Looking for help with male character

[wxpprnpprnt]

Hello,

I have a reluctance/cheating wife/interracial (Arab female, white male) story I completed a while ago. I had posted it and it did pretty well. However I had some errors and other things I wanted to improve. I have mostly done this. However, the male character is 2-dimensional, and I'd like advice before resubmitting it.

The basic premise was to play around with the trope of the blackmailed wife who gets what she secretly wanted, but could not admit due to cultural issues, and make it more "real". She slips but doesn't just become a "slut" for anyone, and the male character is somehow changed by the experience as well.

I think I did fairly well with the female character, considering my novice's abilities. However, the male character is still unknowable and faceless. What kind of person would be criminal and sociopathic enough to manipulate a woman into such as situation, and yet still have enough empathy to develop sympathy for her afterward? How can someone go from that sort of amoral obsession to a more humane viewpoint? I can imagine the mechanism fairly well, but have a foggy vision of his background or basic character. He also needs to be in a position to help with a neighbor's IT issues...

I'd love to get it done, as there are few stories that begin this way that do not follow the usual path, as slight as this variation may be. Any ideas? I'll take general comments based on this, and of course wouldn't mind if someone would read the current draft. It's about 7,000 words. Thank you.

 

[HeyAll]

Sounds interesting. Email me if you want. My email address is in my profile.

 

[wxpprnpprnt]

Thank you, I've sent a copy of the draft in Word format. I do appreciate it!

 

[AlexBailey]

Fill the male character with self-repression, doubts and taboo desires. Make him emotionally codependant. Make him conflicted by social, or religious, or familial expectations. Give him a forward-facing persona that is very different from his inner-self.

His obsession for the woman could peak with burning desire and dubious actions, only to have his expectations fall flat after the experience, and be replaced with remorse. Once his crazed desires are met, he realizes that he has crossed a line that he will spend the rest of his life regretting and needing to make up for.

 

[hpycpl]

Possibly the male character could have a platonic relationship with the wife already and was always was attracted to her. Maybe a co-worker or a acquaintance.

An event like a social gathering or party bring them closer and opportunities lend for his lust for her to escalate to a point where he acts on those urges.

It would be plausible for him to have remorse because he knows her cultural background or even her husband and what their coupling has done to her emotionally.