunch of my kinks put together. No wonder I love her so much.

 

[lovecraft68]

In all fairness, he does have some decent strokers. But with strokers, people don't usually leave a lot of feedback or votes.

That being said, he has a lot of cliches, some faulty grammar, annoying diction, and some stock characters that are beyond grating. (a.k.a., the 'barbarian', the 'cult leader', and 'the big black badass motherfucker')

Faulty grammar? Wow, that was the one thing I would assume would be perfect in his work.

as for the other faults you have, well I have only read two of his works(both incest) I think his dialogue is clunky, but for everything else this is what happens when you wrote a shitload of stories.

Quantity and quality are two different things and one page strokers take no thought. As I am sure is the case in most things in his life he has no originality and just follows formula's

I think you should offer him lessons.

 

[lance gt]

I get the feeling most writers enjoy writing their characters and get into them to one degree or another. I know for myself, I can write a character well enough, that I'll get emotional about them and that's when I know I have them well defined. I know where the story is going, but I start dreading when I write a scene that will put a character in danger. I want the emotion of it from my character more than anything else and so does the reader. The right development will get the right result for me, so I like getting into my characters that way.

 

[JackLuis]

I said "like" your characters not Love.

I like all my characters, even the bad guys who I try to make have some redeeming qualities. But I was asking about 'special characters' that you like. As Pilot said, If you LOVE them they aren't as interesting. It's also harder to have them butt fucked if you love them.

 

[sr71plt]

Does anyone else feel like LC and Pilot are characters that need more love-- in a story that needs more editing?

OK, I'm game. Why me? Point to where I am unloading all of that brutal trash on another poster.

You are a real piece of work.

 

[sr71plt]

I'd say it depends on the kind of story you're writing. I write a lot of romances where the struggle is more internal. Just normal people trying to get over the obstacles to relationships, or dare I say, happiness. So yeah, they do the wrong thing sometimes. They hurt, inadvertently or not, the people that they care about and get hurt themselves.

But I'm sure we all do different things when we write, we all have different aims and goals and themes and questions and all of that.

Like I said, I want my characters to be interesting, and try to make them so, because if it's no fun for me to write, I imagine it wouldn't be fun to read. But interesting doesn't mean you have to like them.

Right, but what I'm saying (or one of the things I'm saying) is that you just can't sustain writing the same story over and over again. You need variety to develop and sustain yourself.

 

[PennLady]

Right, but what I'm saying (or one of the things I'm saying) is that you just can't sustain writing the same story over and over again. You need variety to develop and sustain yourself.

This is true, and I think (I hope) I don't write the same story. I try to make my characters different -- pro- and antagonists -- and to make the stories different. There's also a lot of difference (to me, at least) if I'm writing a nonhuman or other non-traditional-romance story. To me there's more room to make the characters a little larger than life, which allows me to do different things in the story.

In my romances I try to give my characters different foibles, different problems, things like that. I admit I write within a narrow range of genres, but that doesn't mean there's not room in that range to do things.

 

[Stella_Omega]

But see the thing that gets me, is he's not gay or Bi. That's just another of his lies to get people to think he's more than the vanilla pudding he is. Hell if he were Gay or BI his GM stories would be decent.

You spend SO MUCH TIME monitoring other people's personas! And worrying about the quality of other peoples reading choices.

Anton Levey would not be impressed.

 

[Innuendos]

I didn't like any of my characters very much at the beginning. The male protagonist was an asshole, the hot girlfriend was way too spiteful, the naive and jealous younger sister a little too dense. More than enough material for a reasonable short stroke piece, which is what it started off as, before turning into something completely different.

Once it turned into something more like a story and not just a sex romp, they took on personalities of their own, and became a lot more likable to me, so much so that I had to make it a point to remember that they should have some kind of character flaws to keep things realistic.

Somewhere along the line, all of my characters started shaping up the same way, the unlikable folks having reason to be unlikable, and not necessarily as bad as the protagonist thinks them to be, the outright villains being something more than just stereotypical assholes Destined For A Bad End.

Interesting process, really sweetened me on writing stories and turned my "first" story into something more than a "first and only".

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I didn't like any of my characters very much at the beginning. The male protagonist was an asshole, the hot girlfriend was way too spiteful, the naive and jealous younger sister a little too dense. More than enough material for a reasonable short stroke piece, which is what it started off as, before turning into something completely different.

Once it turned into something more like a story and not just a sex romp, they took on personalities of their own, and became a lot more likable to me, so much so that I had to make it a point to remember that they should have some kind of character flaws to keep things realistic.

Somewhere along the line, all of my characters started shaping up the same way, the unlikable folks having reason to be unlikable, and not necessarily as bad as the protagonist thinks them to be, the outright villains being something more than just stereotypical assholes Destined For A Bad End.

Interesting process, really sweetened me on writing stories and turned my "first" story into something more than a "first and only".

Been there plenty of times. I can totally relate.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

SEVERUSMAX-

*laugh* this guy is truly without any redeeming qualities. He attracts one of the seven princes of Hell-Lust. It's for a Halloween anthology, lol, thus the subject matter.

I usually stick with (m/m) romance, so this is really a whole new thing for me. And I really don't like either character, lol. But... they are certainly interesting. Plus, I'm finding that every story doesn't have to have a good guy... just which guy is less evil.

Do you have a personal beef with me or something?

 

[PennLady]

Do you have a personal beef with me or something?

I think she was referring to a character in one of her stories.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

Do you have a personal beef with me or something?

Not unless you just happen to be one of the seven princes of hell

 

[Stella_Omega]

Not unless you just happen to be one of the seven princes of hell

Can I be one of them?

Huh? Huh?

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I think she was referring to a character in one of her stories.

Oh, I completely misunderstood why she mentioned my username. Mea culpa.